Last week we asked these pressing questions: How do we stop seeking and striving for the depth and awareness needed to reach true awakening? How do we make a shift that will create lasting change?
Understand that for any concrete and lasting change to occur, we have to be willing to change. Without this willingness, we may simply be seeking a change that doesn’t actually involve us!
I can say that for me, I felt pulled to change. I knew the way my life was going was not the way I wanted it to go, but I felt stuck as to how to change it. At the outset, I was in such a deep territory of not knowing where I was in life that I had no clue how to make a shift. Setting out on a path - any path - was the baby step I needed to take.
I needed to be in an environment where I felt safe and nurtured. I needed to hear something that resonated with my own personal experience at the time. It was something I needed to hear that made me feel less alone, less afraid, less separate. And it wasn’t until I did, that I felt ready to look at the truth.
The truth involves letting go of those long-held perceptions that keep us imprisoned in patterns of behavior and ways of being which prevent us from living a life of freedom, peace, and joy. Letting go of those beliefs involves looking at ourselves deeply.
The process of realizing the truth about ourselves isn’t always one that makes us feel better!
Often, when we look at things honestly, sincerely, and truthfully, we find it’s not an easy thing to do.
I remember part of this process in my own spiritual awakening. It was NOT fun and it wasn’t easy. In fact, it was quite painful and involved a tremendous amount of long-repressed emotions and perceptions. The process was fraught with many tears, lots of late night conversations with spiritual teachers and good friends, and more than just a few sleepless nights.
But I distinctly remember getting to a place in my life where I felt called to uncover my own “stuff” so that I could stop some of my repetitive behaviors. I wasn’t happy. In fact, I was pretty miserable. I like to say, though, that at least I had an inkling that the change I needed to make would ultimately have to come from within me.
Many of us believe the answer to our happiness is somewhere “out there.” Maybe if we just have the fancy car, the master's degree, the pretty girlfriend, the bigger house, everything will finally fall into place.
We’ve bought into society’s sales pitch that we need more, different, or better to be at peace. Once we achieve that “thing,” all will be well.
That’s simply a delusion.
So the first step in awakening is literally to feel and answer the call within that knows better - the little voice that says something has to shift and the shift has to come from within.
Something within us has to shift
There is something inside that begins to nudge us into realizing that the truth is better than just a momentary reprieve from striving, grasping, craving, and clinging. Something is telling us that it’s time to break free from the delusion to try to feel better in the moment. If we’re aware, we begin to realize something deep inside us wants the truth more than it wants to feel good.
And for most on the spiritual path, it’s the uncomfortable stuff from our pasts and our suffering about it that is actually the catalyst to our awakening.
I remember this moment in my life. It was a deep realization that the only thing that needed changing was me.
We can’t awaken or achieve enlightenment on the edges of an enlightened teacher. That would be like thinking if I just read enough, go to enough retreats, or study enough, I’ll awaken on my own as if it’s a linear educational experience.
Another delusion.
That nudge inside to awaken is actually what gives us the courage to start to unravel and examine all the ways in which we delude ourselves.
It’s this nudge which calls us to begin to take full responsibility for our lives. Taking full responsibility for our lives means uncovering the lies we tell ourselves. It means really looking deeply at what makes us tick.
The lies we tell ourselves
What are my limiting beliefs, and where in fact, did they originate? In this inquiry, we begin to discover that life is not about any of these limiting beliefs. They are just a bunch of stories we have told ourselves (or someone else has) over and over again until we stopped questioning their veracity.
I have been blessed to marry my meditation practice with my spiritual life coaching practice for exactly this purpose. There is nothing more exciting than to be in the presence of someone who is being nudged to follow their path to awakening while understanding that doing so means they must give something of themselves up in the process.
Many of us feel that nudge. We feel called to take some kind of action to elicit a change or an awakening. If we’re truly listening, we’ll reach out for assistance with the process.
If you’re feeling that pull to make a lasting and permanent shift in your life, listen. Take action. Put yourself on the path toward awakening by beginning to investigate some of your old patterns of behavior.
Ask yourself honestly what you are unhappy with and why. Listen to yourself and the answers your own soul brings to the surface.
Your Journey
A great way to begin hearing that voice is to develop a personal meditation practice. The practice of meditation serves to build the muscle of stillness in your mind. When your mind is still, you can hear your spirit talking.
Walk the spiritual path with eyes wide open to your part in the process.
Let’s connect. Join me for a BRAND NEW online COMMUNITY MEDITATION & CONNECTION or schedule an INTRODUCTORY CONSULTATION with me for chance to begin exploring what that little nudge might be suggesting to you!
Let us at Satsang House, help you to begin the process of rediscovering the vision you have for your future. Let’s start to uncover, discover, and discard some of the limiting beliefs which have you stuck in old patterns of behavior and unable to break free.
