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8 Reasons How Starting a Blog Can Save Your Life

8 Reasons How Starting a Blog Can Save Your Life

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Starting a blog saved my life.

It was at the height of heartbreak and loss that I started blogging.

When everything had fallen apart and my world was dark as the night, I founded my blog.

When the pain was unbearable and the tears uncontrollable, all I had left was my domain name, WordPress and my laptop.

My eight-year marriage had ended. I left my career. Quit my job. Left my permanent address and became a roaming nomad.

I was lost, without purpose and shell-shocked by life’s bitter twists of events.

As I lay on the boxing mat of life, ready to shut my eyes and call it a good fight, Vishnu’s Virtues (this blog) was born.

Here on this blog, I’ve been able to write about every aspect of heartbreak, loss, pain and suffering.

I’ve shared my struggles and expressed my deepest feelings and thoughts.

My blogging journey has sustained me. At the same time, my blog has been a source of inspiration and guidance for others who are in a similar situation.

Today, I want to share with you 8 ways starting a blog can change – and even save – your life.

I hope once you’re done reading, you’ll consider taking the next step in starting a blog.

8 ways starting a blog can save your life.

1)   Write away your struggles.

One of the primary ways I’ve been able to deal with the shock and initial heartbreak of my relationship was through my blog and the articles I wrote. On other blogs, you can find many of my posts about heartbreak and accepting changes in our lives.

Starting a blog can be good therapy because it allows you to write down your feelings, share your innermost thoughts and analyze your life experiences.

The more you blog about your struggles, the more likely you will come to terms with them. As you write away your pain, be assured that it will subside and reduce in intensity.

2)   Share life skills you’ve learned.

Use your blog as a way to share the life skills you’ve picked up.

As you experience growth, understand yourself more and come to terms with the difficult events in your life, you’ll acquire more skills you need to handle life.

When blogging, you can reflect upon those skills and the life lessons you’ve implemented.

For example, did you gain more confidence? Did you let go of failure? Did you stop living in the past? Were you able to manage your fears?

How did you do it? How did it change your life? What tips can you share about how the new skill has improved your life?

3)   Self-awareness.

When life breaks you open, you have many realizations about yourself.

Who are you as a person? What can you learn about your character, your personality, your habits, your thoughts and beliefs?

The more you write about yourself or explore topics of interest in your life, the more understanding you’ll have about yourself.

Just a note of caution here – a complete focus on yourself and your growth is hardly of interest to a reader.

Share your journey and perspective in your blogging, but be helpful and provide the way for others to find their own self-awareness.

4)   Inspiration and motivation.

Blogging allows you to meet many different people online, including life coaches, personal development enthusiasts, motivational speakers, writers and more.

This isn’t a bad thing. And hey, I’m one of “those people” in the online space who are committed to inspiring others.

What you’ll find is that other bloggers will inspire you. As you improve and make a comeback in your own life, you’ll be able to share your successes and inspire others.

Every day you’ll have opportunities to read posts that help you get going or that pick you up from a low place.

Bloggers tend to be inspirational. They want to live their best lives – they desire to be better people. They want you to live your best life and live up to your potential. Isn’t this a great group to be around?

5)   Friendship and support.

Writing is a lonely journey, but blogging is about a community.

When you write a post, you will hear from friends and supporters who will love your post, hate your post or have additional thoughts about your post. (Without a community, you’ll hear crickets.)

They’ll help you clarify your ideas, challenge them and help you come up with stronger ideas and thoughts.

Even if you write a bad post, many bloggers in the blogosphere will have your back and be there for you.

Bloggers are a group of supportive online friends with shared interests who work together to help each other because they know, together, they can help more people. They know they are stronger together.

There are disagreements, but most of the time those disagreements seek to clarify an idea or agree about a concept. Bloggers generally pull, push and refine ideas and thoughts.

By the way, you may noticed that I shut off the comments on my blog. I did this to focus my time on writing for you but I do get a chance to interact with my readers through emails and social media.

6)   Find your purpose.

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Blogging creates clarity in your content and ideas.

It can also lead to clarity in your life.

Believe it or not, blogging can lead you to your purpose.

What topics are you writing about? What topics do you care about? What blogs are you reading? Which topics do you gravitate toward?

In my case, I found that I was repeatedly writing about hitting rock bottom and standing back up, so I came to realize that my purpose revolved around overcoming adversity, discussing spirituality and helping others who were going through breakups and divorce.

