It All Has Meaning, But It Doesn’t Have to be Hard

This came to me as a mantra the other day in my discernment process. Anxiety, angst, ‘shoulding myself to death’ and frustration are clues on the spiritual journey, information to assess. And mostly it’s showing me what isn’t helpful instead of what is.

While I’ve practiced embodiment for several years now, deeper layers continue to reveal themselves. Practices are how we live into who and how we want to be in the world.

And what I see now is that there are many forces that wish to keep us stuck, forces that want us to be ill, disconnected … from each other, ourselves and the natural world. Healing, for me, begins with embodiment, nature, and dismantling the thought patterns that brought me here in the first place.

And this paragraph from my training has been echoing in my head for the last few weeks: ‘Will this cultivate the stillness in me? This one is HUGE and it’s not often emphasized in our busy, rushed culture. So many things you might enjoy leave you feeling hyped up, manic, and on edge. As one guy who lived on a wild game reserve in Africa told me when he was breaking up with his girlfriend, “I used to think that the excited feeling I got when I was with her was love. But then I realized it was actually the feeling I get when I’m with an unpredictable wild animal.” Sometimes what we interpret as excitement is actually a physiological stress response. Choose the people, work, and experiences that cultivate relaxation responses in your nervous system.’ From How Can You Tell if You’re Being Spiritually Guided, Lissa Rankin, MD.

Choose the people, work, and experiences that cultivate relaxation responses in your nervous system. It really is that simple. And that hard. Stay true. I plan to.

(Photo by Swati H. Das on Unsplash)