Find your life’s purpose by developing these eight qualities
Understanding your life’s purpose is like trying to figure out a riddle. The answer exists. And it’s right there in front of you. But to see the riddle’s answer, you first need to read the clues, understand them and draw your own conclusion.
Becoming nature-connected and experiencing Eco-awakening will enable you to orientate yourself in your life and steer a course towards a deeper meaning.
Find purpose by finding your image
The Eco/Soul–centred view on human development operates from the premise that every human being is born with an image at their centre. James Hillman speaks to that idea in his book The Soul’s Code and poet David Whyte points towards the central image through his poem All the true vows.
Whyte says,
Hold to your own truth
at the center of the image
you were born with.
It is this image at your centre that holds the clues to who you really are, why you are here, and how you can serve.
It is our mythopoetic identity that opens us to hold the largest conversation we can have with the world and guides us to inhabit our unique place in the web of life.
Steps towards purpose
To meet the image at our centre we first need to experience Eco-awakening. And to experience Eco-awakening, we first need to become nature-connected. And there seems to be a correlation between how connected a person feels with nature and the way they feel about their lives.
A recent study showed, “when we measure what makes people feel that ‘life is worthwhile’ a close relationship with nature is four times more important than spending power.”
The eight attributes of connection
When you move along the pathways of nature connectedness, you will begin to activate the attributes of a connection. The eight attributes are mapped using the eight cardinal directions of the compass.
Tracking the attributes of connection cyclically helps to expand a connection to the day, the seasons of the year, and to human life.
“The Natural Cycle is an Orienter, for its directional arrows tell you both literally and metaphorically where you are, not only in geographical space and in time, but also in terms of cultural identity and life wisdom.”
Jon Young
The Coyotes Guide to Nature Connection (pp. 200)
The 8 Shields
Each shield has a unique quality that reflects its facet of the compass. You will notice that when explaining each facet, we start and end our walk-through in the East.
“Round and round the sun goes, beginning in the East, wrapping around to the South, then tucking in to the West, and resting in the North, before emerging in the East once again.”
Jon Young
Coyote’s Guide to Nature Connection (pp. 198)
East: Inner happiness/childlike happiness
The time at which the old day passes and the new sun rises. Here you find energies of the old sage, the trickster, the sacred fool. It is an attribute of playfulness and wisdom. Think of the elder returning to the source at the end of their life, or of the newborn emerging from it.
South East: Vitality
Here we experience our bodies being fully charged with electric energy. We are filled with the sensations of vital life force, just like a child in play.
South: Paying it forward/commitment to mentoring
The place of deep listening, of relaxed and intense focus. These are the qualities of a good mentor, one who can see the gift in others. One who gives what they have to offer.
Southwest: Empathy and respect for nature
When our empathy ‘switches on’, we can often become overwhelmed with emotions. We might feel the pain and the suffering of the natural world around us. Likewise, we might become enchanted and love-stricken by the immense beauty and spelndour of the world.
West: Being truly helpful/gift activated
The place of sincere generosity. We are able to see what needs exist in our communities and we are able to give ourselves to the tasks that need tending. This is also the time in which the sunsets. The time of twilight, in which we feel ourselves being pulled into the underworld to encounter our darkness and personal gold.
Northwest: Fully alive/the sacredness of life
Returning from our quests with our boons, we return to our communities with more than when we left. We are filled by the presence of Life and commit ourselves to our crafts, apprenticing to our gifts, in service of our communities.
North: love and forgiveness
The place of vision activated leadership. Of the maturity and measure of True adulthood. It is the place in which we learn how to tend to our ancestors and our lineage. We build with the unborn in mind. It is the north that guides the community.
North East: Quiet Mind
The most important attribute. From this attribute, all others stem. The importance of a quiet mind enables us to access the wisdom that wants to come through us and guide us to fulfill our potential.
Final Thought
When we become nature-connected and the eight attributes ‘switch on’, we begin embodying, inhabiting, and fulfilling our innate human potential.
The best way for you to become nature-connected and to find purpose in your life is to develop an intentional relationship with nature: listen to the birds, smell and name the flowers, watch the clouds, etc.
Like any relationship, it takes time and requires commitment. If you’re wondering how to start, then the best way is with a sit spot.
I was told at the start of my nature connection journey that nature connection would change my life. I can safely say it has.
If you want to answer the riddles of your life and live with purpose, then start by building a connected relationship with nature.
If you’d like more information on how then follow these eight simple steps.
Buen Camino.