As I got clearer about my life purpose, I took a coaching course. I started coaching people online and started living my life more in alignment with my purpose.

Your blog’s purpose and your life’s purpose can go hand in hand.

7)   Earn a living.

Another way blogging can save your life is by helping you support yourself financially.

Not everyone who starts a blog makes money from it, but a popular blog can be a great tool to establish your expertise, market your services and sell your products to others.

You CAN earn a living from your blog, start a business with your blog and support yourself through your blog.

You can earn a living through your blog as a freelance writer like Akanksha, as a copywriter like Razwana, an ebook designer, a course designer, a prolific author, and many other ways.

Blogging is really a win-win in that you deliver much content for free and help many people who come to your site looking for advice. For people who want more, you provide a service or a product that helps you support your work.

Another way that blogging helps is that it dramatically improves your writing.

Writing better might not save your life, but it will help you express yourself, communicate better and get more of what you want – possibly even a new job, a new business or a new adventure that will change your life.

8)    Serve others.

“The best way to find yourself is to lose yourself in the service of others.” M.K. Gandhi

The other way blogging will “save” you is that you’ll have an opportunity to continuously serve others.

A friend once told me that, when dealing with personal life turmoil, the best way to get out of it was to focus on other people: give, serve, help.

Use your personal stories and life situations to help others along their own journeys.

If you’re in the personal development space, show the way for others to improve their lives.

If you’re in the coaching field, write content that will help your clients achieve their best lives.

If you’re a business blogger, show your readers how they can serve their clients better.

Serving others by blogging allows you to make a global impact and touch the lives of many people who can find the solutions you’re writing about.

Bottom line – blogging has been my life-saver!

I’ve found tranquility in my writing and solace from my readers.

I’ve encountered inspiration and have heard that I inspire others.

I’ve formed friendships, found my purpose and even earned an income from blogging. (Watch out for a future post about how starting my blog has helped me support myself.)

Blogging has helped me come back in life and has transformed my life.

All of which brings me to: YOU.

If you’re at a low point or simply lost in life, consider starting a blog.

If life has knocked you out, kicked you down or tripped you up, consider starting a blog.

Same for your business. If it’s stuck or struggling, consider starting a blog to teach more, share more and serve more people.

Note to readers: If you’re inspired and ready to start blogging, check out the hosting company and affiliate partner Bluehost, which I use for this blog. Use this link for a 50-percent discount on hosting and a free domain name. 

9 Strategies to Find Your Life Purpose

9 Strategies to Find Your Life Purpose

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Purpose = Become the Buddha? Or just pose with the Buddha?

“All men (and women) should strive to learn before they die what they are running from, and to, and why.” James Thurber

There was a time when I was doing work that was out of line with my purpose. It wasn’t all that long ago when I was practicing law as a trial lawyer helping those charged with crimes.

It was exciting, challenging and required using a lot of my speaking, writing and persuasive skills. (A lot of my persuasion skills 🙂 )

My days were filled with preparing cases for trial and then presenting the evidence to a jury of 12 who were to make decisions on my clients’ lives.

Shortly after this work, I became actively engrossed in the world of politics. I worked with and helped elect some of the leading politicians in the cities I lived in. Again, exciting and challenging work that really made me feel like I was making a difference in the world.

Once again, I withdrew from doing this work.

Each time I left these careers, I felt a little bit of sadness.

At the same time, I knew I was transitioning from work which didn’t suit my soul completely towards my calling or life purpose.

I didn’t quite know what it would take, but I did know the immediate consequences of my journey included sacrificing promotions, pay and stimulating work.

Despite these personal setbacks, I chose to live more of my life’s purpose so I could be true to myself.

Here are 9 strategies you can use to find your life purpose today.

1) Find a way to serve. If you have no idea what your life purpose is, find a way to serve someone.

Serve at home, work, or a volunteer clinic. Help a friend, a neighbor, your former professor, your mentors, your clients, your cat, your obnoxious boss or even your lovely mother-in-law.

Find ways to give back to people: a way to make their lives easier. If they need help with babysitting, cooking, dog-walking, or dog-searching, lend a helping hand.

If you have skills or qualifications that you can use to benefit others, help them.

In giving, you’ll discover what brings you joy.

2) Find your joy. A decadent chocolate souffle or a hearty steak dinner might make you joyful, but it might also give you heart-burn and cause you to gain a few extra pounds.

