The Search for Meaning: What Makes Life Truly Worth Living?

If you died tomorrow, would the life you're living today be something that you're truly proud of? We're all searching for meaning, but what does it actually mean to live a life? Well, we're talking about this and so much more in this episode of the Wellness and Wisdom podcast, Liberated Life series. All right, Mar. So meaning, we all want it. It's very fleeting at times. I know in my life I have chased success, I have chased approval, I have chased money, and guess what? None of it worked. Can you all relate to this? Have you ever chased any one of those three things yourself, Mar?

I feel like I've been struggling with it for a while now that I feel like I have to chase something. Otherwise, what is the purpose of life if I'm not chasing anything, if I'm just being. And it's probably the hardest part of letting go in life, just letting go of the idea of that we have to achieve something and have a legacy to leave behind or to even find a specific purpose that is going to make us feel fulfilled. But what if the purpose in life is just to be and to love and to enjoy the little things that God created for us to really enjoy?

That's a beautiful question. It's also a very feminine question, which is why I love having you as the co pilot here, because I bring a very masculine mindset to things. And when I hear you speak like that, I'm like, well, yes. And so I'm not saying what you're saying is wrong. I think what you said is beautiful. And I think a lot of women who, who are listening to the podcast or watching us love it, because that energy is within me. On the screen right now, y', all, is the logo of the podcast, the Pentagon that, you know, we nourish the five sides of the Chalice of Renewal, which is this water symbol, this upside down triangle symbolizing feminine energy and nourishment, and then the circle. The circle is a wholeness and completeness or a return back to God so God can experience God self. Now, why are we searching for meaning in the first place? It's interesting, this question. You know, our ancestors, Mar, they didn't have the time, freedom, and they didn't have the affluence that we have to even sit here on a podcast and have our voices go through satellites and even pontificate on the question, what's the meaning of life? They were too busy living it. They were too busy in survival. And I find it quite fascinating that we can even. We're so blessed that we can even explore this topic. So if y' all are feeling like your life doesn't have any meaning, or you're feeling lost, or you're feeling anxious or depressed, or you're experiencing just a low in your life, maybe you're angry at God, I've been there. I get it. This episode is going to be perfect for you. So take a deep breath, buckle in, and just know that even after achievements for many of us, there is a feeling of emptiness. I have felt this before for sure. I remember my first goal Mar I was like, when I can make $10,000 a month, my life will be amazing. And then I realized, oh, my God, I have to pay a team. And then I was like, okay, well, once I hit 20,000 or 30,000 or these numbers, then I'll be okay. And I watched myself create these false ideals that once I reached a certain thing financially, that I would be able to take a breath. I'm here to tell y' all that Biggie Smalls was correct. Mo money, mo problems, but also mo opportunity for growth. Like, we can have anything we want in this life if we're really clear on why we want it, who we are and why we're doing it. If we can get really clear on those three things. And I promise you, by the end of this podcast, I will give you the exact eight step formula called authentic abundance to do so. That's my promise. You're not going to