Discovering The Higher Purpose-Why is this happening?

Purpose acts as a powerful guide and motivator when facing health challenges.

While nutrition and physical activity levels play important roles in our well-being, our spiritual health significantly impacts our quality of life, too. Connecting to something greater than ourselves and feeling that our lives have meaning is incredibly valuable to everyone, but especially to those who may be facing health challenges. That sense of a higher purpose can give us the strength and motivation to overcome our toughest obstacles and help us emerge with a sense of positivity and personal growth.

One way to improve your spiritual health is to begin to examine the higher purpose of your life challenge. Studies show feeling a strong sense of purpose can actually benefit our physical, mental, and emotional health. So today, let’s take a look at how purpose can impact our health, how you can begin to discover the higher purpose of your challenges, and how to let your higher purpose guide you through navigating health challenges.

What is purpose?

There is the typical purpose, often described as the “meaning of life.” But what we want to emphasize is the Purpose of your challenge. The Grand Plan. 

Some might ask themselves “Why is this happening to me?”  But a better question to ask yourself would be, Why am I creating this challenge in my life? What meaning does this illness have to me? How has it impacted me so far? How do I view life now?  The meaning behind your illness will eventually influence your behavior, define your goals, and give your life a sense of direction. In other words, the purpose of your illness will show you that you are the creator of your reality.

When we see disease as a doorway, as an opportunity for growth, then our journey will begin. This is because who we are going to become will be different from who we are now, and that’s a big unknown. But that’s the call. We’re being called to transform.

The power of purpose for our health

Many factors contribute to our overall health and well-being, but purpose is one of the most wide-reaching. Here are just a few of the ways purpose can impact us physically, mentally, emotionally, and spiritually.

• People with a strong sense of purpose report feeling less stressed, and find themselves less bothered by stressful situations in general. In turn, lower stress rates can reduce the risk of high blood pressure and heart disease.
• Similarly, people with purpose find it easier to regulate their emotions, and can recover more quickly from negative feelings.
• People who self-identify as feeling their lives are “worthwhile”, actively make more healthy lifestyle choices, including eating better, exercising more, and taking a more active approach to preventative healthcare.
• People with purpose feel more motivated to confront their health challenges, and more capable of overcoming them.
• People with purpose are less likely to feel lonely, and 43% less likely to report feelings of depression.
• Multiple studies indicate people with purpose can even live longer lives than those who don’t feel a connection to life’s deeper meaning.

So, now that you have an idea of the benefits of connecting with your higher purpose, let’s begin your path of discovery.

6 ways to help you redefine disease and healing

There’s no one “right” reason for why things happen in life. Each person will find meaning in their personal circumstance differently. Your purpose is unique to you, and no one else can define it for you.

That should be comforting, but maybe it’s a little intimidating, too. After all, if no one else can tell what the purpose of your challenge is, that means you’ll have to discover it for yourself. Where do you even start?

While we can’t tell you why you created your illness, we can help guide you to discovering it on your own. Here are six ways to help you redefine disease and healing.

1. What were some of your emotional struggles before your illness occurred?

Let’s start simple. What were some of your emotional challenges with your partner, siblings, children, co-workers? Were you ever deeply hurt? Did you ever feel abandoned?

During significant health challenges, a lot of people report having a significant life event occur months if not years earlier. As we know, illnesses can take time to manifest to the person or doctor. And intense emotions that are not properly acknowledged and released, such as a loss of a loved one, a close pet, a life partner or even a job, can eventually lead to an illness.

For Joanne, prior to her cancer her son decided to stop talking to her because of her opposing political views. She was no longer able to see her son, or her grandkids and felt abandoned. Joanne was left by herself and started to spend time with different spiritual groups. She started to question the meaning of life and go into self-reflection. After her cancer diagnosis and during her treatments, her son decided to renew their relationship. She felt much more softer and easier to get along with. She could see the bigger picture in life.

Sometimes intense emotions can cause deep blockages in our physical system, leading to illness. But what was the Grander Plan in her case? Was there some kind of Divine Planning to heal old discords with her son? Only Joanne really knows, but from an outsider this seems pretty Divinely orchestrated.

2. How was your personality before and after your illness?

Think back to when you were younger. Before the responsibilities and realities of adulthood, what activities were you involved in, what were your relationships like? How was your personality? Our early days of exploration and curiosity can tell us a lot about ourselves.