Not temporary moments of bliss but what brings you lasting happiness and joy?

Out of all the jobs you’ve had, which brought you the most joy? Write those down. If you hated all your jobs, which skills at those various jobs brought you the most happiness? Note those on a piece of paper as well.

When work stops feeling like work, you’ve found your joy. When you’ve found your joy or satisfied your soul’s yearning in life, you’re most likely living your purpose.

You may like writing, teaching, preaching, singing or running long distances. If each of these bring you joy, see how these activities can contribute to your purpose. What lessons can they teach you about your purpose?

Write down the things that bring you joy, so you can see what common qualities exist between those activities.

Also, try to determine WHY each activity brings you joy. For example, let’s say you enjoy working with people, you most likely enjoy human contact and connections.

If you enjoy making complex subjects easier for others to understand, you most likely enjoy helping others learn and grow.

3) Find your strength. What are you good at? What makes you stand out like a Hollywood star?

If you answer, ‘nothing’, then your strength might be humility because, of course, you’re good at something.

You’re good at something, as much as you hate to admit it to yourself.

When your professor told you that you’re the best researcher he had in college, you ignored him.

When your students told you that you helped them take their practice even deeper in yoga class, you thought it was out of obligation.

When your in-laws praised you for the zea-licious chicken curry you whipped up, you thought it was expected of you.

Often, you don’t acknowledge or admit what you’re good at because all too often you discount your strengths or ignore them altogether.

If you’re painting Mona Lisa-like paintings but not showing them to anyone, you’re depriving the world of your art and depriving yourself of your purpose.

Your personality type can offer clues to your strengths in life. Find your personality type and Penelope Trunk says you’ll find fulfillment and even passion in doing that work.

4) Find yourself. You might want to spend some time getting to know yourself in your quest to find your life’s calling.

A discussion with a trusted pal for self-reflection or other opportunities to take a step back and analyze your life, are good ways to discover yourself first.

Once you unmask all the superficial characteristics and qualities in your life, you will be better suited to find your purpose.

You’ve been conditioned by your family and your community to do certain jobs, have certain beliefs and pursue certain career paths.

Most of these beliefs imposed on you are fear-based and might make you feel like you’re drowning.

A mindfulness practice, continuously listening to your inner-self and reflections on your intuition are needed to bust through all the layers of family, community and society.

Living your purpose unfolds miraculously in front of your eyes when you figure out who you are, what you stand for and what you value.

5) Find your clues. In many instances, you already know your life purpose is, but are in denial about it. Fear-based or scarcity-based thinking deprives you from fulfilling your purpose.

You might already know what you excel at and what your strengths are. You know what people repeatedly compliment you about and what you do well. But you may not be acknowledging the clues which will lead you to your purpose.

Your purpose may have been scattered in various experiences through different educational experiences, life experiences and jobs. It may not even be career-related.

It may have been when you pursued a hobby or tinkered around with some gadgets at home as a kid.

It may have been revealed in a soul-touching incident which brought you wander, awe or desire to re-experience the incident.

It could be something you’re already doing each week or during a part of your day. You just have to grab that captivating experience and pursue it more intensely.

Read more about this in Paulo Coelho’s book, the Alchemist, where he refers to this as omens.

6) Find your motivation. Sure, you have to feed the kids’ dog because you have to. Ok, fine, you want to, as well, to keep the local animal protection agency from coming after you.

You do have to cook for the kids, or child protective services and/or prison time might be involved.

Reports to your boss might be required in exchange for a pay-check.

But what do you do without being coaxed?

What part of your life at home or day at work do you start without feeling like it’s an obligation?

What are you naturally motivated to do? Your purpose isn’t very far from that activity.

7) Find your small and big breaks.

And when you want something, all the universe conspires in helping you to achieve it.” Paulo Coelho, The Alchemist

When you’re doing your purpose, the most interesting manifestations occur. You begin seeing favor in your life supporting the work you’re doing. It’s yet another clue that what you’re doing is in line with your purpose.

Let’s say you’re trying to practice your public speaking skills at the local Toastmaster club and get an overwhelming positive response by all club members. Small break.

Or you started a small personal development and spirituality blog called Vishnu’ Virtues and snagged a guest post on your favorite space in the blog-o-sphere, The Tiny Buddha community. Small break.

