{"id":2152,"date":"2019-09-11T15:46:57","date_gmt":"2019-09-11T15:46:57","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.meditationmag.com\/blog\/a-womans-quest-to-find-purpose\/"},"modified":"2019-09-11T15:46:57","modified_gmt":"2019-09-11T15:46:57","slug":"a-womans-quest-to-find-purpose","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.meditationmag.com\/blog\/a-womans-quest-to-find-purpose\/","title":{"rendered":"A Woman\u2019s Quest to Find Purpose"},"content":{"rendered":"\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">10 years ago,\u00a0I seemingly had no reason to be so unhappy. My career in sales was going well, I had great friends and family, my health was intact. Yet despite this, I had a lingering sense of something&#8230;\u00a0<em>missing<\/em>. It always seemed that my happiness was a milestone away, to be attained as soon as I lost 10 pounds, got that raise, or purchased a\u00a0home. I would work tirelessly to\u00a0reach my desired milestone, only to see happiness on the horizon yet again, attached to a new, faraway goal. I was going through the motions, with some days feeling like a scene out of Groundhog Day. Whose life was I living, and\u00a0<em>why<\/em>?<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">Determined to make a change, I started keeping a daily gratitude calendar. At the end of each day, I would take record of everything which went well. This allowed me to see some variance in my day-to-day ongoings, and encouraged me to be more present to the blessings unfolding around me. It helped, but it wasn\u2019t enough. What did I need to feel content, to be complete? Was it religion? Marriage? Children? Intent to answer the question, I put my social life on the backburner. For months, I wrote endless chronicles\u00a0in my diary each night, soon reaching the conclusion that everything I did was in the name of one thing \u2013 happiness. So what would it take to achieve that, and why did it seem to be so elusive?<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">Research on the topic of happiness became my passion project, as I sought to learn as much as I could about it. I interviewed the happiest people I knew, as well as the happiest people they knew. I devoured books on the subject, signed up to see motivational speakers on stage, attended self-help seminars, watched documentaries, detoxed from alcohol, and more \u2013 much more. I purged my home, strengthened my yoga practice, stopped watching TV, and saved money to travel to India, Bali and Thailand. I worked with a hypnotist, started floating (aka sensory deprivation tank sessions), ate a vegetarian diet, and prayed. I practiced one good deed a day, every day, for a year. I repeated mantras and made vision boards, while smudging my home regularly. I jumped out of a plane, went bungee jumping, got my motorcycle license, tried hang-gliding, and took up surfing. I volunteered. I learned about CBT, reiki, and crystals. I turned my notifications off on my phone, and unsubscribed from newsletters. I changed all of my passwords to positive affirmations.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">As the next few years passed, I became well-versed on the subject of happiness. While feelings of peacefulness and contentment were present, they were fleeting, until I found the one thing that would forever change my life. I didn\u2019t find it at the top of a mountain, nor did I find it in a plush bank account. It wasn\u2019t when I fell in love, or lost 30 pounds. Quite simply, it was when I sat still.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">Meditation was coming up often enough in my research that I decided it was worth a try. I was surprised to experience that in finding my breath,\u00a0 I found lasting peace. I found pause, between stimuli and my chosen response. I found that I could watch my busy mind, without seeing myself as the mind itself.<\/p>\n<p><a href=\"https:\/\/www.meditationmag.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2022\/05\/iamcassidyt_72256461_442588426689626_891036065770255844_n.jpg\"><img decoding=\"async\" class=\"size-full wp-image-8765\" src=\"https:\/\/www.meditationmag.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2022\/05\/iamcassidyt_72256461_442588426689626_891036065770255844_n.jpg\" alt=\"cassidy thedorf just be\" width=\"1080\" height=\"1349\" \/><\/a><\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">Meditation reminded me that I had a choice &#8211; that is, a choice in perspective.\u00a0A choice in narrative, the option to tell myself another version of the story. I started seeing my life, and myself, through a lens of compassion, kindness, and gratitude. Perhaps most importantly, I began to reside in the present, rather than looking ahead to the future for contentment.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">Today, I teach meditation in Toronto. I turned many pages (both literally and figuratively) in many books to get here. I often share with people, if you feel that you are on a path to find purpose, I invite you to find your breath. Maybe the rest will fall into place, as you find the beauty in this moment, right here, right now \u2013 one breath at a time.<\/p>\n<p><a href=\"https:\/\/www.meditationmag.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2022\/05\/iamcassidyt_58453948_2220983804655398_7610210303819311591_n.jpg\"><img decoding=\"async\" class=\"aligncenter size-full wp-image-8766\" src=\"https:\/\/www.meditationmag.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2022\/05\/iamcassidyt_58453948_2220983804655398_7610210303819311591_n.jpg\" alt=\"cassidy thedorf meditation\" width=\"1080\" height=\"1080\" \/><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>10 years ago,\u00a0I seemingly had no reason to be so unhappy. My career in sales was going well, I had great friends and family, my health was intact. Yet despite this, I had a lingering sense of something&#8230;\u00a0missing. It always seemed that my happiness was a milestone away, to be attained as soon as I [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":40,"featured_media":1067,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[6,1,2],"tags":[44,45,138,16,3,139,140],"class_list":["post-2152","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-society","category-uncategorized","category-why-meditate","tag-contentment","tag-happiness","tag-life","tag-meditate","tag-meditation","tag-purpose","tag-research"],"yoast_head":"<!-- This site is optimized with the Yoast SEO plugin v28.0 - https:\/\/yoast.com\/product\/yoast-seo-wordpress\/ -->\n<title>A Woman\u2019s Quest to Find Purpose - Meditation Magazine<\/title>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"https:\/\/www.meditationmag.com\/blog\/a-womans-quest-to-find-purpose\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"A Woman\u2019s Quest to Find Purpose - Meditation Magazine\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:description\" content=\"10 years ago,\u00a0I seemingly had no reason to be so unhappy. 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