Living With Purpose

People join from very different starting points.

You might feel restless or frustrated in your career.

You might love your work but want a deeper sense of purpose.

You may be early in your career and want to make thoughtful choices.

You might be retired and wondering what this next chapter is really for.

Whatever your starting point, this course is designed to help you connect with what matters most to you.

The course is delivered online in a highly engaging, workshop-style format.

It combines practical exercises, discussion, and shared exploration within a supportive community.

The course is led by Benjamin Western, who brings over two decades of experience across the humanitarian and corporate sectors, as well as extensive experience as a learning designer and facilitator.

Living with Purpose explores six interconnected areas that together help you build a meaningful life across both your work and your wider life. Here’s how it works.

• Logistics: We deliver one live online session per week for six weeks at 7 pm GMT on Wednesdays. The next course begins on 25th February. 

• Structure: Each session is 90 minutes: a 60-minute workshop, followed by an optional 30-minute open discussion with the group. 

• Group: You will work with the same consistent group each week. This forms a community where you support one another and most likely make friends for life. 

• Style: Each workshop is centred on highly engaging exercises, guided reflection, thoughtful discussion, and practical tools you can apply in your life and work. 

• Inclusivity: Everything is carefully designed to be inclusive. For example, if you’re an introvert who finds group work and open discussion difficult, we ensure that nothing is uncomfortable. Everyone can learn in their own way and at their own pace.  

• Fitting around life: We understand that life can be busy, and it may not be possible for you to attend every session each week. Whilst it’s great if you’re able to stay with the same group for all six weeks, once you’ve signed up, you can join all future courses, with no further fee. If you miss a week, you can either watch the recording we’ll make available or join the next cohort. 

In the wonderful book, Becoming Who You Are by James Martin SJ. he asks a beautiful question: Why do we spend so much time doing things which, if we only stopped to think about them, have nothing to do with who we are?

That question sits at the very heart of this course.

This first part is about awareness. Before you can understand where you’re going, you need to understand what truly matters to you. Not what looks impressive. Not what you’ve fallen into. But what actually makes you feel most alive?

What are the causes, ideas, and experiences that genuinely move you? When do you feel most like yourself? What gives you a sense of meaning, energy, or rightness?

Drawing on the insights of the great mystics and reflective traditions, this session explores awareness in a practical, grounded way. It’s about recognising what already matters to you, rather than trying to invent a purpose from scratch.

This creates a clearer sense of what you care about most and a stronger understanding of what your life may want to centre on. For many people, this alone brings relief, focus, and a renewed sense of direction.

In the first week, we focused on awareness. In this session, we begin to give that awareness a direction.

Most people want their lives to mean something, but many feel unsure where to begin. You might

feel flat in your work, uncertain about what you truly care about, or clear on what matters but unsure how to act on it.

It’s very easy to idealise the idea of a life or career in which a clear sense of purpose drives every day. In reality, it’s not possible to feel purposeful all of the time. Most of us will always have responsibilities, compromises, and things we wouldn’t freely choose.

But what is true is that most of us could live closer to our purpose each day if we simply knew where to begin. That’s what this part is about.

Focusing on Carl Jung's archetypes, this session helps you connect with the causes, experiences, and themes you naturally care about, bringing to life what you uncovered in Week 1. Purpose starts to feel less like something to chase and more like something to live for.

This creates a clearer path forward. Whether that leads to a new career, a reshaped retirement, or simpler daily adjustments, you begin to move toward a life that feels more aligned and intentional.

One of the things that fundamentally changed the way I see the world was understanding that there isn’t just one way to be curious. There are three, and each opens up life in a different way.

The first is epistemic curiosity. This is the curiosity of learning and understanding. Reading books, listening to podcasts, wanting to know how things work and why they work that way.

The second is empathetic curiosity. This is curiosity about people, how they think, what they feel, what matters to them, and how you connect more deeply. That includes being curious about yourself as well.

The third is diversive curiosity, often the most playful. Doing things without a plan. Exploring without a map. Saying yes just to see what happens.

Living a meaningful life requires staying open-minded and deeply curious about ourselves and others. This session explores these three forms of curiosity in a practical, engaging way. We run fun, self-reflective exercises and practical games (as opposed to sharing a bunch of dull theory!)

This creates a shift in how you experience the world. You begin to notice more, try new things, and open yourself to experiences you may never have considered, while staying true to who you are.

By now, you have been developing your self-awareness, you’re clearer on what matters to you, and you’re seeing the world differently. The next step is to think critically about all of that.

Critical thinking can sound dry or at odds with the spirit of the earlier sessions. In reality, it’s a wonderful thing, and this is often the most helpful session. At its best, critical thinking isn’t about being negative. It’s about getting to the root of what’s actually going to make a difference.

Once you start generating new ideas, this session helps you separate what sounds good from what will really work. I often joke that if I had a pound for every great idea that later turned out to be a bad one, I’d be very wealthy by now! Which is why we need to think critically!

We introduce practical models that are genuinely enjoyable to use. Whether it’s a career idea, a project, or a life change, you learn how to test ideas before acting on them.

This creates confidence in your thinking. You become better equipped to make brave yet considered decisions, with fewer regrets and a clearer sense of why you choose what you choose.

In this final part, we bring everything together.

This isn’t about finding a perfect answer or making a final decision about your life. Instead, it’s about understanding what comes next, based on what you’ve learned about yourself over the past weeks.

You’ll have the opportunity, if you wish, to share what’s shifted for you. What’s clearer? What’s still uncertain. There’s no pressure to have it all figured out.

We offer final tools that help you take the next step. Often, this isn’t a dramatic leap but a first step.

For some, that’s enough to create meaningful change. For others, it opens the door to something bigger.

At the centre of this session is community. Everyone who completes the course becomes part of our alumni community, and for some, that may one day mean teaching or facilitating this work themselves.

What this creates is confidence, support, and continuity. You leave knowing you’re not walking alone, and that whatever comes next, you’re ready to step into it.

The Shining Light Project is a non-profit organisation. The course fee is a donation that covers the cost of running the course and supporting our wider work. And we never want money to be a barrier. If you are not able to donate at this time, that is completely fine. No questions will be asked. Simply let us know.

For those able to contribute, we have set a recommended donation based on income level, but please donate what you can. 

• Under £25,000 – Suggested donation of £100

• Over £25,000 – Suggested donation of £200

• Over £40,000 – Suggested donation of £300

• Over £60,000 – Suggested donation of £400

We kindly ask that you please pay in advance of the course start date to support planning and delivery. Once you have joined, you can join all future courses for free. 

We typically run Living with Purpose three times a year and plan to offer in-person sessions in the future. What matters most is not perfect attendance, but getting the most from the course for you.

The next course begins on 25th February 2026 and runs for six consecutive weeks. Whilst it’s great if you’re able to attend all six weeks, once you’ve signed up, you can join any future courses at no further cost. If you miss a week, you can either watch the recording we’ll make available or join the next cohort.  

The sessions will run on the following dates and times:

1. Week 1: Awareness Wednesday 25th February 2026 at 7:00pm GMT

2. Week 2: Purpose Wednesday 4th March 2026 at 7:00pm GMT

3. Week 3: Curiosity Wednesday 11th March 2026 at 7:00pm GMT

4. Week 4: Critical Thinking Wednesday 18th March 2026 at 7:00pm GMT

5. Week 5: Creativity Wednesday 25th March 2026 at 7:00pm GMT

6. Week 6: Flow Wednesday 1st April 2026 at 7:00pm GMT