Great Health In Tough Times

The Power of Purpose, Part 4, Human Being or Human Doing?

We have just considered how the superstition of materialism can be an obstacle to the discovery of purpose. It is now time to look at another major obstacle, related to the superstition of materialism. This obstacle is our tendency to see ourselves as human doings rather than human beings. This tendency causes us to value ourselves mainly according to the results that we get in areas that can be perceived by the five senses. Money and possessions are major ways by which we evaluate ourselves.

This is not to say that people who are fulfilling their life purpose can't make a lot of money and have magnificent possessions. There are two ways of acquiring wealth and possessions: one is by making that one's life purpose. The other is by finding one's true purpose and in the process of fulfilling that purpose, the wealth and possessions appear as a byproduct. One's experience of the assets, I believe, is radically different depending on the route by which one attains the assets. For some years I have been interested in deathbed statements. I've read quite a few and I've been with a few people when their bodies died. I have yet to hear or read about anyone's final statement being, "I regret that I didn't make more money and acquire more possessions." My favorite deathbed statement was from Henry David Thoreau when his aunt came to visit him when he was on his deathbed. She said, "Henry, have you made your peace with God?" His reply, "We never quarreled."

Considering oneself a human doing can be an obstacle to discovering and fulfilling purpose because that purpose may not be doing any particular activity but rather manifesting some quality in one's life. For example, one may be in this existence to develop and manifest the quality of wisdom or unconditional love or creativity or authenticity, to mention a few. There is a system of thought called the Enneagram that includes the concept that we human beings are in life in order to develop and manifest one of the nine qualities of the Divine.

If you enlarge the scope of your investigation into your life purpose by including who you are here to become rather than just what you are here to do, you may find this remarkably liberating and empowering. You may even find that how you be, that is, what quality you manifest in your life, is really more important than what you do to manifest that quality. There will probably be several different careers or things you can do in the process of being and becoming the quality you have discovered as your life purpose.

I was glad to hear from one of my readers that she immediately started a journal after reading my previous post in which I recommended doing that. The journaling process is so powerful for attaining clarity that it is worth recommending again.

We will be returning to consider this vitally important aspect of achieving great health but first we need to consider some recent developments in the flu pandemic.

The Power of Purpose: Part 3, Superstition

If you are searching for clarity on your purpose you will probably find at least two major obstacles. The first is what Dr. Deepak Chopra calls, "The superstition of materialism." He points out that we live in a superstitious age. One of our most troublesome superstitions is that unless we can perceive something with our five senses it does not exist and is unworthy of our attention. This leaves out a number of things that may be pertinent to discovering and fulfilling life purpose: things like love, honor, honesty, truth, and compassion. It is easy to see the operation of this superstition, particularly in our economic system, so-called health care system, and political process. Anyone who is not at least beginning to extricate himself or herself from that superstition is likely to have a desperately difficult time discovering, let alone fulfilling, his or her purpose. Both the purpose itself and the action necessary to fulfill it will involve that which cannot be perceived by the five senses, all though the results of action to fulfill purpose certainly can.

How to begin to extricate oneself? If you've been reading this blog for more than one or two posts you have already begun. People fully in the grip of the superstition usually don't take long to find a more superstitious blog. A powerful next move is to set and hold the intent to examine what you think, do, and say for evidence of contamination by the superstition. I don't have to look very far to see evidence of the contamination in my life and actions. The discovery isn't fun but it's worthwhile because it gives me a choice about whether I continue to act in my superstition contaminated way or change my behavior. I happened to value choice very highly, even when I don't like what I feel when I choose to take the action that supports my purpose (like dictating this blog instead of being out in the garden in the cool of the morning). Even though I may not like the effort involved I still cherish having that choice because I love freedom and without choice there is no freedom. Of course, we always have choices but if we're in the grip of the superstition of materialism we won't be able to see some of the most important ones.

Practical suggestion: keep a journal of what you discover day by day as you examine what you think, do, and say for evidence of contamination by this superstition. This need not take more than five minutes a day but you will be amazed at the patterns and the clarity that emerge after a few weeks, or even days, if you reread your entries. You may even gain more clarity while you are writing your entry.

The second major obstacle is our tendency to perceive ourselves as human doings rather than human beings. I intend to address this in my next post. In the meantime, good hunting for the superstition of materialism! If you can find it, you can defeat it--but not easily.

