Meaning and Purpose

The question that I sought to answer in the past 5 years was what was missing? Researching a lot of websites like www.greatergood.berkeley.edu, www.letstalkaboutmentalhealth.com.au, www.thetoolsbook.com, www.betterup.com, 

I found them to be useful in a theoretical manner but they did not help me answer the specific questions I had about my life and I could not find a fundamental axiom that I could connect with.

My search led me to Dr Carl Jung, one of the contemporaries of Dr Sigmund Freud and slowly and steadily over the past 4 years of my reading and working with the concepts as proposed by Dr Jung and the Jungians who have contributed to expanding his concepts, 

The fascinating part of my learning is that what I see now was somewhere always in my perceptual space and it was something that I have always “known”. It has been the central tenet in all major religions and philosophical enquiries since time immemorial. If someone had told me that one of the central pillars of my understanding stood upon, “knowing myself” or “to be looking within” or to “understand and explore the unconscious side”, I would have considered it to be too simplistic and too vague. But today I know and have been trained on tools that make this simplistic and vague notion of “knowing oneself” more scientific, based in a psychological structure and also in line with fundamental tenets that are seen in nature.

To explain this, I will use two metaphors

1. The first metaphor is that of the iceberg. What I knew about myself, and my strengths was what the part of the iceberg that was above and outside the water. The larger and bigger part of my knowledge about myself was under the surface. Bringing that part which was under the surface outside has been the journey that I am pursuing in the past five years, and I know now that it will be a journey of a lifetime. I am committed to this journey because

a. I am aware of the magnitude of this quest and I see this as “the” most important quest in one’s life.

b. I know that if I do not undertake this journey willingly, I will be forced by circumstances to “face” this in the form of burn-out, illness, mental and physical ill-health among other “symptoms”.

c. I have made time for this journey and it has begun to positively impacted my physical, emotional and mental health.

2. The second metaphor is that of a rubber band. As we focus only on one-side of ourselves (the part outside the water in the iceberg metaphor), the hidden part of ourselves wants to come out and as we continue to ignore it or push it so that it is not given space to come out, the more forcefully it will emerge out.

These two metaphors are interesting because what they are essentially saying is that if you keep going down the path of building upon your strengths, you will hit a dead-end (sometime in mid-life) and at that time you will either need to or be forced to focus on the unseen, unaccepted, unwanted part of yourself.

Coming back to What next?

Finding My Meaning: Knowing myself

Finding meaning is about understanding and making sense of your life as it is. It’s about discovering what resonates with you emotionally and spiritually. When you find meaning, you’re essentially figuring out the ‘why’ behind your experiences and your existence so that you can incorporate it into your decision making and general direction-setting.

For me what next, is this journey to understand myself and see the multitude of personalities that co-exist within me. I have endeavoured to find ways to accept and give space to all aspects of myself helping them to find their place from out of the depths, into the sunlight. Becoming whole through this process is my way of finding meaning in my life.

Finding My Purpose

Finding purpose is more action-oriented. It’s about identifying a clear aim or goal that drives you forward. Purpose is your sense of direction, the role you feel you’re meant to play in life, whether it’s a profession, a passion, or a cause you’re dedicated to. It’s like having a compass pointing you towards a specific path, motivating your actions and decisions.

I imagine that we all are like Swiss knifes (Victorinox) with so many different aspects to ourselves. We go through life using one or maximum two out of the different tools available in our tool kit and it is important to firstly know what our unique tool kit looks like ((My teacher calls this process – “reading the melody”) and then learn the art of knowing which tool to use in which situation/ job/ vocation.