Inner Realm: The magic of finding a purpose to life

Incarcerated in three different concentration camps, Jewish doctor Victor Frankl observed that even in those arduous conditions prisoners who had a purpose to life were more likely to survive the camps than the others

Incarcerated in three different concentration camps, Jewish doctor Victor Frankl observed that even in those arduous conditions prisoners who had a purpose to life were more likely to survive the camps than the others.

Research shows that those who find a purpose to their lives and live with that resolve attract a different type of magic. (HT File)

Research shows that those who find a purpose to their lives and live with that resolve attract a different type of magic. Their bodies produce greater antioxidants, they have lower incidence of heart conditions, their blood pressure improves substantially and such persons have a much lower risk of suffering a stroke.

Older people with an unclear objective are 2.4 times more likely to get Alzheimer’s disease than people living with a distinct purpose. Individuals with a purposeful existence show far greater antibody production. Telomeres on their DNA repair better, making them less susceptible to cancer.

People driven by purpose attract more wealth and draw to themselves worthier friends and partners. In fact, research in positive psychology indicates that finding a purpose in life is like having a magic pill.

Studies have also found that the loftier our driving purpose in life, the stronger our immune systems. This is a very profound discovery. A self-transcending purpose is in tune with the universe.

The Amygdala is supposed to be one of the oldest structures of the human brain. It has been millions of years since it was formed, going by evolution. It is found in reptile brains as well.

The Amygdala seeks to protect us from threats and triggers defensive responses. In certain experiments, subjects were exposed to threatening tones, similar to the ones we experience in our day-to-day lives. Brain scans indicated that with every little perceived threat, this part of the brain was triggered because our survival instinct is paramount. Excessive arousal of the Amygdala can, however, cause maladaptive behavioural changes.

Surprisingly, people who had a more profound eudaimonic or self-transcending purpose displayed very little blood flow in the Amygdala, when such tones were used. Those who were in ways more selfish or hedonic were easily threatened, triggering a negative, stressful response in behaviour and in the immune system.

Other experiments have also proved that deeper selflessness in purpose enhances inner peace and mental health.

The ‘purpose of life’ does not have to be lofty. It can be humble too. If it motivates us and transcends our narrow selfish thought, it lights up for us, a superior path. Attracting health, wealth and success, as per positive psychology studies.

Adults with abusive childhoods overcome many neuroses when they are helped to focus on a higher purpose. Their traumas and diseases tend to disappear.

Many other studies indicate that having a higher self-transcending purpose in life improves relations, makes people richer, and transforms societies. Companies in USA that worked towards a more noble purpose gave 100% higher returns compared to other top 500 companies over a 15-year period.

Once when US president John F Kennedy was on a visit to NASA, he met a worker whose job was to lodge screws into the Apollo aircraft. Kennedy asked him what he was doing. He replied, “Helping to put a man on Moon, Mr. President.”

So, how can one find one’s purpose to life? Positive psychologists refer to it as the tombstone test (Victor Strecher, University of Michigan, USA).

If I were to ask myself what I would like to be written on my tombstone after I die, a very different view will suddenly dawn on me. Would I like to read: I am now the richest dead person in the graveyard? Or, something more profound and meaningful than that?

Posing such questions to oneself helps many people to discover their inner calling, and purpose to life.

The sooner we discover a clear, loftier, self-transcending mission, the more affluent, more successful, and happier will we be. Howsoever humble our work be, if it transcends the self and is in line with our core values, it is worth living for. It enhances us in every way as it attunes to the Universe.

May all our lives be purposeful.

parneetsachdev@gmail.com

(The author is the income tax principal chief commissioner. Views expressed are personal.)