The Power of Purpose: Part 2

 When I was working as the attending psychiatrist on a substance abuse unit, I usually asked new patients if they thought their life had a purpose. Most of them thought so. A few thought not, believing they were in this life due to a contraceptive failure. Of those who felt their life had a purpose, I asked if they knew what that purpose was. All were clueless. A few said they would love to know. Since my job was to do evaluations and prescribe medications, so I did not try to assist those few in a discovery process.

In my private practice I have the freedom and ability to assist people in this discovery process but I don't have many patients who are interested in it. The cultural thought form is still, "Feeling ill? Pop a pill!" With my patients, that usually means a nutritional supplement pill rather than a pharmaceutical pill, but a pill is still a pill. Quite a few of my patients have as a purpose getting their health and their lives back. We often work together quite effectively to accomplish this. When a patient is far along in the process, I am likely to ask, "Now that you have your life back what are you going to do with it?" I was talking with Wanda yesterday. She had gotten her life back by freeing herself from nine debilitating symptoms. She was glowing with health, vibrant with energy, and I could see the happiness in her eyes. She said, "I am going to get my exercise program down a little better and then start doing volunteer work." I suggested that she see if she could find some volunteer work that would put her in contact with people who need to know what she has discovered. Actually, she couldn't throw a rock without hitting somebody who needs to know what she has discovered but I should have added, "... and want to learn how to do it."

If Wanda acts on her intent, her life will probably be a remarkably fulfilling and joyful adventure although it will have pain and major challenges. Watching the people I know who have recovered their health, discovered their purpose, and are taking action daily to fulfill that purpose, reminds me of the proverb, "The path of the just is as the shining light that shineth more and more unto the perfect day." I see others make equally spectacular breakthroughs in regaining their health and then go back to the apparently trivial pursuits from which they sank into ill health. What I consistently see then is that they sink right . Robert is an example of this and I think in my next post I will tell you about Charles, who demonstrates this from a different and more interesting angle.

In the meantime, if you don't know whether or not your life has a purpose, I suggest that you carefully consider that question. If you believe it has a purpose but you don't know what that purpose is, I encourage you to set the intent to gain clarity on it. Setting and holding that intent is an essential and powerful first step. In my next post or two I’ll have some comments on the process of gaining that clarity. If you already have that clarity perhaps it would be good to just check to see if you're taking action every day to fulfill your purpose.

The Power of Purpose

In my most recent blog I said I would discuss the vital deficiency that brought Robert down. I call that deficiency a purpose deficiency. Robert had no clear purpose in his life beyond improving his golf game; when crunch time came, that wasn't purpose enough.

Many careful observers have noticed for a long time that there is a strong correlation between one's awareness of and action to fulfill one's life purpose and the state of one's health. One such careful observer was Viktor Frankl, who survived three years in Nazi concentration camps largely because of his powerful dedication to his purpose of serving his fellow inmates and his great courage. After his liberation from the concentration camp, he resumed his medical practice as a psychiatrist and wrote his book, Man's Search for Meaning.

I knew, years ago, when I read his book, that he was right. I tried to use logotherapy, the psychotherapy system he developed, in my psychiatric practice but it was countercultural at the time. When I recommended the process to patients the response was something like, "What's this noise about logotherapy? Doc, I'm feeling ill; that means I need a pill--not a purpose." So my logotherapy initiative went nowhere in the 70s. A quarter century has now passed and I am finding more people, though still not a lot, who have some awareness that purpose does matter and they have either found theirs or are searching for it. These are the people who have the best chance of achieving great health.

Why is knowing and fulfilling one's life purpose one of the three essentials for great health? Dr. Jonathan Wright, in his preface to our book, Healthspan, wrote, "What is good health for? If we don't know the answer to this question, then we are not as likely to achieve the good health we are looking for. Like the dog forever chasing the car, we wouldn't know what to do with it if we ever to catch it! As Dr. Freud (who is correct occasionally) would have told us, the subconscious mind knows if we've truly answered "What is good health for?" and if we haven't it may not help us or even hinder us on the road to the good health the conscious mind desires.

"If there's no reason to live to 100 years or more we probably won't! Diet, physical conditioning, meditation, and all of the multiple aspects of holistic health are literally "empty exercises" without a purpose."

Friedrich Nietzsche said it very well: "If you have a why, you can make do with almost any how." Perhaps you can see how that could contribute to achieving great health in tough times.

I intend for the next post to be about how to discover one's life purpose, if one does not already know it, and the importance of taking daily action to fulfill that purpose if one does already know it.