Or you’re trying to make it as a professional life sage and guru and you’re suddenly spotted by Deepak Chopra. Big break.

Positive reflection from others or the universe, honors and accolades from others, opportunities to partner, grow and nurture your talents should be seen as indications that you’re on the right path.

8) Find what isn’t your purpose. As my friend Razwana would say, you can’t just sit back downing a glass of wine to discover what your purpose might be.

She’d say you have to get out there and try new things. If you believe something is your purpose, do it. Get your hands dirty, invest in the tools you need, provide that service for a friend or gift that product you made to a potential customer.

Purpose isn’t found in theories and daydreams. Purpose is found in taking action to match life’s work with your being.

Want to be a chef? Take a class? Start a food movement? Start a blog?

Want to direct a movie? Volunteer your directing abilities to local actors at the community college making independent movies.

Believe your purpose is creating a multi-million dollar business empire? Create a product to sell. Start a notebook. Provide a service. Freelance. Start a podcast to help others. Unleash your creative works.

And the caveat is that you may not find your purpose once you do some of this but you will know if it makes you happy and brings you joy. You’ll know if it’s something you want to do the rest of your life.

If it isn’t, eliminate it and keep moving forward.

Test what you believe is your purpose. Continue to do what resonates with you and give up what doesn’t.

9) Find the intuitive voice.

You likely have a small voice within yourself that has been guiding you and directing you your entire life.

Most of the time, you hardly pay attention to this voice.

Most of the time when you didn’t listen to this voice, things have gone haywire.

In the depth of silence, if you listened real intently, you can hear what this voice is saying to you.

It likely has been speaking to you your entire life and pointing you in a particular direction that you have completely ignored, not taken seriously or never really explored.

Is it the time to get quiet and tap into this intuition so you can be guided to pursuing your life’s purpose?

Have you found your life purpose? How did you find it?

I wanted to share with you 3 resources that you may find helpful on your own journey to your life purpose. 

  1. Pick up Paulo Coelho’s book, the Alchemist, here on the journey to your life purpose. 
  2. Pick up my book, One Way Ticket: 11 Ways to Discover Your Highest Purpose and Transition Out of Your Profession, here.
  3. Pick up my book, 7 Sacred Promises, on finding a life of purpose and meaning here

Oh, the Things You’ll Know from the Places You Go: 5 Lessons I’ve Learned in 5 Months of Travel

Oh, the Things You’ll Know from the Places You Go: 5 Lessons I’ve Learned in 5 Months of Travel

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Jammie Karlman is married to a man I refer to as the James Bond of blogging and travel, Bjorn. This international couple of mystery, salsa-dancing and helping others are chronicling their travels on both their blogs which are updated  regularly.

This international duo quit their jobs in California to travel around the world for a year doing service projects. Their plan is to spend 3 months in 4 world cities: Bangkok, Thailand; Buenos Aires, Argentina; Berlin, Germany; and Mumbai (formerly Bombay), India. (They call it the B Tour.) This trip has been a dream of theirs for five years. It’s really an experiment in lifestyle redesign. An international life of do-gooding and adventure is what they want for the long-term. (That, and tasty food.)

Take it away, Jammie!

Right now, we are in Buenos Aires and have just come to the end of our fifth month of travel. The food, so far, has indeed been mind-numbingly delicious. Other experiences (e.g. humidity, taxi drivers that scam you) have been decidedly less so.

But that’s travel for ya — constantly surprising.

Through the ups-and-downs of our experiences, here are 5 things I discovered that (usually) hold true:

1.) You can live with half the stuff you have now. Take the remainder, halve it again and you’re left with what you actually use.

You need less than you think. When my husband and I decided to go on this trip, we got rid of 80-90% of our stuff. And now I can’t remember what most of that stuff was. What does remain is the memory that it was heart- and back-breaking work. A LOT of work.

And here’s the kicker: As we travel, I find I still packed too much. I actually have clothes and shoes sitting in the closet right now that I barely use. This is some kind of craziness to me, especially as I was that girl who had so many clothes she could go a month without wearing the same item twice.

But this is not a rant against consumerism and materialism. I still like pretty clothes, shoes and tchotchkes. But the experience of throwing out nearly everything we owned has made me leery of having too many possessions.

2.) Starting a new life doesn’t mean old problems disappear.

