What is this life all about? Who are you and what are you supposed to be doing while you're in this body, on this planet? Of all questions, this is the biggest question that could ever be asked. At a spiritual level, we know there is no definitive answer, but at a personal level, it usually comes down to which career you choose. For example, are you "meant" to be a teacher, or an entrepreneur? At a personal level, people really want to know the answer to this—it becomes like a quest. Many people get in touch with me, asking me to read their energy and tell them what they're supposed to be doing with their lives. They get disappointed when I tell them that it's not up to me to do that. The purpose of our soul goes well beyond what we do for a living (or, should I say, what job we do for money).

And when we look at our mortality, there seems to be more of an urgency around knowing the answer to why we are here. We know that at some point our life will end—it's probably the only thing of which we can be truly certain—so do we have to do great works, produce something majestic, or leave a legacy behind us when we die? And what might that be? Over time I've learned that just being here and living our lives, but really being present in them and living them, not just getting by and surviving, is really why we're here. What we do or create is a bonus.

I also believe that some people are here to bring humankind forward somehow through science, art, or humanitarian works. These beings have a mission (perhaps that is a similar thing to purpose; however, I don't think it's exactly the same thing). The Dalai Lama, for example, is a spokesperson for kindness; Amma is the embodiment of pure, unconditional love. Both of these figureheads are leaders of light, bringing divine energy and love into the world. In order to do this their souls are at a different frequency, perhaps; most of us are not at that same level or configuration in that respect. So the rest of us are here to experience life through the filter of our personality, our character, our experiences, and our wounding. It's not a small thing, truly. And boy, is there a lot of wounding out there.

When it comes down to it, your real purpose is to connect with your inner light, clear and cleanse it, and shine it as bright as you can. Your inner light is the true essence of you, your life force energy, the quality of your presence. You don't have to be a lighthouse to guide everybody home—a nightlight or a flashlight will do the trick. This inner light is the truth of who we are, and it shines through when you're happy, and is the light behind a person's eyes. That's why we are so drawn to babies—their light is so bright that it is a pleasure to be near it. People can be like this, too—you just feel good when you're beside them, and you may not even know why. It's because their inner light is strong and pure, and they don't ask anything from you in return. And, as multi-dimensional beings, when your energy is bright and strong, you influence other people to feel good, too.

When I say that we are multi-dimensional beings, it means that you're working in the energetic dimensions as well as in this reality (or, we could call it, the "3D dimension"). Because your brain doesn't necessarily go to the other dimensions, you may never know what you get up to energetically! It doesn't mean that you are doing all your great works somewhere else, so you don't need to bother doing anything here—once you dedicate yourself to clearing and cleansing your inner light, to doing your own, personal inner healing work, as you heal, your energy purifies and spreads love and goodness in all the other dimensions, too. Perhaps we will never know the extent to which we influence consciousness. And we will never truly understand the extent of consciousness itself, either. But if you, personally, don't make a commitment to heal and brighten your inner light, your life is less dimensional, and to me that means it's less magical, less vibrant, less rich, and lower in quality. But if that's good enough for you, then that's good enough.

Think of it in terms of energy and vibration: if the whole of humanity's consciousness pools together in what Carl Jung called, "the collective unconsciousness," then you're part of that pool. By doing your inner work, you brighten your light and raise the vibration of your energy, therefore raising the vibration of the collective. Don't think that your part in this doesn't matter, that you're just one person—in fact, your light, if that little bit brighter, could be the catalyst for massive change in the energetic realms. Again, we may never know. But more and more frequently in our day-to-day lives we are seeing and experiencing the thinness between these dimensions, and shifts in energetics spill over here into this reality and become manifest very quickly. For example, if you think of someone, and then you hear from them, you've tapped into them energetically; they felt it and they contacted you here, in this reality. Or perhaps they thought of you first, and you were the one who felt it! Either way, it happened energetically first. Try it now: why not think about someone you've not heard from in a while, and see if they contact you, or their photo pops up in your Facebook feed! It can be so fun when you play in the energetic realms.

When your light is brighter it is further reaching, and what you create brings more light into the world. When you heal your inner wounding, let go of heavy, stuck, vibrational energy and have more presence in the world, you have a higher quality of life force energy, so the amount of light you hold is denser, and brighter. This means that whatever you do—whether that be singing in the shower, painting a work of art, or laughing at a silly movie—also creates more light.

People that book a session with me to find their soul's purpose usually feel a bit lost, not sure in which direction to go; they describe it as feeling stuck. There's always an urgency to fix and change it, which seems to heighten the situation. I question them about their background, what they are doing now, what they do for fun, if they're able to completely relax and how well they enjoy their life. I usually discover that they are actually not present in their own lives, not connected to their body, not feeling their feelings. That's the thing—people mostly just don't want to feel their feelings. Heavy inner wounding becomes solidified energy that is carried around in the body. And that isn't pleasant to feel, at all.

