Living your life with purpose

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Mindfulness, faith, spirituality, or whatever you can relate to personally when it comes to your existence. Find an anchor, a theme, something you can visualize your existence on earth. This is important because whatever you want to call it, you are here for a specific reason, you are here with a purpose. When everything is changing in this universal catastrophe called 2020, it’s time for you to find your calling. 

If you think this sounds foolish, maybe it does. It also maybe doesn’t, so embrace the embarrassment. When you feel uncomfortable with an idea, or foolish for thinking about your “purpose” remember that every time you step out of your comfort zone, you are taking another step towards achieving something important, something with meaning. The more life scares you, the more you’re being pushed to your purpose. Monetize My Skillset, Live My Purpose « Larry Kessler 

Living With Purpose

Some of us were born lucky. With a clear passion that is obvious and clear to themselves and others around them. They may be talented and in persistent practice with working on their talents. They may have turned their talent into a skill which they now use in the work industry. 

Defining your path as early as possible (usually 25-30) is the most important decision in your life. But, curiously enough, this is something some can discover in their teens, their twenties, or even late in life. The reason for defining your purpose early on is so that you can live in peace. You can live a happy life with the direction you chose. You will fulfill your purpose.

 Having a purposeful life, whether it be manufacturing guitars or tennis or volunteer work, plays a heavy role in your mental and physical health, researchers find. It even showed to be of more importance in lowering the risk of death than exercising regularly. Some researchers suggest that having a life purpose reduces stress and anxiety, thus not compromising their immune systems constantly trying to figure themselves out.

Having a purpose in life may decrease your risk of dying early. Researchers analyzed data from nearly 7,000 American adults between the ages of 51 and 61 who filled out psychological questionnaires on the relationship between mortality and life purpose. What they found surprised them, 

“People who didn’t have a strong sense of life purpose — which was defined as ‘a self-organizing life aim that stimulates goals’— were more likely to die than those who did, and specifically more likely to die of cardiovascular diseases. ” Celeste Leigh Pearce, one of the authors of the study published in JAMA Current Open.

“I approached this with a very skeptical eye,” says Pearce, an associate professor of epidemiology at the University of Michigan. “I just find it so convincing that I’m developing a whole research program around it.” Those who lack a strong spirit or purpose are at least twice as likely to die between the study conducted the years of 2006 through 2010, comparing those studies with the studies of participants who claim they have a life with a purpose. This relationship between a low level of purpose in life and fatality has remained accurate despite how wealthy or how poor participators are, and regardless of their sex, ethnicity, or educational level. The researchers also discovered the relationship to be so powerful that knowing and having a life purpose seemed to be more significant for lowering the risk of death than drinking, smoking, or exercising regularly. 

“Just like people have basic physical needs, like to sleep and eat and drink, they have basic psychological needs,” Alan Rozanski, a professor at the Icahn School of Medicine at Mount Sinai

The study conducted adds to a small but growing body of literature on the relationship between life purpose and physical health. Rozanski published a 2016 paper in the journal Psychosomatic Medicine, He used data from 10 different studies to prove that strong knowledge of life purpose was correlated to lower risk of death and cardiovascular events, such as heart attacks or stroke. The researchers for the new JAMA Current Open study pulled data from a bombastic study of senior American adults called the Health and Retirement Study. The study participants were asked a diverse range of questions on matters such as monetary resources, physical wellness, and home life. 

A subset of study participants filled out psychological questionnaires, including a study named the Psychological Wellbeing Scale, in 2006. This included questions specifically intended to interpret how significant a person’s feeling of their life purpose is. The questionnaire asked them to rate their answer to questions such as, “Some people wander through life, but I am not one of them.” The study research authors used participants’ answers to provide evidence of how strong their degree of life purpose was. The research authors then deligate information on participants’ physical wellbeing as of 2010, including whether or not participants died, was studied, and what the cause of their death was. 

“What matters, Is not exactly what a person’s life purpose is, but that they have one. For some, it might be raising children. For others, it might be doing Veterinary work, wherever your life fulfillment comes from can be very personal and individualistic to oneself.” Researchers state.

The study’s lead author, Aliya Alimujiang, who is a doctoral student in epidemiology at the University of Michigan, says she got involved in the study because of a personal interest in meditation, mindfulness, forgiveness, and wellness. Before she started graduate school, Alimujiang worked as a volunteer ai at a breast cancer clinic and says she was stricken by how the patients could easily articulate how they found substance in their life and how they seemed to be doing better than before they figured it out. That goes through experience helped her specify part of her living purpose: researching the life purpose phenomenon. “I had a close relationship with breast cancer inpatients. I saw the scared looks and anxiety and depression they had underneath their promising smiles,” Alimujiang says. “That helped me to apply for school. That’s how I started my career.” 

“While the link between life purpose and physical well-being seems strong, more research is needed to explore the physiological connection between the two, like whether having a low life purpose is connected to high levels of stress hormones. She also hopes to study public health strategies — like types of therapy or educational tools — that might help people develop a strong sense of their life’s work. What I’m struck by is the strength of our findings, as well as the consistency in the literature overall, it appears quite convincing” A researcher on the subject states

Bibliography 

13 Ways Living with Purpose Makes You Happier and More Fulfilled. (1970). Retrieved on September 28, 2020, from https://www.lifehack.org/814085/living-with-purpose. 

7 Strange Questions That Help You Find Your Life Purpose | Mark …. (1970). Retrieved on September 28, 2020, from https://markmanson.net/life-purpose. 

Having a Purpose In Life May Lessen The Risk Of Early Death …. (1970). Retrieved on September 28, 2020, from https://www.npr.org/sections/health-shots/2019/05/25/726695968/whats-your-purpose-finding-a-sense-of-meaning-in-life-is-linked-to-health. 

Life Purpose: 10 Tips to Learn How to Find Your Passion | Jack …. (1970). Retrieved on September 28, 2020, from https://www.jackcanfield.com/blog/finding-life-purpose/. 

Amandine S’iita. (1970). Living a Life of Purpose is the Key for Well. Retrieved on September 28, 2020, from https://medium.com/the-ascent/living-a-life-of-purpose-is-the-key-for-well-being-happiness-and-success-1bb1f3b13322. 

Thomas Oppong. (1970). The Dangerous Approach of Living Without Purpose | by Thomas …. Retrieved on September 28, 2020, from https://medium.com/personal-growth/the-dangerous-approach-of-living-without-purpose-798a87c5d3a6. 

Jay Shetty

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