Dharma and Finding Purpose in an Overwhelmed Life With Suneel Gupta

I’m talking with Suneel Gupta today, a best-selling author and a visiting scholar at Harvard Medical school. His job is to study the most extraordinary people and discover and share simple actionable habits that lift our performance and deepen our daily sense of purpose. His work has also been featured all over.

But our focus today is talking about his newest book on uncovering your Dharma and how to nurture that in your everyday life. If you’re not familiar with the term Dharma, Suneel defines it as the combination of who you are and how you show up in the world. Or in other words, aligning or essence plus expression.

Suneel talks about how he lost his Dharma, how he found it again, and practical tips to help you find your own Dharma if you’re unsure what it is. I love how he compares finding Dharma to a revelation, not so much a transformation. It’s about how to uncover our purpose to discover what’s already there but may have been buried under things that were in the way. And many times this can just mean a few small shifts in our perspective.

The ancient term Dharma may seem like an unfamiliar concept to some of you but I really feel like it helps point to universal truths regardless of location or cultures. I had a lot of fun with today’s conversation and I hope you’ll join me and listen in!

Episode Highlights With Suneel Gupta

• His experience with being clinically obese for most of his teen years
• What Dharma is and the equation for it
• Dharma = essence + expression
• Finding your Dharma isn’t so much of a transformation but more of a revelation of realizing what is already there
• A simple question: what are the bright spots of your current day?
• What rhythmic renewal is and how to use it to your advantage
• The most overrated skill in the modern world: reactivity… and how to combat it
• The world is going to break your heart until one day, if you allow it, your heart will crack open. From that cracked-open heart, we start to find love
• A few practical exercises to begin to uncover your Dharma
• One common denominator in people who seem to achieve a lot of success and have inner success (happiness, gratitude, fulfillment)
• Ways we can help our kids nurture their Dharma from a young age
• Essence mindset vs occupation mindset

Resources We Mention

• Everyday Dharma: 8 Essential Practices for Finding Success and Joy in Everything You Do by Suneel Gupta
• Man’s Search for Meaning by Viktor E. Frankl
• The Alchemist by Paulo Coelho