How to live a fulfilling life Now
At one point of your spiritual awakening journey, you begin to desire deeper things– things that are beyond a life of material success, but also deep inner fulfillment. As in waking up each morning excited to live your unique purpose. And going to bed each night with satisfaction from an inner knowingness that you’ve given it your full potential.
Living a fulfilling life is when even if you were to die tomorrow, you knew you have lived your life fully without regrets. It is a life where you know you are co-creating with the Universe, while being in love with where you are.
And I totally understand that desire because I’ve been deeply unfulfilled in my life before…
From feeling caged by my 9-5 job to feeling ‘behind’ in my business.
To being caught up in a hamster wheel of chasing for more (followers/money) yet never feeling that it’s enough.
Then to not even know what it is that I wanted in my life anymore….
After experiencing these low points, I've also gotten to experience more of depth, and thus fulfillment-- in my creative pursuits, in my business, to relationships, and daily living. And for no means I have a perfect life. But from being committed to creating a life of meaning and purpose in my inward journey, I wanted to share these steps on how you can create a life of fulfillment too...
Live for your values rather than goals
The reason I see why people lose the feeling of fulfillment quickly after achieving anything is because we motivate ourselves with goals instead of values.
Goals are the ones you put on your vision board– whether they are fancy cars, houses, outfits, or a number you hit on a bank account. There’s nothing wrong with pursuing goals, however, the spiritual sickness begins when we perceive that the goals are end all be all.
We think that achieving those goals will make you feel anything different that you feel right now… except it doesn’t.
Upon achieving them, you will find that, yes, they do make you feel different with a sense of feeling ‘high’ for a while. But this sensation does not last because the stimulus of achievement wears down overtime.
So we strive for more goals, only to find that the highs were always temporary. Values on the other hand, do not easily die with a peak and a crash.
They are what you have always wanted deep down, beyond the external validations of success.
Unlike with goals where you only experience a sense of achievement once in a while, with values you can experience accomplishment by living in accordance with them everyday.
In other words, to live by your values is to be fulfilled by the process of living/ taking action, rather than only attaching to the outcome. This is what leads to wholesome success (i.e., success that is driven by internal wholeness which leads to sustained effort and therefore the inner feeling of “success”).
For example, your goal may be to run a million dollar business empire but if you are only driven by goals, it soon leads to burnout, dissatisfaction in work/life balance, sticky strategies etc.
But if the reason why you show up everyday is because of a value you desire to live everyday (e.g., values like creativity, freedom, service, abundance, peace), every moment of your day becomes an exciting opportunity to experience your inner most desires and to live it out.
Some journaling prompts for you to live in alignment with your values:
Why do you want to achieve the goals you currently have? (Continue asking yourself “why” until you distill down to a few single word answers. Picture an image in your mind’s eye that makes you happy. Why does it do so? How does it reflect your values?).
How can you live out & experience your values today?
Are there things in your life that are against your values? (if so, can you find a value you can still embody in the situation. If not, how can you change the situation to meet your value?)
Maintain an inner balance
To me, living a life of fulfillment means to experience inner fullness--A fullness that comes from the balance of in-pouring and out-pouring of life force energy…
A balance of giving and receiving.
A balance of creating and consuming.
We experience discontentment when one of the either functions are limited, or we think are limited.
For example, one could be over-giving others time, energy, resources, but feel empty because it is unreciprocated in return.
Conversely, one could receive an abundance of insights/ideas through consuming, but feel empty when the ideas are not shared with others.
The latter is the reason why I had to begin writing a blog because my soul has been receiving a flood of wisdom/insights that living another day without sharing them online feels stagnating– like a drain that’s been blocked.
So you can begin asking yourself what a life of inward balance looks like to you.
That is, an inward balance that cannot be found by looking at anyone else but only felt through your own inner being. An inward balance that feels good to you physically, mentally, spiritually– in all states of being.
Journaling prompts for inner balance:
What tendencies/habits do you see yourself doing in excess each day? How are they draining your inner equilibrium?
Look at one area of your life where you feel discontentment. In what ways are you leaking your life force energy? In what ways are you blocking your channel but not fully giving?
Practice the Art of Contentment
In the hustle-grind, over-masculinized society where only our achievements and outward perceptions are lauded, it is hard to feel content with wherever we are now.
We always feel like we need to constantly be doing/achieving for us to have "success". We always feel that pressure to go bigger, wider, faster, with any pursuits we aim for, never fully appreciating the joy of the small steps.
When we are approaching life from this perspective, life can feel depleting, disatisfying, and unfulfilling real fast. Especially for sensitive souls, this way of outward-focused living does not honor the deeper need of inner realms-- which thrives on finding beauty, connection, and contentment within the process.
It's like forcing an artist to paint as many paintings as possible to compete with an AI. If we are only focused on what we achieve, we cannot bring our inner-most aliveness into what we create/bring forth, thus we cannot feel fulfilled.
To a sensitive soul, creating a beautiful life is just as important, if not even more important, than having a life with a list of "things" checked off. Finding beauty within the process of work itself, is a momentous joy that breaths life-force into us.
Fulfillment is just like a flower, that blossoms when your heart is filled with beauty and wonder.
Journaling for feeling fulfilled through the art of contentment are as follows:
How can you move through live like it is an art rather than a chore?
How is your presence blessing the world around you?
How are your current experiences helping you discover the truth and beauty of who you truly are?
And of course by no means is living a fulfilling life a result of a checklist you follow. Nor it is a life you create by copying the online influencers you look up to.
Each and every individual has a unique path and way of living that’s fulfilling to you. Which is why the key is to understand what it is that makes YOU light up + living in alignment with your true Self. By doing so, you aren’t living a life that only looks good but doesn’t feel good. Instead, you are living a life where the present moment feels so good you wouldn’t wish to be anywhere else.
In fact, this kind of a happy, fulfilling life is what I help my clients experience in all aspects of life: in relationships, career, business, and love life. To learn more about it (while receiving clarity for your life path), you can book a free healing session here.
