Let's Talk Life Purpose Topic #5: What Helped You Along the Way?

Hello everyone! It is always exciting to share a special book, resource, song, or person that helps you get to the next step of your life purpose journey (known or yet to be discovered).

Perhaps it is:
 - a book that provides clarity;
 - a person that you identify with;
 - a heart-felt song that adds comfort;
 - an inspirational quote that makes you smile;
 - a movie that moves you to act;
 - a joke that helps you have a good laugh at yourself!

On my journey, a book called Man's Search for Meaning by Viktor Frankl provided clarity when I was walking around in the fog. The part of the Viktor Frankl's message that woke me up is that we all have the power to chose what we make things mean. This insight stopped me in my tracks.  So with eyes as big as saucers, book in hand, and stepping lightly, I began the next phase of my life purpose exploration.

Inspiration may also show up in songs that you notice because you hear them  over and over again.  Here are three song benchmarks for me:

1. Solsbury Hill by Peter Gabriel
2. Dream #2 by Kenny Tobias
3. Both Sides Now by Joni Mitchell

DISCUSSION GROUP QUESTION:
Is there a book, person, song, quote, movie or joke that is helping (or has helped) you sit up, take notice, and see your life purpose journey in a different or more empowering light? A tool or resource that you can share with others?

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

Mildred Lynn
PS – If you have a question, comment or idea, please contact me. I'd love to hear from you ~

Mildred Lynn

New! For other topic areas, please click on the green links below:
Topic #6 - What Will People Think?
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?
Topic #1 - What in the world is a Soulnudge?

Hello Everyone. There have been a number of things that have lifted
my spirits and helped me to move along my life purpose journey with
ease. I love all kinds of music but the music that brings joy and
passion into my life is Celtic music. With its fiddle, songs and
soothing sounds it can make you want to get up and dance or soothe your
tired soul.

I have read all of my life and find books can not only distract you
from what is going on in your day to day life but also provide you with
information and guidance that support your life purpose journey.

I
have always been able to laugh at myself and do not have a fear of
saying  "I don't know" or "I need help". Why reinvent the wheel
when there is someone who has gone through the same situation you are
dealing with and is willing to help.

All of these things have helped me greatly but there has been one event
in my life that has helped to see my life journy as a postive and
joyous experince even when my life was turned upside down. I have been
extremely fortunate to have met a true freind in the last number of
years, who as I look back I'm not sure that I could have managed
without her. She is someone who has been blessed with an extrodiary
gift and even though we live miles away she has always been able
to turn me around and point me in the right direction.

Enjoy the day and take a little time to think about what has helped you along your life journey.

Like many of us, i have had inspiration and assistance from many important sources. To pick out just two:

1) The 15 Minute Miracle by Jacquelyn Aldana -- this little book, which I picked up about 8 years ago, has been a really amazing tool. It's very accessible to folks at any stage of growth, and like everything, you get out of it what you put into it. But the toolkit - really just a 15-minute visioning excercise every day - has created miracles in my life. The interesting thing about it for me is that "creating what you want" turns out to be the easier part. Once you realize that you can ask - and get - you suddenly inherit a significant responsibility to know what it is you really want. It's not as easy as it sounds.

Here's why: I realized that I was asking for things I thought I wanted. Then when I got them -- oops!  And to complicate matters, I came face to face with Chief Seattle's wisdom that "All things are connected...we do not weave the web of life, we are but a strand in it..." When I would ask, and receive, some other thing in my life was affected. Nothing exists in a vacuum, and nothing can be given that does not also create change.

The importance of knowing what you want, and learning to accept it without attachment to outcomes (that's a phrase that deserves it's own discussion group -- wow!) is what I learned from the 15 Minute Miracle.

The second thing that has had an extraordinary impact on my life is my spiritual way of the shaman. I have learned from a variety of sources and teachers, but the Foundation for Shamanic Studies (www.shamanism.org) has been my primary resource.

