"When you are inspired by some great purpose, some extraordinary project, all your thoughts break their bounds. Your mind transcends limitations, your consciousness expands in every direction, and you find yourself in a new great and wonderful world."

-THE YOGA SUTRAS OF PATANJALI'

It is not uncommon to find many people early on in their life who complain about a feeling of emptiness in the depths of their body. A void that yearns to be filled but goes throughout life empty, a black hole that breaks down all their material solutions into pockets of emotion that flash and die out within nanoseconds and leaving the soul as ravenous as before.

The more enterprising folk, take a cue from other people who seem to have it all and look for visual cues to that persons happiness. Their senses programmed to find the most appealing cues centre upon the most visible ones. For e.g. He has an Aston martin which means he's rich, hence he's happy because he's rich. He's rich because he's in a senior position at the firm, which means he is extremely intelligent or kisses the CEO's ass or is lucky……. She's so lucky because she has a boyfriend, hence she's happy and is doing well at work, studies etc. I need to find me a boyfriend to succeed and will henceforth invest all my time and energy into it. Hence we spend our entire time looking for avenues to happiness ….. Focusing on material goods or fragile human relationships as the centre of our existence not aware that they are servants to the machinations of entropy i.e. they break down and leave us in the lurch.

And hence that void still exists and its presence is as strong as ever. It gives out stronger messages of its presence that manifests itself in maladies such as chronic Depression, stress etc. It is our soul's way of telling us we are diverging from our path and what we are meant to be in this world.

So what does this Soul want? The answer is actually simple, a cause… a mission… something that you yearn to serve or contribute to and does not put you in the centre of things, in other words 'you were mean to serve others or a higher cause'.

But doesn't this higher cause mean you can't attain fulfillment until it's over, which for many great causes is takes more than one lifetime The answer is a definite NO: The actions you take towards fulfilling that mission and slowly attaining small goals gives you that satisfaction and makes the void smaller until its virtually non existent. Your very actions setup the foundation for that cause to evolve. E.g. Mahatma Gandhi could not eradicate violence from the world or even India. However he did succeed in gaining India independence and as such gave inspiration to the Civil Rights movement in the USA and the abolishment of Apartheid in South Africa.

And this is where the Paradigm shift makes its play. Once you step into that room, sit back, relax and look deep into yourself and discover the cause you're committed to (your mission in life), your whole perspective of the world changes. You look for work and/or education that ties with your mission and actually look forward to that 8 hrs a day. Financial and Relationship (or lack of) issues take a backseat as you strive to serve that great cause and you enjoy the process. Paradoxically many people find that the things they thought mattered in life come to them unannounced (wealth, fame etc) and they might accept it but they know that they can thrive without it.

Their perspective on relationships change, Relationships become something that is nurturing, something that seamlessly blends with their calling in life. This results in them giving respect to their partners own mission and not stifling them by making their partners the centre of their life and giving them responsibility over their own self worth. However, at the end of the day they replenish themselves by indulging in these relationships.

The paradigm shift is important because it alters your view of things significantly. For example

If someone asked you to write a critique or analysis of the picture in the beginning of the essay, you might write something about the two face's in the picture and what their mirror images represent or you might write something about the symmetry of the vase.

The point is that life too is like the picture above. Sometimes a paradigm shift can significantly alter the way you see and perceive everything in life. One example: you hate math since you were a kid, you didn't see the point. Let's say you or someone close to you got cancer, and you made it your life's mission to find a cure for the ailment, you find a possible cure and need to figure out how it affects a good number of people and to do that you need to do some statistical analysis (Math). Suddenly you find yourself driven to learn that branch of Mathematics because now that has a purpose and you see Math in a completely different light.

This paradigm shift is extremely crucial and occurs when you find your calling in life. Money, Possessions and relationships suddenly cease to be so important.