How To Unlock Your Purpose
This episode highlights various ways for you to unlock and understand your purpose, so you can start to live and move with awareness. I’ll outline specific tools and techniques for you to workshop your own purpose statement, giving you meaning each and every day. We’ll learn how to live in the harmonious flow of dharma, where the entire field of pure potentiality opens to you to create as much happiness and wealth as you want because you’re aligned with the unlimited source of all manifestation, and we’ll touch on Ikigai, an ancient Japanese practice that combines joy, purpose, meaning and well-being. By tuning in and listening today, you will come out feeling that your life is truly valuable and that you have a divine purpose.
// Introduction:
At some point most of us have wondered, “What is my life’s purpose? Why was I born and what did I come here to do?” These timeless questions come from the depths of our true Self, which takes us beyond the world of appearances to discover our inner divinity.
A sense of life purpose and authentic empowerment promotes physical, mental, and spiritual health. Purpose is a fundamental part of what makes us who we are, and it’s been proven that people who seek meaning beyond themselves are healthier, happier, and live longer. So, it’s vital to our well-being that we maintain a strong sense of purpose.
I believe each of us manifests in physical body form to fulfill a unique purpose – our dharma – and it’s up to us to find out what that purpose is. Only then can we experience complete fulfillment and spiritual enlightenment.
Everyone has a purpose in life . . . A unique talent. And when we blend this unique talent with service to others, we experience the bliss of our own spirit, which is the ultimate goal right? Who doesn’t want to live in flow with their life’s alignment? Personally, I’m on my journey to align with my purpose, and I want to help you do the same, in order to instill balance and meaning in your own life every single day.
“Finding” your purpose is a misleading concept because it’s not something we have to go out and “get,” but rather something we need to turn within and “unlock” and this episode will show you how to do just that.
// Method to Manifesting 101:
You can journal using the following questions:
What drives me?
What service am I contributing to the world?
Am I following my inner guidance, or moving through society, unaware of the signs from source, my spirit guides or my intuition?
Am I cultivating gratitude and altruism each day?
Once you outline the answers to these questions, you can Create your Life Dharma or Purpose Statement.
The Law of Dharma lays out the three steps needed to align with spirit and fulfill your life’s purpose with effortless ease.
The first step is the decision to seek your higher Self. You come into this world to discover for yourself that your essential nature is spiritual. Inside each of us is a god or goddess in embryo, waiting to be born and express our divinity.
The second step of the Law of Dharma is finding your unique talent or gift. The law says that there’s at least one thing you can do that is a unique talent or gift. When you’re completely absorbed in expressing your talent, time seems to stand still. You love what you’re doing and you enter the blissful state of timeless awareness.
To take the third step of the Law of Dharma, ask yourself the questions, “How can I use my unique talent to serve humanity? How can I help others?” Answer that question and then put it into practice. When your creative expression helps your fellow human beings, you’re making full use of the Law of Dharma and experience perfect alignment with the infinite field of intelligence.
When you put the Law of Dharma into action, you no longer struggle or worry and instead begin to experience your life as an ecstatic expression of divinity.
There’s no right or wrong to unlocking your purpose, and the statement will help you align with your inner self. If writing this feels intimidating or unapproachable to you, I linked a list from higherawareness.com below, which outlines a ton of different purpose statements for you to plug and play with to determine your own personal statement that resonates with you.
PURPOSE STATEMENT EXAMPLES: https://www.higherawareness.com/life-purpose/purpose-statements.html]
Once you land on your statement, I recommend reading it 1-3x per day.
Our purpose will always be something that:
• We feel that we are naturally good at and enjoy doing
• We feel passionate and care deeply about
• We feel fits our values and ways we prefer to operate in the world.
Our life purpose will always express our gifts, passions, and values. No exceptions. Hopefully that will inspire a little sigh of relief for you when thinking about this topic.
I’ve heard of another formula that can help. Maybe the word “purpose” doesn’t fit right with you. If this sounds like you, Instead try to use the word “calling”. A good formula for my science/data-formula listeners out there is this:
G+P+V=C
Gifts + Passion + Values = Calling.
Try jotting that formula down, and see if you arrive at your calling (aka purpose).
// Ancient Ancestors:
Another outlook on purpose is an ancient Japanese concept of finding your purpose. Something called “Ikigai” which was first introduced to me a few years back by Jay Shetty, a former monk, a wildly talented motivational speaker and content creator, and host of one of my favorite podcasts “On Purpose” linked here: https://podcasts.apple.com/us/podcast/on-purpose-with-jay-shetty/id1450994021
So, the origin of the word ikigai goes back to the Heian period, approximately 794 to 1185, and Ikigai is a Japanese word that translates to “A reason for being.” It’s the combination of IKI, meaning “life”, and GAI or KAI, meaning “the realization of hope and expectations.”
Ikigai combines the joy from doing something WITH a sense of purpose, meaning and well-being. It’s feeling that your life is valuable, that you have an impact. It’s NOT linked to your status in society, or the money you earn. That my friend, is your ego talking, and we’ll get into that topic in another episode.
