Living your purpose will look and feel different for every person on this earth because your purpose is just as unique as you are. Often when we think of the question “what is my purpose?” we are left to think about our job or career, yet your purpose encompasses so much more than that. Dharma doesn’t always have to do with your work because dharma is the universal truth and the nature of all reality.
Purpose, or dharma, connects you with what makes you transcend and serve from your highest self. To me, living my purpose means allowing myself to create space for expansion, to renounce mediocracy and popular thinking, and to honor a life full of evolving potential in service and pure joy.
Often, the societies around us fill our heads with ideas and expectations for who we should be, what jobs we should have, and how we should act in the world. When we absorb and store these expectations that are placed on us, we become full of what the world requires and there is no room to explore what our true purpose might be. These messages and expectations end up clouding our inner vision and pull us away from our truth and, ultimately, our purpose.
It can be easy to get stuck in the demands of the external world and lose sight of connection with our innermost essence. When the mind is full of external desires created by the ego-mind there is a disconnect from our heart, but when we cultivate an intentional practice of turning inward and forming deep connection within our hearts, we start to uncover the desires born from this place. These heart centered desires can be guiding lights on our path to discovering and fulfilling our dharma.
This path to living your dharma is not always clear or smooth. It is likely that you will face doubt, struggle, and uncertainty along the way. At times it might even feel like you do not understand your purpose, you may feel yourself resisting it because of the doubt and uncertainty. It’s important to remember that all of this is a natural part of the process. When we develop deep self-awareness, we can sit with the confusion and doubt and still return to the inner knowing that we each have a unique dharma which is personal to us, meaning no one else can fulfil your dharma.
Connecting with your dharma requires you to cultivate a practice of opening and internal dialogue and inquiring deep within your heart. Once this internal dialogue is sparked, there is more space to remain connected with your purpose, even when the world is pulling you in different directions.
In my practice, this inquiry takes place in a private space, and it is the most important, crucial conversation I have. This is where I connect with my integrity and loyalty to who I am beyond my education. Trying to rush to conform with external expectations makes us lose our essence and our connection with ourselves.
When I’m feeling scattered or as if I'm being pulled away from my purpose, I remember to turn towards joy. Taking time to reflect on the moments in life where I experience joy helps to reground me and align me with the desires that exist beyond the external world. Identifying with your truest essence and accessing joy always brings you closer and closer to living in full alignment with your dharma.
Often, in the modern world, dharma is associated with work, but dharma does not have to be exclusive to the work that you do. In fact, it encompasses much more beyond and outside of your work life. This is not to say that your dharma cannot align with your work, only that it does not have to, and that is perfectly okay too.
In my life, I feel more joyful doing things that make me feel like an instrument of growth or awakening in one's life. My dharma creates paths and opportunities to be present and aware of the blessings of being able to assist humans in search of self-growth. Being the witness and the listener to others makes me feel joy and an extreme sense of connected purpose.
Your dharma is a connection to what brings you the deepest joy, ease, and harmony in your life. Everything in nature has dharma, because it is the universal truth, cosmic order, and the nature of all reality; therefore, your dharma is the nature of your reality. When you align everything that you do with your experience of joy, you create moments of connection throughout each day. These days full of joy become weeks, weeks turn into years, and years become a lifetime that is full of connection and purpose.
Everything in nature has a divine purpose. It might not be as apparent in the subtle details or mundane moments of life, yet at every moment your purpose is the underlying current guiding your way.
Your purpose is not a specific place or goal to achieve, it is the very nature of who you are and how you live in service to yourself and the world around you. Discovering your purpose is a practice that asks you to deepen your self-awareness and consider all aspects of yourself to learn what it feels like to be of service from your higher self.
As we deepen our connection to the center of our being and our truest purpose, we realize that those doubts are fabricated by the mind. We remember that we are, and have always been, enough.
Connect and align with your universal truth and purpose in Journey to Well-being: Purpose, a five-part series with Ismael Cala, available now in the Chopra App.
Purpose, or dharma, connects you with what makes you transcend and serve from your highest self. To me, living my purpose means allowing myself to create space for expansion, to renounce mediocracy and popular thinking, and to honor a life full of evolving potential in service and pure joy.
Release Societal Expectations
Often, the societies around us fill our heads with ideas and expectations for who we should be, what jobs we should have, and how we should act in the world. When we absorb and store these expectations that are placed on us, we become full of what the world requires and there is no room to explore what our true purpose might be. These messages and expectations end up clouding our inner vision and pull us away from our truth and, ultimately, our purpose.
It can be easy to get stuck in the demands of the external world and lose sight of connection with our innermost essence. When the mind is full of external desires created by the ego-mind there is a disconnect from our heart, but when we cultivate an intentional practice of turning inward and forming deep connection within our hearts, we start to uncover the desires born from this place. These heart centered desires can be guiding lights on our path to discovering and fulfilling our dharma.
This path to living your dharma is not always clear or smooth. It is likely that you will face doubt, struggle, and uncertainty along the way. At times it might even feel like you do not understand your purpose, you may feel yourself resisting it because of the doubt and uncertainty. It’s important to remember that all of this is a natural part of the process. When we develop deep self-awareness, we can sit with the confusion and doubt and still return to the inner knowing that we each have a unique dharma which is personal to us, meaning no one else can fulfil your dharma.
Discover Your True Nature
Connecting with your dharma requires you to cultivate a practice of opening and internal dialogue and inquiring deep within your heart. Once this internal dialogue is sparked, there is more space to remain connected with your purpose, even when the world is pulling you in different directions.
In my practice, this inquiry takes place in a private space, and it is the most important, crucial conversation I have. This is where I connect with my integrity and loyalty to who I am beyond my education. Trying to rush to conform with external expectations makes us lose our essence and our connection with ourselves.
When I’m feeling scattered or as if I'm being pulled away from my purpose, I remember to turn towards joy. Taking time to reflect on the moments in life where I experience joy helps to reground me and align me with the desires that exist beyond the external world. Identifying with your truest essence and accessing joy always brings you closer and closer to living in full alignment with your dharma.
Follow Your Joy
Often, in the modern world, dharma is associated with work, but dharma does not have to be exclusive to the work that you do. In fact, it encompasses much more beyond and outside of your work life. This is not to say that your dharma cannot align with your work, only that it does not have to, and that is perfectly okay too.
In my life, I feel more joyful doing things that make me feel like an instrument of growth or awakening in one's life. My dharma creates paths and opportunities to be present and aware of the blessings of being able to assist humans in search of self-growth. Being the witness and the listener to others makes me feel joy and an extreme sense of connected purpose.
Your dharma is a connection to what brings you the deepest joy, ease, and harmony in your life. Everything in nature has dharma, because it is the universal truth, cosmic order, and the nature of all reality; therefore, your dharma is the nature of your reality. When you align everything that you do with your experience of joy, you create moments of connection throughout each day. These days full of joy become weeks, weeks turn into years, and years become a lifetime that is full of connection and purpose.
Everything in nature has a divine purpose. It might not be as apparent in the subtle details or mundane moments of life, yet at every moment your purpose is the underlying current guiding your way.
Your purpose is not a specific place or goal to achieve, it is the very nature of who you are and how you live in service to yourself and the world around you. Discovering your purpose is a practice that asks you to deepen your self-awareness and consider all aspects of yourself to learn what it feels like to be of service from your higher self.
As we deepen our connection to the center of our being and our truest purpose, we realize that those doubts are fabricated by the mind. We remember that we are, and have always been, enough.
Connect and align with your universal truth and purpose in Journey to Well-being: Purpose, a five-part series with Ismael Cala, available now in the Chopra App.
