Has it has been that long since I said goodbye to my house in Pennsylvania and headed to Chicago area to start a new phase of my life? It feels as if I just left but much has happened from mundane water issues and appliance trials to more spiritual challenges. I’m told the astrology of the recent past is all about retrogrades. Yes, it feels like there is always something in retrograde! I must say, my experience with that one step forward, three steps back challenged me and I wonder, if I need to remind myself I am making choices, how many people are on autopilot and don’t realize they are choosing? Choice is the first of the five words because recognizing that you choose your life allows you to take responsibility for and power from your choices.
Knowing there is always a choice does not equate to being right minded. Choosing anything based on habit, peer pressure, and fear demonstrates a lack of self-awareness and courage. What is essential to living an honorable and spiritual life involves questioning old habits and the life-long training that spawned them. No, not all habits are bad but all need to be evaluated based on what is truly important to you as a divine being walking a spiritual path through a messy time. We are in the middle of some very messy times.
It is time to choose to take a hard look at our personal stories. How does one get past the auto responses and find a way to kindness? It is done one step, one experience, one reaction at a time. I was shocked at how easily I was able to go back to a dictatorial angry person just because little kids were being little kids. What happened to me? Where, after all the work I’ve done, did that come from? Looking at the whole picture, I found that my reactions were hardwired into my nervous system. The sensations that wound me up and set me off were physically painful. The triggers were predictable and so were my reactions. Does all of this excuse me? No. That is where choice comes in. That is where the tools for spiritual growth and process come in. We must make ourselves bigger, better, and more kind by stopping our automatic responses and by removing reactions that are not in keeping with love.
Feeling great sadness, I was up much of the night running through the experience, considering how it could be justified or appropriate. It was clearly an over the top reaction and the deep sorrow I felt couldn’t change the effects of the behavior. It was up to me to change it. I thought it through, where did I over-react? What would have been a better approach? How could I have acted that would have taken me to the desired place and preserved everyone’s dignity and light? Once I came to the solution, I practiced it. I made up different scenarios and adapted my newly developed response. When life presented me with the opportunity I was able to respond with my new approach and it worked.
Remember, our public stories are a reflection of our personal states of being. As above, so below. Our public mess is not messier than our private one. It is a reflection of it. Compromised standards and double standards are crippling not only our national life but our personal lives as well. We must center ourselves in the consciousness of divine love. We must hold ourselves accountable. We must make studied choices about how our lives will proceed. Our nation is split right now and the gulf is getting wider. To fix that, we must fix the part of us that allows imbalance, injustice, ambivalence, wrong thinking, or worse yet, unconscious action or reaction. We need to check in with our souls and choose to be more.
As always, your questions and comments are welcome.
Love always,
Katherine
Knowing there is always a choice does not equate to being right minded. Choosing anything based on habit, peer pressure, and fear demonstrates a lack of self-awareness and courage. What is essential to living an honorable and spiritual life involves questioning old habits and the life-long training that spawned them. No, not all habits are bad but all need to be evaluated based on what is truly important to you as a divine being walking a spiritual path through a messy time. We are in the middle of some very messy times.
It is time to choose to take a hard look at our personal stories. How does one get past the auto responses and find a way to kindness? It is done one step, one experience, one reaction at a time. I was shocked at how easily I was able to go back to a dictatorial angry person just because little kids were being little kids. What happened to me? Where, after all the work I’ve done, did that come from? Looking at the whole picture, I found that my reactions were hardwired into my nervous system. The sensations that wound me up and set me off were physically painful. The triggers were predictable and so were my reactions. Does all of this excuse me? No. That is where choice comes in. That is where the tools for spiritual growth and process come in. We must make ourselves bigger, better, and more kind by stopping our automatic responses and by removing reactions that are not in keeping with love.
Feeling great sadness, I was up much of the night running through the experience, considering how it could be justified or appropriate. It was clearly an over the top reaction and the deep sorrow I felt couldn’t change the effects of the behavior. It was up to me to change it. I thought it through, where did I over-react? What would have been a better approach? How could I have acted that would have taken me to the desired place and preserved everyone’s dignity and light? Once I came to the solution, I practiced it. I made up different scenarios and adapted my newly developed response. When life presented me with the opportunity I was able to respond with my new approach and it worked.
Remember, our public stories are a reflection of our personal states of being. As above, so below. Our public mess is not messier than our private one. It is a reflection of it. Compromised standards and double standards are crippling not only our national life but our personal lives as well. We must center ourselves in the consciousness of divine love. We must hold ourselves accountable. We must make studied choices about how our lives will proceed. Our nation is split right now and the gulf is getting wider. To fix that, we must fix the part of us that allows imbalance, injustice, ambivalence, wrong thinking, or worse yet, unconscious action or reaction. We need to check in with our souls and choose to be more.
As always, your questions and comments are welcome.
Love always,
Katherine