As a general rule, most people strive to live a quality life, one with meaning and purpose. Hoping that by the end of their life they will feel that it was well lived. Filled with friendships, laughter, excitement, and fun. And, one that was filled with hopes and dreams that were better than expected. There is an inner mechanism that resides in each of us that is always trying to balance the scales of contentment and growth. Too much contentment eventually leads to complacency and stagnation. Too much growth can lead to detachment of what matters most and a potential burnout. What causes this inner mechanism to trigger change are two sides of the same coin. On one side is opportunity, potential, and what gives meaning to life. On the other is an awareness of aspects of your life that are far from optimal. This awareness comes about when you start paying attention to the thoughts and emotions you are having about specific areas of your life. A discontentment or lack of joy in your health, relationships, career, or financial status can all send the signal to start making changes.
This balancing act should and will continue throughout your life. Desires and needs change, and hopefully consciousness does as well. Growth and change is in all of life and is nature’s law. Seasons change, bodies change, and our beliefs do as well. Having a guidepost is supportive in your search for purpose and meaning and an anchoring to what is valuable in your life, aligning to where you should optimally place your attention. For in one universal law, wherever you place your attention-you place your energy. By placing your attention on the following guidelines, you open up to the highest aspect of yourself.
My top 15 Essential guidelines for living a life of meaning and purpose.
1. Choose to live and experience Joy. Engage in play, spend time with quality relationships, actively seek experiences that are meaningful. Life is meant to be experienced through joy and it is the highest potential of our inner selves.
2. Create consciously. Set goals, have vision, and monitor your thoughts and emotions. Choice is your greatest tool. Create and experience all that life can offer you. Decide to jump in to potential and remind yourself that if it’s something that you don’t like you don’t have to do it again.
3. Meditate daily. Taking a few moments to be still and close off the outer world aligns you to higher wisdom. Meditation supports your heart and mind to become more coherent, allowing your body to pull out of the stress response caused my your outer environment and in to a more joyful, peaceful and creative space.
4. Acknowledge that your purpose is the same purpose that everyone else has. Your purpose is to use the experiences in your life as opportunities to regulate your thoughts and choose an elevated emotion. Thus raising your consciousness to an elevated level.
5. Be in service. Listen for the higher guidance and act when you feel inspired. You may never know the domino effect of a simple smile or a greeting of kindness. Remember, that your role isn’t to “fix” anyone. We are not broken. Embody the understanding that sometimes your inner guidance may simply be to pray.
6. Recognize that your greatest teachers is your life are around you. You do not have to travel to some ancient mystery school on the other side of the globe to receive great wisdom from an advanced guru. You were born into the life that you have to learn the lessons that your soul set out to learn.
7. Build and maintain a spiritual practice. Learn daily for something that inspires you, even for a few minutes. Get out in nature. Focus your attention on deeper belly breathing to ground yourself. Journal to focus thoughts and gain clarity, and engage more in prayer.
8. Develop and use your souls gifts. Everyone came to this planet with tools and gifts. This can be music, craftsmanship, Intuition, healing, communication, or parenting. You will build an understanding of what yours are by following what brings you joy, and what fills your soul with passion.
9. Stop judging and blaming yourself and others. These traits don’t serve anyone and it holds you captive in a negative vibration. It may help to gain more clarity by focusing your attention on the motivation behind the experience allowing you to eventually arrive at a space of compassion.
10. Strive for healing in all areas of your life. All of us are often in the healing mode of something. Whether it’s finances, relationships, health, spiritual, emotional, or mental. Continue to move forward and build improvement in these areas. Recognize that in self improvement, when you heal one area of your life, it raises your energy to seeing greater potential in healing other areas as well.
11. Channel grace in all instances. This means maintain kind thoughts of yourself and others. Step out of the daily confusion and drama and view situations from a higher outside prospective. When challenges happen, and they will, recognize them as a growth opportunity. Ask the divine “What is this experience teaching me?” to assist you in gaining clarity.
12. Treat your body with love and compassion. We may think that gratification and pleasure in the external world is a gift of love to self. But those are not sustaining experiences. Generate energy and love from within. Eat live food that’s organic and consists of a large variety of color and nutrients. Physically move your body and break up blocked energy with physical exercise. Get adequate rest, providing an opportunity for deep sleep and restoration. Drink high-quality water. Bless your body, your food, your supplements, and your water, with the intention of love and healing.
13. Forgive yourself and others. This frees you from the past and provides valuable energy that supports moving forward towards a better future. Appreciate that forgiveness doesn’t happen overnight but have the willingness to do so. In my own belief forgiveness is no longer holding a negatively charged emotion about a person or incident. When this takes place, past hurts become wisdom.
14. Release fear, anger, unworthiness, guilt, and shame. These are low vibrating emotions and are not aligned to our true selves. Be conscious of when you engage in these thoughts and emotions and quickly shift out of them. You may not be able to instantly transform shame into unadulterated passionate love of self, but if you choose, you can shift to a thought of something that you do well or an awareness to do better next time. Choose to lean in to the higher quality emotions.
15. Seek the highest truth in all things. Recognize that your beliefs can change when you learn more. Choose to not be rigid in outdated belief models that no longer serve you or those around you. Allow for the understanding that all of God’s laws are supportive of the whole of humanity, don’t cause division or separation of any kind, and are acts of love. If your beliefs don’t fit in this model, you may want to reconsider where some adjustments may be necessary.
If each of us strive to live our lives with these guideposts we collectively provide the opportunity for others to do so as well.
In Love and Light….
Vicki
