What is purpose anxiety and how to heal it?
This post is inspired by Robert Holden, whose teachings have helped me to connect deeper with my life purpose. And now, I want to help you because there will be a time when you will also question your purpose in life - even if it has been clear to you for some time already. And that can bring purpose anxiety to your daily life.
Questioning your purpose can happen whenever, especially when you are in the middle of a transformation. For example, let’s say your career changes, you start a relationship, you move countries, you get a baby, you move in with someone, OR when you have been walking your self-healing path, and things within are changing.
Suddenly you start to feel like you have lost the old compass and there is no direction. You feel that things have shifted within and around you. That makes you ask yourself: what am I supposed to do now? Why am I on this planet Earth? What is my purpose? Where is my purpose?
It might give you anxiety when you cannot find the answer but feel the pressure to find it. That’s the point when purpose anxiety has stepped into your life.
What is purpose anxiety?
Purpose anxiety is getting more and more attention at the moment, as everyone – or at least the bubble where you and I are living – is searching for their purpose. If you connect with this collective energy, there is a lot of inspiration in this energy, and unfortunately, collective pressure that takes away energy.
Researcher Larissa Rainey talks in her research about purpose anxiety in the following ways:
"Purpose anxiety can provisionally be defined as the negative emotions experienced in direct relation to the search for purpose."
It can vary from mild to severe and show up also as a fear, such as you will never find your purpose or a fear that you don’t even have a purpose.
Larissa Rainer says that purpose anxiety can happen in two ways:
1. When you struggle to find your purpose: you are trying to find it for the first time or need to redefine it.
2. When you try to live your purpose.
The good news is that, like with any anxiety, you can overcome and heal this! Below I will give you a few tips on what to do.
How to overcome and heal purpose anxiety?
To heal this anxiety, you must realize that you need to stop searching.
When you search for something, you usually do not see what is in front of you. Your purpose is not a destination on the horizon that you are walking towards. It is within you – right now.
Ever since you were born, it has been within and guiding you. It is the North star on your life journey that shines from within. And just like you are evolving as a human, so is your purpose.
But when you drop into this anxiety, what can you do?
Here are 3 tips.
1. Meditate
Even if you would know that the purpose is not something you chase and that it is something you have within – you should spend some time meditating on this topic and transforming this knowledge into deep understanding. There is a difference between knowing and understanding.
When you meditate, you allow the purpose to come to you rather than searching for it. Be open. Be receiving. Connect with it.
When this information locked within me, I felt like a massive piece of the puzzle had found its place within me. I suddenly felt so relaxed, and the stress disappeared. I realized how tired I was because I had spent lots of time searching for my evolved purpose.
2. Look differently and adjust your sight
So pause if you are in the search mode. Instead, start paying attention to the moment right now. Look within and around you: what brings you joy and energy? What makes you shine? Allow that energy to be your compass right now that you follow. So shine your light and do what brings you joy every day. Start with that, because your purpose is in that direction.
3. Accept your purpose and surrender to it
There can be a moment when you feel like you are not 100% accepting your purpose. Or you feel like something within you is blocking it, like a fear you have been carrying for some time already.
It is time to face that fear and transform it into the light, otherwise connecting with your purpose will be harder. Nurture your inner child, if needed.
If there isn’t any fear or difficult emotions involved, tell yourself that you accept the purpose within and you surrender to it.
Because only by remembering that the purpose is already within you, accepting, listening, and allowing it to show up – you connect with it.
Essi Koski-Lammi
Essi Koski-Lammi is an Interior Designer, Intuitive Healer, and Inner Alignment Coach with over 20 years of experience in energy work. She guides purpose-driven women and businesses to reconnect with their authentic essence through inner alignment coaching, strategic business channeling, and conscious interior design. Essi’s mission is to create harmony and beauty in both inner and outer spaces, allowing clarity, success, and well-being to flow naturally.
