Your vision will become clear only when you look into your heart.
Who looks outside, dreams. Who looks inside, awakens.
—Carl Jung

I’m very pleased to feature a guest article today by Bruce D. Schneider, Master Certified Coach, licensed psychotherapist, and author of “Relax, You’re Already Perfect: 10 Spiritual Lessons… to Remember.” He is also the founder and director of the Institute for Professional Empowerment Coaching.

His article, “Are Your Living Your Life Purpose?” offers us thought-provoking questions and engaging exercises to help us determine if we are living our true soul’s calling and life purpose.

And, as a little something extra, I have created a “Purpose-full” Visual Inspiration with today’s Carl Jung quote to help get your weekend started off right! Enjoy!

Are You Living Your Life Purpose?
By Bruce D. Schneider, PhD

Though we are all one energy force, one mind, and One Spirit, each soul incarnated into a specific form on earth for a unique purpose. We are here to experience different situations and similar situations differently, and to share these experiences with the Universe, our total consciousness. There are many different journeys to share. This is why there is more than one soul experiencing this world.

Your journey is now and exists at this moment, whether you realize it or not. It will be more enjoyable if you consciously pursue your spiritual purpose to bring the world to Love. You do this by expressing Love in whatever you do, and most easily express it when doing what you do best. Consciously following your spiritual purpose brings you ultimate joy, balance, peace, freedom, and happiness.

You have seen them. He is the conductor exuding power and poise as his orchestra performs a beautiful medley. She is the lawyer who fights for her client’s life as if it were her own child on trial. She is the waitress who serves customers with as much enthusiasm and caring as her personal friends. And he is the gas station attendant who still cleans your windshield even when his co-workers won’t. Who are these people? They are spiritual beings who breathe life into their work. They are people who express themselves in what they do, and not simply for financial reward. They do it because they couldn’t do their job any other way. They are living their soul’s purpose and consciously doing what they do with Love, and they are happier than most.

Have you ever felt something missing in your life? If so, this could be the reason: The soul has a twofold purpose in each lifetime: (1) the universal purpose to rediscover itself as Love, and (2) an individual purpose to experience a specific role it can do better or differently than any other soul in a given lifetime. The latter enables the soul to help itself and other souls more easily rediscover Love. In other words, your individual purpose is the best way to promote the universal purpose.

There are no “ideal” jobs. Not every person should be a healer or a teacher. We need conductors, lawyers, waitresses, and gas station attendants. Each person lives his or her purpose by performing his or her job in a spiritually loving way, which reaps the many rewards of a purposeful and relatively stress-free life.

We are special

Each of us can do something totally unique. The challenge is to discover your spiritual “niche” on earth, so you can realize your potential for happiness. If you live untrue to this niche, your energy will be unaligned with the Universal Energy, and you are likely to feel something missing in your life. You’ll experience a feeling of dissonance, which can lead to disease.

Let us suppose, for example, that in this life you can best serve the journey of Love by expressing yourself as a salesperson. But because of your free will, you did not choose that line of work. This can cause “dis-ease” in the form of unhappiness or even physical illness. Disease is a sign you aren’t following a connected life, body, mind, and spirit. Clients who discovered this and how it was best for them to work, achieved more gratification in their lives. Some actually healed their physical conditions just by making certain changes in how they perceived their work. By understanding and living their individual purpose, they filled the void created by a disconnection to the Divine and removed the feeling that something was “missing.”

Application: Hit the lottery and know your purpose

One of the surest ways to know if you are living your purpose is to imagine winning the lottery and having all the money you’ll ever need. If you’d choose to continue doing what you do, it is surely your purpose. The rewards of living your soul’s purpose go far beyond money. If you think you’d retire, you may just be burned out. If you do hit the lottery, take a vacation and then do what you do with Love, instead of just going through the motions. You never need to retire from Love. You can always serve your purpose and enjoy what you are doing and how you are doing it for a lifetime.

When you are connected to your spiritual purpose, your life becomes easier and more satisfying and rewarding. Why? Because you are no longer operating as an isolated individual out of tune with the Universe. Instead, you are working with the Universe, consciously connected to the Universal Mind and utilizing the vast potential of the energy around you. When you find your true purpose, the Universe has no choice but to help you by providing information and energy.

