Fulfillment is a state in which one feels fulfilled. It can be a state of bliss or more quiet contentment. But it also quite literally means that one is ‘full’ of something positive and meaningful. When one feels fulfilled, one usually does not feel empty. It is a state people thrive, although one is never empty. There is always the self, which may feel small at times, but which has the potential to fill the universe. So, fulfillment has a lot to do with our way of looking at things.
So how does one find fulfillment? By filling oneself up with something? Well, it should not be anything, but what aligns with one’s needs, values and aspirations. What is relevant and meaningful to us makes us feel fulfilled. And what this is can be highly individual. It is different for different people. We can fulfilled by really connecting with ourselves and feeling the sense of self that already fills us into the tiniest nook and cranny. Since the sense of self is our experience of the information flows we carry in us, fulfilment is related to meaningful information. This can also be a memory or a sensation in the current moment. All these are information flow, which we can change by redirecting our focus both in the external world and in the internal world.
Past experiences of fulfillment can give you some insight into what may also fulfill you in the future. If you feel you are still looking for it, then it may also be that you are trying to find fulfillment in places that are not that important or relevant to you on a deeper level. It can be a challenged to find what is sustainably fulfilling, but you already carry that information inside you. Fulfilling is ultimately not only what satisfies a temporary need but aligns with your long-term needs and values, the ones that are meaningful to you in the world. We may sometimes think that the things at the surface, such as a nice meal or a job promotion, are in themselves fulfilling. However, they re are more like a break from wanting more. Real satisfaction and contentment come from tapping into information that goes beyond, the inner reaches of your world, but also what you see in the outer world that resonates with that inner world. This conectedness and communication are what fulfilment is really about, the experience of being fully filled.
Fulfillment should also be possible in the now, rather than in some distant future. If you need to feel fully filled in the future, but don’t do now, you are constantly pushing fulfillment into the future. This can lead to a constant craving for fulfillment, which can lead to greater unhappiness. Think about what it really takes to feel fulfilled for you personally. What are the real requirements? It cannot be what someone else thinks, because no one else knows you as well you know yourself.
Fulfillment does not mean inertia or passive contentment. Just the opposite. It means you go beyond the horizon and innovate. Creativity is easier when one already feels fulfilled than mostly empty. In this sense, a feeling of fulfilment is not the end, but a beginning. When you are fulfilled, you want to spread this feeling, rather than keeping it to yourself. You are just so happy that you have it that you want to experience what others feels when they see it.
We are already filled with ourselves, so fulfillment does not depend on what you learn. These are merely the tools to express or channel fulfillment into new forms. Certain communication skills can make it easier to spread the feeling of fulfillment, but you need to feel it yourself first. You cannot sustainably spread something that you do not feel yourself. The more you can feel fulfilled with yourself, the more you can help others feel fulfilled with themselves. Just imagine what a happy planet our little world somewhere out in the vastness of space could be. But it begins with your inner reaches of space and the joy in exploring them. When you really connect with yourself you have access to sheer unbelievable variety and resources. Overcoming the fear to do so is an important aspect of any therapeutic journey.
The central enabler of feeling fulfilled and sharing it with the world is connecting with yourself. This may sometimes not be so easy, and there can be powerful forces and fears to resist it. Overcoming these fears is an important part of feeling fulfillment. The fear that it is never enough can stand in the way of fulfillment. But it is important to recognize that this is only a feeling, a feeling of emptiness, where there is much. The emptiness is an illusion because we are not connected enough with ourselves to be able to experience and feel the vastness of our inner worlds and the sheer immensity of the self.
Fulfillment is even better when you share it with the world, and there are many ways to do so. Fulfillment is a choice and all is already provided within the internal world from where one can journey into the external world to find the resonance with the things in the internal world. Realising this can stop the feeling of being a hamster on a wheel in purit of a sliver of happiness at some unspecified time in the future. It should also make it easier to make changes in the external world, so that it can align more with the inner world. Major an dminor changes in the external world are much easier if one can find and connect with the inner sense of fulfillment. After all, the outside world is largely a reflection of our inner states. If I look at my room I may see a mirror image of my world inside. Is it creative chaos. or Zen like simplicity? Or both? Important is that I can sit in it and experience the fulfillment of just being there.
© 2021 Christian Jonathan Haverkampf. All Rights Reserved. For more articles, see www.askdrjonathan.com. To contact me, please see www.jonathanhaverkampf.com or www.jonathanhaverkampf.ie. I am also a guest on www.wordnets.com. These are just my thoughts. I may be wrong.
