This is a place I feel familiar with lately, and I’m sure many can relate.
There’s a natural process in our lives that goes by many names. Much like our individual cells go through transformation and die, being replaced by the new, updated version, aspects of our personalities, spirituality, character and such also “die” and we are born into a new experience, expanding on what and where we were before. But it certainly doesn’t always feel like we’re getting anywhere…
If you base your self-assessment on what you see in front of you, what you are currently experiencing, then you might not be seeing much of the bigger picture. With every step forward, as ever, the growth and understanding reverberates out and everywhere around you. Subtle changes happen all the time, and even with every thought. However, just as one can build a callous on their finger from continuous guitar playing, you build beliefs and define perceptions.
If, say, for the past 10, 20, or 30 years you’ve observed and understood something in a certain way, it’s pretty much set in your DNA. Now, say you’ve come to a realization about whatever it may be, have that “ah ha!” moment, and are forever changed in this regard. You start to see things differently, but frustratingly, much of your life remains exactly the same! That’s madness, so why bother?
Simply put, without patience and perseverance, no new beliefs (and thus experiences, manifestations, awareness, etc.) will ever take hold, if it is your intention to do so. The energies that surround your experience thus far are a sum of all that you have been and done from day one. You may have some energetic blockages within and without, and those will continue to underlie what you experience with your senses, day to day, until you make that concerted, focused effort to shift it, release it, and let it go. As you’ve probably heard, in various ways before, there’s no good or bad energy… It’s all just energy, and really up to you what to do with it.
Give yourself credit for how far you have come. Don’t discount the little achievements, but don’t also keep score. If you’re temporarily stuck in a dark space, be in that space fully, and go through it. For you wouldn’t know or understand it as “dark” without the light that completely surrounds it. –tb
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Going Through the Opening
Contracting before Expanding
Sometimes our lives contract before they expand. We may be working hard on ourselves spiritually, doing good in the world, following our dreams, and wondering why we are still facing constrictions of all kinds—financial, emotional, physical. Perhaps we even feel as if we’ve lost our spirituality and are stuck in a dark room with no windows. We may be confused and discouraged by what appears to be a lack of progress. But sometimes this is the way things work. Like a caterpillar that confines itself to a tiny cocoon before it grows wings and flies, we are experiencing the darkness before the dawn.
When things feel tight, it’s easy to panic or want to act in some way to ease the feeling of constriction. We might also spin our wheels mentally, trying to understand why things are the way they are. However, there is nothing we need to do at this time other than to be patient and persevering. We can cling to the awareness that we are processing the shift from one stage to another, and the more we surrender to the experience, the more quickly we will move through the tightness into the opening on the other side. Just like a baby making its way down the birth canal, we may feel squeezed and pushed and very uncomfortable, but if we remember that we are on our way to being born into a new reality, we will find the strength to carry on.
Even as we endure the contractions, we can find peace within ourselves if we remember to trust the universe. We can look to the natural world for inspiration as we see that all beings surrender to the process of being born. In that surrender, and in the center of our own hearts, is a willingness to trust in the unknown as we make our way through the opening.
Source: DailyOM.com
Image: “Second Door, Masons Lane” by Neosnaps
