#258 Finding Your Purpose: A Relaxed Approach

Sometime last March, when I was a rather miserable lass due to a silly IVF decision on my part (consenting to a delayed cycle egg retrieval – aka wayyyyyyy too many hormones)*

Someone gave me a gift.

This someone was a stranger. A stranger on a mountaintop, specifically.

And this particular stranger gave me the gift of…

Awe.

I was out for a sunset walk along Hong Kong’s Peak and turned a corner.

The gift-giving stranger was walking in the other direction and, as he rounded the bend, his eyes landed on a staggeringly beautiful view of the city skyline.

Every single part of him lit up.

His eyes lit up. His face lit up. His entire essence – his aura, his energetic body…

All lit up.

And lil’ ol’ me, who happened to be going through a season of life that was more about surviving than thriving, got to soak it all up.

Because the awe that this gentleman transmitted was so strong that it shifted my entire state of being. His awe became my awe. And do you have any idea how good awe feels when you’ve been going through the world downtrodden and depleted?!

Sometimes, we go through chapters of life where our energy is meh. Where our joie de vivre is inaccessible. Where things just feel a bit hard.

And it’s not because we’re failing at life or inferior beings or somehow weak.

It’s because this is part and parcel of the human condition. Until we find and walk the path that leads to liberation (aka become Dalai-Lama-esque), these are the rules of the game. We’ll have ups. We’ll have downs.

We’re humans having human experiences, and that’s how it goes.

And something that I wish we talked more about when it comes to our human experiences is this:

That crippling sense of purpose-anxiety our culture tries to push on us – the one that says we have to find something we love, earn buckets of money doing it, and also change the world with our work?

Hogwash.

The spiritual teachers I trust urge relaxation.

Because they say that the ultimate way to live your purpose is to be like that guy on the mountaintop.

Out in the world, doing something that makes you feel so vibrantly alive that your mere presence is a contribution to the collective.

Purpose, in my circles, is a state of being, not a state of doing.

And I find that quite nifty.

Xo,
Your friend whose purpose is to make us all feel freer
(that’s not me assigning myself purpose; that’s what the Gene Keys tells me based on my date, time, and place of birth – if you have purpose questions, I’m a big fan of turning to astrology-based systems for answers)

Morning Musings is a delight-first writing practice where I wake up, put my fingers on the keyboard and see if any ideas want to play. The cherished humans who read these musings tend to see them as an invitation to slow down, have a virtual cup of coffee together, and contemplate the human experience. If you’d like to join our tribe, subscribe here: https://keelyc.substack.com/