KAJAMA.COM NEWSLETTER

by Kris Franken

(Article originally published in The Llewellyn Journal.)

Your purpose is so much more than your career or job; it's the way you are in the world, your natural state of being. The way you feel called to do certain types of work, collaborate with particular individuals, serve humanity, and inspire those around you is all an intuitive part of who you that you can access anytime.

Here are 11 ways to intuitively discover the purpose written in the light of your Soul.

1. Follow Your Joy
   Your Soul has come into your body in this life with a natural inclination for joy. Bliss is your natural state; when you follow what lifts your vibration into the realms of bliss and joy, you can be sure that you are listening to the pull of your purpose.Your purpose and career aren't meant to be draining or demanding; they're intended to be uplifting and fulfilling. And although there will be periods that challenge you along the way, when you're feeling satisfyingly deep joy from service and sharing your gifts, you know that you've been trusting the divine process and following your heart.
2. Listen to Love
   If you're not sure of your talents and gifts, listen to love. Love is the voice of your intuition that is aligned with the highest expression of your Soul. Love will show you how you best serve, help, create, transform, collaborate, and inspire.How do you love others? Perhaps it's through a long hug, kind words, compassionate energy, a watercolour painting, cooking a scrumptious meal, writing a poem, or practical, everyday ways. The way you love others is a reflection of how you serve the world and it matters. The world needs you to make mindful waves with an open and generous heart.
3. Sit in Stillness
   The blueprint that's etched into the fabric of your Soul cannot be felt or heard if you're rushing, hustling, or busy all the time. Make time for stillness. Create space for the wise whispers of your heart to guide you each day.This purposeful blueprint is a continuation of all your incarnations; you have been building on your talents for lifetimes! Your intuition has so much to share with you, but it doesn't use words, so it can't compete with the chaos of a cluttered mind. In stillness, you'll feel the knowing that's always present, always loving, always nudging you toward greatness.
4. Expect Miracles
   Miracles are unexpected consequences of living aligned with the flow of your own lifeforce. Your breath and interconnected spirit are connected to the One Spirit, and as you feel this and allow it to guide your life intuitively, miracles will happen at every turn.Your purpose will unfold miraculously if you give up judgments and expectations around what it should look like or what you think you must be doing. The more you hold onto specific desires that leave no room for the fullest expression of your highest purpose, the smaller the field you have to play in.
   Miracles yearn for space. Let go of your pre-planned life and open up to all that is meant for you. Let life surprise and delight you.
5. Learn How You Help
   Consider for a moment what your gift is to your community. What do others ask you for? How do you help others in a way that feels relatively easy, humbly fulfilling, and energetically abundant? The way you help others is a portal to knowing your purpose on a deep level.We all have natural gifts—our own sweet medicine—that feel genuine and freely available. These gifts have been curated and crafted by our Souls over many, many lifetimes to help others—and us—into the highest version of ourselves.
6. Show Up
   Knowing about your gifts is a blessing for you, showing up and putting them to good use is a blessing for humanity. The love, joy, peace, and service in our being will multiply when we give it to others unconditionally.Showing up isn't about hustling or marketing yourself in any way that feels uncomfortable or misaligned. It's about being available to intuitively serve in any way the Divine calls on you through those in your grassroots and/or online communities. The more you love and heal yourself, the more you surrender to the wise intuition within you, and the more you trust in the path of your Soul, the more joyfully available you will be to all those who need you.

   Each time you show up, expect an energy exchange that speaks of abundance in all areas of your life. Believe that you will always be taken care of, financially and otherwise, for that's exactly what the cosmos wishes for you, too.

