Looking to find a greater sense of meaning in life? Across culture and time, people have discovered that committing to something larger than yourself leads to spiritual well-being. We simply don’t do well only thinking about ourselves. Whether it’s to your family, to racial justice, or to the earth, your dharma pulls you out of personal comfort and into the greater joys of being fully alive in this world.

“I have lived what I call a committed life; a life that is governed by my highest commitments, not by my desires. If you live a life of commitment, where you give your word for something larger than yourself, you are constantly in a state of fulfillment. I am not saying that there are no struggles, no problems. It leads you to a life you could never have planned. It does not have anything to do with ambition. It has to do with surrender. You cannot surrender to get that kind of a life because that is cheating. You have to really surrender and somehow it is given to you. When you're living a committed life, your own small desires start becoming petty. My commitment wakes me up in the morning and tells me what to wear, who to meet with, why to go here or there.” — Lynne Twist

When you look at the day to day of your life, what are you committed to? Is it trivial and unsatisfying? Or meaningful and important? By entering the slipstream of your dharma (truth, calling, duty), you enter presence and full participation in life. Mystics call it the “verbing” of God. There’s no way to do it perfectly. No place to start than wherever you are. The world is our field of practice.

The ego wishes comfort, security, satiety; the soul demands meaning, struggle, becoming… All those whom we admire in history had to go through something, and when they did, they learned on the other side that they were still there, though the world was different. Then they began to step into their possibilities and felt more completely the support of energies within.”— James Hollis