Putting Meaning Into Life - Our True Power

       "Sometimes this round world can be pretty square."- sharron Katz

      I’ve been following this author lately on facebook-yes you’ve probably noticed I’m a bit addicted to FB.  I like a great deal of what he has to say but some of it does not quite gel.

  He is, in essence, a myth dispeller. He has quite obviously thought a great deal about the law of attraction and points out the untruths about this new-age theory.  He’s not a fan of life-coaches or living life on the fluffy surface of thought and manifestation.

   He interests me because there was a time I was really taken by the ‘secret’ and all of the positive seduction of it. Just as I was coming out of my 15 year marriage and I was desperate to be uplifted Wayne Dyer came into my life through a book called “You’ll See It When You Believe It.” I went to see him at a Hay House conference and was smitten by his powerful way of presentation regarding thought.  Then I met another presenter who became my life-coach for a period of time and I have to say as much as I wanted to buy into her way of thought- I mostly felt like something was wrong with me for not being able to escape the darker side of my brain.

   I would ask her, “Don’t you ever feel sad or upset, or angry or jealous?”

She would counter with a resounding “NO”.

   

 Ironically her father suffered with depression a great deal of his life.  To me, it felt like she just did not want to be him. 

    It took me awhile but I began to understand that the concept, while interesting and really worth exploring- was a bit fluffy and did seem to be about shifting one’s state from negative to positive quite quickly.  It also seemed to be very strong on manifesting the life of one’s dreams.

     What could be wrong with this -right?  

I’ll tell you.

Our struggle, the negativity in many of our experiences- it serves a purpose.

The author I follow may not agree.  I feel what believes he is kind of the opposite of the law of attraction- that we can’t always get something positive from our negative experiences- or our trauma.

 I find myself sitting somewhere right in the middle.

I am very happy to have learned about the law of attraction because it honestly made me aware of the power of our own thought- not necessarily to manifest a Mercedes or the home of my dreams (though I did seem to manage the latter) but because I learned our minds, our thoughts are truly powerful.  Going right back to Wayne’s book-how we process information in our life is directly related to how we feel and how we feel is always connected to our experience of life.

  If we are depressed- life does not feel or look good.

If we are confident- mountains seem to be crossable.

If we feel like victims- life can feel pretty desolate.

And I believe we can and most likely will, enter any of these states throughout our lives.

It’s making our way out of theses states that can sometimes be tricky.  The directions often are not clear and we might find ourselves stuck.

This is where the process of positive thought can really help us out.  In psychotherapy it referred to as cognitive or positive psychotherapy.   It is a learned process of climbing step by step out of a dark place and into a space where a ray of sunshine can sneak in.  While I’m not pro- sunshine for every day- I do feel we sometimes need a helping hand out of the pit of despair.

  I also feel that these darker moments often DO serve a purpose in our life.  I feel that sometimes while we believe we are resting in a mound of shit- we are actually also in a mound of fertilizer- and being called to grow our life in some way.

  Some might thing there is no purpose to negative events happening in our life- and I do not believe in any ways do we attract them.  What I DO believe, from the bottom of my heart- is that WE can put purpose into the darkness of our life.  We can use our traumas to stay hidden or to break through to a higher level of living our lives.  We can use negative experiences to teach others and to grow our soul.

  I know I use this term a great deal- Grow our Soul- because I do feel this is the purpose of life.  The power we possess- is truly just this; we have the power to choose how we process the events of our life.

   One of my favourite books was written by a man who survived the holocaust named Victor Frankl.    Some how he managed to help others through this nightmarish time and to keep his own mind focused upon a life he wanted rather than the actual atrocities that were being committed.  He later went on to create a type of therapy he referred to as Logotherapy.

 “Logotherapy. Viktor Frankl's Logotherapy is based on the premise that the human person is motivated by a “will to meaning,” an inner pull to find a meaning in life. The following list of tenets represents basic principles of logotherapy: Life has meaning under all circumstances, even the most miserable ones.”

   This is where we have power- not to manifest the house of our dreams, but to understand that whatever comes to our life, we can transform- we get to CHOOSE how we see it.  And sometimes just being able to discover or create meaning in our lives can pull us up from a powerless state.

     Vickor Frankl went on to creating an extraordinarily meaning-full life.

While I think we all want to feel powerful somehow in our lives- true power comes from touching another’s soul in a deep meaningful way and it does not matter what you do- we all have this ability.

  My friends Jan and Jill who always help me to see myself in a colourful and bright light, my friend Liz who’s hugs renew my energy every time, my friend Arielle who helps people find their soulmates…no matter what you do- you, we, can find a way to infuse purpose into our lives.

    When I used to work in costumes in the film business I loved working with the background actors.   Many costume people treated them like lower species- with special attention only to be paid to lead actors.  I LOVED working with the background folks- I would ask them about what else they were doing and wow- what an incredibly eclectic and creative group of people they were! Some were writers, some were dancers, many were musicians some were elderly folks who finally had the time to explore their lives.   I loved  to see their faces light up as they told me about themselves.   This was how I infused purpose into my work of herding background actors.  I treated them as the incredible humans they were. 

       Creating purpose within our sometimes challenging lives- this is where our true power exists and the beautiful fact of the matter is that anyone can achieve this.  No degree necessary- simply a desire to tune into life and a willingness to connect.

I wish you a beautiful week ahead.

Share the gift of you and don’t be afraid to walk on the periphery of life’s expectations.

  xoxo

Sharron