How I Found My Purpose

When I learned that I was responsible for my own life – the whole enchilada – that’s when it got more meaningful, more fulfilling, more fun, more vibrant, more interesting, more purposeful, and more everything good – in spite of my kicking and screaming every step of the way.

I learned it while I was engaged in a bit of seeking, as it were, which consisted of reading some bestselling new age spirituality books, taking a few classes, going to workshops here and there, and listening to some audio CD’s. When it became clear that everybody was pretty much saying the same thing, I was off and running.

At the time, I was starting my private psychotherapy practice. I would sit with my clients and found that all I really wanted to do was help them apply the spiritual concepts I’d been practicing in my life to their experiences and circumstances. I had no doubt that, if we did, months and years could be shaved off their processes, but that wasn’t quite what they’d come in for. So I shut my fledgling practice down, thought about it for a while, then re-launched it as a “spiritual growth and development” practice so that people coming in would know what they were getting.

When they did, it didn’t take long before I realized that certain concepts – which I lovingly refer to as contemporary, non-religious, religion-friendly, and universally spiritual – began repeating over and over….

Be compassionate, beliefs matter, be present, choices abound, everything is energy, have an attitude of gratitude, intentions matter, judgments separate us, listen to inspiration, mind and body are connected, take responsibility, the law of attraction governs us all, we are all connected, we are here for a reason, and we belong to the planet, not the planet to us.

Obviously, I didn’t make any of them up and, sure, there could have been 10 or 12 or 18 or 20, but I settled on these 15.

And what I saw over and over in my practice were clients who extolled the virtues of these concepts but couldn’t seem to see how or where they applied to their day-to-day, hour-by-hour, moment-by-moment lives. They didn’t see how the problem they were having at work was related to beliefs they had about their abilities or how the anxiety they felt was related to an unwillingness to live in the present or how the relationship problems they were having were tied to faulty intentions. And that’s when my purpose became crystal clear.

We’ve all read the books and been to the workshops. We have more than enough information and we know what to do. It is, therefore, my joy and my work and my work and my joy to help anyone who knows she/he is a spiritual being having a human experience and who chooses to live from that place to move ever closer to higher purpose, deeper satisfaction, and greater enlightenment by working with these concepts.