Archives for posts with tag: purpose. life

This Is the Moment You’ve Been Waiting For

October 8, 2010 //
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Right now.  This is it.  Wait no longer.  This is your moment, this is my moment, this is our moment.

What the heck am I talking about?  Well, on the one hand, right now is the moment for all of us to show up and “do” whatever it is we were called to this planet to do – to truly express our gifts and talents.  On the other hand, right now is the moment that is calling us to “be” fully present and aware of all that is going on around us – to immerse ourselves in this holy present moment.  These are not mutually exclusive.

Our Outer Calling

Our planet sure is undergoing massive change right now.  It’s as if we were leisurely peddling along on a bicycle and came to a downhill stretch where we picked up speed and we’re going faster and faster.  Life is whizzing by, stuff is coming at us in a furious pace, response time has shrunk, potholes and obstacles are coming at us left and right.

Technology seems to be changing on a daily basis.  The Earth is facing challenges with global warming, overpopulation, water shortages, uneven distribution of resources and power, and political and social unrest.  There is the appearance of more polarization among people and their beliefs – more vocal extremes arguing at one another over their differences – political, racial, religious, socioeconomic, and more.  Violence, both physical and verbal, permeates our media and our entertainment.

These could be the times that try our souls…or it could be the moment that our souls are being called to express at their highest levels – their Dharma, their purpose, their reason for being on the planet at this time.  The choice is up to each of us as to how we respond.

It’s interesting.  I’ve been in a lot of conversations recently regarding a greater sense of the call to be more visible on the planet so as to assist everyone in this vast moment of change.  In working with people as a part of the spiritual organization of which I am a minister (Centers for Spiritual Living), there has been an awareness that this is the moment that our teachings of oneness and unity are called to be more widely visible at both the global and local level.  There is a realization that we can evolve through the current planet challenges and move towards a positive future, and that our teachings of Science of Mind and Spirit can assist in that growth.  This is the moment that is calling us forward.

Interestingly, I also sense this in my own life.  Something about the current times seems to be saying that I can no longer “play it small”.  Whatever I am called to do in this lifetime (which I have long discovered relates to teaching–both verbally and in print), now is the moment to move forward, to claim my life purpose, to live large.   The challenges the planet faces needs everyone to show up and do and be “all that they can be”.  Everyone means me and it means you.

So what are you called to do?  What do you sense your life purpose to be?  How are you called to serve humanity by living fully that purpose?  Now is the moment to “just do it”.  Don’t wait on others to step up and live their purpose and solve all of the Earth’s problems, this is the moment calling you to make a difference in your corner of the world.

Our Inner Calling

What a gift it is to be alive.  Sometimes we get so busy doing – living in our heads, completing our “to do” lists, thinking about the past, contemplating the future – that we forget to just “be”.

Yesterday I had a beautiful experience.  I was cutting the grass and decided to take a short break.  I sat in the shade of our home’s breezeway drinking a glass of ice cold water.  A few feet away my beautiful chocolate lab, Harmony, was laying in the freshly cut grass and basking in the sunlight.  Harmony’s nose was lifted up in the air sniffing smells far beyond my sensory perception.  She was obviously enjoying the moment.  My heart began to overflow with a sense of love for her.  I wished somehow I could grab hold of this moment and bottle it for later consumption.

I realized that no photograph could ever capture the fullness of this moment.  Have you ever gotten back from a vacation and showed someone your photographs and felt compelled to tell them that the picture in no way fully captured what you experienced?  I know I have.

Each moment has such a full richness to it if we pay attention.  Not only is there the full visual sense of what is going on – vivid colors, full 360° perspective, true 3-D depth perspective – a visual texture which can currently never truly be captured in photographs, but there is also all of the other tastiness of the moment.  My holy instant with Harmony included: my body’s objective change as it shifted from physical exertion to a state of rest, the cool breeze blowing across my skin, the deliciousness of the ice cold water running down my throat, the smell of fresh cut grass, the crisp demarcation between the shade and the sunlight, the perception of the flow of life within Harmony, the relaxed sense of love that I know always connects the two of us…and so much more than words can never capture.  Every moment has that completeness.

This was a moment I had been waiting for, but there really wasn’t anything “special” about this moment.  The only thing that was special was that I shifted my perception into fully experiencing the moment.  Every moment can be such a moment if we allow it.

