Uncovering Dharma And Your Life's Work
The purpose of this article is to help others uncover their dharma and optimize spending time working on it.
The meaning of life remains the age old curiosity of the human race. I believe the meaning of life is to engage in thoughts and actions that make my life "meaningful," as determined by my experience, others' wisdom, and our collective well-being. In that vein, spending my time doing dharmic work is the best way for me to have a meaningful life that serves both the collective and myself.
So, how do we uncover our dharma?
The most true answer is you'll know it when you feel it. Whether through meticulous experimentation, or serendipitous good luck, you will experience your dharma, and the feeling associated with it will leave you without doubt. Finding your dharmic calling is like finding the love of your life in vocational form, and it is equally as difficult to deconstruct and detail. However, here are my best attempts:
Know thyself.
Regardless of age or responsibilities, prioritize new experiences, uncomfortable challenges, and learning from others who have found it.
Apply active effort.
Once you find something, or someone, you like, feed that spark with fuel. Fan the flame. Help it grow and engulf your life.
Care for your calling.
Once you are working on your dharma, there will be bad days, challenges, and doubts. Maintain your fire. Nurture your energy and keep going.
Albeit general, these guideposts will help light the path to your purpose. If you're still getting to know yourself, don't lose heart, most of us are. Even after we find our dharma, we will continue to evolve, and how our dharma materializes may change too. That's ok. We just need to give ourselves grace, recalibrate as needed, and do our best.
For me, I feel a deep desire to serve others. I've tried serving others first, and at times became depleted, so I learned to care for myself first. If I keep my cup full, it's easy to overflow into others. If I try to pour from empty cups, I often do more harm than good for everyone involved. So, in order to serve others, I must serve myself.
How can I keep my cup full?
I routinely prioritize self care through meditation, movements, and energy cultivation. Everyday, I meditate and reflect. Everyday, I move. Everyday, I spend time with others, and by myself, to engage with my different types of energy that keep me fully charged and at my best. This informs my routine, and it changes as I change.
I also picked a vocation that serves my lifestyle, and not the other way around. I am a lifestyle entrepreneur, which means I am not optimizing for how much money I can make, or how much I can sell a project for. Rather, I optimize for how the work makes me feel, what kind of opportunities it brings, and what it will enable myself and others to be able to do. If the work, or the money, comes in the way of feeling healthy, happy, or whole, I need to pause, reflect, and realign. It can be that simple.
If you're looking for better ways to take care of yourself and cultivate healthy habits, consider my dharmic work and co-created project, WellFests. We offer a regular calendar of mindfulness and movement in small doses that help build a routine that will serve you. You can learn more about it below.
If you have any questions or comments to share about dharmic work, healthy habits, or intentional living, please leave them here, or connect with me @MovingwithMatt on Instagram. I hope this article served you, and good luck on your path to purpose and fulfillment.
