We are overwhelmed and become stuck when are mind tries answer all the questions we have at once.

Change happens slowly then all at once. Change starts with focusing on one doable thing at a time.  My suggestion is that that first thing is not this fuzzy thing we think of as purpose.

I have read many books on the subject of purpose and have found that the question is a unskillful distraction. As Joseph Campbell noted its pointless to ask the question when you are the answer. You are the Answer! Your Being in all its messiness is Purpose. Life does not have some mysterious purpose that you must somehow find.  You are already purpose. Its not what you will do that will create a purpose but who you are, your being as you act in this world that will. From this perspective of being everything you experience is purpose.

TS Eliot wrote “We shall not cease from exploration, and the end of all our exploring will be to arrive where we started and know the place for the first time.” You can choose to go down this road frantically, longingly seeking out purpose that is one path but there is another to go down this road calmly and with assurance that you will return home and see it for the first time as it is, for what it is. And in seeing it so find yourself able to say Yes, Yes to all of it.

I’ve been re-reading Zen and the Art of Motorcycle Maintenance. Today I read the following: “stuckness shouldn’t be avoided. An egoless acceptance of stuckness is a key to an understanding of all”. So Great News! You are just where you need to be to get to where you want to go! The first step towards change perhaps learning how to give egoless acceptance of where you are. No need for labels, like purpose, for your experiences. Accept where you are and you will know where you need to go next. One step at a time. Trust Life and trust your inner self and one day you will find yourself content that you gave life purpose and it being you is amazing.

Dear Kaelina:

I just  answered your other thread. Above you wrote that you feel that “everything around (you) is gray and  monotone”- that fits  with my  understanding that you are  very rational but keeping your  emotions hidden from your awareness as well as from your past relationship. Without our emotions, life does seem gray and  monotone.

Our  emotions carry valuable  messages, we have to be aware  of our emotions and listen to their messages. Wisdom and experiencing  feeling alive/ being fully engaged in living, requires us to be  rational and emotional, not one  or the other.

anita

Peter and Kaelina,

Thank you for sharing that. I needed to read that tonight. I came across this forum tonight unexpectedly. I’m glad I did. Its nice to know that I’m not alone with feelings of purpose. I’ve been a bit hard on myself. I’ve been thinking so hard about what my purpose is. The truth is clear. I am already my purpose. This life is always tricking us to do more and more. We never do enough. Its exhausting. I am grateful to be aware now of my thoughts with my purpose.