Fast Action as a Path to Purpose
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[00:00:00] I don't know about you, but I honestly think that burnout breakdown and breakups bring you back to you in a way that nothing else does, but how exactly do you turn that suffering into self-discovery? How do you replace? What's not aligned with what is and do it as quickly as possible. Welcome back to the purpose map podcast here to help you lead your life toward greater inner fulfillment and more aligned success.
Hi, it's Casey here on your host and the founder of where the end. Well, and I'm so delighted to be back with you today. We, little morning, I'm feeling a little bit feisty, so that may or may not come out in this. Just thought I'd give you the little heads up before we go any further. Have you yet claimed your ultimate guide to inner fulfillment and aligned success?
It's a mini training I created to compliment this podcast. You can find [00:01:00] [email protected] forward slash ultimate. Okay. Remember, in the first episode where I shared with you that sometimes slowing down, finding stillness and creating space to introspect is what you need to realign and discover your purpose.
Well, sometimes it's absolutely not what you need. Sometimes action and fast action. This episode is for you, especially if you've already done a lot of healing and, or have been on a self discovery journey for quite some time. You know, I think a lot of my friends, a lot of my clients have been into personal growth.
Years decades, even. They're pretty aware, conscientious people, and it's like, we need different things at different parts of our journey. So today what I'm going to share with you, I think it's, especially for you, if you've been sort of doing the inner work for a while, [00:02:00] If you've watched my Ted talk, um, the TEDx talk, let your body lead.
You have already learned that. According to my yoga teacher, Yogi , there are really only two sensations, expansion and contraction, and you would have already learned too, that expansion is your true nature. It's who you really are according to , but you know, I think he's a pretty wise human and, uh, I kinda think this is.
You also would have learned that it can be very important to learn how to be with contraction. Like the whole point of my Ted talk was about how we can create more acceptance, compassion, and love in the world by learning how to be with discomfort and holding space for that discomfort in ourselves so that we can hold space for that discomfort in other people as.
So, yeah, it was so much about being with contraction and receiving wisdom from that discomfort. You know, [00:03:00] sometimes it's bullshit advice, especially for highly aware, conscientious humans. Who've been focused on personal development for a long time, especially for you. If you already know how to sit with pain and discomfort, in fact, Especially if you sit there for far too long, AKA you suffer unnecessary.
So, yes, burnout, breakups breakdowns, bring you back to you in a way that nothing else does, but what if we could move along our self discovery path without such intense suffering, like without having to wait until we get to the point of burnout or to be, get to the point of like a tremendous breakdown or job loss or break up, you know what I mean?
Um, May I just bluntly share with you what I've been thinking about a lot these days.
Okay. I'm just, I'm just going to say it. I feel like I should filter myself. Um, [00:04:00] sometimes you just gotta get the fuck out, period. Yeah. Out of that relationship out of that job, out of that situation that is like negatively impacting your mental health. Sometimes it's not about like hanging around there to see if there's more that you can learn from it or grow from it.
You just kind of get out. Okay. There. I said it.
What if you could nip contraction in the bud sooner rather than later? Like, what, if you could act quickly to return to your expansive true nature, rather than staying so long in the contraction to the point where you're causing yourself unnecessary suffering. Now, again, this is for a certain person at a certain point along their self-discovery journey.
Um, you know, when we haven't done a lot of inner exploration or we haven't been called to that yet, I think there's. A point where we have to learn not to bypass hard things, not to spiritually bypass, not [00:05:00] to, uh, just avoid discomfort. Like we have to learn how to be with that discomfort and gain wisdom from it.
And it's kind of like once you master that skill, there's a certain, uh, next step that is required. So stay with me here. Let me tell you a story. Maybe a few stories. I'm going to talk about myself first. Um, I struggled with mental health issues at various points in my life, uh, moments where I feel like I wake up depressed and it scares me because that's something that runs in my family.
Where it's like, oh, I don't want to get out of bed this morning. And, and everything feels kind of hard. And when this happens, I'm sort of like, oh my gosh, where did I go? You know, like I'm a pretty joyful, radiant being most of the time. And in these moments where I'm struggling with mental health, I often [00:06:00] feel quite tired as well.