Copyright Bruce D. Schneider, PhD. All Rights Reserved.

I’d love to hear your thoughts and comments on today’s Daily Soul Retreat! Please scroll down and leave your comments below.

And, if you haven’t already done so, be sure to pick up your special package of inspirational goodness exclusively for our Daily Soul Retreat Newsletter Subscribers — a “Soul Retreat Gift Pack” filled with over $300 worth of Ecourses, Ebooks, Audio Workshops and Meditations, donated by our awesome SoulfulLiving.com authors. If you aren’t already subscribed, click here for all the details. If you are already subscribed, watch your Daily Soul Retreats for all the details.

Wishing you a wonderfully purposeful day!!

Soulfully,
Valerie

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It’s my pleasure to share a guest blog with you today by best-selling author of the book, Callings: Finding and Following an Authentic Life, Gregg Levoy.

This article, “The Power of Passionate Work, is one of my favorites that I have published at SoulfulLiving.com. He also authored the article, “The Power of Pilgrimage,” that you might also enjoy reading.

I hope you enjoy Gregg’s article as much as I have!

“The Power of Passionate Work”
by Gregg Levoy

I used to be a reporter for the Cincinnati Enquirer, back in my 20’s, and after working there for a the better part of a decade, I reached a threshold — the word in this case having a double meaning as both a point of transition and a measurement of my tolerance for pain.

At this threshold I began hearing a calling to quit my job and become a freelance writer, a decision that’s not exactly designed to reassure your parents, and one that I couldn’t bring myself to make for years anyway, though the gods were drumming their fingers, and though I was slowly overripening and rotting on the vine.

Like most people, however, I will not follow a calling until the fear of doing so is finally exceeded by the pain of not doing so, though I am routinely appalled at how high a threshold I have for this quality of pain. But eventually the prospect of emotional and even financial turmoil, the disapproval of others, and the various conniptions of change seemed preferable to the psychological death I was experiencing by staying put — at which point I followed a bit of cowboy wisdom: when your horse dies, get off!

Still, like anyone who chooses passion over security, I was plagued by the fear that scares away sleep. And it wasn’t that I finally overcame the fear. It was that something else became more important than the fear. I still sweated through leaving behind a regular paycheck, medical benefits, a pension coming in two years, the prestige of being a big fish in a good-sized pond, and that wonderful organizational budget that can take up the slack created by almost any amount of individual goofing off: clock-watching, coming in to work late and leaving early, extra-long lunches, indiscriminate wastes of supplies, and those sick days I came back from with a tan. These are standard behaviors exhibited by people who feel about their jobs the way they felt about their senior year in high school: psychologically out-the-door, but punching in Monday through Friday just to collect the diploma.

The ancient Romans used to say that the Fates lead those who will, and those who won’t they drag. My own experience has also taught me that those who get dragged tend to put a drag on others, and if those others are the people they work with and for, you’ve got your basic lose-lose situation.

Passion and productivity

Creating passionate, productive and callings-inspired work and workplaces begins with the individual, with the corpus (body) that defines the corporation. It involves the sometimes pick-and-shovel work of aligning or re-aligning with your passion and sense of purpose, with your deepest values rather than just the advertised values, and with a fit between who you are and what you do, which I consider the best kind of success. The more passionate you are, the more productive — the more you desire to produce — and the less hot condensed breath managers will need to leave on the back of your neck.

In fact, any leap you want to make in your professional or personal life that will bring you this sense of alignment and aliveness is, by definition, a calling. That calling could be to leave your job altogether or come to it in a new way, to take on a new role or let go of an old one, to make a creative leap or launch a new venture or style of leadership, or to simply make the kind of course-correction in your life or work that will make your life literally “come true.”

And what goes for the individual goes for the company you keep. If it is challenging to walk your talk, to honor your mission and your values, to reconcile your visions with your resources, to juggle the higher calling and the bottom line, it is exponentially more so for the corporate body-politic of which each employee is a single cell.

