Life Purpose Topic #1: What in the World is a Soulnudge?

We all experience a soulnudge at some point, I’m sure of it. A soulnudge is a mind-body-spirit experience that whips you around, grabs your ankles and sends you, and your life, reeling like a shot-put at the Scottish Highland Games.

Here’s my soulnudge experience:

After moving from Ontario to California, I thought that my life was on track. All was grand, until one day at a work meeting; I suddenly became aware that I was at the wrong table, with the wrong people, talking about the wrong things. This was not where my work was to be done; not where my highest contribution could be made, and not where my fulfillment would be realized. (Gasp!).

Did I question this message? No. For some reason, I accepted it as truth and decided at that moment to beam out of high tech to pursue … oops, I didn’t know exactly what … but I was going anyway! That, my friend, was a 100%, bona fide soulnudge.

Soulnudge characteristics:

1. Alert and paying attention
2. Sudden, dazzling clarity
3. Life altering choice
4. Strong sense of inner knowing

Following a soulnudge takes courage, trust and a good sense of humor …because you'll laugh at yourself a lot!

DISCUSSION GROUP QUESTION:

Have you experienced a soulnudge? If yes, please share your experience with us.  From what I've observed, people love hearing about soulnudge adventures ... I know I do, because it gives me hope, inspiration and courage.

Look forward to hearing from you … and enjoy the day!

Mildred Lynn
PS - If you are new to discussion groups, and have a question, comment or idea, please feel free to contact me ~

New! For other topic areas, please click on the green links below:
Topic #6 - What Will People Think?
Topic #5 - Resources: What helped you along the way? 
Topic #4 - Inspiration: Have You Found Yours?
Topic #3 - Success vs. Fulfillment: What's the Deal?
Topic #2 - Oh where, oh where did my Heartbeat Go?

Hi. My soul nudge came a few years ago when I realized that friendship was not reflexive. Reflexive is a mathematical term which means one thing is the mirror image of another. 1 equals 1.

I had always assumed that one of my friends would do for me exactly as I would for them. I had assumed that everyone views a friendship in the same way. I was shocked and hurt when this realization hit me. I had lived over 40 years of my life without understanding this. This shock came at a time when I needed help so it was a painful surprise.

Now that I am aware of it though I see that it makes perfect sense. We do not sit with our friends and define what our friendship means nor would most people want to. Friendship emphasizes the common not the uncommon ground. Since that realization occurred several years ago I continue to make and enjoy friends. I have dealt with the fact that some friends, good friends, would not do for me what I would do for them. I have accepted this as part of human nature and have not let it change my view of the amount of giving I would do. I am now comfortable with friendships being asymmetrical. I may be willing and able to do more for a friend than he would ever do for me. I choose to extend my boundary beyond the middle.  

It reminds me about what I heard once about love. Love gives and gives it never stops giving. This has given me a much better understanding about life purpose. You have to define what is your role, and be comfortable with that role, without expectations of how others will fit with it. You can build the bridges of your life to others, to get things done, or to change things from the left bank, the right bank or from both banks together. All three ways in the end create for you the bridges you need to make in this life.   

Wow, at first I couldn't think of any soulnudges in my life as yours sounded so incredibly transforming. Then they came flooding back into my mind. For me, many my soulnudges came from fantastic new people who moved into my life at certain times. In my early twenties I might have missed some of them, because of lack of awareness or not being ready, but they were there. There were people who showed up and said things like, "You should meet this person," or "This book is interesting," or "I like your work,". By following their advice I took giant leaps forward, and I still hold them in high regard, even if some of them may have moved out of my life.

I guess I have had a few soul nudges in my life, but the one I will mention is my recent soul nudge. After working in business for most of my life with one company or another, I decided to change my career completely. Little did I know that when I first went back to study, my kids were young and I had 3 small children and felt I needed something to stretch my mind, that this would be the start of a new path for me. I started a degree course with "The Open University" which meant that I had to be disciplined and choose regular times to study at home. It was hard and took me several years to achieve my undergraduate degree in Psychology. That was one of the proudest days of my life.This was the start of my awareness, the world had suddenly become bigger in what I was learning. I realised that I was "sleeping" before this.I found that I enjoyed learning about Politics and economics in my foundation course, where before all this seemed so boring to me. I then chose to direct my degree in the subject of psychology. I thought after this, "Well what am I going to do with this degree?" I then chose to enter a 3 year counselling course and obtained a Post graduate diploma in counselling. This was a life changing time for me, because I learned a lot about myself and my awareness of myself and others became even wider. This was not an easy task and was sometimes quite painful, but at the same time adventurous and nourishing and challenging. I did all this mostly on weekends that were extended and worked at the same time for a financial company. I found myself becoming increasingly dissatisfied with the corporate world and needing to slow down a little and concentrate my efforts on nourishing myself. I then had the opportunity to accept voluntary redundancy after 20yrs of working for this company. I took it and decided to build up a counselling practice, this took a lot of organising and dedication and has only just in the last year started to pay off. It was a bit like a leap of faith for me, but I love the work I do and I love being on a deeper level with people and I continue to learn so much.