Sometimes I get nostalgic for the past.  I fantasize about popping back into routine moments when my grown children were small so that I could fully experience them at that age again.  I have my memories and my photographs, but neither bring the sumptuousness of detail that I long for.  I would love to have just 5 minutes sitting with my young children in a room watching them play and sensing that moment in the same detail and fullness that I sensed in my experience with Harmony yesterday.

The irony, of course, is that when we are young and our kids are young, we are so into “doing” – working our jobs, growing our careers, cooking, feeding, cleaning and all the other “busy-ness” that seems so important at the time – that we don’t take much time just to “be in the moment”.  Our children grow up so fast and all those special moments race by, fading into our memories.  I often want to grab young parents by the collar and demand they pay loving attention to these all too brief moments with their children.  I hope my children are reading and heeding this.

Of course, we can’t cling to any one moment.  Our experience of time continues to move forward.  Yet, that’s okay.  The march of time brings an endless stream of these special moments – the trick is to pay attention to them.  Right now, this is the moment we have been waiting for.  This is the moment to experience life fully – to be in this holy instant.

Doing and Being

So right now is the moment that you are called to both express your full creative talents in service to the planet – “to do” what you were called here to do – and to live fully present in each moment – “to be” here in each moment and experience its richness and beauty.  Can you both “do” and “be” in this present moment?

Some of you may say that we can either do or be but not both simultaneously.  Somehow we have gotten it in our minds that our focusing on tasks takes us out of the present moment.  This is the same mindset that says work and play are mutually exclusive.  It doesn’t have to be this way.

It’s been my experience that when I truly lean into living my life’s passion, leaning into the call to be a teacher such as in writing these words, that it brings such a level of completeness to the moment – that it becomes in a sense a spiritual experience.  I’ve heard the same from others.  Work becomes play and then everything combines into just “being life”.  Every moment is “to live for”.

So how are you called to serve?  Are you being a force for good on the planet in your own special and unique way?  Are you living your life purpose?  Are you fully experiencing the vast beauty and love in each and every moment of your life?

The more you live your life purpose, the more you serve the greater good, and the more beauty and love you sense in every moment.  What are you waiting for?  Now is the moment.

Blessings.

Mark Gilbert

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Categories Change Agent, Consciousness, Featured Article

Five Steps to Creating a Positive Future

May 5, 2010 //
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All of us want to see humanity move to a positive future.  Each of us play a role in creating that future.  Today we break down that role into five steps.

Step One: Create a Vision of the Future

It sounds almost obvious, but in order to move to a positive future you’ve got to have an idea what that future looks like.  This is the reason that many of my articles are focused on what a positive future might look like.  I recognize that many of us don’t spend much time, if any, visualizing the world’s future.  When I listen to people, I especially tune in whenever I hear anything they say about where the world is going.  More often than not, such talk is more about expressing concern regarding a negative future towards which they fear we are headed.  Although it’s useful to know where you don’t want to go, if that’s all you focus on, then that’s where you’re headed.  Use your concern on a potential negative future to help you gain clarity on its opposite — that being a more positive outcome.  Meditate, vision, journal, talk with others and visualize as necessary to gain clarity on what our highest future can look like.  This is good to do for your personal life, your professional life and our collective global life.  What would you like to see your life and our life look like in five years?  10 years?  Write it down.  Play with it.  Refine it.  Continuously gain clarity on that vision.

Step Two: Turn Away from Anything Not in Alignment with That Vision

Once you have your vision, then you know the direction towards which you wish to head.  Of course, that doesn’t mean everyone around you and the world at large are going to be headed in that direction too.  You’re going to bump into plenty of evidence that says we’re not moving towards our highest possibilities.  You’re going to have people attempt to engage you in negative talk and negative action.  Don’t buy in to any external forces that seek to have you expend your energy in the opposite direction from your vision.  Stay informed on world events but don’t inundate yourself with negative news.  Seek to find the positive where you can.  Kindly remove yourself from conversations that are headed into negativity and complaining.  Turning away from the negativity tossed at us each day is such a challenge for so many people.  This is one reason that many of my articles are directed at reframing world events. 

