There is a season for everything under the Sun. Winter is upon us, the fresh chill in the air brings a rejuvenated sense of quietness and serenity that other seasons simply cannot not emulate. The cooler days are perfect for hibernation, slow down and make time for ourselves to getting our shits together so we can somehow feel alive again.
I often envy the type of people who breezes through life, rarely thrown off course no matter what hits them. Others life like myself flounder every turn, weight down by life's challenges, real and imaginary. Most of you out there are probably somewhere in between, minds are occupied with the humdrum of the everyday life, strive to meet the conflicting demands of life between work, family, friends and leave a little personal space for self-reflection.
The need for external validation in this old world something I have struggle for a long time. I became fascinated with the idea of soul searching to thine myself to be true and walk my own path - What if we take a deep breathe and to dive in the fresh billabong of experience, would that open up new ways of seeing the world with our fresh eyes?
I long for escaping to the spiritual retreat, seeking to connect with the inner-self and to energize the soul to counteract any negative emotions that I desparetely need to grasps a control of. Taking the time to slow down in the constant flux of ebb and flow nourished the soul does wonders to strengthen our hearts and rejuvenate the mind. Sometime ago, I've embarked on a soul journey - And I'd really like to share with you so you can get a sense of what it's like to step out of the rat-race of the society, walk away from humanity and truly be peaceful with yourself and others.
For this reason, I meditate every night before I go to sleep. The calming plinky-plonky to unwind, and the essential oil on the burner so keep you pay attention to the rhyme of your breath - moving in and out of your chest. That so many of us call this "mindfulness". Apparently, it's important to relax to build rapport with your subconscious mind which becomes active in your first four sleeping hours. It basically tells you that whatever you visualise will somehow manifest in reality by the law of attraction - Would you choose to train your mind to think positive or negative?
If you think that the soul journey is all about love, roses and rainbow, think twice...Really. Could you fathom how some people say that spiritual path is not for the faint hearted, despite of how positive much thinking you've imposed on yourself? Have you heard of timid souls who talks about dark night of the soul, a longing for some other worldly reality, something transcendental, elusive, magical, that makes ordinary life meaningless. Truly a vale of tears but that's for another post.
The soul journey or the spiritual path is not going to make your life "easier". It basically mean that it could be easier if you accept life it as it is just the way we accept ourselves. Yep, life isn't about feeling pleasant all the time. It's about being fully present, letting things in with minimal resistance to make things more difficult, so that it could move through you. This profound sense of acceptance is a humbling thing, we surrender to the universe. After all, everything changes in the fluidity like the changing power of the waning moon, repeats in cycles.
Life would still let you down, trot on you dreams. Deep down, for all the suffering and disappointment , you know that means little if you aren't attach to life too much. There's some true wisdom when Beatles sings " Strawberry field, nothing real, Nothing gets too hang about. Strawberry Forever." In Mayan language that's called "illusion" - "It doesn't matter too much to me", sings Beatle in "Strawberry Field Forever".
From time to times, life may not hold up to our approval or love. But when we do approve and love ourselves, we open ourselves that "secret place" - profound change happens. Like Westlife sings "When we find that special thing, we fly without wings" in that deep, deep surrection. For many of you may hope that you can surf on that "Higher-consciousness", you'll be constantly trying to get that nirvana feeling back like a crack whore. The spirits upthrow you in a washing machine and you're still looking for life to make you happy. In the most essence of it all, the first step of being content with your spirituality is when you relinquish the need to be made happy - understanding that happiness if a personal choice even in the most difficult time of our lives.