Gai is the key to finding your purpose, or value in life. The best way to really encapsulate the overarching ideology of ikigai is by looking at the ikigai Venn diagram which displays the overlapping four main qualities: what you are good at, what the world needs, what you can be paid for, and of course, what you love.
FIRST, THINK ABOUT THESE 4 MAIN CATEGORIES, WHICH IS EACH OF THE MAIN 4 CIRCLES:
What do you love to do that brings you joy?
What did you love doing or thinking about when you were a child?
What activities do you do in your spare time that make you happy?
What are you good at?
What are your skills and strengths? Sometimes that’s hard to identify and I get that.
Think about what people ask you to help with?
What is something you think the world needs?
What / who inspires you?
What makes you angry or frustrated in the world or your community?
What can you be paid for?
What product or service could you sell?
What job could you do?
OK THEN THERE’S THE OVERLAP:
* What you love and what you’re good at becomes your passion *
* What you love and what the world needs becomes your mission *
* What the world needs and what you can be paid for becomes your vocation… cause, goal or belief *
* What you can be paid for and what your good at becomes your professional career *
IN THE MIDDLE, BECOMES YOUR IKIGAI. OR YOUR MEANING FOR LIFE.
Ikigai also takes other 3 other factors into account, like Mind, Body and Relationships, which I’ll just quickly touch on.
Mind:
Live according to (eechie go eeche ay) icho-go icho-e (meaning that every moment only happens once)
Cherish wabi-sabi (life’s imperfect moments)
Do something you love every day when you wake up
Body:
Adhere to hara hachi bu (eat only until you’re about 80% full)
Diversify your diet with at least 7 different types of fruits and vegetables per day
Find creative ways to exercise and get active every day
Relationships:
Tell those you love why you’re grateful for them regularly
Stay optimistic and assume other’s best intentions
Practice kodawari, taking pride in the small details of life
// Mindful & Metaphysical:
Many people find that understanding personality type helps them navigate life with greater ease and can help lead to uncovering their truest purpose. As a sophisticated and powerful ancient system for self-understanding and personal development, the Enneagram is used worldwide as an effective tool in spirituality, psychology, and business.
The Enneagram reveals that all people belong to one of nine major personality types. Fun Fact: “Ennea” means “Nine” in Greek, which makes sense because in this methodology of thought, there are 9 personality types. The purpose of the Enneagram is not to put you into a box, but to help you identify both the strengths and the limitations of yourself to give you guidance to develop more capacity beyond it. And of course it is a tool for understanding others too. Think of it like a personality love language.
The Enneagram is a useful guide on your journey towards self-development, relationship building, conflict resolution, and the improvement of group dynamics. According to The Enneagram Institute, here are the nine Enneagram types and their descriptions:
1. THE REFORMER: The Rational, Idealistic Type: Principled, Purposeful, Self-Controlled, and Perfectionistic
2. THE HELPER: The Caring, Interpersonal Type: Demonstrative, Generous, People-Pleasing, and Possessive
3. THE ACHIEVER: The Success-Oriented, Pragmatic Type: Adaptive, Excelling, Driven, and Image-Conscious
4. THE INDIVIDUALIST: The Sensitive, Withdrawn Type: Expressive, Dramatic, Self-Absorbed, and Temperamental
5. THE INVESTIGATOR: The Intense, Cerebral Type: Perceptive, Innovative, Secretive, and Isolated
6. THE LOYALIST: The Committed, Security-Oriented Type: Engaging, Responsible, Anxious, and Suspicious
7. THE ENTHUSIAST: The Busy, Fun-Loving Type: Spontaneous, Versatile, Distractible, and Scattered
8. THE CHALLENGER: The Powerful, Dominating Type: Self-Confident, Decisive, Willful, and Confrontational
9. THE PEACEMAKER: The Easygoing, Self-Effacing Type: Receptive, Reassuring, Agreeable, and Complacent
I know you might be like, do we really need another personally test? The answer is YUP! When determining your purpose, it’s important to mindfully align with your personality and traits to better unlock and uncover your calling. Millennial grind has a great FREE Test, linked here: https://millennial-grind.com/free-enneagram-test/
I’m Type 1 - also known as The Reformer.
The descriptor says, “Type Ones are conscientious and ethical, with a strong sense of right and wrong. They are teachers, crusaders, and advocates for change: always striving to improve things, but afraid of making a mistake. Well-organized, orderly, and fastidious, they try to maintain high standards but can slip into being critical and perfectionistic. They typically have problems with resentment and impatience.” Interesting. Message me on Instagram @Shana_Bianchi to let me know what your results showed!
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As always, thank you for reading along, listening to, sharing, and subscribing, and don’t forget to stay Mindful & Divine.
x.shana
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Questions? Want to Work Together or Discuss a Future Project? Email shana@mindfuldivine.com