Local Article: What Are You Doing With the Rest of Your Life?

by Lauri Ingram

It happens to many of us. One day we wake up and realize that we are not happy. Unfulfilled in how we are living our lives. We are surviving day to day, perhaps highly successful. But we are not thriving. Perhaps it is our job, perhaps it is something more. There is a stirring deep within us. When our spirit senses we are ready, our essence begins to nudge us to deeply explore where we are in life. We start to ask questions about meaning, purpose and fulfillment. Those questions can shake the very foundation of our lives.

What do you do when this voice inside you starts nudging you? For some of us, it can be unnerving, perhaps even scary, to start questioning everything in your life. For others, it may feel inevitable, as if there is a knowing within us that has just bubbled up to the surface. It can start slow, waking up in the morning and noticing a lack of excitement, or inevitability, about the day ahead. It may grow day after day, becoming a voice we cannot silence. For others, it may even be exciting!

That voice is your soul, your spirit, your essence. It is the authentic you that resides inside of you, whatever words you may use to describe that. It resides in our heart space, fueling our life journey. This voice exists to fuel our growth, inviting us to new experiences, to do deep inner work, to be brave, to be aware and conscious of the miracle that is living.

What does it mean to thrive? Simply put, when we are thriving, we are living into the fullest expression of our being. We are evolving, learning, growing, deepening our self-awareness and investigating new parts of ourselves. We are opening to the interconnectedness of life, exploring what it means to be part of this world as spiritual beings. All with curiosity, compassion, love, non-judgment and living in the fullest expression of our being.

From the time we are children, we are asked, “What do you want to be when you grow up?” We may feel pressure to come with a “thing” we are going to be, or a label of what we will do. We need to survive in this world, make an income and perhaps feel we need to start families. We are soon caught up in surviving, and sometimes do not listen to what our soul truly wants. We focus on a destination such as the promotion, or the marriage, or the home or the ideal weight as the point at which we will be happy. Only to reach that destination and still feel unfulfilled.

As spiritual beings having a human experience, we are here on earth to experience, to live, to create. Constrained by merely surviving, our soul yearns to break free and soar, and experience and live authentic, true lives in alignment with our being. It is an unfolding that carries us through our lives.

Regardless of what you may believe, there are energies in our lives that draw us forward. Threads carry us through our lives. We may have had times in our lives where we questioned our beliefs, or perhaps are just beginning to question life and how spirituality fits into our belief system. Hobbies and interests from our youth may have been cast aside, but may hold inner wisdom to what feeds our soul.

This questioning often feels like life is falling apart. We may feel like the bottom has fallen out. Life may feel uncertain, messy and scary. We find ourselves seeking answers but slowing down to listen. Listen deeply. We question the meaning of being here on earth. Our homes, our families, our jobs and our identities are the physical manifestation of life on earth, but what is living really?

Sometimes called a “mid-life” crisis, there is no one age at which this happens. It can be triggered by a major life event, such as loss of a relationship or job, health crisis, or a death of a family member. It may be sudden or it may unfold over time. It may start as a small question or hint, but it can become all-consuming. As spiritual beings, we are meant to explore, we are meant to live our lives, not merely exist.

This stirring invites us to explore and question. We seek ways to live in two worlds, the old and what is emerging as the new. Without the capability to simply change overnight, we begin to morph. We move from the caterpillar into the cocoon, dissolving into the liminal space waiting for the butterfly to emerge.

For many of us, this transformation takes years. We may enter areas of study where we connect with our spirituality and create a view of our place in this world. We exercise our curiosity, much like children, and remember what it is like to have fun. We learn how to discern what is in alignment, by recognizing truth in our body and trusting our intuition.

We may be faced with darkness, with not knowing, where our beliefs suddenly tear like fragile tissue paper in the wind. We crack open to new ways of being; we find ourselves drawn to live differently. Parts of our lives fall away, but are replaced by new relationships, jobs, hobbies, interests and passions.

The universe has a way of leading us through this process. Once we signal that we are stirred to change, the universe responds. Spirit knows; our inner true self knows we are ready. Slowly, parts of our life fall away to make room for what is new. These changes may be small or they may be earth shattering. We may be challenged to find inner strength and resilience to navigate these periods in our life.

If we take the opportunity to reflect on our life journey when we are in times of change, we can see ways that the universe supported us. We can see that we did, in fact, end up making it through these shifts in our lives. Opportunities presented themselves, people showed up, new relationships emerged.

Can we lean into this as a way of being? Can we consider that life is a journey, and perhaps there is no one goal that will make us truly fulfilled? Perhaps life is a journey to living each day to our fullest. To be able to approach each day with excitement for what the day will bring even in the simplest terms, seeing the miracles in each moment. To be totally present to the experience and to create a life that allows us to embrace the experience of being human, in the energy of creation and spirit.

To thrive may be simply to live life fully, co-creating a life where we are living our fullest expression of being.

Lauri Ingram, a spiritual transformation coach located in Bethany, Conn., offers workshops and works one-to-one with clients in person at her office, The Liminal Studio, and virtually. Connect at lauriingram.com and lauri@lauriingram.com.