By Suzanne Strisower, MA, PCC
Life Purpose Expert, Certified Life and Career Coach
http://www.AwakenToYourLifePurpose.com & http://www.YourNextStepCoach.com
Illness(cancer) is a tough situation that can happen within us often when we least expect it. It has also been perceived as a “messenger” to help bring us and our lives back into alignment. Louise Hay in her classic book, You Can Heal Your Life, offers some interesting insights into the probable cause and new thoughts as they relate to cancer. This may not be your belief system, but she offers a perspective to help give meaning and purpose to the experience when she says for the probable causes,
“Deep hurt. Longstanding resentment. Deep secret or grief eating away at the self. Carrying hatreds. What’s the use.”
Her new thought or affirmation for cancer is,
“I lovingly forgive and release all of the past. I choose to fill my world with joy. I love and approve of myself.”
When we experience life threatening or near death experiences we are can be left with major revelations about how different we are now and how we have a totally new world view about who we are and what is important to us now. Gone are the days of fluff…
Now, we know we are here for a reason, otherwise, we too would have died. Kathleen O’Keefe-Kanavos, a three time breast cancer survivor, quipped that “obviously I hadn’t completed my purpose or I would have been gone.” She knows now that her purpose is to empower cancer victims to be their own best advocate and she helps people know what really lies ahead during and after treatment through her work with the R.A. Bloch Cancer Foundation.
Illness provides the opportunity to reassess one’s life, to consider what your purpose in life really is? The answer is very close by…It is revealed in what you have seen, experienced and understand about your life during those moments when you thought you might not make it…But now, ALIVE, how do you want to implement that vision, energy or purpose that helped your survive? Have you been given that same clarity or do you need some guidance to make your life worthwhile?
In Viktor Frankl’s book, Man’s Search for Meaning, when he experienced the Nazi concentration camps, deprivation and death and asked himself why people survived life threatening circumstances and he said it was one of three things:
Work – doing something significant
Love – caring for another
Courage – during difficult times
Which of these three reflects your vision or purpose for your life? The key criteria should be joy and the celebration of your life through some kind of work, love or courage in the face of adversity you triumphed over.
What brings you joy and how can you express that in a purposeful way? Your “life purpose” is simply the “aim or intention of the energy YOU put forth,” so how would you like to joyfully and purposefully expend your energy?
In this life purpose reassessment process, look clearly at how you want to spend your energy going forward, illness gives us a great opportunity to recalibrate ourselves back to our Self.
Related articles
- 7 Lessons to Survive Your Crisis – A Blessing in Disguise! (breastcanceryogablog.com)