I was sorting photos and came across a old graduation photo. I looked at the photo and had a sudden flash or a soulnudge. It was the realization of how much my life has changed since the photo was taken.

Life can change you for better or for worse. It is important to nudge yourself to remember who you are at your core because you can easily forget this over the years. This is not to say that the lessons learned along the way are not important. It is to say that in during the course of learning those lessons, always remember who you really are.

I woke up and learned this in a flash by sorting through old photos in the basement. It changed my life because I was able to reclaim a core part of me that I had forgotten; the young fun-living, vibrant woman of seventeen years of age … and I like her.

One of my soulnudges came when I was living in another city and was struggling with the decision to move. Everything was great. My business was going very well and I was ffelt I was filling a need. But I had this unsettling feeling in my core that this wasn't "it".

One evening I met a very special friend for tea and I reached a moment of clarity that I have never experienced. I couldn't turn back.

I realized "who was I to stagnant the flow of energy in the universe? If I was to move then I had better move if I wanted to create space for new things to come into my life and to my client's lives. Instead of helping people I could be actually be getting in their way!".

The next morning I wrote a letter to all my clients and planned my move. I moved 2 months later according to the plan I laid out that evening.

I am forever grateful for that clarity!

Looking forward to more!

Glenna

I believe I have experienced many soul nudges in the past ,but I was not listening, or did not know how to listen. My biggest soul nudge came a year and a half ago. I realized I was very unhappy in my marriage. I was at a dinner with two good friends and had a very strong feeling that I just needed to move forward. The energy was not healthy in my home and It was affecting my health. I was also afraid it was  affecting my daughters.  It took a year to work through counselling, trying to explain to my husband the importance of just being happy , being thankful and appreciative for what you have in life. 

It has been 6.5 months since my husband moved out and my home is peaceful, happy and the energy is positive. I can now understand just how bad it was and the negative impact it was having on my life. I have lost weight, my chronic back pain is gone, I am laughing more, reading more and discovering myself again. My family and friends are commenting that the old Me is back! She went missing 22 years ago : ) I have two beautiful daughetrs and we have a peaceful existance. Their father is very much a part of their lives, just not living with us.

I have always felt things are put in my path for a reason, and my husband and I brought two wonderful girls into this world. It was just not meant to last forever.  I have recently had another soulnudge , I am waiting to see how this one turns out. I am learning to TRUST.

Dear Mildred Lynn,   Finding this new community of visionary folk has been the most beneficial soulnudge. 
IT has made a huge impact during my summer vacation.
I want to be able to have the joy and laughter of community continue.   I may have to do some juggling as my fall schedule and deadlines begin to crowd out all this soul nudging fun.     Kind Regards,   LINDY

When I feel a soulnudge coming on, I start to laugh to myself and can't keep from smiling, at first just to myself and then to others out loud. Things come out of my mouth like "it's ridiculous! It's crazy!"  My soulnudges do indeed seem ridiculous and crazy at the time but that's part of their beauty, for me. It's one of the million ways that the universe makes me laugh. It's like getting on the roller coaster and knowing that all you can do is enjoy the ride and relax into it. It reminds me that I'm just living out some purpose prescribed to me and my job is to follow. And just like Glenna quoted, "who was I to stagnant the flow of energy in the universe"? 

A major soulnudge for me happened a little over a year ago. After having completed my ph.d. in psychology and neuroscience I was conducting my post-doctoral training in molecular neurobiology - very far removed from my initial interest in the mind. I had loved my career in academia and research for 11 years, but the last 2.5 years were really trying. It took me while to finally listen to my soulnudge, partially because it wasn't that I hated my career before or felt like I was sleeping the entire time. It was more like I was on track and then got swayed off track from MY purpose and started living out other people's. So a lot of grieving went into the loss of my academic and research life before I could embrace my new informal and nonconventional study program. 

Mandy