It all starts here.
And, as with everything else spiritual the key is honesty. Being human doings running amuck while using survival skills that are no longer necessary causes a lot of damage. It’s as if we’ve been sleepwalking tornadoes causing destruction to ourselves and those around us while unknowingly dying inside. It’s past time to wake up.
The good news is the journey is the best part and since we’ve created a lot of damage it’s going to be a be a very long journey. But that’s okay, we’re not supposed to arrive. If that doesn’t make sense to you then it’s an opportunity to act on faith which is probably something that’s been buried very deeply within you for a long time. Sad, but it can be a new beginning which is what most of us want whether we realize it or not.
I’m a fan of point-blank honesty. No spinning. No twisting. Therefore…no ego. This is the very moment where you may want to clean out your shed that you haven’t been inside of for 10 years, or maybe it’s a good day to clean the house and finish one of those projects thick with dust from sitting untouched for months on end. STOP. Avoidance is one of the biggest mistakes you can make. Let the grass grow and leave the dishes in the sink. When you clean your spiritual house, everything else will fall into perfect order and be accomplished with ease and this will create peace and harmony within you which is spiritual platinum.
If it isn’t simple, it isn’t spiritual, so answering some simple questions is a good start.
QUESTIONS…
1. Are you doing what you want to do for work?
2. If not, do you even know what you want to do?
3. Have you ever had a dream or did you throw down the reins and let life take you on whatever ride it wanted to? Or worse, have you even held the reins?
4. Are you happy with your body?
5. Are you in denial about depression or an addiction or anything else that has you frozen in place and makes you feel stuck?
6. If you’re in a relationship, do you love your partner?
7. If not, are you with him/her because you don’t want to be alone? (And by the way, this is so incredibly selfish. You are stealing that person’s life to fulfill some of your brokenness. Think about it.)
8. Have you tried addressing some of your “issues” before by treating the symptom and not the problem? Are you continually defining insanity by expecting a different result? (The definition of insanity isn’t just doing the same thing over and over and expecting a different result – it’s also thinking there are no options.)
9. Have you ever been happy or have you wasted your time going from pleasure to pleasure in a poor attempt to create some illusion of happiness?
10. What is your financial situation?
SOLUTIONS…
1. Don’t be foolish and quit your job hoping to win the lottery. Appreciate it for what it provides, but tell yourself that it’s only temporary.
2. Your work situation won’t be fixed overnight, but figuring out what you want to do will light a fire inside of you and then things will start to happen.
3. Figure out your dream in life. We all have one. Think about what you liked when you were a kid. What did you say you wanted to be or do? If you never said anything specific, what was your favorite thing to do? Chances are your dream is in there somewhere.
4. The body thing is hard. One thing that helps is having a realistic goal. A friend of mine found an amazing nutritionist and it changed his life. She put him on amino acids, vitamins, etc. which gave him tons of energy and helped him to achieve and maintain his goal.
5. The solution I wrote for #4 won’t be possible if the root problem isn’t addressed. There’s a reason diets don’t work. You can tell that something is a racket if the solution is an “outside” job. Not possible. EVERYTHING is an inside job. Period.
6. If you don’t love your partner then my suggestion is to end it. Some people stay in relationships for the kids, but I can tell you from experience, it is better to be from a broken home than to live in one.
7. If you don’t like to be alone then you need to be alone until you like it. And when you finally do like it, you won’t want to give it up. Being your own best friend is an amazing experience very few people ever discover.
8. The age old insanity problem has never and will never change. Step back and take a real look at what’s going on. And if you don’t think there are any options then you’re saying that because you can’t figure a way out therefore it can’t be accomplished which is arrogant. You have to get some faith.
9. Happiness is a personal thing, but again, it’s all inside. Our thinking is the key to everything. We will bring to us what we think about (the thoughts with feelings behind them). Read about the law of attraction and other spiritual laws. They are real. Have faith. Don’t waste your time trying to disprove them. They operate just like physical laws. They are precise, perfect and always in motion. They don’t care what you think about them. And they’re not prejudice…just like gravity.
10. The love of money is the root of all evil. This is biblical and atheists even believe it. It’s glaring at us from every direction. If you have debt, consolidate it and put it on an automatic payment plan. Do not get into any further debt and don’t talk about it. Thinking and talking about your debt will bring you more debt. That’s just the way it works.
If you wonder what some of your issues are just look at what you don’t like in other people…then own it. The truth is painful, but it is what sets us free. If you really want to be free you have to be honest. Most people can’t even admit the reality of their own lives to themselves, much less to someone else. This is why most counseling/therapy doesn’t work. It isn’t the professional’s fault. If they don’t know what’s broken, then they can’t help their client fix it. And what’s crazy is many people waste their precious time trying to fix things that aren’t broken. Some will even break things to have something to fix. They will try to fix anything and anyone except what’s really broken inside of them. If you are trying to fix someone else, then something inside of you is broken. If you don’t start right there then you will get nowhere and even if you do make some effort you will end up where you started from. This is what I call the truth phenomenon. Real change requires 100% honesty and a lot of faith. When we’re honest we feel vulnerable and we have to lean on our faith and this is what the journey that isn’t supposed to end is all about.
You can have anything you want if you’re willing to “pay the price” for it. The “price” should be hard. The hard is what makes it good. There is no easy way out. That is an illusion. Start your journey by taking a good look in the mirror. Look into your own eyes and tell yourself you love yourself and apologize to your soul and spirit for burying them in your self-delusional deceit. Shake the dust from the tornado off your wings and start your journey. At first it will be two steps forward, one step back. With time this will get better – several steps forward, one step back. Don’t give up…ever. Surrendering is different from giving up. Some people have a lot of fight in them, but they don’t get anywhere because of the insanity thing. They just get tired and tragically a lot of them lose their fight. Surrender the insanity. Don’t give up on your dream.
You will know you have made progress when “those people” who have your negative traits no longer bother you. You will have compassion towards them. Some of your “friends” will go away. Their thinking will be too small. A good way to judge any type of relationship you’re in is to ask yourself how you feel when you’re around that person. You will want to have more alone time. You will look forward to waking up and you will be excited about your day. These are just a few things that will happen. It actually gets way better than this. Believe it or not, one day you’ll accept life on its terms and stop asking why. You’ll enjoy not having all the answers and be grateful the journey isn’t supposed to end.