For Jimmy, he remembers being an avid adventurist, a daredevil. He would get into situations that could’ve gone horribly wrong, but he had an impulsivity about him that he just could not stop.

He then had a motor vehicle accident and developed chronic ankle pains. Before any activity he has to plan ahead and think through whether or not the activity was appropriate for him and his health.

Due to his ankle injury, he realized he was much more careful with physical activities, but remained an adventurist in other arenas of life.

As adults, we’ve spent a lot of time being shaped by the world around us. Societal expectations and the circumstances of our lives affect the individuals we’ve become today. Societal expectations can also affect our personality. The meaning for our higher purpose for our personal challenges is unique to each of us. And yea it might be great to be an adventurist, but Jimmy’s Higher Purpose knew that in order to play the long game and be of impact to others in the world he needed something to slow him down and think through things.

3. Did your philosophy or spiritual beliefs change?

Imagine for a moment you realized all of life was orchestrated in advance. That you knew you had to go through certain pre planned situations, so that you could come out stronger, grow and evolve or Remember where you came from and who you truly are. 

That is what happened to Susan, during a near death experience. It was earlier in the afternoon where she started to feel weak and dizzy. She was a nurse and knew that it couldn't be a heart attack- she didn't have any of the typical signs of chest pain radiating to her jaw or left arm. Her husband called 911 and she had had a massive heart attack unbeknownst to her.

During her experience, she felt she was floating above her body. She didn’t know why everyone was so frantic and pounding on her chest. She decided to keep moving on and found her guides. She felt as if she just knew who they were. She recognized them, but they had know names. They said she could decide to stay or continue on and it was her choice. She completed all the life lessons she needed to learn. There was no harsh God judging her for all her misdeeds, or guilt or shame. She felt complete and serene. She could see that she had chosen all her life lessons and they played out exactly as planned with some emotional drama here and there. She was told if she decided to stay, that she would be different and she would view life completely different.

Susan decided to stay. And ever since that day, she can understand that life doesn’t happen to us, but we orchestrate our major challenges to help us learn and grow. Each person learns and grows differently.

How have you changed after your illness? What is your philosophy or views on life now?

Instead of having a near death experience, you can dive into how you view life now. 

4. What meaning does this health challenge have for me?

When trying to uncover the meaning of a challenge, take a look at your belief system now. If someone has chronic fatigue, perhaps they might secretly think I’m not good enough, or how could I give anything of value to this endeavor as I can barely lift anything up. I'm useless. 

Can you see the negative belief system underlying the health challenge? How will this effect their state of mind or emotional health when they wake up in the morning or interact with others? They will begin to alienate themselves, which will further enhance their self-sabotaging belief system of No one cares for me, I am not lovable.

Start by uncovering the most common belief that you tell yourself everyday. The one where you convince yourself and everyone around you is true, such as I’m not good enough. Now peel off another layer and what's underneath that? To uncover another layer ask yourself, If you’re not good enough, then what will happen? No one will want to be around me? No one will love me? I am not lovable anyway. I will always be alone. You know you’ve hit your core belief when you feel it resonates deep in your core. It could also bring up some deep emotions from childhood. Now that’s pretty deep to uncover all that.

So your Core belief is, I will always be alone, and that stemmed from chronic fatigue! Now what if we reverse engineer that belief. Let’s understand that it is possible to always be alone and not lovable, but there is also a possibility of someone along the way to give you a smile or acknowledgement. A grandchild or parent that at one point loved you. An experience at the beach where you felt the Universe was taking care of you. Do you remember a time when you felt loved and taken care of? Can you feel what that would feel like, even for a second. Even if it’s just in your imagination? What would feeling loved and taken care of really feel.

If you can imagine it for a moment, then you can keep feeding that feeling. You can keep going back to it. Remember that feeling during your morning mindfulness periods. You don't have to “change” your old belief. But acknowledge there is a possibility for a new one. And focus your thoughts on that today, and tomorrow and the next day. Hey! What have you got to lose.

You will come to realize that your state of mind is programmable. Just the same way it was programmed at a young age or older age. As humans, we place meaning on every situation that comes to us. But if we could stand on the beach and let the ocean water flow back and forth on our feet and not place a meaning of Good and Bad or Right and Wrong, then we can create a state of peace in our minds and our bodies. As the world brings life challenges, we can accept it for what it is, learn and grow and maintain her internal peace.

5. What happens when you embrace life’s challenges?

The Universe or your Higher Self or Higher Spirit is known to manifest whatever frequency you are unconsciously or consciously vibrating. If you decide you want to Fight, conquer, beat your illness, the Universe will send you more fighting energy. More reasons to fight and conquer. 