leave this podcast without something you can really apply to your life. So if you're feeling one of those things that I expressed earlier, one of those emotions, stay tuned. Mart. The science around anxiety and depression is interesting. The emotional epigenetics that we've been going really deep into as a podcast, as a movement, obviously it's not about chasing one thing. It's not about being a millionaire or being a mother or father of six kids or being a best selling author that's published across the Internet. All of these things can be really fleeting. Really, what I think we're looking for is alignment. We want to feel aligned. Emotional epigenetics is the science and the spirit of understanding how trauma gets imprinted and how we can let it go. At its core now, there's many different parts of emotional epigenetics that we talk about in our Liberated Life tribe. It's on the screen right now. Liberatedlife.com well, why do we explore this in the first place? It's because we're all searching for meaning, but we all go through challenges because the meaning that we think we want turns out to be meaningless. We look in empty corridors trying to find things that make us feel whole. We go and get big bank accounts or beautiful men or beautiful women, and we think that we're going to finally be able to take a deep breath and feel whole. But we still feel empty. Now, why is this? It's because there is a sunk cost fallacy in this world. We have so many fallacies that we entertain on an everyday basis because we go deep into what we think will give us the fuel and give us the reward. But then we realize at the end of it that we have sunken all the cost. But that's a fallacy. The sunk cost fallacy is about we think that we lose time or lose money or waste time or waste money by figuring out what we're going to have to pay the cost to give us the result, the meaning, the reward that's going to allow us to feel whole or feel like we won. But I'm here to tell y', all, and I'm reminding myself this, too. You are never lost. You're not broken. And you're never on the wrong path. Every single choice that you make or that we make, it's always leading us back home in some way. Even if it takes you way off the path. Even if you're homeless and you're a drug addict, you can still come back to your center at some point in your life, if that's your karma and if you have a connection with God, which is why it's so important that we nourish the Pentagon. So what am I saying here? Your freedom comes when your biology never argues with your reality. It's a core aspect of emotional epigenetics. When your somatic intelligence, when your neural tree and your physiology and your unconscious mind has been cleaned effectively. Intergenerational trauma, environmental toxins, beliefs and emotional patterns. Once these things have been cleaned, then you can have a basically blank slate to go find the meaning that's going to light you up in the first place. Then you can actually go find the meaning that you're searching for, that you're longing for. But if you're clouded and you're burdened bioenergetically, it's going to be really challenging and honestly, sometimes impossible for you to get the answer to what you're looking for. And that is, why am I here? What am I doing here? What's the point of all my suffering? The answers come after you do the work to clean yourself, to be able to have the capacity to even answer that question. In the first place, it's kind of a paradox. So, Mar. I just shared a lot. Is there a part of what I shared that you can see playing out in your own life? In other words, have you ever searched for meaning that you thought would give you meaning, and you realized that it gave you emptiness or a lack of meaning from your search?

