Spiritual Growth Happens In Cycles

The calm after the storm

Six People in Black Matching Clothes Dancing at DaytimePhoto by Haste LeArt V.

Whenever Life “hits” us, and it always does , especially if we consider ourselves to be on a spiritual path — we have two options.

The first one is the option we’re conditioned to choose. This option is about turning everything into a problem.

We cannot control the world with its infinite parameters. Attachment to pleasures and happiness are pointless either because Life is both the beautiful and the ugly.

We’re living in times of changes, which is lightly portrayed in the news as well as what we observe around ourselves. But, too much change too quickly is tough to handle for the physical body, and that’s why we’re unusually tired lately.

Still, most of us have grown in a certain environment, with a certain conception about what the “real” world is. Having this conception shattered to pieces as is occurs today feels unsafe. That’s why we cling to the past. Clinging to the past unfortunately creates resistance, which puts us in conflict with reality as it unfolds.

This resistance is expressed in how we mourn about how great things were before. It expresses itself through our desperate attempts at rearranging the world like it was before.

Obviously, resistance entertains lower emotions. By lower emotions we mean emotions that do not benefit our growth but rather, deteriorates our health and limit our evolution.

The thing with lower emotions is that the more you indulge in them, the deeper into the rabbit hole they pull you. And trusting our way out of such a hole isn’t always a solution.

Unfortunately, this is how most people deal with tough times. But let’s change that one step at a time. Now, the other option.

This option is more counter intuitive. We’re not taught about it at school nor in the general conditioning of society. Perhaps we use it in certain states, but most of the time, we rely more on our programming to respond to challenges.

We’ve often heard of the Higher Self, but practically, what is this Higher Self?

Essentially, the tool we’re using, the human body with its mind, has a deep subconscious programming which can be called the “lower self” or “ego.” Most teachings unfortunately condemn this part of us, which is in fact responsible for our suffering, but the truth is that as “imperfect ”as it seems to be — it’s also perfect, for what we’re here to learn.

The lower self is therefore essential to living on Earth. It only becomes a problem when it dominates how we live and behave, as is the case for most people.

See, human beings are a bridge between the animal kingdom — and the “divine ”kingdom. Human beings’ capabilities are endless. We can choose between many options. And that’s what makes the human experience so miraculous.

Do we want to live our lives dominated by the pursuit of pleasures at whatever cost? Do we want to acknowledge our lower self, and embody higher traits here on Earth? The choice is up to us, and how we live on a daily basis express our choice.

Embarking on the spiritual path obviously says we’ve chosen to bring more divine traits into our lives. As we heal ourselves, investigate things, teach ourselves new and more harmonious ways of living, whether through a teacher we trust or through the reading of different materials, which are by the way all “fated” to happen, we pull in more and more of those higher traits to ourselves, which at a certain point results in a significant transformation.

The Higher Self is therefore just that, the part of us that is aligned with the Higher Principles of unity. And working our way on the spiritual path invites more of this aspect of ourselves down here, to our experiences of Life on Earth.

Now, coming back to the subject.

First of all, challenges come into our lives to test us. The spiritual path is cyclical in nature. What this means is that sometimes, all is fine and we’re just learning the theory part. At other times however, out of nowhere, everything turns against us, and that’s the practice part. How? Well, everything we’ve learned is asked to be put into practice.

If we choose option one in times of crisis, by resisting and making a scene all the time, we prove to the universal mechanisms that we did not learn our lessons. If, on the other hand, we remember all those things we’ve learned — it will help us recognize that we’re being tested, and because Life is our number one supporter, we will receive innumerable guidance from all directions as to how to proceed.

And this, dear friends, is how we prevail against darkness. Not through violence or brutality, but through strength and wisdom. Doing this correctly awakens us to higher levels of awareness —and with those awakenings, we realize more and more how strong we’ve always been, how capable we are, how connected and united with Life we are, and how “fated” everything has always been.

These realizations bring us peace, but also alignment. We learn to accept each instant as it unfolds, we’re involved in the giant dance of existence yet we’re not attached to it. We see people, animals, trees, stars and everything in between — yet deep inside, we know they’re extensions of ourselves, as we are to them.

As a final note.

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