The key to living a fulfilling life, is to live an authentic and balanced life that has meaning and purpose. And in order to achieve any of this we’ve gotta figure out who we are and how we want to spend our time.
In today’s episode we’re going to talk about finding a direction in your life that will set your mother-lovin’ soul on fire.. in a good way.
Welcome to the podcast, Unlocking Wellness! I'm Crystal McLain, Licensed Clinical Massage Therapist, and Self-Care Coach and I'm exploring ways to unlock our wellness barriers so we can create self care independence, because we find our freedom when we’re living well.
So, I feel like a lot of us are floating along in life just going through the daily motions. And for some folks, that’s working out just fine. But for others, they might be feeling empty, depressed, restless, bored, or stuck in some other groove they’d rather not be in. If you’re ready to get out of the funk, and get your mojo flowing again, then I’ve got some questions for you to kick around today.
But first I want to acknowledge the fact that the words fulfilling, meaningful, and purposeful can feel pretty big and intimidating.
I used to think that if I was going to live a life filled with these three adjectives I had to be someone like Oprah.
But here’s the thing, I’m not Oprah, nor do I want to be, or should I be. There’s only one Oprah, just like there’s only one me, and the world welcomes all of us, it even welcomes you.
But the question is, how can regular folks like you and find meaning, purpose and live fulfilling lives when we don’t have friends like Deepak Chopra or own our own inspirational network? How do we create a life that fills the corners of our heart and makes it easier to get out of bed every day?
The first thing we need to do is understand that manifesting a life that’s sprinkled with these wonderful attributes doesn’t have to be grand and public. In fact, it’s better if it’s not.
Having purpose and meaning doesn’t come about by being validated by throngs of Instagram users. Purpose and meaning doesn’t mean being popular. It means you’re feeding your heart the right stuff. It means you’re filling your soul with the shit that makes it shine.
It means you’re spending your time with things that make you feel at home within yourself.
And when you are honoring your spiritual/soulful/heart-centered self, you’re going to show up as a shinier version of yourself, and that’s the greatest gift you can bring to the world. That’s your purpose.
Another nugget of truth about “having meaning + purpose” is that you don’t have to make it your job. You can weave it quietly into the fabric of your personal life.
And one more thing, the direction you take doesn’t have to always point north. You can change the course whenever you want. This is your life, and you are the one affected by your choices…well, your choices do affect other people, but you know what I mean.
The direction you take in life, is really just the intention you set for your day to day living.
So anyway, how do you do that? How do we find a direction to set ourselves towards? How do we find this purpose and meaning I keep chattering on about?
Let’s start with this: What makes you happy?
What activities could you lose yourself in? What’s something you look forward to? What excites you? What are you curious about? What’s fun for you?
Yeah, I said it. Fun. You’re allowed to have that.
So, once you figure out a few things that get you juiced up, the next step is to figure out what your strengths are.
We’re all good at SOMETHING.
If you tend to hang on the self-detrimental side, now’s a good time to start practicing letting go of that.
Maybe you’re good at caring for your pet. Perhaps you excel at organizing your collections. Maybe your doodling game is strong. It doesn’t matter how tiny or grand you think your strengths are, I have no doubt that you’re good at lots of things. So start brainstorming and write that shit down.
Now, the third thing to think about are your values.
What’s important to you? What are you passionate about? What topics ignite your fire? If you’re not sure, what’s something you’ve been curious about in the past? When you’re seemingly mindlessly scrolling through social media, what types of posts do you linger on? That’s usually a good indicator.
Now, that you’ve thought about how you get your jollies, what you’re good at, and what’s important to you, now you can start meditating on how to bring this all of this together.
Check your ego at the door and put the wide angle lens on your life for a minute. How are you truly spending your time? What kinds of thoughts are you filling your head with? And how do these two things line up with that list juicy heart-centered stuff you just made?
You’re going to have to continue to live your life with all of its obligations. I’m not telling you to pull a Buddha-move and abandon your family so you can search for the meaning of life. Yeah, he did that. But rather, use these things that make you who you are as your compass. How can you apply your passions, joys, values and strengths to your every day life? Your work, your family, your friends, it all deserves the person who is living authentically.
When you show up with your intentions in place, life starts to get a little easier. The daily grind becomes a little more enjoyable. And you start making self-care decisions that align with your true needs, and not what you think Oprah would do.
If you’d like to have a tidy little guide to help you work though finding your life’s direction, I'll leave a link for that in the show notes at the bottom. And if you’d like to learn more about all the things I have to offer, you can visit crystalmclaincreative.com
I love you.
I appreciate you.
Thank you so much for being here.
I’ll see you soon.
- Oh, and by the way, I use Buzzsprout for my podcast hosting, and it literally could not be easier. Seriously, if you’re looking to start your own podcast, check out Buzzsprout. They’re awesome.
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