I often, um, you know, need to sleep most afternoons and. It's just like my energy shrinks. It's, it's smaller. And sometimes when I'm in these spaces, I mean, I think it's normal for it to be hard to see that it's not your fault. It's not my fault. I should speak from the. I blame myself in these moments. And I start to get all up in my head and ask these questions, like, why, why do I feel this way?
And it's almost like if that pain wasn't enough, I like shove another dagger in my own heart by judging myself for it. And by sort of turning on myself and, you know, like feeling shame around feeling that lower vibrational energy in the first place.
And I've learned something in recent [00:07:00] years. And that is that sometimes those symptoms aren't actually, because of my lack of being further, along in my journey, like, obviously we know that that's true, but sometimes it's actually, because there's something in my environment that's off or. I'm taking on someone else's energy.
Sometimes this experience for me as an empathic sensitive person actually has very little to do with me. And I mean, you got to live life to learn these bits of wisdom. So I I've definitely had to go through my experiences of feeling like not myself to realize that the cause actually wasn't. Me being flawed.
It was me being in an unhealthy circumstance situation environment. And what I know now is that when I can catch early on that, uh, I'm waking up [00:08:00] not wanting to get out of bed or that my energy is really dropping or I'm feeling way more fatigued when I can catch that early on. What I've learned is I don't have to do.
I keep wondering what the hell I should do about it. It usually indicates that something outside of me is off. And this I'm speaking from the eye because I know that this can be very different for other people in that like mental illness is real and different people need different things. Um, and I fully support you getting the support that you need if you're struggling with mental illness.
And for me, Usually it indicates that something in my environment is off. Uh, when I track back to when these moments show up, it's usually when I'm consistently having someone else in my space and there's like an absorption of energy or I'm engaging in an unhealthy. Relationship in some way. And so instead of turning on [00:09:00] myself and instead of blaming myself for feeling the way that I do, it's actually a little triggered to ask myself, What do you need to change in your environment and what do you need to do ASAP?
Because you deserve to feel expensive. Expansion is your true nature. So my work now is not letting myself stay in the contraction for very long and actually acting quickly. The minute that I notice that sort of depressive energy come in and that fatigue set in. You see what I'm saying? I also think about a client of mine who is hustling to do everything that she can do in her own business.
You know, she's, she's created her offers. She has posted on social media every day. She's followed what she thinks she should do. What conventional wisdom tells us we should do and is struggling for like money to come in or abundance come in and [00:10:00] feeling like, like, what am I doing wrong? What am I doing wrong?
And yet continues to kind of push through and stay doing the same behaviors sitting with the situation. Um, you know, almost creating too much time for stillness instead of acting in a different direction and maybe acting in a non-conventional way, um, for this particular client that I'm thinking of. She constantly tells me, uh, how she resents social media or feels like, oh, I just have to do this one more time.
And it's like, of course that energy is being transmitted through that space. What if you did something opposite? What if the minute you notice the contraction, when you're showing up on Instagram, you decide to go off of Instagram or you decide to like call someone instead of post there's 1,000,001 ways to run a business.
And what if you got to choose [00:11:00] the expensive. Not the thing that everyone else is doing because frankly what's normal is a little bit fact sometimes. Ooh, the feisty energy is per resident. Another person I'm thinking of actually a friend of mine, a couple of friends of mine, actually a couple of clients of mine too.
Are in these relationships that feel really hard, where they feel like they're doing a lot of work, a lot of introspection, it's quite a roller coaster. It feels like, oh my God. But, but what if it's me, like, what if I have more to do mixed in with blaming the other person? And it's kind of like, if more often than not, you're feeling contraction in your relationship, maybe it's just not a lot.
Like, maybe it's not any one person's fault. Uh, but maybe it's not aligned. And maybe you have permission to exit that relationship [00:12:00] sooner rather than later. Uh, to be honest, I've worked with a lot of people over the years and, and I've been in this circumstance myself. So I have so much compassion, even though I've got this feisty tone today.
It's like, I am all these people that I'm speaking of, like I've been there. Um, But so often I just witness friends who it's like, they lose their magnetism and their light fades away and they become a shell. And these are like highly conscious people devoted to spiritual development, personal development who become a shell of a human in a relationship because they think that they have more work to do within it.
