Have you ever struggled with knowing your life purpose? I definitely have. This has been on my mind at various times of my life in varying degrees. I got some seriously helpful answers to this question after listening to a podcast episode by the wonderful Kathrin Zenkina aka Manifestation Babe.
I realized some of these things on my own through 3 years of doing Acceptance and Commitment Therapy and major introspection and what I realized, is that I was looking for a career to define who I was and to determine my level of success. This was extremely unfilfilling, hurtful, energy and time sucking as well. I applied to probably thousands of jobs over the course of many years and went to countless interviews and kept not getting the jobs. This was heartbreaking and left me feeling useless and hopeless. Through therapy, mindfulness, and meditation I FINALLY realized that the reason I wasn’t getting these jobs was because :::drum roll::: They weren’t right for me! I have another path and am meant for something different. You wouldn’t believe how long it took me to accept this and to STOP desperately applying to jobs only exacerbating my feelings of hopelessness and seemingly outward confirmations of rejection. When I began accepting this and letting go of my death grip on trying to get a job with an impressive title, then I began to say no to things that I didn’t enjoy and say yes to things based on what I wanted to do and was more comfortable with. I realized I was letting my ego get in the way of doing jobs that were more peaceful and aligned with who I am and what I might need right now, rather than think about what the people I went to highschool would think, or my family and so on. As I have had about a year to accept and “digest” this new realization, I am doing more introspection on what brings me joy and what I truly like doing from the heart rather than what my brain tells me I “should” be doing.

I was on a road trip recently and listened to The Manifestation Babes Podcast, “Can You Eradicate Anxiety & Transform Your Life Using Your BREATH? Samantha Skelly Shows You How”.
These are some very helpful snippets from that episode:

People think your life purpose is what work you’re doing, but it isn’t necessarily. Attaching an outside source to your purpose is dangerous because then it might disappear, leaving you lost and confused as your sense of self would have then be wrapped up in that external thing. “Your purpose has nothing to do with what you’re doing and everything to do with who you’re being.” Everyone’s purpose is, constantly working on and being the best version of yourself and knowing that you are enough just the way that you are. “Your life purpose is for you to be and to play this game of life.” Rather than thinking that as soon as we achieve the next accomplishment, or work so many hours, or get this one job title then everything will be great, you can realize that “your energy is a contribution to the world”. Being the divine creature who is you, is enough. Your purpose is to be the best version of you, whatever that means…and that can change. “If you start telling yourself, ‘I’m going to deliver the highest amount of energy to this world from this very aligned place’, then the universe will give you everything that you want.” “Your desires are arrows. Whatever you desire is what’s meant for you, so get into that vibration.

After listening to this episode I exhaled a sigh of relief. I don’t have to stress about finding my purpose anymore because I am already actively living my purpose. I am always working on myself and learning new things. So now, I am letting go, allowing, trusting myself and the universe that I am on the direct and correct path that I need to be on for ultimately the greater good of all of us. I work on myself so often that sometimes it feels selfish and I remind myself that I want to and probably “should” help others. But I believe that the inner work I’m doing is also helping others. I may not understand exactly all the ways in which this is happening but I do believe that I am healing myself from the inside out and soon will be able to help others do the same.