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September 7, 2014

3 Things a Spiritual Life Asks You To Give Up (In Some Way or Another). It May Surprise You!

Leah-Fortner-beach

When you choose a life of consciousness a lot of what we consider “common” to this human experience takes a drastic shift.

These so-called “common” things can become nightmares through continuous resistance as you soon discover them to be sugar-coated illusions and ego-rooted actions.

I recently found myself wandering in the humanness of these three things, which it just so happens, are major conquests on the spiritually driven one’s reality check list.

Really, just give it up already …

1. Stuff!

I am a mom and, on top of that, a single mom, but a mother of any sorts can relate. I spend a lot of time cleaning, organizing, buying, getting rid of, and plain old dealing with stuff—endless hours of picking up and putting away stuff. And don’t even get me started with clothes. Dear God, please someone end this laundry situation!

Let me set the scene. The sun is shining, the Earth is spinning, nature is exploding into existence and in this massive incredible universe here I am in a box made up of walls moving my stuff around.

It makes me laugh writing this, but it’s true. I have these fleeting moments where I stop and look out the window and feel this galactic pull telling me what a waste of time this is in the bigger picture. It quickly fades as I shrug it off and refocus, because if the house is in disarray and my to-do list is too long then I am filled with angst.

Honestly, I can say I am not a pack rat or a hoarder. I barely have a single storage cabinet in my entire home and at least monthly I send bags of stuff out into the world to be recycled. My trunk is currently loaded with five huge, jam packed garbage bags filled with toys, clothes, and other stuff that I am in the process of letting go of.

However, the reality of simplicity and the freedom that comes with less stuff is taking a grab at my thoughts and my way of life. My five year old daughter and I went through every item in her surplus of clothing today in order to “give some to children who need them” and she, of course, attempted to keep something she never wears.

I said to her, “Look at me,” forcing eye contact to convey my seriousness, “remember this, the less you hold onto the more you will have.” I am not sure she could grasp the message quite yet, but I received the message loud and clear.

A part of me wants to set up a yard sale of some sort. Just tables of everything I own and say, “Here! Take it! Free of charge! Free me of it!” {Sigh} If only I could be so bold, so daring, so sure I could make it without it all. If I could only be free of my ego that thrives in my closet. Oh yes, that marvelous shoe collection and those endless rows packed tight with lush dresses for every occasion because, of course, there are so many different types of occasions for this city girl. It’s a social scene etched right into my reality. Poor me, I know.

But one donated bag at a time, one truthful moment of a thought like this, every clear intention I set in this direction, I become one step closer. The stuff is nothing. It will perish with time. It will not come with me when I leave. When I look back none of it will gauge the worth of my journey. Let it come in and let it go out.

“The accumulation of wealth is the illusion…The accumulation of stuff is the distraction”

~ (Channeled by Laura Mirante in one of my recent broadcasts.)

2. Wealth!

How hard is it to resist the flow of the mind on a daily basis as it gets sucked into the endless pursuit of money? How hard is it to not consider a career based on how well you do financially? I have a talent, how can it make money? I have an idea, can it make money? I have bills, how can I make money to pay them? I love money, how can I make more of it?

From a conscious space we are able to see this silly little concept for the illusion it is but, boy has it ever become a gigantic reality to our human experience here on Earth. Yet still, I choose a path dedicated to spirit and yes, I curse myself for it quite often, okay, every day. However, I too still get hung up on this one. How can I take this spiritual journey I practice and “package it up” to increase my wealth?

This evening I began to ponder, after the babies were off to bed and depending on the fuel left in my engine, what would I do with the rare, free time approaching? My mind began to analyze which one of the possible options was best to support the “career” I am building. Which one could offer the increase of profit most quickly? It brought up this puzzling energy, a feeling of being lost.

Then it was clear. I was deciding based on the mind’s direction, which was rooted in the accumulation of wealth. This may, for some of you, sound just right and that’s quite alright. That is the path you choose. I support your journey.

For me, the answer was not anything I was thinking. It was not about wealth in my future. It was all about what I was feeling, what connected me to divine inspiration, what created joy from deep within my own being. Here I am, writing. I haven’t checked, but I don’t think my bank account has grown since I started; I don’t think by the time I am done I will have attained some new asset, but I have felt my soul. I have connected to me. In an infinite universe and yet, in a small human world, the illusions I battle were set aside and I found the joy of knowing my truth. That, my friend, is priceless.

“You aren’t wealthy until you have something money can’t buy.”

~ Garth Brooks

3. Judgment!

This one is hard. Let’s take a metaphorical leap and say if a judgment was a fly and my release of that judgment was a big ol’ whack of a fly swatter, than reality is like being in a swarm of flies and each time I swat one down I am surrounded by more.

It seems pointless to resist the judgment at times, for the quantity and persistence it offers. We are raised in a society of casting judgment everywhere we turn and every word spoken. But, knowing what I know, I try to conquer this battle. I try so hard. Damn flies, they get me!

Recently there were multiple situations in my life where I felt truly judged. I thought, “Don’t they know they need to fight that judgment, to surrender it and let it be? How could they do that to me? Couldn’t they see?” Then, I had a satori. I was judging them for judging me!

It had snuck up on me. I didn’t need to wake them up from judgment. I needed to accept their reality and their conclusions within that reality. I needed to set myself free from judgment. I needed to cut the cords and release myself from the reactions and emotions that come when we take on and personalize the judgments of others.

I watched this little video clip by Jesse Elder the same day I took on “tackling my swarm.” Its message was divinely apropos to my experience. I even went so far as to send the message to one of those “people of judgment” I was attempting “to wake up.” Ironically, like always, my message to another was intended for me and it woke me up. The video clip shared an acronym for love; L- Let O- Others V- Voluntarily E- Evolve.

I love this. Let others voluntarily evolve. As I forwarded the acronym to that someone in “need,” I read it again. I said, “Wait, I take that back. Allow me to do that for you,” and I did. My judgment vanished. My reaction and emotions to their judgments subsided. Bam! There it was; Love and Acceptance!

“If you judge people, you have no time to love them.”

~ Mother Teresa

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Editor: Travis May
Photo: Author’s own

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