But the more we as individuals address these issues and conundrums in our lives, the more we encourage our corporations to do the same. There is a reason why some of the world’s great myths, like Sleeping Beauty and the Grail King, speak to the idea that when we sleep, those around us also sleep and the kingdom goes dormant, but when we awaken, those around us also awaken and the kingdom flowers.

Work is merely one of the arenas in which we play The Game — the one that the gods are watching from their press-box atop Mount Olympus, sipping mint juleps. It is only one of the arenas (along with relationship, community, sports and spirituality, among others) in which we express our humanity, search for meaning, play out our destinies and our dreams, contribute our energies and gifts to the world, and spend our precious nick of time. But it is also an arena in which we spend two-thirds of our waking lives, most of us, and it is legitimate to love our work! Life is a thousand times too short for us to bore ourselves, Nietzsche said…

Continue Reading “The Power of Passionate Work”

Copyright Gregg Levoy. All Rights Reserved.

I’d love to hear your thoughts and comments on Gregg’s article! Please scroll down and leave your comments below.

And, if you haven’t already done so, be sure to pick up your special package of inspirational goodness exclusively for our Daily Soul Retreat Newsletter Subscribers — a “Soul Retreat Gift Pack” filled with over $300 worth of Ecourses, Ebooks, Audio Workshops and Meditations, donated by our awesome SoulfulLiving.com authors. If you aren’t already subscribed, click here for all the details. If you are already subscribed, watch your Daily Soul Retreats for all the details.

Wishing you a passionately purposeful day!!

Soulfully,

Valerie Rickel, Founder
SoulfulLiving.com

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“To be creative means to be in love with life.
You can be creative only if you love life enough that you want to
enhance its beauty, you want to bring a little more music to it, a
little more poetry to it, a little more dance to it.”
–Osho

It’s my pleasure to share a guest article with you today by best-selling author, creative success expert, and creativity coach, Gail McMeekin, MSW.

Her article, “Honoring Your Inspirations,” is excerpted from her first book, The 12 Secrets of Highly Creative Women: A Portable Mentor, which has been my personal “portable creative mentor” for years.

I was very honored to have Gail contribute her fabulous MP3 Workshop, “Overcoming Creative Obstacles” to our Soul Retreat Gift Pack. (You can scroll down below to learn how to obtain your gift!)

I hope you enjoy Gail’s article as much as I have!

“Honoring Your Inspirations”
by Gail McMeekin

The journey to life purpose begins with a dance with your creative self. The answers are within you if you engage with your inspirations and dare to follow your fascinations. In order to access your creativity, you must validate and capture your inspirations. These inspirations are precious seedlings awaiting nurturance which will shine the light on the pathway to expressing your true self and partnering with your passions.

It all begins with attraction. Creative inspirations seduce us with the power of a magnet. They lure you, charm you, tempt you, and captivate your attention. Whether it’s an idea, a notion, a hunch, a whim, an impulse, a thought, an intuition, a sensation, or a feeling, an inspiration can be any stimulus that pulls you into your creative self. Like passion, creative attractions can be tantalizing. Uniquely yours, inspirations invite you into the world of creative possibility. How do you respond when an inspiration beckons? Do you accept the invitation or discount it? By honoring a personal impulse and following where it leads, creativity is born.

In my correspondence with cantadora, Jungian analyst, and author Dr. Clarissa Pinkola Estés, best known for her blockbuster book, Women Who Run with the Wolves, when I asked her to describe her creative awakening, she replied: “I was born awake in this one way. In my opinion, anyone born in a creatively awakened condition deserves both congratulations and condolences.” To the question, “Where do you get your ideas,” she responded: “I do not have ideas. Ideas have me.” Inviting your creative inspirations into your consciousness alters the course of your life. Being willing to be creatively awake is a choice and not always an easy one. If we choose to invest in our creative self, challenges lie in wait. If we follow our inspirations, we align ourselves with our life force and pursue a path that emanates from our very being.

