Purpose is Medicine

This post is the fourth and final entry in my series on the Four Primary Medicines: Food, Lifestyle, Relationships and Community, and Purpose. These are the essential keys to health and healing that don’t come from a pharmacy or a doctor’s prescription—they come from within us and around us. In the earlier posts, we explored Food as Medicine, Lifestyle as Medicine, and Relationships and Community as Medicine. Now, let’s turn to the final one: Purpose.

Purpose is Medicine

What moves us, what makes our heart sing, what gives us cause to wake up in the morning and sometimes keeps us going past our bedtimes — that’s purpose. It’s our life force. It’s literally our reason for living. Purpose is powerful medicine.

Alex’s Story

Alex was a good friend of mine who lived to be 111 years old. He remained mentally sharp until the very end. His body was in pretty good shape, too, for his age.  And he wasn’t worried or focused on that. That lack of worry was, in itself, sustaining and health-promoting.

Here is Alex, on his cell phone, just days after his 107^th birthday.

Alex had a purpose and a vision for his life, which was his fuel for carrying on. A Holocaust survivor from Poland, he endured unimaginable hardship, yet he survived and thrived. While he couldn’t fulfill his youthful dream of being a sea captain, he earned a PhD in zoology

Later in life, Alex became fascinated by the unseen world — realities beyond time and space. He devoted years to studying psychic phenomena and healers as a parapsychologist. That was his passion. His purpose. When Alex was done, when he’d fulfilled that purpose, he was ready to leave. He passed on. And he left his body with grace and ease.

Discovering Your Purpose

For some, purpose may be motherhood. Or providing for a family. For others, it may be throwing paint on a canvas, dancing on the subways, delivering babies, or writing novels. Purpose can be a vocation, a passion, or something deeply personal. 

Our dreams, visions, and desires are the seeds of our purpose.

If you’re already living your purpose, you are engaging your life force in a way that supports health and well-being. But if you’re not sure — or if you’d like to deepen your connection — here are two exercises to explore:

1. Journaling: Finding Your Purpose

Find a quiet place and use pen and paper. Reflect and write freely on these questions:

• What is my purpose? What am I here for?
• What are my visions and dreams for my life?
• What situations, circumstances, or people support them?
• What situations, circumstances, or people hinder them?
• If I could wake up tomorrow and have the life of my dreams, what would that look like?

As you reflect on these questions, don’t limit yourself in any way. Money, location, personal circumstances — imagine none of these are limiting factors. Imagine that your possibilities are boundless. 

Write in stream-of-consciousness style, without judgment. Most importantly, write in the present tense — as if your dream life is happening now.

2. Mind-Body Sensing: Visualizing Your Purpose

Sit or lie down comfortably. Close your eyes and breathe gently.

• Call to mind the vision from your journaling.
• Imagine it with all of your senses: see, hear, smell, taste, and feel it.
• Notice where your feel this vision in your body. Pay attention to sensations.
• If doubts arise, gently return to your breath and the vision.

Remain with this embodied vision for as long as feels right, then return slowly.

You are the Medicine

Remember: Your healer lies within. That inner healer guides you toward peace of mind, to that place I call Absolute Health, the place where healing happens. Know, too, that the four primary medicines — Food, Lifestyle, Relationships and Community, and Purpose — they’re all connected.

When you’re living your purpose, everything else flows more easily. When you’re not, or when any of the primary medicines is neglected, you’ll feel unwell, unable to flow with the rhythms of life. Any health issues will be aggravated.

Cultivating these medicines alone can feel challenging sometimes, and we might need a little assistance from others. Stay tuned for my upcoming posts on Healing Practices and Healing Partnerships to learn just what that outside help can look like, and how to best cultivate healing partnerships.