by Lucia Ashta, B.Arch., J.D.,
Guest writer, In5D.com
We all come to the spiritual path differently. For some of us, it is a gradual awakening. For others, it is a jarring lifting of veils that leaves no possibility of return to the way life was before. However it has happened for you, there is one thing we all share in common: No matter where we are on our paths, there is always more to learn; the goal of further growth and a deeper understanding beckons us unrelentingly.
And if we aren’t careful, the desire to advance more, to heal more, to know more, and to release more of that which doesn’t serve us can actually detract from the ultimate goals of spiritual advancement. Spiritual growth is not another thing to put on our to-do lists. It is not something that can be forced. Like everything in our lives, it requires balance.
None of this means that we shouldn’t prioritize our spiritual growth, quite the contrary. But we can get in our own way by wanting to move faster than we healthily can as we unearth decades of emotional scarring and patterning. As we progress, we must allow time for integration of what we have learned and what we have healed.
When we come to this spiritual path, most of us discover that our belief systems are lies or, at the very least, faulty. We are forced to demolish the core of what we thought this world was about and scavenge among the ruins to find the truths that are worth keeping. Then we rebuild. But we cannot rebuild so quickly that we don’t allow our foundation time to settle and grow strong.
It is very important to be patient with ourselves and with the process of spiritual awakening. For a few, it happens all at once. But for the rest of us, it is a constant bettering of our understanding of life and this world that we live in. Be patient with yourselves and with the process.
It is harmful to beat yourselves up because you didn’t achieve all that you’d hoped for in the time frame you projected. It is vital to apply self-acceptance and self-love to ourselves every step of the way. That is the only way that the journey will be truly worthwhile.
Perhaps you chose to commit to meditating every day or to being mindful of every word you say (thoughtful of the energy words carry). Or maybe you decided you would cleanse your body of toxins and you undertook a severe dietary regimen to flush the body. Or perhaps you even told yourself that you would evaluate all your past trauma and forgive everyone that had harmed you. But then the month or the winter season or the year that you gave yourself to do it passed, and you didn’t do what you had promised yourself you would. You might have done some of it; you might have done none of it. Or maybe you did it all. Whatever you did, take caution in focusing too much on the results.
The results are not the most important thing. Rather, it is how you feel about yourself during the process and after. This life is about a series of moments, the steps we take on our journey, and how we carry ourselves as we move onward.
If you told yourself you wouldn’t eat any more sweets because you want to cleanse your body of its dependence on them, but then you found yourself indulging in ice cream, the worst thing you can do is react to this misstep severely. Besides, with most people, the cycle of forbidding something only leads to wanting to do it more, causing many more missteps and their consequent harsh denial. It becomes a difficult cycle to break.
Like the gentle water that wears through impenetrable stone over time, drop by drop, so too your progress can be gradual. Even gradual progress brings cumulative results. Often these results are more valuable than fast ones because you have taken the time to stabilize in your growth before moving on. You have created a stable foundation upon which you can continue to build.
As it is with all life, instead of focusing on the negative aspects of your actions, focus on the positive ones. You might have had occasional “forbidden” sweet indulgences, but was your diet healthier than it had been before? Was it still an improvement even if it wasn’t “perfect?” Even if you didn’t meditate every day as you planned, did you meditate more than you had been before? You slipped a few times and spoke words that carried negative thoughts and vibrations with them, but were you more positive and uplifting overall in your contact with others?
Focus on the good. See all that you have done to improve your life and to progress on your spiritual path. There is only one way to arrive at the end goal of spiritual awakening (if one can ever truly arrive at all) and that is one step at a time.
Celebrate the small steps and the big ones; they are all important. They all take you where you want to go. They all contribute to a better you and a more uplifted human consciousness.
Treat yourself with kindness and compassion and appreciate all that you do to improve yourself and this planet we all share. Accept your mistakes gently. Learn from them. And then let them go. There is much growth to be had in being nonjudgmental with yourself. Human beings are imperfect, therefore, seeking perfection only sets you up for failure.
Value your lessons and your growth. See yourself as the beautiful spirit that you are, and embrace the journey of spiritual awakening for the many opportunities to embody love that it brings us.
About the author:
Lucia Ashta, B.Arch., J.D., is trained in Reiki, crystal healing, shamanic journeying and breath work, the removal of negative energies, and many other healing modalities. She is also the author of metaphysical novels that empower their readers to reach their full potentials. Her books reveal the impossible as possible and carve paths to awakening. She also writes and illustrates spiritual children’s books. She lives in Sedona, Arizona with her family, where every day provides a new opportunity for growth. You can learn more about her and her work at www.luciaashta.com.
This work by In5D is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial 3.0 Unported
Source:
http://in5d.com/ways-to-self-acceptance-on-the-spiritual-path/