Shifting the Focus - Finding Purpose in Living
Beating Negative Body Obsession With Meaningful Pursuits
What is an obsession? One definition of obsession is a "persistent, disturbing, preoccupation with an often unreasonable idea or feeling."
With negative body obsession, a person is focused inward with negative thoughts about self and body image. Shifting the focus from negative body obsession to finding one's purpose in life opens doors to building self-esteem and finding one's hidden beauty and talents.
Finding Purpose to Live Instead of Living to Die
Given the horrendous conditions within a Nazi concentration camp, Vicktor Frankl, psychiatrist, was able to persuade victims contemplating suicide to live on. This was accomplished by helping them find a purpose to living, even in such severe, seemingly hopeless misery. Not only were they to find purpose, but to realize that the act of living involved responsibilities. For each human life there is a plan that only that life can fulfill.
Special Gifts and Talents
Each human life is endowed with special qualities and characteristics designed to fulfill certain tasks. Step one is to discover/uncover one's abilities and skills.
The second step involves envisioning oneself as the catalyst of one's own life and not a victim of chance or circumstance. This involves believing that one has choices.
"You do not become beautiful by trying to be beautiful, but by finding the beauty that is already within you and allowing that beauty to emerge," according to Sarah Maria in Love Your Body, Love Your Life.
Personal Passions
Connecting with oneself means asking pertinent questions, and instead of running from the answers, taking small risks then larger ones to face oneself.
To begin, one must contemplate what stimulates passionate emotional reactions? Injustice? Betrayal? Pain? Helping others? Finding one's passions can help to find the path to fulfillment.
The Use of Role Models
Think of someone admirable. What are the qualities/characteristics that make this person admirable? Are these qualities found within oneself or are they qualities that one wished to possess? Observe how the focus is shifting from the beating torrent of negative body messages to more positive ideas and thoughts.
What Would the Ideal Life Look Like?
Being realistic, making a mental picture of what the ideal life would look like would help in identifying one's purpose in living as well as the steps to obtain it. Better yet, draw a picture or create a collage. Try to identify the steps needed to arrive at that goal.
Now, if the goal is to achieve outward beauty, then this exercise is counter-productive. Beauty is elusive. What may be gorgeous to one, may not be gorgeous to another. This exercise is all about internal, below the surface building and fulfillment.
Identifying the Spheres of Life
Another means to observe one's life is to draw circles. For instance, one is for family, another career, another for one's current employment, and yet another for friends, etc. How do these fit in with the ultimate goal? Are there problems? How may they be solved? If solutions aren't readily available, focus on the ones that appear to have resolutions.
Shifting the focus from the external to the internal and finding where one's true passions lie, is escaping from bondage to the freedom of flight. Learning to become more than just an outward shell is escaping from critical self-accusation to fulfillment and satisfaction.
Source:
Sarah Maria, Love Your Body, Love Your Life, Adams Media, 57 Littlefield Street, Avon, Massachusetts, 02322, 2009, pg. 99-121.
Deeper Than a Reflection
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