Today as of today, do you feel like you're living your purpose in life? Of course, there's always spectrum and nuance. Okay? So if you don't feel like, you're living in your purpose, then that's one of the primary problems. Okay? Think about this for a second. Right? Like, if you're not doing what you're meant to be doing, what do you
think could possibly go wrong? Right, what I think, if I had to if I had my own DSM 5, right, and I had if I if I could write this if I could include anything in this book, okay, I would have purpose deficit response or purpose deficit disorder. Because I think in many ways, so many, quote, mental health problems, so many problems in life stem from not knowing why you're here and what you're meant to do. Because when there's a why, we know you can bear any how. That comes from Viktor Frankl.
Viktor Frankl, by the way, was Auschwitz, most of his family was killed in the holocaust. And yet in the middle of, like, an atrocity, he found purpose. I haven't been through anything remotely as intense as that. You're talking about trauma. That's trauma. That's a major, major, like, types of trauma. And yet what we understand is when there's purpose, purpose in life can shift and change everything. And so the other thing that's really exciting is that the
research on purpose in life is beyond compelling. Okay, it's beyond compelling. So let me just kinda just give you an example of what I mean. Okay? So more studies on purpose in life have been done between 2016 and 2023, which is, like, 7 or 8 years. Okay? Then from 1954 to 2011. Think about that. 57 years. And what they're seeing in the research is that purpose in life is
impacting everything. Finances, relationships, success, trauma healing, nervous system regulation, etcetera, etcetera, etcetera, etcetera, etcetera, etcetera. And I believe that, the reason why purpose in life has become so studied is because it's it's it's the next thing. And if you can start to see, it's really starting to pick up, but only recently. So what does that mean? That means that the majority of the research on purpose in life won't be hitting for at least another 20
years. And I wanna help you have a a a fast track to really understand how important this topic is. Okay? So when we look at the research, there are 12 common side effects of purpose, and these seem might seem grandiose, but I'm gonna back it up with research. Okay? So when we look at the side effects of purpose in life, financial abundance and business success, setting an example for your children, healthy love, romance, and passion. Higher
HDL levels, meaning higher good cholesterol. Lower LDL levels, meaning lower, quote, bad cholesterol that creates atherosclerosis and plaque in the arteries. Lower a one c levels if you're diabetic. When I work with diabetic people type 2 and prediabetic, one of the questions I ask them is, how sweet do you feel like your life is? Right? How sweet is your purpose? And the answer is, like, usually not very sweet. Right? Improved quality of sleep on insomnia, improved immune function. Right, lower
risk of heart attack, builds resilience, and heals trauma. It can literally add almost a decade to your life. We're talking about longevity. Holy cow. Right? Improves cognitive functioning, meaning your brain works better, enhances emotional regulation. Y'all, if purpose in life was a pill, it would be a multitrillion dollar industry. Right? A multitrillion dollar industry. And so the latest findings are
even more compelling. So let me just share with you some of the research, a sense of purpose in life and subsequent physical, behavioral, and psychological health. Okay? This study was done just in 2021. Over a 4 year follow-up period, people with the highest versus lowest purpose had better subsequent physical health outcomes, reduced risk of mortality or dying, health behaviors, there's reduced risk of sleep problems and psychosocial outcomes, higher optimism, and a 43%
reduced risk for depression. Who here feels like that is staggering? I think it's staggering. Right? And we're talking you're like we're like, I love EMDR. I'm like, EMDR does do this. I love EMDR, but EMDR does not do this. Okay? Check this out. Purpose in life was positively related with post traumatic growth.
Okay? New study from 2020. So when we look at the the the pandemic trauma, which is a certain a different type of trauma that we all went through, right, what they're seeing is people who are recovering better from the whatever happened in the pandemic, if they have purpose in life, it is related to post traumatic growth. Okay, in the specific context of COVID nineteen pandemic, a higher level of purpose was related to lower anxiety and emotional distress. So if you have anxiety or emotional
distress, which can lead to trauma. Okay? Purpose in life has been shown to lower those things. Breath work is beautiful. Purpose in life is staggering. Okay? Also, grief like emotions over loss of normalcy can lead to a loss of purpose. So who here feels like in the last couple years, you've lost something that you weren't expecting to lose. It could be a relationship. It could be a friend. It's someone who passed on. It could be a dynamic.