Shamanism brought me across a bridge, through a gateway, to another way of being. Or, perhaps more accurately, brought me home to myself. Through years of study and practice, I've developed patience, compassion, and love for myself and for others. I discovered that life is a gift first, and everything else -- a challenge, an experience, an opportunity, a lesson -- is a distant second.

Well, that's all for now. Hope these tools are helpful to others.

Love & blessings.

I am not the best seeker of my life purpose. I seldom read any books on topics to do with my inner spiritual growth or unfolding my inner path to development. That said, I am blessed that my life partner lives and breathes this area … and I am awash with all kinds of ideas, reflections and tools. I often use these and I reflect on what she says. I am a bit like a man who converts to his wife’s religion because he always goes with her to church.

Though I am not one who seeks out inspiration I do find it. These are some examples:

-         I reflect, visualize and pray when I am driving. I bring my ideas into this reflection…inspiration by reflection.

-         I find trying new things inspiring. I tend to hang about the side of the pool and reading and thinking about swimming rather than actually trying it. I find over the last ten years I have got in the pool a lot more and I find the trying of new things, the experience of the moment when you encounter something unfamiliar, both refreshing and exciting….inspiration by action.

-         I also find in journeying through life you find stuff that inspires you. I remember a friend whose husband had left her with four young children. Her home was so neat and tidy and happy. Most families with two parents couldn’t do that. I was inspired that despite the pain and troubles she persevered ….yes, inspiration from others is everywhere.

Hello there!  I just had an email from new member "Olga". She was kind enough to offer these insights for our discussion group:

"Book(s) that helped along the way? It seems as though some of the bone fide 'scientists' are making some headway explaining some of the phenomenon that 'energy workers' have been working with and experiencing for ages: so  the Biology of Belief by Dr. Bruce Lipton and Power vs Force by Dr. David Hawkins (explains muscle response testing really well) and has an amazing chart of consciousness. Then of course: The Little Prince by Francois St. Exupery! I will see if I can find a worthy quote and return soon."

My favorite book that I would like to share with others of this group is The Right Questions: 10 Essential Questions to Guide You to an Extraordinary Life by Debbie Ford.

Interview with Debbie Ford that talks about her book: http://www.inlightimes.com/archives/2003/06/f1.htm

Thanks, and if I think of anything else, I will add it later this week.

Earlier in the week, I wrote that if I thought of anything else that helped me move forward on my path, I would share it with the group.

Today I remembered that I received a lot of guidance, comfort, perspective, and lightness from Oracle cards.  The ones that I use (on an almost daily basis) are from Doreen Virtue, PhD.

They include:
 - Archangel Oracle Cards
 - Messages from Your Angels
 - Healing with the Angels

Warmth and happiness to the group!

I was given the book Anatomy of the Spirit, by Carolyn Myss, as a gift from a friend. This book really opened my eyes and helped me to think in a different way. Over the years I have given many copies of this book to friends and co-workers hoping it would give them the same insights I experienced.

I have to agree with Mildred Lynn on her selection Man's Search for Meaning, this book truly changed the way I look at life. I actually have the following quote from the book written in the front of my planner " He who has a why to live can bear with almost any how". I look at this quote when I am feeling overwhelmed by something happening in my life. 

The third book that is on my sharing list is Tuesdays with Morrie.....a great little book to help you appreciate the simple things in life. I bought copies of this one for my children.

I will now look forward to looking up some of the books everyone has shared with this post.

My life has been full of very big changes in the past year. They are good, I think, but sometimes painful, and sometimes scary.

A couple of quotes I keep handy to remind me to continue to move forward, even when I'm afraid:

"Change is to give up what we are to become what we could be."

(I wish I knew who said that, so I could tell you, but I can't find it.)

Another quote about change:

"Everything that has a beginning has an ending. Make your peace with that, and all will be well." the Buddha

Words to live by...