Step Three: Turn Towards the Vision

Begin to see that every thought, word and action you take is focusing energy out into the world in a particular direction.  Ensure that direction is towards your vision.  When you awake each day, spend a few moments “creating your day” in your mind.  As you visualize your day, see your actions working towards manifesting your vision and your personal life, professional life and our collective global life.  When you create your to-do list and plot actions on your calendar, ensure they include specific tasks directed toward your vision.  You are, of course, beginning to take action in that one area where you have control — yourself, your personal “sphere of influence”.

Step Four: Align Your Life Passion and Purpose with the Vision

Each person on the planet has a special unique talent is being called to express through them.  When we can align our thoughts and actions with our purpose, then we ignite something special within us.  Expressing our life passion is one of the reasons that we are here on earth.  It’s in the living fully of our purpose that work no longer becomes “work”, where we experience a divine flow where we transcend time, where life appears to line up for us and provide us what we need just when we need it with effortless ease.  It is in this space where we accomplish so much.  By finding where your life purpose aligns with your highest vision for all aspects of life, you surely become an evolutionary change agent moving us collectively towards our greatest potential.

Step Five: Expand Your Sphere of Influence — Develop Your Network

Finally, as you find yourself living your passion and moving in the direction of your dreams within your own life, you can’t help but attract others into your sphere of influence.  The spirit that is ignited within you is like a flame that attracts others naturally.  Allow your flame to burn brightly, allow yourself to show others what the life possible looks like.  You’re a teacher, you’re a model, you’re an example for everyone.  As you find others seeking you out, cultivate it.  Expand your friends.  Expand your network.  Expand your sphere of influence.  Allow your positive energy to cascade out around you and in encompass those near you.  Claim your greatness.

Conclusion

What would it look like if everyone followed these five steps?  Yes, there might be some variance from person to person regarding our vision for the greatest possible future, but I truly believe we would find that there is more on which we are in agreement than not.  And, with everyone turning their attention and energy in that direction and igniting their personal passion in the manifestation of such a future, not only would all of our individual lives be a pure joy to live, we would solve humanity’s challenges and create a legacy for our children and our children’s children to come such that there would truly be heaven on earth.

Mark

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Categories Bridge Building, Change Agent, Consciousness, Featured Article

Your Mission and Vision… Are You Living on Purpose?

April 23, 2010 //
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The past few days I’ve been working on an article for a leadership journal that I was asked to write. My intention for the article is to encourage each of us to consider whether or not our actions are in alignment with our mission and vision. The question is valid at each stage of our existence — from our personal lives to our organizational lives and on up to our country and global presence. Writing the article has caused me to peer into my own mission and vision. Do they still resonate with me? Am I living on purpose?

The pondering as to whether or not we are living on purpose is a question we can all benefit in pursuing. Do you have a clearly stated and inspiring mission and vision statement for your life? If not, I would encourage you to develop one. If you have one, are you living on purpose? That is, are the majority of your actions each day in alignment with the mission for your life and your vision for the future?

Developing A Mission and Vision Statement

So what is the mission and vision statement and how do you go about developing one of each? You can take classes and workshops which go into great detail on the advantages of having such statements and how to write them and how to ensure your actions are in alignment. In fact, I’ve taught such classes. But I’m here make it simple.

A mission statement is simply a few words which describes what the purpose of your life is. What is your life about? What are you here on the planet to do? If someone on an elevator asked you what you were born to be, what would be your brief answer? Here’s my current one: “be a teacher and change agent for good“.

The vision statement is also just a few words but is more future oriented. If you are mission statement describes what you’re about each day, then your vision statement is a picture of the future that will come about by your working on your mission. Here’s my current vision statement: “create a world that works for everyone“. Focusing on this future vision guides and motivates the actions of my mission. As I teach and encourage change, such actions are always moving towards creating that world that works for everyone. If my actions are in alignment, then I am living on purpose.

How to develop these statements? The best process is really pretty easy. It involves looking inside yourself on the one hand and looking at your outer world on the other.

Going within — listen to your intuition. Most people have a pretty good idea as to the mission of their life. Something just calls them. Something just feels right. Something just brings them joy when they are doing it. That inner feeling is giving you guidance.

Looking outside — investigate the patterns that showing up in your life. Most people can step back and look at their lives and see if we keep getting drawn over and over to the same things, the same activities, the same opportunities. They might even try to avoid it but it keeps coming back. These patterns are giving you guidance.

