Share the Spiritual

Are you like me? Do you live thinking that perfection is just around the bend – a more ideal version of your life where you will do everything perfectly? Well, it’s becoming obvious to me that this unnatural state will never get here.

I often expect people to be perfect. I don’t allow for their complete and complex humanity. I tend to strive for a kind of artificial ideal that does not include the whole self. I exclude my own humanness.

I have lived many days wondering if I will ever get things “right.” I have put off life itself while waiting for an imagined future where I will do everything “perfectly.” But this unnatural state will never get here, because making mistakes is the human experience.

It’s all designed to move us forward. Life affords a unique chance to evolve. It gives us a dramatic and dual world. When things are more loving, as they are where we come from, we remain more static. But, when we are here and are faced with human challenges, these repeated difficulties push us to grow. We are offered the opportunity to learn about ourselves and to develop rapidly at the soul level.

What we perceive as imperfection is simply a chance to evolve, and this is the journey. The process is the purpose, and knowing this reminds me to live right now, rather than for an imagined scenario that will never be. Most importantly, the journey is perfect in how it teaches. And we, as expressions of God, are divinely perfect within. We are gorgeous in our unique power.

As an artist, I have noticed that the most beautiful things are not trying to be artificially perfect. They are truthful, and as such, we can relate to them. They call on us to embrace our whole selves and yet to reach higher towards beauty’s ideal. Maybe this shows the appeal for the perfect life I’ve been trying to get to, but what I have been missing is that it’s how we handle things that matters most.

You see, life is a spiritual practice, whether we’re ready or not. It is trying to teach us how to deal with our inevitable challenges. We will always be presented with the painful difficulties we wanted to go through, for that is the point of being here. And even when we fail to rise above our difficulties, our spirits still gain immense lessons to take back home.

I have found that my humanity becomes most obvious when I’m faced with personal upsets. I know all too well the reality of applying spiritual ideals to the messy soup of life, a test I often fail with emotional embarrassment. But, there is always a giant gift beneath the fiascoes I was born to perpetuate. Often, I only see this years later when I finally recognize God’s perfect design. I become moved to say, “Thank you for this lesson, for I could not have gotten here without it.”

It is so freeing to live in authenticity rather than pretending to be perfect. Expectations can be so high amidst our glaring difficulties, but if we let go of this false sense of control, we get to see the truth and know real freedom.

Lately, I find myself rejoicing in the small mistakes I make for the feeling of acceptance they bring. I am wanting to stop fighting the frustration around me, and instead ask, “What is the lesson here?” I am wanting to be open enough to say “I don’t know, please teach me.” I am learning to love my human self completely, with all of my light and shadow. These are the grand opportunities that life offers, and I am striving to cherish these immeasurable gifts.

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Last year, I read about an inspiring Native American “Give Away Ceremony.” In the ceremony, the participants permanently give up a cherished belonging, and subsequently, experience tremendous growth.

Spiritual teacher Drunvalo Melchizedek describes the purpose of releasing something we feel we can’t live without: “because we place so much value on our possessions, and because our emotional body is also often connected to these possessions, profound healings can occur.” The participants in the book each give a sentimental keepsake away and feel deeply changed by what is accomplished. It is a simple exercise that becomes transformational.

While reading this, I thought of my most prized belonging. It is a gold ring that my parents gave me for Christmas at 14. The ring is a simple vintage wedding band, and I’ve worn it for 27 years. Over the years, it has become a kind of symbol to always be true to myself.

This ring bridges my past with my future. Along the way, it has become a token of parental love, self-respect, and consistency. Such is the emotional attachment I have given to this object. And I have felt that I could never, ever part with it.

Well, six months ago in a bout of pre-travel frenzy, I accidentally threw the ring out. Now of course, I didn’t purposefully give my possession away in a beautiful ceremony. I mistakenly sent it to the garbage dump. But I did have to let it go. Consequently, I experienced some invaluable growth.

Material things can largely be replaced, but the emotions that we attach to them are very hard to say goodbye to. At first, I mourned the loss of my little belonging – I’d been through a lot while wearing this ring, but in some ways it held me captive there. My emotions quickly turned into release, and I began to feel a break from the past – from old patterns and expectations, from self-evaluations and limits, and all I’d long associated with it. I began to mentally detach from other objects too – my home, my possessions, and so many things that I used to hold on to very tightly that made me feel safe. All this from a little piece of jewelry.

I became grateful for the unfolding lesson and felt motivated to reinvent myself beyond prior definitions. I realized that I don’t need anything, and especially not a ring so that I can be true to myself.

Our possessions limit us, and losing them can be liberating. The energy once focused on the material becomes available for higher purpose.

Buddhist teacher Pema Chodron teaches that life is constant change and there’s nothing we can cling to for long. We hold onto our things because they offer a sense of permanency. Of course, this goes way beyond the material. We cling to people, experiences, emotions and places. We want something and we try to keep it for our own, but this creates imbalance. Attachment takes us outside of self fulfillment and we become dependent upon things that can never provide what we seek. When we detach, we free ourselves from the cage we have made.