I definitely have been searching for the meaning since I was very little. I was really obsessed about the universe, and I was reading all the books about the planets and what's out there just to understand it a little bit better. I didn't know that's what I was looking for. But now looking back, I can see that I was already searching for that when I was 8, 9, 10. Right now, I can see that the meaning has been a little tough for me to find. And it's because after I went through a lot of difficult stuff, a lot of struggles, it kind of disappeared because I did feel like I had a meaning in life. Before I could enjoy the present moment, I was happy with what I had. But suddenly I started having all of these big goals and big dreams and things that I wanted to achieve, Places where I wanted to be not just physically, but also mentally and spiritually where I wasn't quite yet. And it created this heavy burden in me. And I realized that unless I'm able to enjoy the mundane things like washing the dishes and doing the laundry and cleaning my apartment, then I'll never even enjoy the things that I'm striving for in life in the future, like having the big dream come true. So that's been my practice lately. Just, can I find some joy and some peace in washing the dishes, like, going back to the really, really simple things? Because if I can enjoy the things that seem so boring and so, like, everybody has to do it. It's, like, part of life. If I can enjoy that, I feel like I can enjoy absolutely anything in life.

That's really good. There's a book called Zen and the Art of Motorcycle Maintenance. It's a pretty thick read, but it's super worth it. And the concept is juxtaposed off of another Tibetan Buddhist concept, and that is, before enlightenment, chop wood, carry water. After enlightenment, chop wood, carry water. So before enlightenment, you're actually doing the same things. You know, being with your kids, going to your job, you know, working on your passion, doing the dishes. You do all the same things after, quote, enlightenment. And I find this utterly fascinating that I have fallen into the trap. Like, I mentioned before, that once I make 10,000 or 20,000 or 30,000. It's just like this moving goalpost that keeps going up and up and up and up and up. Because this is the big part that people miss when it comes to feeling fulfilled, honestly. And if you want a life that's truly worth living, you've got to let this sink into your heart. The bigger the dream, the bigger the struggle, the greater the reward. I'm pausing because I really want you to hear that. The bigger the dream, the bigger the struggle, the greater the reward. If you want to, no shame. If you want to eke out a life where, you know, you're just tending to a garden on a hill and milking goats and making cheese, great. I mean, that sounds pretty good, actually. I would love to do that. But I think my soul, because of the other aspects of authentic abundance that I'm going to share at the end of this podcast, I think my soul, when it went through its maturity process, knew that there's just something off with this world. And once I went through my spiritual clean out to inherently become a vessel where I could see exactly what I wanted and become exactly the person that could achieve, and achieve is the wrong word, embody that which I desire. That's when everything shifted for me. And to the degree that I resist the fact, the whole truth, that when I have a big dream, I have to be open. I get to be open to massive resistance. Not just on a weekly basis, on a daily basis, sometimes you guys, on an hourly basis, on a minute by minute basis. I've had days as an entrepreneur getting super clear on our vision as a team and as a movement that every single moment of every single day feels like resistance. And resistance is a signal from life itself that I get to learn something. Because like you said, Mar, in the beginning, it was such a great answer. It was such a beautiful, nourishing, feminine answer where you're like, yeah, what if it's just about enjoying life and being happy? And I think we all feel this. I think we all want this on a deep level. But I remember Jordan Peterson was giving a speech and he said the purpose of life that many people want is they just want to be happy. But happiness is a fool's game because. Because you can't ever know happiness unless you know its opposite. So if your goal in life is to know a singular myopic experience like happiness, then you would never actually get to feel it for its fullness if you didn't experience its opposite. And so I believe the greater the struggle, the greater the happiness potential. It's the snake eating its tail. It's the yin yang that's on the screen right now. If we don't know the center point of God experiencing God self by knowing its equal and counterpart opposites, then the whole paradox I'm describing to you that might be a bit jarring to even take in right now might be dismissed because it might be too much to handle. And I'm here to tell y' all that this understanding of the balance of opposites is not just something you're going to get right away. It's something that comes with maturity and time. So there are moments that hint at this. Like, a good example of this is when you're in service. Mar have you ever been in service and you just feel like, oh, my gosh, today was so good. I was in my purpose. I was serving something or someone else bigger than me. And I know it's not exactly where I want to be right now, but God, today felt really good. Have you had experiences like that?

Yeah, many, many times. And the fun part is it doesn't have to be something so meaningful. Like sometimes, especially in the growth and spiritual development area, people are always trying to help people and be like, I'm going to be a coach. I'm going to be an ayahuasca guide. I'm going to hold these retreats and teach people how to live life. But it doesn't always have to be so deep. It can be something very, very simple when we are of service to somebody else and to experience these moments. So for somebody, it can be just creating something beautiful. It can be fashion, it can be design, it can be furniture. Whatever it is, it doesn't always have to be so deep. So I just had this really beautiful experience last week when this couple asked me to do a little ceremony for them to exchange their vows because they just got engaged and they wanted to have a symbolic ceremony to get married. And just the feeling of being that vessel for them, to hold that space for them, it was just so beautiful. I felt like that feeling that I felt inside was like, wow, I really, really missed that. That's exactly what I was waiting for for so long.

