What's going to open your valves?
As I dive into the world of spirituality, I'm learning just how powerful of a role energy plays in the flow of our lives.
One specific truth about energy is how we as humans, in our natural, spiritual state, have a constant flow of it - effectively life - flowing through us, and this is the most pure state of being we can live. It is a state of love, joy, and inner peace.
The problem for most of us is that we only access this state of constant energy flow when our outer conditions are met, and when we have no blockages inside. That is, when we have not closed any of our energy centers (called Chakras in the Yogic tradition).
This is ludicrous. The idea that so many of us have, which is that we can only be happy when trillions and trillions of forces in the universe conspire in the exact way at the exact time to fit our preferences, only THEN we can be happy?
We're setting ourselves up for doom! This made a lot of sense to me when I first heard it.
So, to get out of this bad habit of closing, I offer you a thought track which is inspired by the video I linked below.
What do you really want in life?
When we ask ourselves what we want out of life, we can pretty easily dream up the perfect image in our minds.
The perfect relationship, the perfect car, perfect house, financial freedom, all of those good things that make us smile when we think about our future. It's nice. It makes us warm and tingly.
But few of us take a step back to ask what we really want during those times. What are we feeling when we imagine ourselves with those things? When every box is checked, when all of our ideal life conditions are met on the outside - everybody's healthy, everybody's got what they need, the weather is good, life is good! - we rarely, if ever, step into the feelings that those conditions will create inside of us.
Is it not what we want to feel that we're really searching for?
When we ask ourselves this question, soon we'll realize that what we really want is to feel constant love, constant joy, constant growth, constant happiness!
We just think that all those things will bring us those feelings.
We think that having all of those outer conditions will open all of our valves to allow for a constant flow of energy.
It's not true that you want those things in your ideal vision. What's true is that you want only the things which will open you to feel love and joy, and you don't want things that will close you and make you depressed.
Put another way, the choice is as follows:
Spend your life deciding what you want and don't want, and then chase it on the outside...
or,
Look inside and realize all you really want is the joy, love, and sense of well-being, and if you stay open then you can always have those things.
So then the question is, well, how do we stay open?
The funny thing is, and something that I've just learned, is that our hearts and minds don't need conditions to be open. That's their natural state!
We just have decided that we need external conditions to be met in order for them to stay open. And that's unfortunate. That's how most of us live. That's certainly how I've lived my life.
The fact is, preferences limit your joy to only the situations that satisfy them. And the essence of spirituality is about letting go of those preferences, learning not to close our valves, and showing up to life with love and passion, and then putting your whole being into everything you do.
Most of us spend our lives going out into the world and chasing those conditions, when really we should go inward and realize that we're on a planet in the middle of nowhere, and life is amazing.
While we're here, do you want to run around and fight with life, and make it be what you think you want. Or do you want to work on yourself to clean up any messes inside, so you can be open all the time.
It's not about attracting what you want, but rather being filled with joy on the inside and then sharing that joy on the outside.
That's what spirituality is about. That's what I'm about!
Live with substance!
Gabe
P.S. Here's an interview from which I drew inspiration for this post. I'm learning a lot from this man, Michael Singer, and I suggest you give his message a listen.
