Why are you here?
Do you believe that you came here intentionally or by happenstance? For a particular reason, or with no agenda at all?
Both of the questions—Who are you? and Why are you here?—are central to the human experience. Yet apart from history’s great philosophers, theologians and spiritual leaders, most of humanity seems to roll through generation after generation just living, without any interest in solving these riddles—or being too busy with simple survival to be concerned with them.
People everywhere seem to be running in emotional circles, trying to figure out how to make sense of it all without addressing the riddles.
They want to fix themselves and jump-start their lives, ending the blind monotony of their existence. They tend to focus on finding a solution to the immediate problem that they think will make everything better, rather than looking at who they are as a whole and how all of their beliefs, feelings and thoughts have led them to where they are now.
While the answers to the questions above may not seem to have much to do with whether we survive, they will have everything to do with how we survive. Through the exploration of our reason for being, we will find a deeper understanding of any current dilemma or unhappiness we are facing.
We have a choice to live as happy, joyful beings, regardless of our exterior circumstances, or move through our days closed off to the real joys of life—which will have little to do with our circumstances.
Life’s Agenda: Bigger Than You Think
I certainly can’t imagine that we are on this planet simply to eat, work and sleep. And we aren’t here just to procreate and keep humanity going, because if we were, all of us would have children. Why, then, are we here?
I believe it’s for a much larger reason.
Some say that the human body is a vehicle for the Soul; that each one of us is a Soul that has a body, a spiritual being that has become physical, not simply a physical entity. I agree with them. And if all of us believed that, many of us would have to admit that we’ve had it backward for hundreds of years. We would have to question Life at the deepest level regarding love, religion, sex, politics—all of it. We’d have to question ourselves at the deepest level.
Our reason for existence would be shaken up so vigorously that the coordinates of our current understanding would change entirely. We would no longer be able to get away with preoccupying ourselves with our physical appearance or the amount of money we make. We would no longer be able to self-justify inflicting pain on others. We would no longer feel that we had to hide behind cloaks to protect our True Selves.
If we were to truly believe that we are all Souls living through a human body, we would be deeply motivated to treat others with kindness, look them in the eyes, knowing that they were one of us. We would have to feel.
But the beliefs about who we are aren’t collective. Neither are the beliefs about why we’re here. And given millions of diverse and scattered beliefs about these matters, it’s no wonder we feel separate from each other, and so often find ourselves at war.
Knowing this and seeing it throughout life, the first question of anyone exploring the idea of the Soul might then be: Why would the Soul even desire to come to physicality? Why would it choose to engage in such an experience?
Like so many of us, I, too, have pondered these questions, wondering what the point of life really is and why we’re all here in the world. My mind has long been serenading my Soul with the perpetual self-inquiry, “What’s it all about, Alfie?”
The answer that always sings back to me is that the Soul has taken the journey to physicality so that It may experience all the daily joys and challenges, elations and anxieties, tears and laughter that are part of human life, knowing that these are Its greatest opportunities to feel what It already knows.
What it knows is that its natural state is Oneness with all of life. It is clear that there’s no separation between it and anything else. But it cannot feel Oneness outside the physical, because outside the physical there is only conceptualization. Only through physical expression is Concept turned into Experience.
This then, is its agenda. And the quickest, most effective way for the Soul to experience Oneness is for us, its physical counterpart, to fully f e e l whatever we are confronting in any moment—joy, fear, love, sadness (any and every emotion, not only the ones we have deemed good or positive)—then to fully e x p r e s s those feelings (to ourselves, others or Life), and finally, to combine those two experiences in a way that allows us to authentically c o n n e c t with others through the feelings we have identified and expressed. This becomes a Sacred Formula. It is a process that can be articulated and activated, by which the Soul’s objective may be achieved.
The first two parts of the formula (Feel, Express) place you in touch with your True Self. They fuel the last part of the formula (Connect), which introduces the most authentic you to others. It is this connection with other human beings that produces our largest and most impactful experience of Oneness, causing us to realize that it is not theoretical, but actual.
This begs the ultimate question: If our Soul is here to experience itself experiencing oneness through Feeling, Expressing, and Connecting, shouldn’t we allow ourselves to do that more fully? What’s holding us back?
For many, lack of courage.
Specifically, Soul Courage.
The above is an excerpt from Tara-Jenelle Walsch’s book “Soul Courage“. If you like this, you will love her book! It’s a really simple and straight forward guide to how living Soul-First can enrich your life.
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