I can honestly say that I am living the life that I want and that I am happy. But that doesn’t mean I don’t have pangs of insecurity and doubt about what I am doing or encounter difficulties with my character development. Just because I am traveling the world does not mean I left my baggage behind.

I had thought that by going on this trip, certain problems would resolve themselves. After all, I would no longer have to deal with particular annoying people. I would have more time to keep in contact with family and friends.

But halfway around the world from where I was, I am still having problems with people and keeping connected. How is it possible that almost all of the taxi drivers I encounter have cheated me or tried? I would like to blame all taxi drivers as being fraudulent, but I know that can not be true. If a problem is that recurrent and pervasive, it must mean that there is something I am doing that contributes to the problem. (Perhaps I lack assertiveness? Or is it self-fulfilling prophecy — I expect to be scammed and therefore I am?)

And I am STILL missing and forgetting people’s birthdays!

My real problem, I realize, is that I had wrongly ascribed the origins of my troubles to external sources (e.g. other people, overbearing schedule, etc.) when really they were internal. It’s always easier to blame “the other guy” when really you need to take a long, hard look at yourself.

3.) Traveling makes it easier to take a long, hard look at yourself.

Aside from questions of how much time I will spend on service projects and devote to sleep, I have a pretty open schedule (I ain’t gonna lie: It’s pretty awesome.) I have found that the break from the rigors and structures of a normal 8-10 hour job has created more space for me; space that I fill dissecting events/experiences that disturbed me. I can’t as easily push these thoughts away; I don’t have the same distractions.

Usually, these events are so disturbing because they reveal something disturbing about me. For example, I recently blamed a taxi driver for a fast meter. I forced him to stop and made my husband and friends jump out of the cab. Turns out that all meters in Buenos Aires cabs go faster at night and that my accusations were unfounded.

Aside from feeling embarrassed, I was mystified about why I had such a violent reaction. Instead of dismissing it with the rationalization that “most cab drivers are jerks anyway” and/or avoiding dealing with it, I thought about the experience which eventually led to the conclusions mentioned in #2 about taxi drivers, and some strategies that I will employ next time.

4.) Traveling makes it easier to change

Aside from occasional visits from family and friends, Bjorn and I have been on our own. I am freed from the expectations of others who “know” me and how they think I should deal with problems or act. I no longer have to deal with what others think I should do or perceptions of what “Jammie would do” by what I have done in the past.

I can reinvent myself.

That makes it easier to attack character flaws from a new direction, to do things that you normally wouldn’t have. Just like a kid moving to a new school can reinvent themselves from shy to fly (yes, I did just use dated slang from the ‘90s) the same holds true with traveling.

Plus, I don’t feel “rushed.” I don’t feel the need to have changed and improved myself by the next time I meet with someone. It’s been a more forgiving process.

5.) You should just do it.

No, not just travel. What I’m getting at (besides possibly incurring the wrath of Nike) is that I have found it is better to take action toward a goal. As mentioned above, my husband and I had been dreaming about this trip for 5 years.

Five years of thwarted longing is not only torturous to the soul, but also enough time to build up insecurity, doubt and fear as obstacles to this trip for another 5 years (10? 15? 20…you get my point). It is better to take charge and take action for what you want. Now.

And here’s the crucially important (at least for me) part: You don’t have to be without fear to do it.

I found a definition of courage that I really like: “the ability to do something that frightens one.”

Notice it does not say that you stop being frightened— but you can do it, nonetheless. I freaked out (read: ran around a room screaming while wind-milling my arms — many times) before we even began this trip. But not even two weeks into our trip, I realized it was probably one of the best decisions I’ve ever made — aside from choosing Bjorn as my husband, of course (Awwww! Hugs, kisses, sweetness, gags. :D)

Now when I get tingles of anxiety about doing something, it’s usually a sure sign that I should do it. Even if mistakes are made. Actually, that should just read: Mistakes will be made. The journey toward the life you want is not a straight line but a series of readjustments.

In a way, that makes change comforting, instead of frightening to me. Even if the actions you take don’t lead exactly where you want, you can always stop and correct course (unless those previous actions lead to death. Please plan your actions carefully and wisely and avoid most things that are illegal, immoral and fattening.)

Who can know what the future will hold? But as for me, I’m looking forward to what I’ll learn in the next five months.

What exciting places you been to? And what have you learned from your travel experiences?

You can read Jammie’s entertaining and informative travel blog here: Go Karlmans.