What if early on. You just said, Nope, this isn't it. And moved on to something else that feels more expensive. So again, there's a time and a place for being with the contraction [00:13:00] and sitting there and really learning what wisdom that discomfort has for you. And I think when you get further along your journey, the practice is how can I feel worthy enough and choose myself enough to go in a different direction, you know?
And of course that's hard. Like choosing something different for your mental health, choosing the non-conventional approach to running a business, choosing to leave a partner is hard. There's difficulties that come with that. And my guess is that once you finally make that decision, especially if you've been feeling the discomfort and contraction for too long, your expansion will return.
Now this whole series is about alignment and purpose and contribution. And what I know to be true is when you live in expansion more, when you live in expansion more, you're living in alignment with your true nature. And when you're living in alignment with your true [00:14:00] nature, your authenticity, what you need to do from that place, AKA your purpose becomes clear faster.
So this is how this connects. If it's not working, if you're feeling so much contraction so much of the time, there's a reason why, and you don't have to turn yourself inside, out and upside down to discover it. Struggle. Discomfort contraction in the body is a great teacher. And if you show up to your life with awareness and the capacity to honor yourself enough to listen, you can find purpose by going in a direction that's different from the discomfort, because expansion is your true name.
Sometimes it's not staying and stillness and suffering that you need it's action and experimentation in a different direction. So often I'll hear from people, but like, I don't know what I want instead. And if that other thing isn't right there, I'm not going to let go of, what's not serving me first.[00:15:00]
Here's another pathway to purpose, getting into action and trying things. Oh, my goodness. You know, I recently read the book, designing your life and forgetting the authors right now, but they talk about applying design thinking to your life. And design thinking is often used in the business world. I mean, obviously designers use design thinking, but it's really about.
Trying out different things, rapid prototyping. And what if you just started trying different things and seeing if they made you feel expensive or constrictive in that book, they talk about, um, I'm thinking about one practice where you track the different tasks that you do, and you rate them according to the level of engagement that you experienced with that task.
And then also the level of energy that you feel. While doing that task or after doing that task. And to me, [00:16:00] that's kind of similar to tracking whether something makes you feel expensive or constrictive. And this is an approach to purpose that is kind of like, I think like a breadcrumb approach, you know, uh, in episode one, I talked about a moment in an embodied practice in meditation where it felt like this direct download came in and everything changed all at once in this big dramatic way.
That's not for everyone. Most of us, I would say probably for most of you, it's more like going through life and showing up moment to moment and experimenting with what feels good and what doesn't. When I was feeling off my path, um, earlier in the middle of the COVID 19 pandemic, I. On new year's Eve.
Actually, I strapped on my figure skates and I went for escape on the ice and I was all alone. Nobody else was out there as an outdoor rink that was [00:17:00] in a park. I love, but there'd never been ice in this park before. And I put my earbuds in, played some music and I just like skated on the ice. And I had no idea that it was going to bring me so much delight and joy.
It was something that I did as a kid. And, and that experiment led to me, coaching a couple people in figure skating led to me skating three times a week for the first time in the last 15 years. And that expansion that. On the ice through skating, translated to expansion in my work and feeling more on purpose in my work.
So little ways that you can create expansion and little ways, like when you can catch early that something just doesn't feel quite right for you. And you can choose yourself and go in a different direction. That is a pathway to purpose. That will guide you closer to who you are and what you're here for.[00:18:00]
Just a few of my thoughts these days, you know, I'm never, ever attached to being right. And I think that there are so many different truths that can co-exist at once, but rather I hope that my shares make you think, feel, respond in a way that serves you always, always I'm about helping you to let your body lead.
Um, but, and also this is my podcast that I'm hosting. And so why not share a couple of points of view, you know,
If you'd like a more integrative understanding of how you can transform struggle into self discovery. Please head to let your body lead.com forward slash ultimate guide for your ultimate guide to interfere fillment and aligned success. This is a mini training that I've created to compliment this podcast and support you on your journey toward feeling worthy and well aligned.
Well nourished well loved and well paid. Thank [00:19:00] you so, so much for listening, always. I'm so curious to hear what you thought of this episode. Um, and if you like what you're hearing so far in this first set, uh, this launch series, please do rate and review the purpose map podcasts so that we can get in front of and serve more people.
I so appreciate you being here and I can't wait to talk with you soon. Take really good care.