Oh, that's so nourishing. Yeah. Witnessing love and being a space like you were for love is so rewarding because all the focus is just on love. It's so cool. It's such a beautiful thing. Yes. We talked a lot about already in this lls. That achievement can be hollow if it's not coming from a true place. When you're with this couple it's just coming from a true place. You don't have to achieve anything. You don't have to be anything. You're just there witnessing their love and supporting their love. Now, it would be great if everything in life was like that, but the paradox is that not everything in life is like that. So what do we do, y'? All? This is the big question. What do we do every single day to practice meaning, to cultivate the meaning in our lives? And I don't think meaning is something that we find one time. In my opinion, meaning is something that you express on a day to day basis. And so here is my formula that has worked in my life. I'm 45 years old now. It took me over 10 years to develop this formula. It's in our tribe. That's on the screen right now. Liberatedlife.com and Mar, I think this is the first time that you're going to be hearing this as well, because I've been working on it for so long, I'm finally ready to share it. So this is the authentic abundance formula that is on the screen right now that has eight steps. Values, identity, purpose, dream, vision, gift, give, receive, and repeat. Let's go through each one very quickly because this is going to be a way that you can journal. And I promised you this podcast was going to be actionable. If you've been feeling depressed, anxious, meaningless. If you've been feeling like where is God? I promise you, what I'm about to show you very briefly will be the starting point for you to get clear on how you can cultivate meaning in moments where there's not just a big bowl of love that you can bathe yourself in. Because life isn't always like that. So the very first one is values. Get very clear on your values. We have a specific process for you to get clear on your values. Remember, values are different than virtues. Values are a belief set. Like the Ten Commandments were values. Virtues are much different. Virtues are behavior. So get very clear on your values. Values is the key. Nothing else comes in your life if you don't have 100% clarity on your values. Next is your identity. This is what emotional epigenetics is all about. When you shift from who you are, which is your current self, and you get out of the never ending loops that feel like they're there at times of the lower self, and you receive wisdom from your higher self, then you will actually go through an identity transformation process. So once you're very clear on what are your values, then you can go into true identity transformation. But here's the thing. You cannot shift identities unless you know exactly what your values are. If you're not, if you don't have an end destination, then anywhere will do. Next is understanding what is your purpose. When you have a clear purpose and you've done the work to figure out your purpose, which, by the way, your values and your identity shift have to be in place first, then you can actually start moving in the direction of fulfilling that purpose. Well, how do we figure out our purpose, Josh? There's a process for that. You go through the values, you go through the identity, and that's going to give you a lot more clarity on your purpose. We can't cover this in one quick podcast, but I'm giving you the framework that you can start journaling on if you just write these eight things down. Next is your dream vision. So if you were to execute your purpose, what would be the exact vision, the exact outcome, specifically? And write it down. I will reach this many people by this date. I will make this amount of money by this date. Speak in the I, speak in affirmative and use nlp, where you're actually coming from an I mindset or an I language. After you've gotten really clear on your vision, what is the gift that your vision gives to the world? What is the benefit of you listening to this podcast, of you being here with us? It's so that you can see life through a different lens. And when you see life through a different lens, wow, maybe this is the first time that somebody's even talked to you about authentic abundance. Maybe this is the first time that you've even had somewhat of an order to the craziness that you feel in your mind, that's a gift. Anytime you can give somebody peace, save them time, make them more money, or make them feel more fulfilled, that is how business works. That is the gift that you're going to give to the world. Then how are you going to give that gift? Now you've gotten all this clarity. Look at how much clarity you already have. Now you're going to give this gift to the world. How are you going to give it? Are you going to be a coach? Are you going to be a healer? Are you going to be a podcaster? Are you going to be some type of a therapist? How exactly? What's the medium that you're going to give your gift through? And then how are you going to receive money for that? How are you going to receive an energy exchange for this hard work that you've done on Yourself getting clear on your identity, your vision, your values, your purpose, your gift. How are you going to receive that? How much do you charge for your services? What does that money look like that's coming in for you and how are you going to receive it? And then most importantly, how are you going to take a breath and feel good about what you've done? And how can you repeat it so it's on the screen right now? This exact eight steps. Values, identity, purpose, dream, vision, gift, give, receive, and repeat. This is the formula that authentic abundance is all about. And we go deep into this in the Liberated Life tribe. Mar, did you resonate with one specific part of the eight steps, or is this the first time you're hearing it and it's like a fire hose?

It's the first time I'm hearing it. But I do resonate with practically all of the steps. It just makes logically sense. And also just thinking about the process that I've been through on my own, I do feel like this is more or less vaguely what I've been figuring out on my own. But I wasn't following a certain plan. So this makes it so much easier to actually look at it. It's like, have I been through step one? Can I move on to step two? Can I move on to step three? And then slowly figuring out the whole the bigger picture.

