by sublimity-001-main | May 16, 2013 | 2013, Post, Spiritual Growth
As we move toward spring, there’s a growing urge to emerge – to take bold action in the direction of our dreams. But there’s also the danger of getting caught in the Good Talk Trap. You know the type, they have big ideas but few of them ever come to fruition; they plant lots of seeds but don’t do the real work to bring them to harvest.
How many good ideas have died from a lack of patient and loving cultivation until the roots took hold? As Abigail Adams (wife of John Adams, the 2nd President of the U.S.) said: “We have too many high sounding words and too few actions that correspond with them.” Or as Mark Twain put it: “Action speaks louder than words, but not nearly as often.”
We must be still with our ideas long enough for them to work on us, to sink deep within the soil of our soul like a seed that must be planted before it can grow. Otherwise our ideas won’t lay down the root system to sustain them through the tempests, droughts, and baking heat that ideas must often weather on their way to fulfillment. As Blaise Pascal said, “All of humanity’s problems stem from man’s inability to sit quietly in a room alone.”
While it’s valuable to get feedback on our ideas, we must avoid over-analyzing and talking too much about them, which saps the vital energy for actualizing them — burning up the fuse that could’ve generated an explosion of creative action. There’s a time to talk and a time to walk that talk. If all you’re doing is talking and no walking, you won’t get anywhere. As Carl Jung put it “You are what you do, not what you say you’ll do.” If you want to have the life you envision and be the person you imagine, talk less about it and act more like it.
by sublimity-001-main | May 16, 2013 | 2013, Emergence, Post
Desire sometimes gets a bad rap in the spiritual world. Perhaps it started with Buddha who supposedly said desire causes suffering. And has led to many teachings that imply that desires aren’t spiritual and we should strive for a desire-less state.
But desires aren’t the problem, our misperception of them is. The word ‘Desire’ actually has a deeper meaning: ‘of the sire,’ as in father or Creative Principle. Your desires are not a sign of something outside of you that you must get – they’re a sign of something inside of you trying to get out.
That burning desire you have is something you’re pregnant with. When you understand this, you can celebrate your desires just as you would the news that you (or your significant other) are pregnant. You can nurture that idea growing within you, feeding it, strengthening it, preparing the outer space for its arrival.
Remember, The Law of Emergence isn’t some New Age gimmick, it’s the way life actually works – and when we become congruent with it, our life works a lot better. The secret is to reverse your relationship with desire.
The deep desire you feel is a clue to what’s already inside trying to emerge; it’s telling you what you need to nurture. Cease from striving. Feel that baby kicking, pat your belly with a sigh of gratitude, and settle in to the process of giving birth to the next stage of your destiny.
by sublimity-001-main | Apr 12, 2013 | 2013, Emergence, Post, Tools
Want to know what you really believe in? Don’t look at what you’re thinking, saying, affirming, or praying, look at what you’re doing – especially under pressure. If you profess to believe in something, but your actions are not in integrity with it, you’ll suffer and become stagnant. But if you align your actions with your highest vision, no matter what, you’ll rapidly shape the raw material of your life. As Thomas Jefferson said, “Do you want to know who you are? Don’t ask, act! Action will delineate and define you.”
Years ago I wanted to make an investment in my business but, not believing I could afford it, I waited for circumstances to change. After much waiting and struggling, only to have things get worse, I visited my spiritual mentor, looking for reassurance and moral support. What I got instead was a challenge. He said if I believed all the spiritual truths I espoused — that life was abundant and God supported me — and didn’t act on them, I was out of integrity with myself and would continue to suffer.
I explained that I did believe I was supported, it was just, well, that I was afraid my rent wouldn’t get paid. Before I even completed my excuse, I knew he was right. I was praying out of both sides of my mouth – affirming that life was abundant on one side and making up reasons why I couldn’t move forward on the other. I was living a lie, at least a lie against my own values. As Ghandi said, “To believe in something, and not to live it, is dishonest.” My lack of integrity was preventing me from holding the energy necessary to manifest my vision. Like a house that lacks structural integrity, and collapses under its own weight, my inner house was divided and could not stand.
One definition of integrity is to align your beliefs, words, and actions with each other – to be whole and undivided. But this is relative integrity because you could believe life is hard (even though in Reality it isn’t) then struggle in accordance with that belief, becoming exhausted, burnt out, and disillusioned. Another definition of integrity is to be moral, ethical, and honest. But you can be a moral, ethical, honest person who, according to your cultural beliefs, would never pursue your deepest desire. The truest integrity, however, is about being congruent with your Soul’s Purpose, your real nature – which may be in opposition to your cultural, parental, or societal beliefs and values. That’s why visionary leaders are often seen as heretics, lunatics, or worse.
Living at this level of integrity requires faith, which means living more by insight than eyesight, more from the invisible that the world of appearances. But like intention, faith is another dangerous practice when sequestered by the ego. We say we have faith that all our needs will be met, and that declaration of faith gives us a temporary sense of fulfillment or accomplishment. But too often these faith-filled pronouncements are followed by actions that contradict them – or no action at all.
As Mitch Albom says, “Faith is about doing. You are how you act, not just how you believe.” Or as it says in James 2:17, “…faith by itself, if it is not accompanied by action, is dead.” It’s good to affirm and feel the energy of faith. But it is action, in integrity with your highest vision, that makes that faith a living, breathing reality in your life.
