What is a Spiritual Journey?

“We move spiritually as we drop attachment to who we think we are. To ask is to know your identity; to let go is to transcend it.

‘I drop the roles and identifications I have collected and live from the authentic center of myself.’

‘I am still a loving person when I let go of the need to make things come out right for others.'”

~David Richo, When Love Meets Fear

When I chose to leave my teaching career the first time round, it was because an awareness had emerged within me that I was no longer satisfied or fulfilled with my work.

Once we realize we can’t stand it anymore, whatever it is, we must quit, walk away, let it go.

This, is living life as a spiritual journey.

As David Richo says in his incredibly insightful book, “When Love Meets Fear:”

“Spiritual receptiveness happens by meditation, affirmations, and other spiritual practices. “Letting go” is the main feature of this balance.”

When we deepen our connection within, and we make space for guidance, receiving that wisdom can often become an act of letting go. We see where we are attached to an agenda, being right, a role, an identity, grudges, etc. We give it up and over to a higher power.

We surrender, finally admitting, that we are not in control.

Awareness, regarding leaving my career, came subtly at first, like a gentle breeze on the wind.

Whisperings that I no longer felt fulfilled, that I didn’t care for this identity, that I wasn’t inspired.

I began to want for space, freedom, time to play. I wanted to practice spiritual receptivity in its form of “non-doing.”

I needed to know that there was another road. I needed to know that I could change course, jump-ship, turn the boat around. I needed to know I had choice, that my life was my own, and not an inherited blue-print from family of yore.

David says it so well here:

“ As long as we are attached to a certain definition of ourselves, we are holding ourselves back from a rich variety of experiences.

As we drop limiting identifications, we allow ourselves room to respond to the existential moments that present themselves to us one-by-one.

This is what is meant by living in the here and now. It involves a definite shift away from our dependence on tried-and-true methods of operating in the world. Instead we discover a new realm of options that goes beyond our old self-image.”

Leaving was the best thing I ever did. I say it was a radical act of faith on my part.

Faith in spirit, God, Higher Law. Faith that I am sustained by the love of God.

I had to do it, for my heart, for my soul. I had to do it as an act of a spiritual warrior, I had to put faith in the mysteries of the yearning that comes calling in the night, that had to be valued over any inherited day-time duty.

This is our charge. This is the call. It comes for all of us at some point and we must put our faith in the unseen over the tempting treasures of the external world.

I cashed in my retirement. I had room on my credit cards.

I wasn’t saving for someday, I was living for today.

I cut expenses, made a budget, and allowed myself to believe what I knew in my heart to be true:

• We are powerful creators, capable of magic.

• If we are not happy, we can let go and find something that inspires us- in fact, we must,  less we allow our spirit to dwindle and die.

When we begin to unravel the inherited aspects, shed the identities put upon us, and find our own true voice, then we open to the spiritual journey. (We are always on one, anyway, life is a spiritual journey.)

For me, I found the space of non-doing. I found time to meditate and listen to my yearnings. I found time to travel & explore, and best of all, to write-to creatively dive deep like never before.

A spiritual journey looks a lot like small steps for ourselves. It looks like loving ourselves enough to give ourselves what we truly desire.

It can also look like a fierce mama Grizzly Bear, or Kali with her swords. It doesn’t have to be nice, nor is it always pretty, for love is a radical stance and a powerful ROAR!

Sometimes, in this day and age, just giving ourselves priority, space, time to linger without doing, time to tap our creative well, can be like guarding a sought after treasure. We have to be fierce & value our energy, value our time.

The secret is that all the riches dwell in our sacred heart, that all we need know- rests in our awareness- just waiting for us to drop distraction, let go of pleasing others, and gently rest into the soft, warm embrace of the great ONE that is always, everywhere.

The jobs, accolades, bonus checks…none of these will fill our well.

We only long to know everything through the ONE that matters, our own sacred vessel, our own access-point, deep within our heart.

Listen, listen to your heart as it speaks to you.

Act voraciously upon its promptings, for this is our charge as a spiritual being, and this, my friend, is the spiritual journey.

We will be lead, drawn, unfolded into an infinite possibility of a creative magnitude we cannot comprehend. Let go…for there is actually nothing to which we cling…empty space it all is...empty space.

Ride the wave…

xo

Rachel Claire

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