​By now, you know I often talk about how important it is to slow down.
 
To pare the schedule down.
To get rid of the distraction of busyness.
To stop running around, and simply Stop. Right. Where. You. Are.
 
One of the interesting thing that happens when we first start to slow down like this, when we first start to try it on as spiritual practice, is that we find slowness unbearable.
 
It’s as if we’ve been eating sugar every hour, and suddenly we give up sugar.
And we eat a carrot.
 
And of course the craving for the sugar, for the addiction, for the distraction, for the sense of busy-means-I’m-doing-something really takes us on a ride.

We feel antsy, we feel bored, we feel less than, we feel exhausted… as if once we stop moving, we can’t ever start up again.
 
If you’re in a personal detox from distraction, take heart. The feelings of utter exhaustion, numbness, flatness, flatness will go away soon. Once the addiction to busy-ness gets out of your system, you’ll start to move to a new groove.
 
Time will lose all meaning for you.
You’ll pay attention to the easy things.
You’ll chop wood, carry water.
You’ll chop wood, carry water some more.
 
And pretty soon you’ll find that the simple stuff is just as fascinating and far more interesting than all the distractions you used to do because you thought you were supposed to.
 
There is more peace and ease in heading outside for a mind-clearing walk, than in all the meetings and activities you can think of.
 
There is more beauty and grace in simply hanging out, than in all the non-stop schedules you can think of.
 
We think we’ll get bored if we stop doing stuff.
We have FOMO.
We think we’ll stop existing, if we aren’t in constant motion.
 
But once you get the addiction to busy out of your system… you find that by doing less, you exist more.

​Sometimes we get paralyzed by the past.
 
We start to mull and muse, and suddenly we’re lock step with the old memories, the old stories, the old habits of mind leading us down a trail of darkness.
 
We start to think about this relationship that went sour; and when we look at it from conscious mind, we realize that it wasn’t just this terrible, horrible other person who caused all our pain in that relationship…
 
It was us, too.
 
We start to think about all the opportunities we blew, or the choices we made out of fear, or the ways we didn’t show up to life fully ready to take advantage of all that we could of, of all our stupid choices.
 
And it gets overwhelming sometimes: this pool of regrets.
 
Some days it is very tempting to just dive in deep, and ruminate and feel all that pain, all over again.
 
Something comforting about it, in a sick and strange way: returning to the pain of the past, instead of sitting with the discomfort that even now, we still don’t know what we’re doing.
 
We still don’t know what we’re doing.
We’re still going to make mistakes.
We know more than we did… but we don’t have it figured out.
 
When you’re in this place, trying to shake free from the past but having uncertainty about where you’re headed, it’s useful to think of this:
 
Life is meant to be a mystery
Life can’t be anything more than a great, vast, unknown.
 
We are never given the whole map; that would be dull.
We are given the next breadcrumb on our path.
 
That’s all you need to do: go to the next breadcrumb.
The Universe has them scattered all over on the forest floor.
 
Surely you can slow down and breathe and allow yourself to spot one? 

​At a certain age, and I’m going to peg it around 50, we start to understand that we are past the mid point.
 
We look back, and we see all the years and decades we’ve experienced where we were unconscious, doing things that other people wanted us to do, doing things because that’s how they’ve always been done.
 
A lot of us at this point have raised kids, been in long-term relationships, been part of mainstream community.
 
And now, suddenly, we find ourselves in the midst of great change.
 
We are divorce.
We’ve lost people to death.
We’ve brushed with illness.
We’ve had shifts in work.
Our money’s gone up and down.
We’ve gotten older, and we can see it.
 
And there’s this sense of loss at first… this desire to linger back in memory and try and pull it all back.
 
And after we sit with that, there’s this sense of… okay, now what?
 
How do I want to live my last 1, 10, 20, 40 years?
Now that I’ve gotten this far, and learned all I’ve learned the hard way…. How do I want to live the rest of this lifetime?
 
There are no rules, folks.
You can live exactly how you please.
 
You can hang out in the past wishing for what was.
Or you can move forward, starting this minute.
 
If you are in your mid-life, you might want to sit with this idea of a Universe of Unlimited Expansion, and see what you want to create going forward. 

​Sometimes we wonder if we are selfish or self-absorbed to do our inner work, when so many in the world are suffering.
 
How can it be important to work out our addictions, when people are starving?
How can it be important to release our rage against a family member, when people don’t have water to drink?
How can it be important to let go of the pain of an abusive relationship, when there is war?
 
The thing is… it’s all related.
 
Remembering the Oneness Principle: that all is One, and this includes you, helps you to see that whatever you shift in yourself, is shifted for the bigger One, the collective soul that is all of us.
 
You doing you, the best you can, shifts the whole world… the whole Universe.
 
Of course, we want to help others.
But sometimes, in certain stages of our lives, the most important way we can help others, is to help ourselves.
 
We’re all One.
What helps one, helps All.
We’re part of collective soul, and we rise together.
 
This includes you. 

I love it when students show up to my group teaching from all over.
 
Not just from all over the United States, which is of course terrific…. but from all over the world. Canada. China. Africa. India. Australia. Europe. South America.
 
All kinds of people, of all different races, religions, cultures, genders, ages.
 
To me, it is heartening to know that so many people on this planet are interested in spiritual intuition; that so many people are beginning to understand that the biggest thing we can do to change the world, is to change ourselves.
 
One way to do this is to study intuition, which leads us to spiritual growth. Another way to do this is to study spiritual growth, which leads us to intuitive opening.
 
One path, traveled from two different directions.
 
Every time we walk this path, we connect with the Divine/God/Univeres/One/All that we perceive as outside of, above, or bigger than ourselves.
 
And of course, when we do this the result is that we open and expand the Divine that is within ourselves.
 
We are doing this now, all over the world.
 
Opening to the Divine all around us. Opening to the Divine within us.
 
Soul growth may not be the majority view yet.
But consciousness is growing.
 
Wherever you come from, I welcome you on the soul path. Together, as One soul, we are changing the world. 

There are people you know who are sunk so deep in misery, there’s nothing you can do to pull them out.

Lend ‘em a hand, and they’ll just pull you down.
They’re stuck in the muck.

We can talk all we want about becoming awake and aware in our own lives, of living from our soul—but we can’t force the view on others. It’s something we each have to grow into on our own.

There’s a progression to awareness, too—we don’t wake up one day and suddenly everything’s a miracle. We don’t say affirmations and instantly win the lottery. We don’t start a gratitude journal and immediately become enlightened by putting pen to paper.

Instead, we grow into our soul awareness—we move slowly from an initial outlook of misery to a false positivity to the authentic awakening that seeps in and becomes our true reality.

We each have to move through this progression.

It’s our soul’s journey.
And, it's our choice. 

Nobody says you have to grow your soul. Nobody's forcing you to be aware. It's your choice:  to stay in the muck, or  pull yourself out. 

Soul growth isn't always the easiest path. It pushes all your buttons, and makes you uncover every hidden part of yourself and present them to the  Light.  But it's the only way to get there.

If that's what you decide to do.