The Purpose of Life in Life Therapy

Does Life Have a Purpose?

I’m convinced it does. Your purpose is what you’re “putting out” into the world as you live your unique life.

Are you “putting out” into the world actions that affirm your life and the lives of others? Or, are you “putting out” actions that deny your life and the lives of others?

You’re doing some of both. What counts is what you’re doing most of the time.

I believe you are alive to give most of your time to “putting out” into other’s lives what affirms both your life and theirs.

I believe you are alive to affirm life as only you can. You affirm life as only you can when you “put out” there what is unique to you. Unique to you are the life-affirming desires of your heart. No one else has them. They are yours alone to realize.

When you know the life-affirming desires of your heart and invest most of your time fulfilling them, you live with purpose. You “put out” actions that affirm both your life and other’s.

When you’re engaged in fulfilling the life-affirming desires of your heart, you have something of inestimable worth to do. You have good reason to be healthy and live a healthy life. You have good reason to make your way through life’s most difficult challenges.

What amazing work you have to do! Your work makes the whole world better.

Life Therapy helps you know the life-affirming desires of your heart and make your way through challenges to fulfilling them.

When you want help healing your hurts, using your strengths, making your way through the difficult challenges you face, and getting to a better place in life, contact me at mark.w.neville@gmail.com

For secure and confidential online therapy connect with me here.

To stay in touch, connect with me on—

FaceBook:www.facebook.com/MarkWNevilleMDiv

LinkedIn: Mark W Neville

To purchase my book, Re-Visioning Spirit: A Brief Introduction, from Amazon, click here.

To purchase it from Barnes and Noble, click here.

Take Back Your Freedom…

When religious fundamentalists of any kind rule -

Books of fiction replace books of history.

Ignorance replaces intelligence.

Indoctrination is education. 

Doctrine denies science.

Faith replaces reason.

Evil is good.

Lies are truth.

Fiction becomes fact.

Patient suffering replaces courageous overcoming. 

Poverty is wealth.

Fasting replaces feasting.

Wasting away is wellness.

Weakness is strength. 

Heaven betters Earth.

Prayer replaces work.

Passivity replaces action.

Disparaged are bodies.

Impoverished are spirits.

Misery trumps pleasure. 

Virginity, celibacy, monasticism, and solitude top sex,    marriage, birth, parenting, and family.

Transcendence supersedes transformation.

Death is called God’s paradise.

The Devil is The One True God.

Slavery is freedom.

Darkness, called light, overshadows us all until we rekindle our flame and outshine the alien darkness with our own indigenous light.

Then we take back our freedom.

Your Spirit: The Heart of Life Therapy

“Spirit” and “spirit”

In Life Therapy, “Spirit” and “spirit” are two very different words. The word “Spirit” often refers to an invisible, metaphysical, supernatural, eternal, and divine being. The divine being is either personal (Father-Son-Holy Spirit, YHWH, Allah, Goddess) or impersonal (Brahman, Source, Universe). It's a matter of your private and/or corporate faith.

“Spirit” is a peripheral theme in Life Therapy. It’s discussed when it’s important to your life. It’s important when your belief in Spirit either helps or hinders you in the process of living your life and realizing the life-affirming desires of your heart.

Life Therapy is neutral with regard to “Spirit.” It respects and honors your beliefs and works with them to help you realize the purpose of your life.

Your “spirit”

Life Therapy is passionate about your “spirit.” It’s one of the four dimensions of your life attended to, served, and taken care of in Life Therapy sessions. 

In Life Therapy, life is a condition, the condition of being alive rather than dead. It is a time period, from birth to death. It is a narrative, the story lived from birth to death. Life is also what makes you alive. It is your spirit.

The word “spirit”, in the context of Life Therapy, refers to spirit in the holistic sense of “body, mind, and spirit.” It refers to your unique, individual spirit. 

In Western culture, our understanding of “body” is informed by the Ancient Greek word soma. It refers to your physicality. Our understanding of “mind” is informed by the Ancient Greek word psyche. It refers to your cognitive functions. In Life Therapy, “spirit” is informed by the Ancient Greek word thumos. It refers to the natural phenomenon and force that makes you alive.

Attending to, serving, and taking good care of your spirit is the core, the very heart of Life Therapy.

Here’s What’s Wrong with Integrity

What's wrong with integrity? Morality. That’s what’s wrong with integrity. Under the influence of legalistic religiosity, in Western culture, integrity has been reduced to morality. It’s been reduced to adhering to an external, imagined, universal moral code. It’s invisible until it’s chiseled in massive granite slabs for publicly display.

Some assume everyone agrees on what the moral code is. They are shocked when it becomes clear that others have different moral codes.

Some believe one, divinely revealed moral code applies to everyone whether they think so or not. (Do you know how many versions there are of the Ten Commandments?) Their righteousness is offended, even threatened, by those who believe otherwise.

Westerners have no consensus on one moral code that applies to everyone. Western culture is morally diverse rather than monolithic.

But before the dominance of religiosity in Western culture, integrity is not reduced to adhering to a moral code. It’s about parts being in their natural state, untouched and integrated into a whole. Wonderfully, this view of integrity survives.

An old growth forest has integrity until a “developed” nation’s lumber industry workers touch it with saws, bulldozers, and trucks.

A building with integrity is whole and sound. All of its parts fit securely together. Its windows and doors open, close, and lock securely. Wind and burglars can’t get in. Its roof doesn’t leak when it rains. It remains standing in strong winds. All of its mechanical parts work. 

A person of integrity is one whose heart, hands, head, and homies hum together in harmony. Her spirit, body, relationships, and mind are healthy, whole, and in synch with each other. 

When integrity is reduced to morality, it’s about shaming and punishing those who violate the code. It’s about coercing and forcing everyone to comply.

No moral code has been morally imposed on others.

When integrity is about being sound, healthy, and whole, it’s about virtue. And virtue, like integrity isn’t about morality. 

Virtue is about strength; strength of spirit, body, relationships, and mind. Strength of life.

It’s morally good to invest in integrity, virtue, and life. The choice is yours.

Believe in God, be Religious, if You Want

Believe in one or more gods or goddesses if you want. I do.

Be religious if you want. If you do or don’t participate in a corporate religious institution, that’s up to you. I don’t.

Believe the teachings and practices of one traditional religion or pick and choose this and that from different religions and make up your own personal religion. Do what you want. Your religion doesn’t matter to me.

What matters to me is what you and I actually do. I care about how we live this life where we're living now.

I care about how you and I treat ourselves and others.

Do your words and deeds affirm or deny your own life and the lives of all others living?

Do you promote or deny your own freedom to live as you choose and the freedom of others to do the same?

Do you respect or disparage others whose beliefs and deeds differ with yours?

Do you seek to convert others to your beliefs and practices rather than protect their freedom?

Do you harm or take good care of yourself and others?

Do you support yourself and those in your care or burden others?

Do you help others unable to help themselves?

Do you take advantage of the sick, injured, young, or elderly for your own personal gain?

I care about how I live my life. I also care about how you live yours.

Not what you think or believe, but what you actually do, the life you live, matters to me.