The cool part about this is you don't have to do this with me. Isn't this great? I gave you those eight things that I figured out without the help of ChatGPT. But now guess what? We live in a world where you could take my formula and you could just rip it and deploy it yourself. You could literally take the eight things you saw on the screen, you guys, and you could put it into your CHAT GPT with all of your history, and you could be like, chatgpt, build me out a life plan for this and it'll do it for you. But here's the thing. When you go to execute, you're going to meet yourself. And this is where ChatGPT will never be able to take human form. We can get all the plans, we can get all the knowledge, we can get all the intelligence that we need from GPT. But the only way that that is going to become wisdom is if it lives in your body, if you've embodied it. And how do you embody something? You pressurize it with time, you learn it through life experience, and then it becomes embodied. There's no shortcut to embodiment. I, believe me, I've Tried. Oh, my God. I would have loved to have shortcutted embodiment Mar. It would have been so nice to not go through so much suffering. But this is the way it is, y'. All. So here's. Here's what I want to say to give you a clear call to action from my heart to yours. Take these eight steps in the authentic abundance formula that I've created, and I want you to go into GPT and try it. Tell it to build out a life plan for you and then bring that Life plan into liberatedlife.com, show us your plan, and then realize that once you start to execute on that plan, you are required to do it in community. There's actually no way around it, because you're going to meet the parts of yourself in silence that are trying to keep you stuck. But. But those parts can be illuminated in public. I'm going to say that one more time because this is like the biggest take home. This is the third biggest take home from our podcast today. When you're in private and when you're alone, all the parts of you that are blocking you in silence, they don't need more plan. They don't need more information. They don't need any more templates or guides. What those parts of you that are in fear of stepping into the next caliber of self need is illumination. They need illumination from your community, from your tribe members that are going through the same journey themselves, that have learned that these voices that keep them held hostage in silence are fucking liars. They're liars. They don't tell the truth. They're just based on the emotional epigenetics and chemical messengers from our past. Because our parents, God loved them, didn't teach us how to do this. They just. We're learning how to do this together, y'. All. That's what this is all about. That's why you get to do this in community. And. And that's why you don't need another plan. That's why I'm totally cool to give you my life's work. I could be like, here, I figured this out over the past 10 years. Take it and use it. I don't care. You don't have to pay me anything. Just go use it. But here's what I know. When you start to execute and when you start to nourish the five sides of self, and when you start to execute your plan of abundance, you will meet yourself. And there's nothing to be in shame about there. We all meet ourselves every day. So it's really about nourishing yourself and making sure that you're moving in that direction, that you have a plan, that you know who you are and that you know what you're doing and why you're doing it. And most importantly, that you do it in community. Because we are not built to do it alone. If you try to do it alone, y', all, good luck. It's just gonna keep you stuck. I mean that from the bottom of my soul. Mar we talked about a lot today. I like to keep our pods short, but this one, it's such a massive topic. How are we gonna do this one short, right? Like, what did we miss? When it comes to the reason that life is truly worth living and our search for meaning in the confusion that we experience, what more clarity do you need?

I'm not sure if clarity I wanted to share more of something that has helped me find more meaning in life. Because sometimes we just ask ourselves, like, why do we suffer so much? Why is there so much struggle? But there's a way to perceive the struggle in a different way. Because since we live in this dualistic life, in this universe, it's easy for us to just define everything as either good or bad. Which is a famous quote from Shakespeare. Nothing's neither good or bad. But thinking makes it so, which is true. And so when we perceive suffering as either neutral or even something that could benefit us, then are we really struggling? Even if it's so difficult, in that moment, we can still have that notion of, no, this is good for me. Bring it on. I know this is going to bring something much better, so I'm just going to push through it, not with a force, but just with acceptance. I would say acceptance is really, really important in these times. So that's something that shifted everything for me. So now when I'm faced with something really, really difficult that I don't want to do, where I feel a lot of resistance, then I just bring myself back to that, okay, I know this is good for me. I know this is going to bring me to the next level. It's going to bring me closer to the dreams. And I really just trust that there is a meaning behind it. Because without trust, I believe there's no point. Because otherwise there's no meaning if you don't have the trust in it.

