and then there was roy
The Secret To Living A Life Of Purpose
Researchers (so many researchers!) believe that developing a sense of purpose can enhance a person’s life immensely. The basis for their theory comes from various studies carried out over decades that studied the effects of happiness and having a sense of purpose on health outcomes. These studies found that those who had a sense of purpose in addition to happiness displayed better physical and health outcomes than people who experienced happiness alone.
And then, there was Roy. Roy was someone I met while working at the bottom of the Grand Canyon, who at the time was working for the Federal Police. At the time, he wasn’t even 30 yet, he came from another nearby Tribal Nation in Northeastern Arizona, was smart, was confident, and was deeply unhappy. Now, don’t get me wrong, our initial meeting, I pretty much thought he was an a**hole and ‘just a kid.’ After a few weeks from our initial meeting, I began to notice that he would linger around in any area I was at, and try really hard to speak to me. Then one day, he came to my classroom and asked, “You’re a healer, right?” then he said, “don’t worry I won’t tell anyone because down here they don’t believe in the medicine people.” To which I said, “Interesting, since we are on ancient tribal lands.” That was the start of our wonderful healer-student-client relationship. (Did you think I was going to say dating relationship?) He asked me to do a reading on him because he had been feeling lots of confusion in his life recently, and he wanted some insight. He didn’t know what his purpose was in life, and he felt like he was just existing, working, working, hooking up with crazy girls, and not feeling inspired by any of it.
So what is needed to develop a sense of purpose? There are many ways to accomplish this and what works best for you may vary. But here are a few ways you can develop a sense of purpose:
Helping others in your community, within a family setting, through a job, or on a wider basis.
Being recognised and valued for your contribution. This also implies being valued by yourself!
Being respected by others.
Having a sense of identity or finding your tribe.
Recognising a sense of achievement from what you do.
Having a purpose helps to build confidence and self esteem. People who struggle with a sense of purpose are oftentime seen as unhappy and lonely. An example of this could be the person who has retired from a career that gave her life purpose. She may have lots of time on her hands and be involved in a range of recreational activities but remain unfulfilled as there is no sense of purpose anymore. Involvement in these pursuits simply helps to fill her day. Roy was feeling very much like this woman - unfulfilled with the day-to-day of his life, which was all about helping and protecting people as a police officer.
How often have you thought about what you would buy or the problems that may be solved by a lottery win? Yes, we have all dreamt about this and there is nothing wrong with having dreams.They can open up our minds to possibilities and sometimes lead us to pursuing goals and a course of action in their pursuit.
Yet, how often do we hear about people who have had this stroke of luck and discover that their lives are not necessarily enhanced in any meaningful way by this, or are even worse because of it. Roy was feeling just that, no enhanced meaning in his life. During his reading, where we read cards and ran his human design chart, he was brought to some deeper awareness. His first awareness were the themes in his life of Satisfaction/Frustration (Anger). You see when he is multitasking and working in his sense of purpose he has energy for days. When he is doing the opposite, he is experiencing frustration (anger) because it feels unfulfilling and tedious and his energy is less increasing his sense of tiredness and boredom (cue in the patterns of unhealthy relationships via hookups). Knowing this information, what was Roy to do?
There is some truth in the saying that if you have to work hard for something you will appreciate it more. Sometimes the achievement itself is not the most rewarding aspect, but the process involved in its acquisition. Here’s the caveat to that line of thinking when it comes to your life purpose, many believe that a life purpose is what brings in the money, and yes for some that is true, and for others it may be completely different, and they still have a day job to sustain their daily life. Neither scenario is good or bad, or right or wrong. It’s simply about choices. There are lots of examples of these scenarios throughout our history.
What provides someone with a sense of purpose will vary from person to person. The options are limitless. Having a sense of purpose tends to make people more involved in taking care of themselves. They will pay attention to their health. Involvement with other people means that they are less lonely and that they also have other people around for support. Peers can also be useful for giving you feedback and helping you see things about yourself which may otherwise go unnoticed.
So, back to Roy and his choices?
Well, armed with some knowledge from the Intuitive Tarot Reading and his human design chart, he switched jobs, moved to another state, met a great young woman, and is feeling more aligned with his purpose. His new line of work allows him to play into his innate leadership skills, multi-tasking skills, be more aware of his frustration and understand when he might be forcing things to happen, tap into his intuition more for clarity, and he is working in a field that is stable and consistent, AND still carries a gun and helps/protects people like in his previous line of work. He is still working on understanding deeper concepts of himself through this process and feeling a greater sense of purpose, and lives happier understanding how his choices can help support his life purpose.
The intention in sharing this with you was to bring some additional awareness around exploring your life purpose, especially if you have been feeling a little lost with it. Go through the exercises in the previous emails and see what happens, it may change your life!
Happy adventuring.
Patricia