Ask yourself, are my thoughts, words, feelings resonating at the level of which I want my life to be. If you want harmony in your life, create harmony within first. Look into all the ways that you feel unsettled or upset. If you want health, wealth and abundance, how does someone that is healthy feel inside? Perhaps content, at peace, balanced. 

Remember a time when you went through a life challenge. What happened when you stopped resisting the toothache and went to the dentist, or stopped fighting the back pain and learned how to stretch in the morning? Life illnesses just like any other life challenge are meant to change and shape you for the better.

6. What have you discovered about yourself?

Life has its ups and downs. Knowing there is a higher purpose, though, is the force that drives you through life’s challenges and encourages you to overcome your toughest obstacles. So, another way to discover your higher purpose in any situation is to think about what you have learned through these challenging experiences. What have you discovered about yourself?

Take the story of Marie-Anne, she was use to letting others push her over and make decisions on her behalf. She was always exhausted coming home from work. She soon found out she was diagnosed with an autoimmune disease, that caused her to have chronic pain. At this point, she realized there was something that needed to change in her life. She started to stand up for herself at home first, then in the grocery store, then with friends and finally with her colleagues and boss at work. She was fed up with her pain and fed up with her way of letting others abuse her. 

What was the higher purpose of her chronic pain? It was multifaceted for sure, but what she did develop was a strong sense of self-love and self-respect. For everyone, it can mean and look differently, but there is definitely a higher purpose for our challenges in life. Sometimes its to help us get shaking and changing.

Life’s challenges don’t disappear when you discover a higher purpose in your difficulty. But the higher purpose ensures you know going through these life challenges will help you grow and change for the better.

Let your purpose guide you

One of the many benefits of understanding the purpose of your illness is the way it can invigorate your life. 

When we face a setback in our health, it can be difficult not to find ourselves in a negative headspace. You probably find yourself asking, Why is this happening? and What am I going to do now? You might even wonder if you could have avoided your diagnosis somehow. 

These feelings are all completely natural and valid.

Questions like these focus on your past, instead of understanding the reason why your situation is allowing you to grow in ways you would’ve never consciously chosen yourself. You can get so caught up in trying to figure out how to get back to the way things were before, that you forget how to live in the present.

Healthcare challenges come with a series of physical, mental, and emotional hurdles for you to overcome. But when you know your higher purpose, you can find the motivation to jump such hurdles. In fact, you’ll even start seeing them less like hurdles to jump and more like stepping stones to guide you to the brand-new you.

Reframing how you view health challenges

Discovering the higher purpose of her health challenge is just one step in a larger approach to healing: reframing how you view health challenges. 

Health challenges can leave you feeling lost and unlike yourself. But instead of getting trapped mourning the loss of the “old you,” you can embrace the opportunity to reinvent yourself. To become the person you were always meant to be.

And your challenge won’t just show you the way. It will give you the courage and motivation you need to change your life. Sometimes we need a life altering event to lead us in the direction of understanding and peace.

For instance, maybe a doctor recommends you increase your weekly activity level to improve your health. Getting fitter and healthier are good reasons to get the extra exercise. But nothing will motivate you like connecting your health goals to your higher purpose in life. You’ll find it much easier to walk an extra mile if you know it means you’ll be able to educate others on what peace and happiness really means. Or you’ll be willing to wake up early for that jog knowing it will free up your evening to attend your favorite group gathering on self-awareness. 

We want to encourage you to see health challenges not as setbacks preventing you from living life, but as opportunities to grow into a life you love. 

Instead of asking yourself What am I going to do now? with a tone of resignation or despair, ask yourself the same question with a tone of determination, hope, and possibility. Now that you’ve reexamined your life, the higher purpose of your challenge, and your priorities due to your health, what have you learned about yourself? How can you move forward, guided and reinvigorated by a higher purpose? With understanding the Higher purpose as your guide, you can transform a health challenge into an opportunity to optimize your life.

Unlock the power of purpose for healing today

Are you ready to find the higher purpose in your life challenge and let it guide you on your journey to better health and an optimal life? If you know it’s time to not just work around your health challenges, but to do something about them, check out NeuroFlow Foundations. We’ll send you new tips and tricks for improving your cognitive health each month, all backed by our years of medical expertise and grounded in our holistic six pillar approach.

Learn more about NeuroFlow Foundations