Keep At It--Don't Give Up

Practice Opportunities

“Spiritual growth is about the point at which you start to feel your energy change. For instance, somebody says something, and you start to feel the energy get a little strange inside. You will actually start to feel a tightening. That is your cue that it's time to grow. It's not time to defend yourself, because you don't want the part of you that you would be defending. If you don't want it, let it go.”
Michael A. Singer (The Untethered Soul)

If you take on the work of spiritual growth, don't expect to walk around in bliss every day. Don't think the divine finger will touch you and make your life rosy and placid from that point on. Unfortunately, it may be just the opposite. Once you make a conscious decision that you want to grow spiritually, and by that I mean move from a fear based to a love based way of being in the world, you will be given many opportunities to practice—every day, sometimes every minute of every day. If you’re anything like me, you will fail a lot. It's not a one-and-done kind of thing. It's a practice-until-you-get-better-at-it kind of thing.

Life provides many occasions to practice awareness of when our internal barometer swings toward fear. Emotions like anger, envy, resentment, jealousy, judgement, come storming into our body/mind and upset our perfectly good mood. Walking a spiritual path does not help us become less human; it just helps us to manage the harsher side of human emotions a little better. When "that guy" in the office, the one who's always kissing-up to the boss, says something ugly to you, or insinuates that you are incompetent, you will still feel your blood pressure bump up a notch. Then, you begin to chew on what he said, and heat rises up inside you until you’re hissing like the alley cats fighting outside my bedroom window at four o’clock this morning.

There is an alternative. When you feel that snarl curl your lip, stop, take a deep breath, and walk away. Continue taking deep breaths until you feel calm, and your energy returns to normal. The internal dialog is like gasoline on a fire. Shutting it down is the key. You will not change “that guy,” but you may reach a point when you appreciate him for giving you an opportunity to practice. Nah, probably not, but practice anyway for the sake of your blood pressure, and your soul.

Some opportunities to practice are more difficult than others, such as when people we love say cruel things to us, or when we see them go down a path that we know leads to suffering. Often, we will fail in our effort not to let fear have the last word. But, keep trying. Every time we meet the challenge to respond from love instead of fear, we get better at it. One out of three successes is better than none. Practice will not make us perfect, but it will make for a happier life.

In the Spirit,
Jane