We all want fulfillment, it’s a natural yearning of our human condition. But we’re so attached to the external world that we believe satisfying our desires and ambitions is the way to achieve it. Desires fuel life, because the world is made of ego and we identify with our ego consciousness—which is made of desire and attachment—to exist and accomplish things in the world. Is this, however, how we may experience the satisfaction of a life well lived?
Famous writers, actors, musicians, and artists have proven that you can be recognized, successful, wealthy, and achieve all your dreams while remaining miserable, trying to escape reality with addictions and other compulsive behaviors, or disconnecting to the point of suicide. Obviously, not all famous people are self-destructive, but it’s easy for the ego to solidify delusions with the trappings of the world.
So what is it that would make you feel that you’re good and your life is good; that you’re in the right place, at the right time, knowing you’re doing what you’re meant to do, with a strong sense of purpose and from an authentic, peaceful place? Is it having family, friends, colleagues, partners, or fans that make you feel loved and valuable? Or is it coming up with projects and goals that keep you focused and productive? Or perhaps feeling empowered when your needs and desires are met?
Like I said earlier, desires fuel life; they’re the dangling carrots moving you forward on your search for happiness. But the nature of desire is dissatisfaction; it exists only as long as it’s not achieved. So when one desire is fulfilled, the ego-mind pushes another one to maintain the control of your perception. You can chase desires all your life without ever reaching the joy you seek, because you only feel it when a desire is gone but before another one appears. This fleeting moment—the absence of desire—is the inner peace you yearn for.
True Fulfillment Comes From Being Fully Present
This inner peace is Divine Consciousness within you, which is eternal self-fulfilled; it embraces everything and needs nothing. You may get things done and find great success in what you do, surrounding yourself with people you love who love you back, and yet feeling disconnected from yourself. Your life is fine, but there’s something missing!
If you can’t comprehend what makes each passing moment eternal, and how it gives you the opportunity to connect to the infinite flow of life and love within you, you’ll miss the spiritual link that brings true fulfillment. These deeper aspects of your soul remain hidden when your attention is too fixated on what’s outside—your sense of ‘otherness’ (see Does Your Sense of Otherness Keep You Small?)—which is why most people don’t get to discover or experience a deeper connection to life. They may think they’re happy while trying to fill their spiritual emptiness with all sorts of distractions.
You are endowed with awareness, because you are an individualized spark of Consciousness. But how can you experience yourself as such if your awareness is always focused outwards or pulled in different directions? Without full presence, there can’t be true fulfillment (see How To Live Your Life With Presence?), because your own life passes you by. You get caught up in the entanglements of the ego-mind that restrict your perception to the past, to what’s familiar, spinning your wheels in resistance or rebelliousness mode.
That is, until you realize that, ultimately, you are the Universe becoming aware of itself—in everything you see, do, and experience—and start taking responsibility and paying attention to your reality: how you express yourself in and through it. Big accomplishments start with small accomplishments, daily accomplishments, mundane accomplishments. The main difference is whether you live life from the ego-mind or engage with it from a deeper place, being fully present in every moment. Here’s the beginning of a poem by Barbara Ras for you to ponder:
You Can’t Have It All
But you can have the fig tree and its fat leaves like clown hands
gloved with green. You can have the touch of a single eleven-year-old finger
on your cheek, waking you at one a.m. to say the hamster is back.
You can have the purr of the cat and the soulful look
of the black dog, the look that says, If I could I would bite
every sorrow until it fled, and when it is August,
you can have it August and abundantly so. You can have love,
though often it will be mysterious …
Living your life with presence makes it meaningful and well-lived. It reconnects you to the eternal essence of your own divinity, turning it into an adventure of self-discovery. So contact me today to put your personal puzzle together, discover your real purpose and how to remain connected to yourself, to find greater fulfillment in everything you do!
© 2019 Yol Swan. All rights reserved.