What is a Hidden Why and Do We All Have One?

I get asked this question often and as often as I get asked it, I ask others. “What is my hidden why or indeed what is a hidden why?” Do we all have a why and if we do what does it mean and how do I find it?

Valid questions considering the title of my website and podcast, and because I claim to help and assist people find their hidden why. It is not like looking for your lost car keys, to find your hidden why is not as simple as looking in the last place you left it. It is not like finding a lost dog although if you put out posters on some local community boards, others, like myself, might help guide you to find it.

While your hidden why is not a tangible item that can be found, when you do find it, like the keys to your car, it can take you to places you wish to go. It’s liberating! Not like releying on public transportation of the conformed path society has set out, being the driver of your life can have much greater rewards.

Finding your hidden why is not immediate, although for some it may appear this way, it takes time to reveal it. It for that reason that you need to place many posters on walls seeking guidance and to keep digging to help you discover it. You need to ask more questions both externally and within. You need to become more aware, reflect more deeply and experience more widely. You need to travel back into memories of the past and jump of the track and start cutting new paths forward that are your own.

When a dog has a purpose, to find that bone it buried weeks ago, it traces itself back to locations once travelled. Memories of our past are usually a good place to start in search for our hidden why. Things that use to fire us up, get us excited or make us happy may be signs of our greater essence. Once a dog picks up on a scent of a buried bone it begins to dig. It digs here, it digs there, it digs holes deep and wide. The stronger the scent becomes the more obsessed we become.

Our domesticated lives tend to cover our soul and in doing so don’t allow our true why to emerge or unfold. This is why I refer to it as “hidden” because it is there we just have to uncover the blockages of our soul to allow it to once again be expressed and in expressing our essence may our greater why arise.

Our why is a greater sense of purpose and greater reason for existence. This varies from one human to the next. An apple tree has the purpose of baring fruit, in particular apples. A human I believe has the purpose of being in a state of peace and happiness yet how we go about achieving that state of existence is complex and wide.

You may have the purpose to put on a jacket to keep you from getting cold. That is a purposeful action that has useful benefit. What then is the purposeful action that will allow you to live with greater happiness? These will be determined in the behaviours you adopt influenced most likely by the thoughts you have and how your feel moment to moment.

When we are mindful and the mind is connected with our soul we are more aware. Just like our senses tell us when it is cold or hot to remind us of what actions we should take so can the mind when connected with our soul to better direct us more truly in life.

There is a great quote that says, “existence comes before essence.” I like that and believe this to be true. Our soul doesn’t exist without a mind and the mind doesn’t exist without a body. Although some argue that our soul will carry on in spirit after our existence, while that’s a nice thought, how can this be true? Because without a body and mind to allow a soul to exist how could we then be aware of any soul that may exist or not? The thoughts go deep on the subject of why.

I like to think that we are all born with our own unique soul. This soul is carried in the egg and when fertilised energy is release to form our existence. The growth of our body comes about. This bring about heart, the truest connection with our soul, and then our mind that helps connect the body to the soul. If our soul is covered in gunk that has come about by a disregard of listening to it and using the heart, then our mind will just direct us based on the external reality that our body is exposed.

On this level the path that we proceed will not truly be our own and therefore our why will not emerge. If we do the work to clear the blockages and start connecting and listening once again to our heart and soul may we then discover our greater purpose.

Do we have a why? Yes, I believe we do. Is it innately within us? For this I am not sure. Your essence and purpose will evolve as you experience more of this life. While it may be purposeful to put on a jacket now it might be necessary to remove it along the way. Whatever it is you do you will know if it is true to you by the way it makes you feel. I can only suggest that when you start to walk the path that aligns more deeply with your soul that your will notice it by a heightened and more inner level of happiness. May you discover yours.