I love what Emily Esfahani Smith says. She is someone I can always count on, much like Brené Brown, to speak very authentically, with a powerful, conscious heart. Emily Esfahani Smith is a researcher and author. The findings that she speaks about are much of what I have noticed in my own explorations and trials and tribulations of experiencing meaning in life. I am grateful also for the interviewer who goes in rapid pace to ensure that Emily covers a lot of ground in useful depth of her knowledge in this area. I truly hope you enjoy this amazing interview.
Tag: purpose
I ran into this very nice talk, and included some great quotes below:
“…for a life to be meaningful, you cant keep looking at the life. You have to see how that life is placed in larger, broader context.”
“…a life that is rich in happiness and rich in meaning….theologian Frederick Buechner I think would label that: finding your calling.”
“Your calling, Buechner says, is that place where your deep gladness, and the world’s deep hunger, meets. Your deep gladness is about you, about what makes you engaged and alive.”
“Finding your calling is discovering what it is that makes you feel alive. And then taking those gifts and skills and moving them out into the world to feed the world’s hunger.”
“…the tension we feel between what we want and what the world needs, is in fact something we don’t want to eliminate, but instead we want to encourage and cultivate.”
“When the world pushes and presses and prods and occasionally pummels you, it is in those moments that you can begin to imagine something different. You need the world and all its adversity, just as desperately as the world needs you.”
“To lead a happy and meaningful life, is to understand the tension that exists between what we want and what the world needs, and to recognize that tension as the gift that it is.”
-Mark HĂ©bert
“Happiness comes and goes. But when life is really good and when things are really bad, having meaning gives you something to hold on to.”
Emily Esfahani Smith
Sow seeds abundantly
Here is another excerpt from Spark The Flame, as it is currently evolving:
Faith converts adversity into harmony. Faith is the trust that when you aim to do the right thing in thought and action, Life evolves well for you. Faith is the heart muscle of your spiritual core. This muscle is especially exercised when you encounter adversity. Based on your perception, things are either in the process of working out for you or they are not. When you hold the premise that things are working out for you no matter what is occurring in your Life, and you do all you can to aid that premise in thought and action, this is a faith that converts adversity into harmony. Sometimes it works transparently, sometimes very mysteriously; but given time, faith always proves itself. Always.
The effort to recover from adversity and mistakes brings you growth and elicits assistance from Life. Challenges will occur all your life, they serve as a way to grow. If you are not growing, you are dying. For humans, stagnation devolves into decay. There are always ways to grow and you must always exercise this effort. Sincere effort opens further paths to progress.
Mistakes are part of Life and must be forgiven. You must forgive yourself. You must forgive others. You can always change your course and recover; this is human blessing.
Regardless of how it appears from this vantage point, there is a great harmony to everything in existence. Somehow there is benefit to this: what is happening now. If you aim to do right, something good has to come of it. It must by universal law.
Doing the right thing means playing your harmonious part. You are a piece of the puzzle that is the Whole. When you live abiding by the uniqueness of your core, your particular piece of the puzzle, you are being authentic.
Authenticity is the special way you will create change. It is a special way that you find meaning. When you are not trying to fit in as some other piece of the puzzle, but rather unleashing the freedom of expression that flows between your core and the rest of the world, you are running a divine plan imprinted in your Soul. This gives you relief, inspiration and empowerment. Authenticity will unlock your passion, unbridled divine energy that flows to you and through you because you have aligned so well with the greater harmony. You are literally living the part you were made for. The world needs your authenticity, and all are blessed when you embrace it.
For true authenticity you must forgive and accept yourself. The more you can forgive and accept yourself, the more you can forgive and accept others. Remember, Life has already forgiven and accepted you, always. This is healing. This is necessary for humanity to survive.
The following is a quoted âloving kindness meditationâ:
If anyone has hurt me or harmed me knowingly or unknowingly in thought, word or deed, I freely forgive them.
And I too ask forgiveness if I have hurt anyone or harmed anyone knowingly or unknowingly in thought, word or deed.
Everyone Has Their Own Path
Everyone has their own Path
With not much to say this moment, I want to express that making good the things of this world is on my mind; I believe every person can be fulfilled.
Things are meant to change. People are meant to change. Growth is change and so is death. When something outlives its usefulness and purpose, it must go. Empires lasting hundreds of years eventually fallen. Languages and cultures and lifestyles have gone so that new ones may arise. Change is a part of life, and humans are agents of that change. Over millennia we’ve affected and changed the outcomes of countless species of plants and animals, and terrain. Dinosaurs roamed the Earth for millions of years, millions! By comparison it’s estimated homo sapiens have been around for 200,000. Now the dinosaurs are gone.
Things change, people change. You cannot prevent yourself from affecting and changing the world. Just by living, you affect the entire planet
Your power is the power of growth and change. You embody the agent of change, if you were to but direct it on to your ambition, change occurs with every single step. And when your path converges on others with the same ambition with same direction of change, the results are amplified manyfold. Things canot remain the same so long as you are discontent. Change is your right, your nature, your duty.
Any way you cut it, you are on a journey. And you are the only one who can decide what this journey will entail. This is similar to the journey of a role playing game, except the game exists in a world of limitation, and you do not.
Our world is without limitation, without boundary, and is awaiting your commands. You have the choices; the power and the duty to create change. You are living an entire lifetime of experiences exclusive to you. You are the Captain, you are in control. Now you decide…what’s next?