Higher Purpose – Do Your Daily Struggles Block Your Higher Purpose?

Do you feel that your daily struggles prevent you from fulfilling your higher purpose? In this post, I expand a bit further on the topic of higher purpose, inspired by a reader’s comment from my last post. Jonas wrote,

“My question is, I feel like my belief that I have a higher purpose places me in a position where I feel like I should back away from all my daily struggles and try “winging it”; as in listening to my inner guidance for the next step in life after having dropped major parts of my life (friends/family/job/living place) as a cause of this belief. Should I not be backing away from my struggles? Sometimes I feel like my struggles are distracting me from my higher self/purpose, yet this seems potentially like an excuse to “escape” the problems. Could I develop a greater connection to my higher self if I stopped the daily struggles/demands and solely focused on my inner development (as uncertain as the future may then be) or is it better for my growth to let the time come when my higher self gets through to me in spite (or because) of my daily struggles? Any advice or thoughts?”

What a great question! I totally get where he’s coming from and am reminded of the time several years ago when I was struggling to begin my higher purpose. I wanted to know what my higher purpose was, and I wanted to begin it, NOW! (That’s becasue my life was really painful back then. Some weird events had turned my life into a painful mess, and I just knew that the faster I was doing my higher purpose, the sooner my life would get back in order…A great motivator, by the way.)

The first thing the Counsel of Light had me do was develop a deeper, clearer relationship with my higher self. The Counsel of Light knew my life situation (a family, not a lot of free time, two little kids) so they asked me to spend about 15 minutes in the morning and 15 minutes before I went to bed in meditation, and to write for a few minutes whenever I had the chance.

They called this time in meditation cultivating the “vertical connection,” the connection with my higher self. I did not have a whole lot of time to focus on this vertical connection (my inner development) as I had family responsibilities while going through a personal crisis. In fact, most days a 10-15 minute meditation in bed is all I actually accomplished towards this vertical connection.

Then some months later the Counsel of Light talked to me about developing the “horizontal connection”–the connection you have in the real world. This was about bringing your higher self into the real world through your actions, attitude, speaking, and so on. So…there’s the vertical connection and the horizontal connection.

No one can say that the vertical connection is more important than the horizontal connection, or that the horizontal connection is more important. I have found that both are equally important.  And in fact, I discovered that it’s when I took action in the real world that I made the fastest spiritual progress. It’s when I worked the muscles of the horizontal connection that my confidence in my higher self (the vertical connection) grew the most.

Futhermore, following through with your inner guidance in the real world should help you resolve your daily struggles. It should help you get through your struggles successfully by finding new solutions to them. I still experience daily struggles, but I see them in a totally different light now. I don’t view them as obstacles to my goals anymore but rather as opportunities in disguise, placed there by divine design. In fact, the Counsel of Light said that going through the situation rather than trying to get out of it is a way to get you further than you ever thought possible. So rather than backing away from or trying to escape the struggles of daily life, accept them and ask how you can move things forward.

Remember that you don’t know what your higher purpose is. Nobody knows. I wrote in my last post that your higher purpose will likely be in an field you’re passionate about, but that doesn’t mean you have to be an expert in that field right now.

For example, I was not trained to be a writer; I knew I wasn’t any good, anyway. And I certainly wasn’t confident as a writer when I was told by the Counsel of Light that I would write books. However, the Counsel of Light “eased” me into this undertaking by telling me that I would write “children’s books.” (Children’s books…not such a bid deal. I think I could do it I thought back then…)

However…over time I developed the capacity to write by listening within, writing it down, and spending many, many hours working on my writing, getting feedback, etc. And once I was on a roll, the so-called “children’s books” became books for adults.

So with regard to the question of focusing on your inner development (the “vertical” connection), you really don’t need a lot of time out of your day to do that. Fifteen minutes a day in the morning, fifteen at night, and paying attention to your sacred space several times a day (which “preps” you to watch for your inner guidance) is what you need. And then what you really need to do is to implement (follow through promplty and consistently) in the real world (the “horizontal” conenction) for maximum growth and forward movement.

In summary, it’s the integration of the vertical connection with the horizontal connection that allows for the fastest personal and spiritual development.