In the last couple of years, I have been reflecting on my purpose and why I am here (as in, on this Earth) with some regularity. I don’t know if it’s because now that I am 40 and truly mid-life (remember all that Over the Hill shit from the 90s?), I am just recalibrating and making sure that the direction I am headed in is the one I WANT to be headed in OR if it’s because it kind of feels like we are on the highway to hell as a Planet…But I just know this:

If we don’t know why we are here and we don’t feel connected to a purpose that is greater than the sum of all the mundane tasks of everyday life - I suspect we would go crazy. I have recently found myself wondering if that may be what some of these mass shootings are about - lack of purpose + emotional dysregulation + easy access to weapons of mass destruction. And while there are a lot of angles we could take to address this uniquely American problem, today I want to talk about the importance of purpose in our lives. Because while I am no expert on laws or guns - I do know a lot about purpose and the vital role it plays in our well-being & understanding of ourselves.

One of the gifts of my career as an Occupational Therapist has been the perspective it has given me on my own life. When you walk alongside other people through some of the worst & most challenging moments of their life, it feels a lot more difficult to bitch about traffic or my favorite sports team losing - ya know? When you have the gift of perspective, you just don’t sweat the small stuff. And honestly THAT is my secret sauce…that is my gift. My perspective as a highly sensitive empath with ADHD & Anxiety who has worked with thousands of humans in crisis….my gift is…being me. Bringing and sharing my perspective.

My purpose is to BE ME.

All of me.

Authentically me.

And I am still discovering who that is each and every day that I am given the gift of waking up for another chance to learn. Another chance to meet myself where I am at with curiosity & compassion.

I also believe your life’s purpose is to be YOU - fully expressed.

ALL parts of you.

The shiny parts, the dark corners, the brilliant colors, and even the dusty cobwebs, too.

I think one of the reasons so many of us are hurting in this country, and in this world, is because we feel fractured. We have had to leave behind or reject parts of ourselves that feel more difficult to proudly claim and embody - especially if we come from marginalized communities (LGBTQIA+, BIPOC, Religiously persecuted groups, etc…) or we simply were not taught how to do this or that it is even possible! Many of us also have to act one way at work, and another way at home and another way with these friends and another way with those friends. This dissection of ourselves into manageable parts is simply NOT sustainable.

We ARE whole beings. And we need to be able to bring our WHOLE selves into all the spaces and places that we frequent and embody.

A big part of the work I do with my coaching clients is exploring the ways in which they have abandoned or rejected parts of themselves that are calling for their attention and integration. Sometimes this urgent calling occurs through reaching burnout. Sometimes it’s through experiencing a new ailment or receiving a new diagnosis. This urgent calling for change could even simply be rooted in just getting fed up with the status quo and desiring something different. When we re-member who we actually are and we courageously reclaim all the abandoned & forgotten parts of ourselves, we stand in our power.

We stand in our purpose: to be ourselves.

Purpose is power.

I believe your purpose here is to be FULLY YOU.

And once you start to do this, you will stand in your power.

The real question is: Are you courageous enough to live the life you were created to live?

In my purpose,

Sondra