Here’s a quick process to develop your mission and vision statements. Get relaxed, redirect your attention inside yourself, within your mind ask for guidance. Sit quietly for a few minutes pondering these two questions: “what activity brings joy and meaning to my life?” and “what activity keeps showing up in my life that I need to pay attention to?” Get out some paper or a journal and write what comes up. After you’ve captured all the thoughts that have flowed to you, synthesize them down to a few words… whatever your day-to-day actions are, that is your mission… whatever your description of a positive future is, that is your vision. Don’t get too hung up on the perfect words….create your statements and call them your “current” ones like I do….then you can always change them as you get more guidance!

Are You Living On Purpose?

Once you have a mission and vision statement, the next task is to make sure that your actions each day are working in alignment with them. Keep your statements posted somewhere where you can see them each day. As you create your “to do” list, check it against your statements. Not all daily actions are going to be coming from your mission nor directed in accomplishing your vision. However, there should be at least some of your daily actions that are moving you in the direction of your purpose.

Your living on purpose plays out in your personal life where you have the most control…..but consider whether or not you are on purpose at your job or work.  The question frequently comes up “what if my mission/vision are totally unrelated to the job I do at work?” There are several things you can consider. First, being aware of this fact may offer you insight as to why you might not enjoy your work. Second, even though your purpose in life may seem unrelated to your work, very rarely is there a job where you cannot bring your purpose into it to some degree. Look for areas of flexibility within your sphere of influence at work where you can bring in some actions related to your life purpose. Third, you can seek to be more on purpose and things you do away from work and draw meaning from them. Finally, there is always the potential for a career change.

Beyond your personal life and work life….you are also a player within your friends and family…within your spiritual community or civic organizations…..within your duty as a citizen of the town, county, state and country…..and ultimately how you show up in the world at large…..are you living on purpose on all the stages on which you play?  Think about it.

The more you are living on purpose in your life, the more joy and happiness fills your being. You lose track of time. You feel as if you are “in the flow”… you feel connected to something outside you. Life begins to move with effortless ease and grace.  The more you are living on purpose in all areas of your life, the move you see how everything is interconnected and how you are a part of that interlocking universe.  Enjoy it!

Mark

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Categories Change Agent, Consciousness

Life’s Purpose–are You Living on Purpose?

February 6, 2010 //
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What is it mean to be living on purpose? Is there really a purpose we’re supposed to be expressing during his lifetime? If so, how do we know that we are living that life? 

A few years ago my wife and I were at our organization’s annual spiritual conference at Asilomar. During one of the general sessions, they played a game, where they asked questions of people regarding how much they had spoiled their dog. My dog, Harmony, is truly spoiled, although she doesn’t act like it. At the end of the contest there were a group of us standing in front of the general assembly. Everyone agreed that we were the winners having most spoiled their pet. There were prizes they were giving out and I won a very nice piece of artwork that incorporated a meditation by Ernest Holmes called “Meditation for Opportunity”.

Since that time, this piece of art has sat on my desk. I used to read it frequently, but over time it has become simply part of the background. Recently however, something inside me called me to read it again and, boy I was surprised to read in part “there is a Divine Urge to express. It permeates me and fills all space and all people. All of my affairs are in its hands.”

Why was I surprised?….I realized that over the past year or so while this poster sat there consciously unread, subconciously it was seeping into me as I had really become enthralled with Holmes’ idea of the “Divine Urge”.  I had been reading about it, discussing it  in my classes, and used it as a key concept regarding the our purpose in life.  In essence, I had begun living the Divine Urge.  What is this “urge”?

From my understanding of Holmes, this urge, although a single force, shows up two ways. I sometimes liken them to a “push” and a “pull” , but both have the same ultimate purpose. The push is an internal sense that we all have that calls for us to express some unique creative ability during this lifetime.  As we express our unique creative abilities that want to come forth,we are living on purpose.  The pull, on the other hand, is a force that comes from Spirit calling us back to living in that sense of Oneness or Spirit.  This includes the power of love discussed yesterday.

