(Continued from page 22)

pose of my life?  It matters not when we start asking this question.  If we do ask it, then we already have an awareness that we were not randomly placed without aim and direction on this planet.  We each have a destiny to fulfill and a labour of love to give to ourselves, family, community, workplace.   


Often we make the initial selections about our education or job when we are relatively young. Most of us have not asked ourselves the question, "What is my life's purpose?"  Even if we have, we often need to set out on an intentional voyage of self-discovery to learn more about ourselves.   If we were lucky, we were encouraged to choose a job or career on the basis of your known interests, skills, abilities and values at the time.  Otherwise we may have taken a job just to survive.  When we were young, we may have been heavily influenced by parental, societal and peer values.   We may have chosen an field of education or a job according to those.

Many of us have the ability to do many things.  However, work that is personally meaningful is deeply connected to the spirit, to the heart and to the soul.  What is meaningful at one time in our lives may not remain meaningful.   The choices that we make at age 21 or 22 may no longer be right  at 27 or 28.   Those that we made at 27 or 28 may no longer be right for at  36 and so on.   The other day, I met a 58 year old man who has been doing landscape design for many years.  He said that although it was interesting to begin with, it has become a job.  He has always dreamed about being a biologist.  He even took biology many years ago in university.  He asked me whether I thought it was too late for him to become a biologist.  I said, "It's never too late to do what you dream about.  Four years from now you are still going to be 62 whether you have done your dreams or not."  The light went on in his eyes.

If our work is not personally meaningful to us, if it does not come from our spiritual values, as suggested by Rutte in Maclean's Magazine " those values that lie at the core of humanity, that come from our highest, deepest self," we feel dissatisfied.

When our spirit is not being expressed, when it is unfocused and unaligned, our energy is wasted.  When this happens in a career or job our spirit is not nourished.  There is no growth because there is no energy to feed our spirit.  We can pacify ourselves for a while.  Perhaps we can rationalize feeling unfulfilled because the pay and great benefits are great or because our workplace is conveniently located.  We carry on… but barely. We feel depressed, lethargic and unenergetic about our work and lives.  "Is this all there is to life?" we ask ourselves.    In extreme cases, we give so much energy to our jobs without getting any back that we eventually experience "burnout".   When we are "burned out" or feel depressed with our work, it is time for change.


We enter into a state of transition.  It happens cyclically in our lives.  When it happens in mid-life, it has been called our mid-life crisis.  I prefer to call it mid-life transition.   The new "me" can't emerge until the old "me" dies.  It is important to both be in this depression, discomfort, dissatisfaction and feeling of dying.  These are all part of a powerful process that will bring us to the next level of spiritual evolution.  At present our society and medical system denies that depression is a part of life and labels it as bad and to be drugged.   Each case requires personal as well as medical assessment.  Mild depression and dissatisfaction, although not comfortable are often the fertile ground for the seeds of rebirth to take hold.  They are motivators for transformation.   

Continued on page 24
>>> To Order this book Click Here
>>> To register for 7 day workshop based on this book Click Here