Explore Purpose

There are many ways to explore purpose:

• Discovering solitude. To get in touch with inner life and to explore the questions of life purpose and meaning, you need to listen. With the busyness of work and home life, it is often hard to find time for personal reflection. It is through solitude and contemplation that people begin to see beneath the surface.
• Keeping a journal. A journal can be a good way to reflect. You might write about some basic questions: What experiences give me life? What experiences drain life? Considering these questions can help you find purpose and meaning.
• Talking to others: Many people find that the best way to explore life issues is by talking and listening to others. Sometimes hearing other people’s useful questions and insights can illuminate one’s own life purpose.
• Meditating: There are different techniques for meditating, some of which involve focusing on an object and clearing the mind of all other things. For example, some meditators choose to focus on the breath, observing it as they inhale and exhale. When other thoughts or emotions arise, they observe them neutrally as they pass, but return to the breath. If they find themselves caught up in a thought or emotion, they observe that non-judgmentally, and return to observing the breath. With practice, meditation can bring great calm and clarity to apply to questions of purpose.
• Going on retreat: Retreats present a unique opportunity to slow down and focus. There are many kinds of retreats – silent retreats, retreats that are entirely unstructured and retreats that are structured and based on a particular theme or topic.
• Conducting a vision quest: A vision quest is an intense retreat-like experience that is intentionally focused on helping people find their life path.
• Paying attention to dreams: Dreams reveal people’s unconscious issues and can provide precise insights into personal needs, desires, and concerns. They are also compensatory and healing. Because dreams are highly symbolic, they are frequently dismissed as silly or useless until the dreamer starts to take them seriously by writing them down, reflecting on them, and developing a personal symbolic language.