One way of looking at this is to consider that we have been cast out from Oneness (living in a state of pure awareness and unity before birth) to live this third dimensional life with its sense that we are separate and apart.  Yet, all the while, there is a seed in us that knows that our ultimate purpose is to grow back to our Source. It’s kind of like a “tracking beam” in Star Trek.  But while we are here, having this sense of separation and uniqueness, Spirit is taking this opportunity to experience the vastness of life through us.  Spirit calls for us to express our unique gifts (that is, to live on purpose), in return Spirit gets the benefit of that unique experience through us. As Holmes puts it, we exist “for the delight of Spirit”.   The greater the variety in all of our individual human expressions, the greater the variety of experience of the fullness of Life by Spirit.

Each of us came to this planet to express something uniquely. There are no limits as to what this expression can be. It could be that we are here to write and teach, to walk in nature, serve in stores, to raise children, to discover new scientific truths, and so on. Holmes tells us that as long as it expresses more life and harms no one then it is good and of Spirit. It is only in our minds and conditioning that we sometimes look at certain things we humans do and judge them to be less than “on purpose”. Ultimately, it is not our call to say whether another person is living “on purpose”. Our only task is to determine if we are.

And, how do we know that for ourselves? That’s a whole other subject but for now, let’s simply say that there is an “knowingness” that you have is fed internally by intuition and externally by the patterns of life experiences.  Through the combination of these two patterns, you “know” what your life purpose is….although your rational mind may try to talk you out of it!

Finally, as we live on purpose….following the internal divine push to create….we find that in expressing our talents completely we are called home to a greater sense of Oneness and unity.  The expression of our talents ultimately serves to open us, just like the power of love, to the sense of something greater than our individual selves…..ultimately, we begin to realize that both the internal push to create and express and the external pull to return to Spirit have the same goal….to return us to unity…. French paleontologist Teilhard de Chardin described the same force with his concept of the “omega point”….the ultimate point to which we are going home.

So are you living on purpose?  Are you listening to that intuition and live experiences that are pointing you towards your unique expression in this life time?  If you are, hopefully this will open you to seeing how living on purpose is serving your evolution back to Spirit.  If you are not, then it’s time to “stop, look and listen”….and begin to live in alignment with why you are really here.  Now is the time.

Blessings. 

Mark

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Categories Consciousness, Positive Evolution

Is there a spiritual purpose to your life? Are you answering the call?

January 15, 2010 //
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Are you answering life's call?

What do you think? What do you feel? Our minds can debate the philosophical points around whether there is a purpose to life. It’s been my experience that there is an intuitive knowingness that there is a purpose. Many of my friends feel the same way. Yet I know, but there are many people who cynically believe you were born, you live your life, and you die..all as part of a cosmic Roulette wheel.

Notice I said,” spiritual purpose.” You might think there is a purpose to life but question, whether it’s a “spiritual purpose.” I don’t believe you can separate the two. Why? Briefly stated, it is my belief that our ultimate purpose is to express our unique creative abilities while in this life so that Spirit or God can experience life through us. It is also my belief that in expressing our talents, we grow and evolve in our consciousness and that the ultimate point of this evolution is a return to our awareness that we are one with God. We’ll discuss this in greater detail at another time.

So if you can buy for the moment that there is a spiritual purpose to your life, then Carolyn Myss in her book “Entering the Castle” offers us the following question for contemplation: “if you truly believe that this life has spiritual purpose and that you were born to find your purpose — then how can that belief not take charge of your entire life? Everything else in your life should become a servant or a means to finding and living that one truth.”

Those words really struck me. I have felt like much of my life has been a push-pull between simply navigating through this physical life on the one hand, and feeling the need to answer a spiritual calling on the other. That’s not to say that your spiritual calling must take you out of the physical world. Many spiritual paths call for us to be “in the world.” What I mean is that we can distract ourselves away from our spiritual paths by focusing solely on worldly needs and attempting to meet them. If we truly understand and feel that our life has a spiritual purpose…if we truly know it..then how can we ignore it? We must be answering the call, whatever that call is in our lives. Otherwise, it is simply an intellectual mind game we are playing with ourselves.

And, if we are each answering our call, then not only are we taking the next steps in our personal evolution but we are also contributing to the positive growth of the collective next steps of all humanity and the planet. How can we ignore the contribution that we are here to make?

So again….Is there a spiritual purpose to your life? Are you answering the call?

Mark

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Categories Positive Evolution, Spirituality