How to Find Your Purpose in Life

“Be brave enough to live the life of your dreams according to your vision and purpose instead of the expectations and opinions of others.”  

Roy T. Bennett, The Light in the Heart

The modern world has managed to sell the concept of happiness, as if happiness is the only meaningful thing to reach in our life. The capitalist system is based on consumption, materialism and feeding our ego. As long we are not able to see beyond the capitalist system that has raised and brainwashed so many of us, we are most likely not capable in seeing our life as meaningful and feeling contentment with what we have. Neither happiness nor the purpose of life come from getting more and more, but stopping, looking at things outside of the ego, and taking a moment of reflection on yourself.

What makes life worth living?

Crisis as a starting point for spiritual awakening

An existential crisis often starts from questioning the meaning of life, and the question of “who am I” follows. We might feel the need to have several different roles in our routines and work life, but we feel empty inside. There might be a feeling that society gives a model and a norm to fit, but there is something stopping us feeling good in that role. We are acting in different roles but our soul is not there. This is often the point when life starts feeling meaningless.

A mental crisis may be a starting point for a new era for spiritual awakening. You might feel very lost and uncomfortable within that state, but it is great place to explore and discover new layers of the consciousness and mind. There are many, many ways to find a new, meaningful beginning for your life.

Dharma is a term that appears in both Buddhist and Hindu philosophies. It doesn’t have a simple translation, but it has several, slightly different meanings. One of them is “the way” or “the mission in life”. Dharma is also related to the concepts of duty and services to others. Finding your own Dharma might be a long path. What is your path on this planet?

Finding your Dharma

I wrote earlier about suffering in life and how we are living our past karmas. Only you can stop your suffering and only you can change your actions for future positive karma. After we have accepted the idea of us making the decisions for our life, we are ready to think about our Dharma, our mission in life.

To find out, you really need to be very honest with yourself. You need to face your ego and accept that the ego might get hurt. Don’t worry about that, remember that you are much more than your ego, which is a creation of your mind and is based on the attachments in your life.

How to measure “a good life”?

When we talk about a good life, what does it mean? In Positive Psychology there is a model called PREMA (Prema=love in sanskrit) to measure different fields of your life to see how these stages are filled in your life. Take a moment to go through the following proposals to see, if any of the fields needs to be more sustained. Think what would be needed actions to correct the situation.

Positive emotions

• • I don’t get stuck to the negative ones but seeing and giving value to all positive things.
  • I am not judging others for their choices and I am not judging myself for what I am.

Relationships

I…

• • …have enough healthy relationships in my life.
  • …can share my values with people around me.
  • …have a community where I feel safe and can share my thoughts.
  • …am my own best friend.

Engagement

• • With all the actions I do, I am really engaged and focused.

Meaning

• • I make positive actions; to people, to nature, to myself.
  • I am making conscious decisions that are corresponding to my values.

Accomplishment

• • I don’t need to accomplish any great actions to satisfy my ego or someone else.
  • I only need to be present with myself and others in this moment.

Meditation for finding your dharma

Getting closer to your dharma takes small steps every day. You can choose one or two of the previous statements and take them as an intention for a day, week or month. Set that intention every day, after you wake up or after your meditation. Meditation is a highly recommended practice to become more aware of the movements of the mind (also any tendency for negative emotions), and through that you can let go and calm the mind.

Choose one or two of the following questions for your meditation. Take a moment to sit or lay down comfortable. Make sure that there is no disturbance in the space. Close your eyes. Take a few deep breaths to ground yourself. Bring your mind back to your body, keeping awareness in your breathing. Ask the questions that you chose, in your mind. Try not to put any pressure on yourself. Let the question float in your consciousness. Once your mind is calm and you are not forcing yourself, the answers will appear from your heart. You just know it.

Ask Yourself

• • Am I trying to fulfill someone else’s expectations of how my life should be?
  • Listen to your heart: What is it that truly calls you from inside? Notice if it is the sense of ego that wants to get satisfied, or is it a deeper calling for something that truly matters to you. 
  • Do I respect and appreciate myself?
  • Am I living my life fully?

Healing yourself and feeling contentment in life are the first steps to finding your dharma in life. On the path of finding dharma, you might need to take steps that are also uncomfortable and painful. You might need to cut off relationships to people who are not supporting and understanding your personal growth. See and feel how the energies from other people affect you. Remember that you live your life for yourself and not for anybody else.

Yoga Philosophy series by Anni Rainio

1. 1. Is there afterlife?
   2. What makes life suffering
   3. Reincarnation vs. Rebirth
   4. Do our present actions affect our future life?
   5. Transcending the fear of death
   6. How to find life purpose
   7. Acting from compassion
   8. Process of dying according to Tibetan Buddhism
   9. Process of dying – Perspectives from Hindu philosophies
   10. Breaking the cycle of samsara
   11. Enlightenment

Recommended readings on life, death, and the afterlife

The Tibetan Book of Living and Dying

Four Chapters on Freedom

Share the Purpose

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About the Author

This blog post is written by Anni Rainio, Doron Yoga Teacher -alumni, who is doing her 300h yoga teacher studies at Doron Yoga & Zen Center. She wrote a thesis about process of dying and rebirth from the yogic and Buddhist perspectives. This series of Yoga Philosophy blog texts are giving tastes of her theoretical studies. Please feel free to comment and share your thoughts either here or to annirainio@gmail.com.

Check out Anni’s website: www.annirainio.com