7. Dance with Life
   If you're working relentlessly, expecting your diligence to provide you with an abundance of rewards, you're more likely to become burnt out than richly satisfied. While you absolutely need to show up, you also need to rest up. Have a dance break, take a trip to the markets, catch up with friends, tend to your garden, and otherwise surrender deeply enough to receive fully from the universe.If you're giving all the time, there's no space to receive. Time away from your computer or workspace will also amplify your creativity and provides the ultimate opening for insight—new and aligned inspiration—to find you.
8. Revel in Your Uniqueness
   There is no one else on earth with the same harmonious fusion of talents, gifts, wisdom, karma, and medicine. There is literally no one in the history of humankind who's got what you've got. Revel in your own kind of magic. Explore and express it, love and care for it. Learn to be inspired by others without following them on their path.This journey you're here to traverse is exclusively yours. Your uniqueness is what draws people to you. Bring your quirks to life in every way that your heart and Soul desire.
9. Expect Challenges
   The challenges you hold within yourself that have not been healed and released will show up in your life externally until you heal them. If you are dealing with self-judgment, you will feel the judgments of others until you make peace with yourself. If you feel unworthy, you will attract others who magnify this unworthy state of being until you feel completely worthy of all the abundance in the world.Welcome the challenges in your life as a gift for you to grow, heal trauma and karma, find yourself, and come home to the greatest version of you.
10. Learn to Pivot
    There are no mistakes or failure in discovering your purpose, only pivots. We all need to pivot when we come across an unexpected roadblock, be it the fallen branch of "failure," heavy clouds of confusion, or the prickly discomfort of someone else’s judgment or opinion.Roadblocks are not a sign you did something "wrong;" they are simply the universe's way of escorting you onto another path that is more aligned with your Soul. Learn to pivot in faith and grace onto a new way. Bless the blocks, embrace the ruins, hold your chin up, look to the stars, and begin again.
11. Trust the Process
    Without trust you may find it difficult to move forward. When self-doubt sneaks into your mind, come back to your heart. Your heart knows and loves all. Through your heartspace you have access to the eternal wisdom of your Soul and Highest Self.Trust that your Highest Self will always have your best interests at heart and that you can count on this expansive part of you to guide you toward the most exciting and blissful path. With deeper trust, your intuition will be clearer to recognize.

You hold the keys to your future and the gold of your gifts. Go within and trust what you intuitively feel to be the next step for you.

If you'd like to explore your intuition, instinct, and insight more deeply, you will find an abundance of spiritual rituals, scientific exploration, journal prompts, and much more in my book, The Call of Intuition: Learn to Recognize and Honor Your Intuition, Instinct and Insight.

Article originally published in The Llewellyn Journal. Copyright Llewellyn Worldwide, 2020. All rights reserved.

I have a hypothetical question for you. If a person was suffering because everything in their life had become emotionally unbearable and their future seemed hopeless and devoid of happiness and opportunity, would they be condemned to suffer in the afterlife if they chose to check out before their time?

A.

Susyn:

Suicide is a permanent solution to a temporary problem, so it's important to note that.

Contrary to most religious ideas about suicide, I feel there are no accidents in the Universe. If a person chooses to take their life for whatever reason, a greater plan must be unfolding. Though I personally do not believe in making such a choice, there are all sorts of positions I have never been in.

I know people who have attempted suicide unsuccessfully when things looked hopeless for them. Months or years later, they are all grateful that they failed. Life is an ever-evolving process; no matter how grim life may seem at one point, it invariably improves.

I have also known people who appeared to have taken their own life accidentally or who perhaps changed their mind at the last minute after it was too late. Then there are carefully planned out, deliberate suicides. In those cases where the suicide attempt was successful, the transition into the spirit world seems to be similar to other death experiences.

When someone is considering suicide, it' usually because some aspect of their life is not working. For example, they may feel lonely or abused, or they may be suffering from money troubles, a broken heart, or a life-threatening illness. Committing suicide might eliminate the financial or health issues they are facing, but the emotional aspects of their depression will carry over into the afterlife.

When a loved one dies naturally or according to fate, everyone involved is touched with deep sadness and a sense of loss, including the person who has crossed over. The same of course holds true for those who choose to take their own lives.

The feeling of being in heaven or hell can occur whether we have left this world or not. As one of my favorite sayings goes, Religion is for people who are afraid of going to hell; spirituality is for those who have already been there. When someone feels desperate enough to take their own life, they are experiencing a type of hell. Since hell can be experienced here as well as beyond, changing states is clearly not the answer.

I do not believe that a person who chooses to take their own life suffers extra pain, though I do believe that we take our troubles with us to the other side, where we continue to work on them. Because working through these issues is easier to do on the earth plane, I encourage people to remember that suicide is not a way to escape life's troubles. No matter what struggles one is walking through, there are higher spiritual purposes and gifts hidden in the process. If we choose to check out early, we will miss the opportunities the Universe has in store for us next.

