What is your purpose in life? Such a fundamental question yet we get asked this more often these days. You almost feel guilty if you don’t have an answer! “Ah one more thing to fail at, I don’t have a purpose.” you might sigh. It’s time to take the pressure off and discover what Eckhart Tolle, author of ‘Power Of Now’ and ‘New Earth’ had to say about purpose of life.

I went to listen to him at the Southbank Centre in London earlier this week. The Royal Festival Hall was packed to the last seat. No cameras, no photos, no filming, the man explained before Eckhart walked on to the stage. Now, it was going be all about being present.

Eckhart sat on a chair and talked uninterrupted for 2 hours and 20 minutes completely capturing his audience. He’s not a particularly charismatic character in a way you’d expect someone who has their audience’s full attention for so long, but it’s his presence that leaves you speechless. I closed my eyes and tried to be as present as humanly possible.

“I’ve recently discovered my life’s purpose. My purpose is to create a global community of women ‘doers’ and encourage women to step outside of their comfort zone, take small steps to big dreams.”

Or so I thought. — And, I caught myself t-h-i-n-k-i-n-g.

You see, we generally do way too much thinking. The modern society is obsessed about thinking, analysing and judgement,  and that’s what causes our unhappiness.

We can’t just be.

“I’m no longer unhappy because I let go of thinking. Where is your identity? Is it in your mind? Is it mind controlled?”  Eckhart asks.

Thinking, over analysing and judgement, I learned, leads easily to a mind controlled identity. Your thinking determines your value as a person. You start putting labels onto things, people and situations. There will be judgement based on what other people think or if the world doesn’t meet your expectations. You will judge others based on their purpose or profession or what they have achieved.

Is my purpose good enough?

Am I good enough?

So I learned that what I thought was my purpose is not my purpose. It may be my personal purpose or a goal, but it’s not my life’s purpose.

Let’s go back four and a half years.

I still remember the ‘aha’ moment when the idea about DrivenWoman was born. I connected to it very deeply and this discovery made me scared and excited beyond measure, both at the same time. I remember feeling like I was walking 50 cm above the ground for the two weeks that followed. I must have been quite annoying to everyone I met because I just couldn’t contain myself. I was spilling over.

The past four and a half years I have been putting my purpose into practise. I have been creating, stepping outside of my comfort zone, and I have been facing obstacles and challenges. I have been trusting that my journey will show me the way, and it has. It’s only now that I can express this ‘purpose’ of mine clearly, in a more refined way.

The crazy thing about life is that as soon as you think you’ve arrived you realise that you are only in the beginning.

Oh dear. Oh joy!

Eckhart explained why this is.

You don’t have a life’s purpose. You are life.

Yes, you are life.

Our purpose is not somewhere outside to be discovered. And that elusive ‘purpose’ will not make you happy. Forget that trip around the world or moving to a new city that was going to help you discover your purpose!

You. Are. It.

As a living organism all you have to do is to be.

So if we can’t discover our purpose by finding it somewhere, how is it possible to feel the fullness of being? How can I answer the question ‘who am I’? ( yeah girls, I realise this is getting a bit deep…)

“Know thyself = Know the essence of you. Not: know stuff about you. You can only know your essence between your thoughts, in the spaceousness.”  Eckhart explains.

And there it was. I will be entering the next stage of discovery.

Trusting the gaps, trusting the silence of my mind and letting the essence of me arise.

I will be surrendering fully to this emptiness and letting it guide me forward. I’m giving up obsessive thinking and over analysis of any sorts. (DrivenWoman helped me to give up judgement already long time ago.) I will be trusting that the right answers will come and that I will meet the right people at the right time.

And as a born ‘doer’ I don’t have to worry about inaction. Trusting your essence is the opposite of procrastination. The stronger my inner feeling grows the faster and better decisions I make. Just watch me!

I feel like I”m on a treasure hunt. Every feeling of fear and unease is a signal of potential learning and I’m stepping boldly towards it to discover gems on the other side.

What gems of non-thinking have you discovered recently?

~ Miisa

 

Are you looking to be more aligned with your true self? Let the power of collective feminine energy lift you and support you through change. Find out more about DrivenWoman and how to join here.