There's an incredible graphic that I saw on social media a few months ago, and it's on the screen right now, and you all can see if you're watching on Spotify or YouTube. This is so good. There's a person sitting on a bus on the left side looking at a cliff. And the bus is driving on the cliff. There's another person sitting on the right side looking out at the sun through the windows. And they both say the same thing underneath. Life has no meaning. Life has no meaning. So you can either focus on the clouds and the sunshine, or you can focus on the rocks and the dirt and the dismay. This is actually it. And there's a lot of maturity that has to come in order for somebody to realize that God is everything and nothing at the same time. And the meaning that we are living here is the meaning we create. We're meaning making machines. Well, why is that? Because none of us know exactly why we're here. And the ultimate maturity that comes with not getting the answer. I mean, how many times have I, like, been so screaming and angry with God? God, give me the answer. What are we doing here? What is this all about? It's not just me. It's Robin Williams who committed suicide. There was a interview of him interviewing another actor. And he was like, God, where are you? Give us a bone. What's going on? What are we doing here? He eventually took his life. He focused on the rocks. He did cocaine, he did drugs, he did alcohol. He wasn't nourishing his Pentagon. I truly believe from my own life experience that I could have killed myself. I could have. I could have gone so deep into porn that then I would have allowed myself to go into drugs. And then once you go into drugs, it's only a matter of time before you die. And these things are a focus of the fact that there is no meaning. And when I focus on the fact that there is no meaning and I allow that truth, that there is no meaning other than meaning that we create to control me, then the only meaning that gives me any value, any sustenance, any fucking hope of what we're doing here is the love that I feel in my heart when I hold my children, is the love that we feel with each other when we connect on something real, when we feel truth about subject matter, when we make love with each other that we care for, when we bring children into the world, when we make a beautiful meal because we want to serve people in our home. These little big things are what the meaning of life truly is. This is the whole point, y'. All. The whole point of why we're here is to learn how to unconditionally love ourselves and others. It's a fucking brutal school. That's why we're not supposed to do it alone. That's the whole point of this thing, is that it's impossible to sit on one side of the bus and look at the dark and look at the rocks and focus on how there is no meaning and do it alone other than cultivating curiosity within yourself and looking at the rest of the world and going, wow, everyone else is having the same struggles I am. Everyone else is having the same heartbreak I am. Everyone else is figuring out how to live life and what's the meaning of this whole thing like I am? If we can choose to focus on that aspect of our being, then, yes, we're going to experience drama and trauma and hardship, but, fuck, at least it's going to be worth it. At least we're going to learn how to love ourselves unconditionally. At least we're going to learn how to love our wife, our husband, our family, our friends, our society, for Christ's sake. That's the whole point. And if I would ask God one question, if there is, like, gates in heaven or whatever it is, I don't actually think there is. I think we go back to, like, a drop in the ocean personally. And I don't think that I'll never know you again, which is why it's so special that we're here doing this. I would ask, hey, why do you need to experience yourself in unlimited ways? What's this all about for you? And you know what the voice would say, you don't get to know. Which is exactly what that voice has said to me in every ceremony. Because I've gone there, Mar. I've been. I've asked God, what's the point of all this? What are we doing all this suffering and growth for? And there's always this playful kind of loving response that comes back to me, and it says, you don't get to know. You don't get to know. Just keep going. So you get what you focus on, y'. All. Okay? Go to liberatedlife.com. focus on the things that bring you the joy. Deal with the things that arise that are not, but don't do it alone until we see you another podcast. I'm wishing you love wellness, but most importantly, above all else, peace and power. You cannot have real power unless it comes from peace. We'll talk with you soon, Sa.