Where to Now?

Someone asked me the other day, "Why is spirituality so important today?" My off hand response was, "I guess many of us are looking for meaning and purpose in our lives. Just making money, spending it, and having a good time begins to wear thin after certain amount of time." "What do you think," I asked him.

His response centered around relationships. He's still single, wants a quality, committed relationship but doesn't want to compromise just for the sake of a warm body. He also wants to be sure of making the right choice. I asked him, "How would you know when you had all of those guarantees?" He answered, "Something inside always happens when I make the right choices. Unfortunately, something inside always happens when I make the wrong choices, too."

I suspect this is a dilemma many of us face. Learning to distinguish the two types of inner responses--"go for it" and "a warning"-- is the key to mastering spirituality as a practical life skill. Like any skill, it has to be practiced in order to be mastered. I guess the first step to mastery is learning to trust your inner voice, far below the sound volume of your outer voice.

1) Learn to listen with your inner ear. It's constantly providing input to your major life decisions and activies from your "spiritual center."

The second step is learning to trust the insights you get from your inner source--particularly, when they are in opposition to what you have already rationally decided. Keep in mind, your inner self deals with intuitive leaps of faith, whereas the mind deals with the rational road already traveled. They make a marvelous combination! Notice, I have not suggested any action to be taken. Most important, you might not to reject your "inner insight" because it doesn't fit your rational thinking.

2) Learn to consciously embrace your inner insights, without the necessity of making any decision or taking any immediate action. This is the skill of allowing an intuitive idea into your reality which doesn't seem to rationally fit. The normal emotion is discomfort. If you allow it residence for a few days, it engages your rational mind in a conversation about how it might be integrated and implemented. YOU don't have to consciously do anything!

For example, when I decided to move to Utah some years ago from Philadelphia, the external voices I trusted were in unified opposition. My inner, detached voice said, "Why don't we give it a go!" Without knowing what I was doing at the time, I kept asking questions about this new opportunity and before I knew it, I had convinced myself to take it. Once the decision was made, I was mentally gone from my position in Philadelphia and spiriually residing in Utah! (smile)

3) Learn to be open and receptive to an inner, subtle feeling of confirmation that your rational and intuitive selves have worked it out; and you will shortly receive their recommendation! Once you receive their recommendation, you still have a choice to act upon it or not. But most of all, you will have engaged the process of learning to master the skill of spiritualiy.

In truth, most of us have been doing this for years. The place we find the major challenge is when that inner voice tells us we have to change (transform) in some dramatic way. More often than not, we turn off the inner station and put on some loud rock music that confirms what we already believe.

Happy holiday season to everyone who visits this site! and those who don't!