It could be something. Right? So it's important to understand that there is grief that we're starting to come out of. But what happens with grief sometimes is when there's grief, there could be a loss of purpose. And so what we wanna do is start to realize if I can find more purpose, I
can get myself out of situations even more. Okay? Possessing a higher level of purpose in life may provide a wealth of resources one can use to cope with the current situation, motivating adaptive protective handling of a situation, buffering the effect of adverse experiences or trauma and thereby facilitating and fostering the learning and development of even greater emotional regulation skill over time. If you want to have emotional recovery, purpose in life purpose in life.
Okay? And all these are cited sources. Okay? So now we might wanna think about what stage of purpose life purpose awareness are you? Maybe you don't know what your purpose maybe you thought you knew, but then you lost it. Maybe you don't believe you have a purpose. Maybe you know what your purpose is, but it's not happening fast enough. Or maybe you know what your purpose is, and you're rocking it, but you're ready to go to the next level. So if this is 1,
2, 3, 4, and 5, where would you say you are? Are you number 1, number 2, number 3, number 4, number 5? Where you at? Now I wanna say one thing real quick before we go a step further. Okay? The Internet can be a source of beauty and amazing, connections and research and growth promoting awesomeness, it can bring us together, but, also, misinformation can spread like
crazy on the Internet. And one of the things that drives me crazy is when you hear usually life coaches, but also spiritual teachers start to talk they start to oh, you know what? They're like, here's what here's what they do a lot of times. I'm being a little facetious, but a spiritual teacher or a life coach will read the body keeps the score. All of a sudden, they think they're a freaking trauma expert. Okay? And they'll start
talking about the purpose of your trauma. Well, the purpose of my trauma was because I had to learn these lessons. And the purpose of my trauma was God wanted me to blah blah blah. Right? And they talk about the purpose of trauma. And when I start hearing people say the purpose of the trauma, it's like, woah. Slow down a second. Okay? Because when there's the purpose of something, especially in the context of trauma right? Like, could you imagine going to Viktor
Frankl and saying, okay. So what was the purpose of your holocaust trauma? Like, why did you deserve that? Right? Like, no. Like, that is the most insane thing to say. Trauma is not a gift. I wouldn't wanna give it to anybody. Okay? Trauma is not a blessing. Trauma is not a lesson. Trauma is not something God assigned you. Trauma happens, and it sucks, and it's awful. And what you do with it is what you make happen. Purpose happens from you
after trauma. And so what we wanna focus on, one distinction I wanna make here is this, the purpose of versus the purpose from. And this one preposition change from of from from is a game changer. So when we have the purpose of something, that usually means there's an external or preexisting reason why the trauma occurred as if it was ordained or assigned to you. Arguably impossible and potentially harmful to find a specific reason or purpose for why the trauma happened. Think
about that. If you wanna think about what was the purpose of my trauma, ultimately, there is no answer that you can actually answer. Right? There's no real answer to that question. You can make meaning of it, but that's making meaning from it versus of it, okay, could imply that trauma was deserved. We hear that a lot. People think, wait. Did I deserve this trauma? Right? No. The answer is no. Could be used as a way to justify or bypass trauma. When you
say I got purpose from the trauma that I went through. Okay? It creates a sense of internal sense of agency or control because I'm creating it. Victor Frankl created the purpose of his trauma in it, by the way, in Auschwitz. He created that purpose. Okay? How you respond to trauma and move forward versus, not and also using it as a catalyst for personal growth change or advocacy. If you've ever said something like my trauma made me stronger, I want you to
know something right now. Your trauma did not make you stronger. You did. And depending on your spiritual beliefs, maybe God did too. Okay? But it's important to understand your trauma hurt you. How you responded to your trauma made you stronger. Who falls? That make sense? Okay? Very important to