When you run away to avoid feeling, a disconnect happens between your spirit and your body. The mind has total control over your choices, and you lose touch with your heart and your inner wisdom. Sure, sometimes you get a hit of intuition telling you, "this person is dangerous," or, "it will probably rain today," but most of the time it's like running on empty. Why? Well, your brain isn't designed to run on feelings, so it sends your life force energy into all of the things outside of you, to check on them so to speak, so you have less life force energy available to you in this reality. And you spend a lot of time worrying, because you're really not in tune with your intuition. Every time you think about something you send more of your life force into it. And your life force keeps pulling you back to that thing that you're worrying about, creating a cycle that is not only difficult to break, but also exhausting. This is why the mind can't let something go—it keeps returning to it because you're actually looking for the energy that you've put into it. You've already done the thinking part.

When you live from the mind alone, you become depleted and it doesn't take much for you to become drained. It gets more and more difficult to anchor yourself here, in the present moment, in your body. Unexpected things that upset you upset you more than they should because you're low on energy, low on the resources to handle it. Anxiety is something that you experience frequently. And if this goes on for an extended period, low-level anxiety turns into high-level anxiety, which can turn into anxiety attacks, which can turn into a full-blown panic attack. It's very scary, and really disempowering. When you live with anxiety you cannot light up your inner light, as you're spending the little energy that you do have trying to stay calm and manage your life. And if you live this way and don't have anxiety, it's probably because you stopped caring so much about anything. You feel dull, lost, the joy is gone, everything seems grey and life is not fun. Everything takes a lot of effort, particularly relationships or social events. No wonder people who experience this want to know why they are here, and what the point of it all actually is.

You really need to be in touch with your feelings to know what you like, what you don't like, and what you have the potential to be passionate about. I know people who can't decide what to wear, what to eat for lunch, or what their favourite color is because they don't allow themselves to really think, feel, or know these things about themselves. I also know people who spend most of the day hiding away, because they can't cope with interactions or things like taking the bus or driving their cars.

All is not lost. You can change this around. The safer you feel in your body, in the world, the more of your feelings you allow yourself to feel, the more connected you can be to your body. Mindfulness is a great way to give your brain a rest, too, especially if your poor brain is working on overtime! When you bring mindfulness into the body, well, that's what really helps start you on the path to reconnection. And when you do the work of healing and releasing the pain you carry connected to your inner wounding, you can get deeper into your body, become comfortable in it, and tune into all of the resources that you have, working with all of them and not just with your mind. This involves doing your inner work. In my book, Heal Your Inner Wounds, I give you a roadmap to do exactly this—to learn how to trust your body, to trust this reality, to get your power back, to let go of the heavy, stuck emotions, and to enable you to become more empowered and present in your life.

So what about your soul's purpose? Well, as I have said, not being present in your body is like drifting away from the center of your life, and therefore you drift away from your soul's purpose. So healing and getting into your body is the first step. And as far as your career aspirations, or who you are supposed to meet, or what you're meant to create while you're alive, well, it's just like the GPS system in your car: if you make a wrong turn in your life, your path will recalibrate itself around your fate. So if it is for you, it will be there for you. If there is a lesson you need to learn, you will learn it (sometimes more than once) until you really get it! And if you don't learn it, that's as far as you go, until the next time (if there is one).

It always comes back to the quality of your presence. The choices you make in the moment dictate whether you learn that lesson now, or later. Choices as small as whether to have the pizza over the salad could affect your whole life; for example, if you're not aware that your body is already tired when you choose the pizza because you like the taste of melted cheese and bread and the comfort you get when you eat it, your body could become sleepy in the afternoon, and you miss something somebody said, which was an amazing opportunity. If you're more in the moment, more in your body, you can make better choices. And, be clearer and more tuned-in to possibility and opportunity, too.

I see our bodies as the vessels through which we experience our lives. If you're always in your head and out of your body, you're not experiencing what your heart is experiencing, you're not connecting to your gut instinct. And you miss what is already buried inside you, the longings, the passions, what lights you up. A whole-hearted life is one you put your whole heart into. A vibrant life is where your light is shining brightly as much as it can do. And it feels so good to be lit up. You light up the world when your light shines brightly! Only you know what it is that lights you up by your experiencing it. And that may change as you get older, as you tire of something, or as you grow. There is no one thing that you are supposed to do while you are in your body, in the world, in your life. Except for really, truly, live it. Vibrantly and wholeheartedly.