*****

Oceania:

The fact that you're asking about suicide suggests that it's on your mind. If you personally feel suicidal, I urge you to seek medical attention immediately. If you are asking on behalf of a loved one, then please encourage them to do so.

If you or your loved one are not ready to seek in-person help, call the Suicide Hotline at 1-800-273-TALK (8255) or visit www.suicidepreventionlifeline.org for more information. You can self-soothe in the moment with a butterfly hug: Hug yourself and alternately squeeze your upper arms in a gentle rhythm while envisioning a safe place and affirming that all is well in this instant of time.

Thoughts of suicide are a symptom of depression, which can be treated with medication and psychotherapy. This is why suicide is called a permanent solution to a temporary problem. Depression is like looking out a dirty window and mistakenly believing the world to be dark. Seeking help washes the window.

As a therapist, I regularly witness extreme suffering, and there have been times when I personally wished to exit a world that seemed so cruel. What kept me here was the thought that by staying alive, I could do some good. As poet Emily Dickinson wrote, If I can stop one heart from breaking, I shall not live in vain.

I believe in a benevolent higher power, so I don't think anyone is condemned to suffer in the afterlife for any reason. However, those who drop out of Learning to Endure Suffering class (Life-On-Earth 101) may have to repeat it.

People consider suicide because they don't think they can endure suffering, but it can be endured by feeling it consciously and expressing it to a loving listener. Suffering gets easier with practice; enduring difficulties makes us stronger and raises our self-esteem.

Suicide is something you can always do LATER. By postponing it, you grant yourself time to learn new coping mechanisms. Unexpected solutions can appear if we stay open to possibilities and humbly ask for help.

Cognitive Therapy, in which irrational thoughts are challenged, is the most effective type of therapy for depression. Dr. David Burns wrote a book about it called Feeling Good. Examples of distorted thoughts are overgeneralization (seeing a single occurrence as a pattern,) mental filters (dwelling on a negative detail while ignoring positives), and catastrophizing (exaggerating the significance of an event).

I remind suicidal people that they WILL die eventually; death IS on the way! Remembering our mortality can provide relief and give us permission to make the most of our temporary visit to Earth.

Astrea:

Many times in life we hear, "You will always have what you NEED, but not necessarily what you WANT." Your spirit must have needed to experience the feeling of leaving your human body, and the suggestion in the next chapter of Sylvia Brown's book was all it took to get you there.

Even though you hadn't read it yet, your SOUL recognized the title of that chapter as something it had been seeking, and your soul, knowing that you had that reference to read after your experience, got with it and out you went!

While I don't usually recommend her books, Sylvia Brown has a wide reaching and powerful effect on lots of people. A Gemini like you would be able to relate easily to her writing and put it to good use. Synchronicity - you gotta love it!

I like your description of "getting caught." That's exactly what it feels like, isn't it? One minute you're free and hovering above the room, and the next minute, ZAP! back down into your corporeal form you go!

As a little kid, I loved that "feeling of return." With practice, most of the time we can control that event, but sometimes, when our physical ears hear a distracting noise or something else occurs to knock us back into reality, back we go. With practice you will be able to control your return better.

I find it interesting that you were visiting your mother-in-law and not someone in your own genetic family. Evidently, you and your husband got married for reasons that are even deeper than love. His family's interest in "psychic stuff" will nurture your children in such matters and help them to grow into their own abilities.

You'll never have to be concerned that when your daughter visits them, she'll be discouraged from exploring her own psychic life and power. My parents encouraged me to develop my psychic senses in a time when it wasn't nice to even discuss such things in public. Heck, it's STILL not considered a great topic at the dinner table in some families!

Your kids will get to talk about it ALL and ask questions and read and study. This is going to give them such an edge in life! Talk with your husband about how you want to present this to your kiddos, so that you are united in your approach and ready to tell them their experiences are all natural and okay.

A word or two of warning: Geminis often have difficulty staying grounded in REAL LIFE. Don't get so strung out on your ASTRAL life that you neglect what you're doing here on Earth.

You are at the beginning of a long journey to learn where your power really lies. Try to be patient with this process and take your time.