Feeling Lonely and Without Purpose?
Read This.
Feeling lonely and without purpose? Want to learn to suffer better, and live a meaningful life?
To live is to suffer, to survive is to find some meaning in the suffering —Nietzsche
To add to Nietzsche's piercing insights around suffering and meaning, how do we not just survive, but thrive?
The word Integrity stems from the root word: Integer.
Which means whole, and undivided.
To be in integrity means that we are aligned at the deepest of levels with our purpose
Integrity means to be one thing. It means to be whole and undivided.
Being in integrity is like flying a plane:
A pilot assesses the integrity of his aircraft before taking off. The pilot does so to reduce the chance of mid-flight malfunctions.
During the route, the pilot relies on the aircraft’s GPS to help him navigate the passengers onboard to their destination.
When we’re in integrity we’re resilient to something going wrong on our route through life.
And, it guarantees we’re headed exactly where we need to be headed. Toward our purpose.
We know this because we’re following our internal navigation system — I’ll call it our inner GPS. One that our culture has lost touch with.
Other cultures like that of the Polynesian Wayfinders were finely attuned to their inner GPS. These people managed to navigate enormous distances safely across the Pacific Ocean.
They did so by relying on subtle tells and trusting their inner GPS.
Here are some of the more obvious signs you’ve gone off course from your inner GPS.
When your life feels purposeless,
When you can’t seem to stop creating suffering for yourself
When you’re struggling with loneliness
Being out of integrity means we are suffering.
And I don’t mean any type of suffering. Sometimes we need to suffer. It can be good to suffer, even.
In fact, suffering is necessary for excellence to emerge.
Ultimately, it depends on what type of suffering we’re experiencing.
Clean suffering can be vital for us and can help us grow.
It can help us become juicy.
Clean suffering is experienced by all animals.
This type of suffering creates the right resistance for us to overcome ourselves.
Dirty suffering, on the other hand, is unnecessary.
Dirty suffering keeps you stuck in old patterns and habits.
Dirty suffering is the type of suffering you hate, but somehow keep making your way back to.
This type of suffering drains your life force.
In our thinking-obsessed culture, we lead with the mind.
This has profound drawbacks since the mind is easily susceptible to external influences.
And, is easily overwhelmed by overthinking and is likely highly distracted.
Leading with the mind makes dirty suffering all the more common.
The components of integrity
When each of these components is firing in all cylinders we are in integrity: body, heart, mind, and spirit
When we are integrity, we have purpose and meaning.
When we’re stuck or have outright ignored the signs coming from these parts of us, we are out of integrity.
And being out of integrity means we are suffering, and are becoming increasingly susceptible to nihilism.
A breakdown of the components of integrity
The body knows what’s true for us at the deepest levels. Much more than the mind ever could.
Integrity for the body feels like relaxation.
Integrity for the heart is the sense of emotional openness to others and ourselves. Compassion and understanding are natural byproducts.
Integrity for the mind is the intellectual sense of: “Oh! This makes sense”.
For the spirit, integrity is experienced as freedom.
To paraphrase the Buddha:
You can always tell if water comes from the ocean because it tastes of salt.
Likewise, you can always tells enlightenment no matter what form it takes, because it tastes of freedom.
When these four components are aligned we naturally create lives of purpose and meaning.
When we live lives with integrity, we suffer much better, and WAY less.
Animals know how to suffer well because they are naturally in integrity all the time.
Let me ask you, when was the last time you saw your cat or dog compulsively worried about something that happened yesterday?
Animals don’t create dirty suffering. Humans do.
Humans are the only animals that aren’t aligned with their integrity. This makes them create a lot of dirty suffering for themselves and others.
Want to see integrity transform your own life?
When you are ready, reach out for a free consultation
