From Pity to Praise

Your spirit is what remains in you when everything else is stripped away..

It is the very core of your being; The seed from which you grow; The spring from which you drink.

Yet, sometimes this seed lies dormant and this spring runs dry. You lose touch with the part of you that is the most real and authentic.

Every single second of modern life is packed full of distractions that leave you stressed, anxious, and disconnected from your sense of purpose and meaning.

Beneath it all, your spirit sleeps deeply, too deeply.

You feel it. I know you do. I feel it too. The nagging itch that can’t be scratched; The thirst that can’t be quenched; The yearning that you can’t quite put your finger on.

These are the messages sent to you while your sleeping spirit. It compare you to reach within and awaken it from its slumber.

It wants to show you a different way to live, a more peaceful way that travels with the flow of existence, rather than swimming against it but you do now.

It sounds great, doesn’t it? But how do you wake something that has been sleeping for so long? Well, you do it gradually. Near-death experiences and other extreme events aside, the spirit is most effectively woken by peeling back the many layers that cover it.

These layers are the mental constructions that consume our every waking second. They are the thoughts, the fears, and the endless noise – both internal and external that fill our minds.

It may sound counterintuitive, but one means of ridding yourself of these mental layers is to ask questions.

Such questions that will get you thinking, these questions can also help you to identify things that are preventing you from connecting with your spirit.

The following question should be asked often, multiple times a day if needed.

It This Really Me?

When things aren’t going how you’d like them to go or even when they are you can ask this question.

The aim is to help you surrender the misconceptions surrounding who you are. These include the idea that you are your thoughts, your emotions, you circumstances, or your body.

We get so distracted these days, and sometimes even try to be someone we are not.

When we really sit and contemplate those things, we begin to realize that we the real us, ask that has existed since birth and will exist up until death (and possibly beyond). Are more than what we think we are.

Conversely, we are less than what we think we are.

Right now you equate you with all the things we have mentioned: thoughts, emotions, circumstances, and body.

Yeah none of these things are fixed, none of these things are permanent. So ask yourself this: if these things are ever changing can they really be me?

And a few things are not me, who am I? What am I?

Those layers we spoke of earlier, the ones that suppress your spirit and keep it asleep, they are the things you wrongly believe you are.

The question, “Is this really me?” Becomes a tool that you can use to loosen and eventually remove them one by one.

The less you identify with these layers, the more you begin to identify with the real you that has lumber for years, decades even.

What Can I Let Go?

This follows logically from the previous question. If there are things that block my spirit, can I let him go?

Sometimes this is something you can do directly with experiencing an emotion or thinking a thought. You can identify it as a temporary creation that is not who you are, accept that it happened, and then say goodbye to it.

It sounds so simple. It is… and it isn’t.

Thoughts and feelings feed off each other, and they can be difficult to release during the event.

For example; I was taught for many years that I was worthless, so I have an adult I thought I was worthless, my emotions therefore we’re being depressed and sad all the time. My thoughts led to my emotions. It was not who I was- I really was a happy optimistic person.

Don’t beat yourself up if you get caught in the moment. It happens, show yourself some compassion and understand that you can still let go of something after it happened.

Let go of the regret, let go of the guilt, let go of the need to be perfect. Life is messy – Thoughts and emotions especially so.

On a larger scale, asked what aspects of your life might be preventing your spirit from waking up.

Are you unhappy at your job? Are the relationships that lead you unfulfilled? Are there responsibilities but why are you down?

Maybe you can forward your plan to change your life in ways that will see these things disappear. Or if they have to remain, perhaps you can find ways to live in harmony with them.

Whatever it is you resent, know that the very feeling of resentment is not a part of you. It is just another thought-emotion storm that consumes your energy, which in turn, prevents your spirit from waking up.

Your expectations – let them go too. If you have dreams, work towards them, but don’t let yourself be defined by the outcomes. Somethings work out, but most things don’t. You either accept it or you punish yourself for it.

Let go of your material desires. Look around you – what possessions do you have that do nothing but burden you? Are you drowning in clothes? Are you dependent on electronics? Your attic and garage packed full of “things” that never see the light of day?

Get rid of them. Give them to a worthy cause. Relinquish your grip on them and their grip on you.

Whenever you buy something new, get rid of something old. Keep your life and your mind open and uncrowded.

Your spirit needs space in which to move and thrive. To create space, let go of anything that currently fills it.

I feel like I’m writing this for me instead of you. I have to admit my weakness is clothing. I’ll bet I have three totes hanging around that I haven’t looked in for months they are full of clothing.

Am I Viewing This With An Open Mind?

So much of our lives are seen through the lens of our views, beliefs, expectations, and desires. None of us ever experience a true, unpainted version of reality.

We can however, move in the right direction by regularly asking whether we are keeping an open mind toward things.

Our spirit does not judge, it has no preconceptions about what should be, it simply embraces it is what it is.

By being open minded, we can grow in tune with our spirit and encourage it to come out of hibernation once more.

So, whatever circumstances you find yourself in, and whatever beliefs or ideas you are being exposed to, don’t let your past taint your response.

In other words, don’t let the things you’ve been told, or the experiences you had, prevent you from living in new ideas and new ways of doing things.

This doesn’t mean you have to give up your critical thinking skills, but it does mean you have to be willing to accept that there are other ways to act, live, and think.

Stubbornness, inflexibility, intolerance – these will only serve to suppress your spirit, for they are its antitheses.

Openness, willingness, and enthusiasm are the mental characteristics that fall from the spirit, and they can fall to the spirit if you adopt him.

What Would A 4- Year Old Me Do?

When we were young, We were almost entirely driven by spirit. We have a pure, unadulterated view of the world and are completely open minded to experiences and possibilities.

Then, as we get older and our minds fill with fears, worries, prejudices, misunderstandings, and all those thoughts that we take together real, when they are, in fact, constructions of our own minds and what people tell us, along with our egos.

So, to reawakened your spirit, you can ask what your younger self would you and your situation, and what they think regarding a particular topic.

What would they say and how would they act when they encounter others? Were they embrace them as fellow human beings, are we use them with distrust?

Would they be like in the simplest pleasures and squeeze out every last ounce of goodness from their day, or complain and ruminate over a lack of everything.

The innocence of our youth can be kenneled when we see the world through our childhood eyes.

The sense of awe, the curiosity, the willingness to connect with other creatures and the wider world; these all act as alarm clocks for the spirit, stirring it from its sleep.

Who Do I Serve?

Your spirit your connection to a greater whole.

Whatever you believe the link is a physical, energetic one, or a more conceptual, ideological one, your spirit is at the heart of it.

With this in mind, the question of who we serve is perhaps not as odd as it sounds. after all, the connection is two-way, and to receive from without, you must first give from within.

When you act, you should do so with a consideration of who is affected by your actions, and whether the effect is positive or negative.

You should and to be a source of a positive influence by serving others, helping them, showing them love, compassion, and kindness.

You needn’t consider your personal boundaries either. No one is going to appreciate a kind act or word occurs from some misguided compulsion of self sacrifice.

But when your spiritual vessel is replenished, you should be willing to pour from it to help fill someone else’s,

Just remember your spirit is an outward facing conduit between you and the rest of the world. Serve others and you will be served.

That indefinable presence in our lives, our spirit, is something that needs caring for, something that needs prompting, something that requires our awareness.

Right now, we live in a time where our individual and collective spirits are put into a form of induced coma. We have to turn our backs on them in favor of more ego driven impulses.

It doesn’t have to be this way. All over the world, spirits are waking up and they are ready to rouse others.

Are you prepared to open your curtains and let the morning light shining?