Inspiration is not just the domain of the ingenious. As innovation consultant Pam Moore says, ” We all have the software to be creative; we’ve just forgotten how to use it.” By keeping our intuitive channels and our senses open to discovery, we can capture our unique inspirations. However, that’s easier said than done. In the madness of this frantic workaholic era, it is far too easy to rush by the roses and never see the world around you. Too many women are overwhelmed by the awesome responsibilities of home, work, and relationships, and have lost touch with their creative voice.

In order to relate to your environment and capture your innocent thoughts or visions, you need to listen, observe, and stay centered. This capacity to linger in the unknown and see what happens is the passage to your creative self.

In addition to receptivity and time, we must also grant ourselves the freedom to play creatively. Painter Michelle Cassou, founder of an original approach to creative painting described in her book, Life, Paint, and Passion, and co-founder of The Painting Experience Studio in San Francisco, urges aspiring creatives to “recover the capacity to invent that you had as a child.” In fact, as a young French woman, Michelle searched unsuccessfully for the right art school and was even advised to give up painting. Luckily, at the age of nineteen, she discovered The Free Expression School in Paris for children ages five to fourteen and wept with delight. Forsaking traditional art school, Michelle simply painted with the children for three and a half years, basking in their freedom and lack of judgment. As a result, she unlocked her own creative potential. Today, her collection of paintings is breathtaking and she continues to paint prolifically. When she moved to America, she opened The Painting Experience workshops where she offers the richness of uncensored expression to all participants. Had Michelle not listened to her attraction for painting and surmounted the obstacles in her path, including academics telling her to quit, she would have forsaken her true work and her inner self.  Continue Reading…

Copyright Gail McMeekin. All Rights Reserved.

I’d love to hear your thoughts and comments on Gail’s article! Please scroll down and leave your comments below.

And, if you haven’t already done so, be sure to pick up your special package of inspirational goodness exclusively for our Daily Soul Retreat Newsletter Subscribers — a “Soul Retreat Gift Pack” filled with over $300 worth of Ecourses, Ebooks, Audio Workshops and Meditations, donated by our awesome SoulfulLiving.com authors. If you aren’t already subscribed, click here for all the details. If you are already subscribed, watch your Daily Soul Retreats for all the details.

Wishing you a purposeful and passionately creative day!!

Soulfully,

Valerie Rickel, Founder
SoulfulLiving.com

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I’m pleased to be able to share a guest blog by one of SoulfulLiving.com’s long-time columnists, Rob Ragozzine, Numerologist, radio host, and author of our column, What’s Your Number?

Today, Rob shares a special article and an audio with us about Tonglen Meditation and how it can help us to live a more purposeful life.

I hope you enjoy Rob’s article and audio as much as I have!

“Living Purposefully with the Help of Meditation”

By Rob Ragozzine

I’m often asked, “How can I find my purpose?” This is a very important question. Many of us have it buried within our hearts. But, we often don’t spend enough time contemplating it. We ask the question, and then let it slip away. We need to hold onto this question, as contemplating it adds vitality, depth and meaning to our lives. Understanding your purpose is a process of finding out who you are and that can be a life-long process.

I believe that we are all seeking to live out our life purpose, even if we do not yet know what it is. We feel a deep yearning to bring change, healing and vitality into the world. We feel called to action. I feel that when we start to act on our yearning, then we are truly fulfilling our purpose. Fulfilling our purpose helps to add color and meaning to our lives.

One way to better understand your purpose is to work with Numerology. In Numerology your purpose can be seen through your Core Numbers and your Life Path Number. As you may already know, the Life Path is about finding your place within the world. Following its guidance can help you to find your purpose. What do you want to do with your life? What do you feel called to change or create? The Life Path number helps you to begin answering these questions. Honoring your Life Path requires real and honest work on your part. When you’re living up to your fullest potential, and not hiding or dragging your feet, you’re living life through the power of your Life Path.

Part of living purposefully is understanding that you may have challenges, fears and doubts. As you learn more about yourself you can get a better handle on those things or situations that trigger you. But, instead of hiding or retreating, you can find a way to bring more stability and serenity into your life. Learning and working regularly with meditation techniques can help you to achieve this.