And yet, how do we love something on earth without wanting a part of it for ourselves? I can’t imagine a full experience of life without attachment. I think it is the wanting and releasing that teach us so much. We literally rise above the past and all of our experiences, and we are stronger.

I feel such overwhelming gratitude for my loved ones and beloved pets who have taught me these lessons – who have shown me the spiritual in life through letting go. Love will always survive our desires.

The ring that carried such nostalgia has no meaning to me now. But, what does remain and shine out exponentially is the incredible love for my parents and the self-respect that was symbolized. Love will always transcend our attachments.

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Thank you dear friends for listening and sharing here. This post is devoted to you – for you to express your spiritual truth and say what you think about existence. Please share your thoughts by adding comments, and check back to see what transpires. I can’t wait to listen and learn from you.

Here’s to freely sharing how we see life.

LOVE,

Suzy

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On last week’s post, we delved into our collective and individual shadows. I talked about how I believe we’ve been taught to control each other in little and big ways. Shadow is an integral part of the human experience. The level of creation that we live in requires shadow or dark as well as light, in order to manifest. But now, we are moving towards needing only a small amount of dark to balance the light.

I am learning that awareness of our dark side is vital for spiritual growth. It allows us to see the whole truth that we have to heal. By experiencing forgiveness and unconditional love, we are set free.

It is reassuring to know that the positive and light side of our world is far more powerful than the negative (phew!). Indeed, shadow has no source, and negativity can only be attached and generated within positive souls. Our shadows are secret this way, whereas our light side is open and free.

As we know, light is the expansive, limitless and blissful fabric of our universe. It originates from God – our universal source of all consciousness, and manifests out of source energy. This light is what we ourselves are made of. It is gloriously loving beyond imagination and description, with a love more powerful, immense and overwhelming than possible to convey! Indeed, just as with God, it is brighter and more benevolent than conceivable.

Light, Love, and Sound are manifestations of God. Light is awareness energy, love is creative energy, and sound is the vibration of life. This is what our very souls are.

On earth, Light is said to be the masculine reflection of God-force, and Love, the feminine. I like this explanation because it demonstrates omniscient balance.

Light manifests on earth in many different forms with various qualities, including our sun and sunlight. Everything that we experience is essentially vibrating light, and in some ways, life is simply learning how to master the denser manifestations of this refracted light or “matter.”

Light and Love are of a very high vibration, and if we raise our own vibrations, we become powerful co-creators again. We experience the joy of living.

As we’re all learning, one of the most vital things we can do is to focus our energy on the light side of our world, and the light within ourselves. By doing so, we strengthen it for all of us down here, and it builds. I personally feel we have a responsibility to do this.

Our understanding of light is intuitive and natural, just as love is. Light can be envisioned as a brilliant, white and golden light, and it can be used to heal. Light is powerfully restorative. Medium Sanaya Roman writes “Light is a living consciousness that responds instantly to your call. You can send light to your ideas, the future, your higher purpose, your body, thoughts and feelings.”

You can envision standing under a waterfall of sparkling light, and this will “transform everything around you into a higher vibration.” You can send light from your heart to the hearts of those you love, to help create harmonious relationships. These are all forms of meditation that begin by asking or calling Light. Having a white candle in front of you can be a meaningful and poetic way to begin these exercises. I’ve also learned a specific meditation that gathers a cocoon of light all around you, thereby raising your vibration. I like to think of the butterfly analogy again, where we are set free from our human cocoons. Best of all, I’ve found that light meditation is very easy to do (and as you know, easy and meditation are rarely used in the same sentence!).

If you meditate on Light and envision powerful Love in your heart at the same time, then you will unite these two incredible forces! Send this light to your fears, and let it help you to let go of judgments, and to forgive those who have harmed you (including forgiving yourself.). In doing so, you may experience unconditional love that opens your heart. To me, this is one of the goals of life.

The light side of our world is strengthening every day now, and more and more light is being sent to us. There is actually an energy field above our earth that is separating us into two realities. Dr. Doreen Virtue writes: “we have the choice of living below this energy field or above it. You live below it by becoming fearful about the news stories of the earth changes. You live above the energy field by taking healthy action and staying centered in love.”

Spiritual Teacher Maureen St. Germain tells us that this energy field is a 5th dimensional grid of light. It came from our Ascended Masters who “built” it into our future, so that it would be secure. This is how we will succeed in transforming our earth and ourselves.

You can look for this grid in the night sky, while away from artificial light. It is endowed with Christ Consciousness, the tremendously compassionate love that, I believe, Jesus was able to embody even while human.

Every action that we make in unconditional love is of the 5th dimension and resonates with this grid, helping to anchor the light. When you act with unconditional love, you also help raise yourself into a higher, safe existence, something that I feel we should all be working on. Imagine how, with the benevolent help of this grid, we will create a glorious and positive reality! I think it is slowly, but assuredly working.

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