Discovering Your Life Path

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Does any of this describe your current situation?
 “I’ve lost my job, and can’t imagine what to do next!”
“I’m so unhappy in my career, but I’m afraid to make a change.”
“I would love to wake up every morning looking forward to how I spend my day.” 

Are you searching for a new focus, a more rewarding career, or something you can be passionate about doing?
I’m always amazed at how often it happens that I encounter people dealing with similar issues at the same time. Currently it’s all about altering – or finding – one’s “life path.” So many of my friends and family members, clients, and fleeting acquaintances are in the midst of changing their vocations, discovering or maximizing avocations (things we do for enjoyment outside of work), or trying to find a new passion. They are looking for a new job because they’ve lost the previous one, often due to no fault of their own. They are searching for a new career because the current one leaves them feeling unrewarded, either financially or psychologically. They are hoping to discover something they absolutely love to do because they’re feeling unfulfilled personally or spiritually.

I’m listening to the frustrations of young adults who have still have no idea what they’d like to do to earn a living after leaving school. I’m speaking to empty-nesters whose children are leaving home. I’m commiserating with older adults who are looking for something worthwhile to give new meaning to their lives.

I can so easily relate to everyone who is searching for a new path. It seems that fate, past-life karma and spiritual guidance have joined forces at different times to help me discover my own life path....
 
Capitalizing on early interests.
     From earliest memory, I always expected to be a school teacher. I did well in school as a child, and my parents thought teaching would be the perfect career to fit in with my dreams of raising a family. I was devastated to discover in my early twenties that I just didn’t enjoy teaching! I hated the minutiae, the record-keeping and the lesson plans. I was upset with the students who didn’t make any effort, and angry with the parents who didn’t nurture their children’s development. And I was frustrated by an educational system that seemed to be taking all the joy out of learning.
     I left teaching with absolutely no idea what I could do to earn a living, bouncing from job to job, and finally winding up apprenticing to a typesetter/graphic artist and opening a little studio of my own. The breakthrough came when a client needed a brochure, but was unable to explain his company’s offerings in writing. Reaching into my past, I resurrected my early love of writing poetry and prose and my skills as the editor of my school paper, and rescued the client by putting everything he had told me about his business into very respectable text overnight. I had finally found a direction for my career as the chief copywriter and creative director in my design studio.

Repurposing past skills and training.
     Satisfied that I had successfully developed and maintained a business, I turned my attention to getting married and having a baby. Owning my own company gave me the time and the freedom to homeschool our son. In fact, homeschooling took priority over copywriting, and I found new joy in teaching a very willing student. I used the training I had abandoned long before to explore and implement new ways to keep Ben excited about learning, developing his strengths rather than focusing on his weaknesses. I had finally discovered a true avocation in my forties! Teaching Ben was so rewarding, that I let my business dwindle and atrophy while I focused on developing new theories about education and child development, and helping my husband Lou grow his music conservatory. Unfortunately, homeschooling was a job with an expiration date. At the ripe old age of 58, I was effectively fired from the only job I had ever truly loved as Ben left home for college.
     Fate immediately stepped in and provided what seemed like the perfect way to fill my empty days. I combined my expertise in business, my skills as a graphic designer and copywriter, and my experience as an educator and moved full-time into managing our conservatory. Apparently I did my job too well. As the conservatory grew, so did my responsibilities. Once again, I found myself dealing with minutiae, record-keeping and parents who didn’t nurture their children’s development. The stress of doing a job for which I was ill-suited was weighing heavily on me, compounded by long hours and little downtime. I was becoming physically exhausted, psychologically depressed, and spiritually depleted. The final wakeup call came when I developed cancer, which my doctors attributed in large part to stress. Somebody up there (I had the overwhelming feeling it was my dad!) was telling me to step off the treadmill and change my life.

Discovering new passions (or rediscovering old ones).
     So here I was in my early sixties, recovering from cancer, with absolutely no idea of how I wanted to spend the last third of my life. Something was whispering to me, but I just couldn’t make out the message. In desperation, I sought out a psychic advisor I had met years earlier. Together, we went on a search for a new direction for my life, exploring my past lives to uncover my talents as a teacher, a writer and a metaphysician, introducing me to heretofore unknown spirit guides to reacquaint me with my spiritual leanings, and listening to the advice and counsel of my loved ones from the other side helping me find my new path. (I was right! It was dad who was sending most of those messages.) All of the exploration and study I had done earlier in this life, from yoga and transcendental meditation through parapsychology and spiritualism, came back in full force. I embarked upon intensive study of clairvoyance, intuitive healing, and past life regression with my new mentor.
     Most important, she helped me to realize that I have always been “claircognizant” (clear-knowing) – knowing and saying specific things without any prior thought or reference. I so often have information, perceptions and insights about people and circumstances I encounter that I simply “know” to be true, but I never really understood that this was a talent I could harness and utilize to help others. It turns out that, at least for the time being, I’m most effective as a claircognizant when I’m helping someone recall past life memories. Apparently, focusing on the regression enables me to silence the chatter in my brain and allow the messages to come through. Finally, I’m doing something I love: helping others gain insight into the issues affecting their lives today!

We all have taken risks at times, and we’ve chosen the easy way out at other times. We’ve utilized our skills and we’ve ignored our gifts. We’ve tried and failed, and we’ve gotten back up and succeeded. In the end, though, we all hope to be involved in doing something that makes use of our special talents, feeds our soul and nurtures our spirit.

I believe that the first step in discovering your life path is setting your intention to find out what makes you happiest.
Look for the vocation, avocation or passion that will help you to grow and to evolve. Think back to your early years for the activities that brought you joy, and explore beyond that to past lifetimes where you were happy and fulfilled. Meditate and pray for guidance. Find that which makes every day worth living. Then live the life you were always meant to have.

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