One meditation technique that I feel is very helpful is Tonglen. It’s a meditation practice that allows you to transform issues as you breathe in and out. Buddhist nun, author and teacher Pema Chodron talks about this technique extensively. She says, “The tonglen practice is a method for connecting with suffering-ours and that which is all around us-everywhere we go. It is a method for overcoming fear of suffering and for dissolving the tightness of our heart.”

In order to truly have compassion for others, we have to first have developed compassion for ourselves. You’ve probably heard this, or something similar, many times throughout your life. But, working with Tonglen can help you to more fully appreciate it. Tonglen allows you to take a moment to connect with an issue and transform the pain connected to it. You start with doing the process for yourself and gradually work up to including family and friends. But it starts with caring for yourself first. Once you can honestly care for yourself, then you are prepared to support others.

With Tonglen, you have the opportunity to breathe in pain and breathe out freedom and joy. Tonglen isn’t a process you take on lightly. Understand that every breath is an opportunity to transform. Also, it’s important to know that you’re not storing anything within yourself. Instead, you’re visualizing the issue as being changed and transformed within your heart.

Listen to Rob’s “Introduction to Tonglen Meditation” Audio

Before proceeding, you may wish to spend some time in quiet reflection to consider whether it feels okay to do this practice. Also, find a way to respect and honor the values and practices of other people and cultures when you do this practice. They may have values and beliefs that are very different than your own.

Be patient and don’t feel as if you must work with Tonglen. Perhaps, you might first need to learn more about your purpose and develop greater compassion for yourself. When you feel like it is appropriate to work with Tonglen, you can begin. Use your discernment, judgement and wisdom. If healing within yourself needs to take place first, then allow for the healing of whatever needs to be healed.

Proceed at your own pace. But, know that you don’t have to stay with any particular negative feeling. You can transform it for yourself and others who are experiencing the same thing. For instance, instead of being stuck in uncertainty about a choice you’re making, use Tonglen to see any issues around it being transformed.  See any fears or doubts changed into joy and acceptance.

Over time you’ll be able to work with Tonglen to work through your issues, instead of feeling blocked, confused or stuck. Your work can help you to step ever more deeply into your purpose. We all have the ability to achieve our dreams and reach our goals.

Don’t let your doubts or insecurities hold you back. As you mature, develop and step more fully into your purpose, you’ll begin to recognize wonderful qualities, skills, and abilities deep within you that were always there. But, to see them clearly, you needed to first accept your purpose and the call of your heart. You will discover that you can use these abilities to live a purposeful and meaningful life.

Copyright 2013 Rob Ragozzine.

I’d love to hear your thoughts and comments on Rob’s article! Please scroll down and leave your comments below.

Wishing you a meditative and purposeful day!!

Soulfully,
Valerie

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“You are here to enable the divine purpose of the universe to unfold. That is how important you are.”
—Eckhart Tolle

I’m very excited to share today’s Daily Soul Retreat with you. It is a wonderful lecture by Eckhart Tolle, the best-selling author of The Power of Now, explaining what living your life purpose is at its very core — to be present — to be aligned with the now.

I hope you enjoy Eckhart Tolle’s deep, philosophical wisdom and genius as much as I do.

If we are present in every moment, we are living our truest purpose, according to Tolle. He makes it sound so simple! I challenge you, today, to find your life purpose… in the present moment!

(Hint, this entire full-length video is magnificent, however, if you would like to fast forward to the topic of “Life Purpose,” you’ll find it at 25:16)

**

If you enjoyed the video, you might also enjoy two articles by Eckhart Tolle we have published at SoulfulLiving.com:  You Are Not Your Mind and Stillness Speaks.

And, if you’re feeling inspired, I’d love to have you leave a comment below!

Also, be sure to pick up your special gift of inspirational goodness exclusively for our Daily Soul Retreat Newsletter Subscribers — a “Soul Retreat Gift Pack” filled with over $300 worth of Ecourses, Ebooks, Audio Workshops and Meditations, donated by our awesome SoulfulLiving.com authors. If you haven’t yet picked yours up, click here for all the details.

Wishing you a purposeful and present day!!

Soulfully,

Valerie Rickel
Founder and Soul
SoulfulLiving.com

Share the Inspiration with Your Friends…