EXERCISE
This week, look at one area you’re feeling stuck in or an area you are praying for or affirming something and ask: “What would I do in this area if I really believed I was supported (or whatever quality you feel is lacking, such as abundant, loved, respected, etc.).”
Then look at your Big Vision and ask: “If I really believed in this vision, what would I do, where would I go, who would I talk to, or how would I be in the world?”
Then create a plan to take consistent, congruent action on the answers you get – and share them on our Facebook pages, so we can all learn and be inspired!
To Your Emergence!
www.DerekRydall.com
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by sublimity-001-main | Apr 12, 2013 | 2013, Post, Spiritual Growth
Are you living as cause, or at the effect of life?
In The Wizard of Oz, all the characters believed they were victims, beholden to some external power to give them what they needed to succeed — in their case, it was the wizard.
But as they discovered, what they were waiting for, they already had — but they had to stop looking outside of them, stop being at the effect of others, and start being cause.
I don’t know if the songwriter knew what he was writing when he penned this lyric, but it says it all.
“We’re off to see the Wizard, the wonderful Wizard of Oz, because because because because because — because of the wonderful things he does!”
Take a look at that line again. Do you see it? The mystical message?
Let me break it down…
Be-CAUSE, be-CAUSE, be-CAUSE, be-CAUSE, be-CAUSE…be-CAUSE of the wonderful things he does.
BE the CAUSE of, not at the effect of.
It even tells us what to be the cause of…’the wonderful things HE does.’
And who is this “he”? The wizard that they ultimately discover lives within them. Another name for this wizard… True Self, God, Love, Higher Power.
And what are the wonderful things he does? He (or she) gives courage, strength, power, love — all the things we want but believe we must get from someone or something outside of us in order to be whole and return home again.
But instead we are told that we must be cause of all these wonderful things.
Whatever’s missing is what you’re not giving, because everything is already within you. This is one of the greatest truths ever revealed by the master teachers throughout the ages. But simply knowing this truth isn’t enough. We must consciously activate and participate in it.
Meet the Wizard Within
Look at one area of your life where you feel stuck, where you feel “at the effect of” the person or situation. What are you waiting to see, hear, or receive before you can feel empowered?
Imagine you now have it; visualize yourself living in the solution, in the ideal situation where this area is concerned. Really let yourself feel it. Take note of the qualities you feel.
Ask yourself: “Who would I be if this situation was resolved fully? How would I feel, how would I act, what would I do?”
Then ask yourself: “What would it look like for me to be this person in my life now?”
Don’t accept a vague answer like “be more authentic…” Ask what that would look like, where specifically you are moved to be that… Keep asking until you get some actionable guidance.
Finally, ask: “What activities, people, environments, or objects make me feel the way I would feel if this situation was resolved?”
Make a list of all the possibilities. Then make a plan to engineer these things into your life. Start with one week that includes:
1. At least one way that you can be the person you would be if this situation was resolved. As Gandhi said, we must be the change we want to see.
2. One to three activities that make you feel these feelings of empowerment.
3. Some quality time with people who make you feel these feelings.
4. At least one trip to an environment that makes you feel these feelings.
5. One to three new objects in your space (pictures, music, scents, trinkets) that activate these feelings.
Put this plan on your calendar. Don’t just think about it or write a to-do list. Actually make the time and space to do these things. It won’t happen otherwise. Re-evaluate after a week and create a month-long plan.
Then ease on down the road…
But remember, the yellow brick road is not a path we take merely outside, it is a journey we take within… to that Emerald City of the soul where we discover we have been at the controls all along.
There’s no place like home.
Until next time, live authentically, love unconditionally, and follow your destiny!
Derek
by sublimity-001-main | Apr 2, 2013 | 2013, Emergence, Post, Spiritual Growth
And, with it there is a growing impulse to emerge. Those places within us that have been fallow begin to feel the stirrings of new life, those parts of us that seem deadened have the chance to be resurrected again.This is the Great Hope and The Good News. This is the deeper esoteric message of Easter. As it says in Joel 2:25, ”I will restore to you the years the locust have eaten“. And in Revelations 21:5, “Behold, I make all things new“. ”These aren’t religious statements, they’re spiritual principle“. No matter how far you’ve fallen, how much you’ve lost, or what seems to block your way, in a holy instant, the stone can be rolled away and you can be free to rise again. This month, we have been stirring that divinity into ever-greater activity, striking that mystic chord of memory – awakening more fully to who we are and why we’re alive!
I invite you to ride this emerging energy and cultivate the seed of greatness in the soil of your soul, by taking one area that you deeply desire growth in – one area that might seem stuck, lost, or dead – and asking the following questions:
- What is the larger life or quality trying to emerge in this area?
- What do I need to release or embrace to allow it to fully emerge?
- What quality would I need to express more to be at peace in this area?
- If I expressed this quality in my life now, what would that look like?
- If I believed I was supported, what action would I take?
As you receive your answers, keep asking until you have something concrete, something you can act on. Then take that action this week!
New Life is trying to emerge in you – a life beyond your wildest dreams – but it needs your cooperation, your agreement, your ‘yes.’ Say yes to your yes, step into the Spring of Your Soul – and watch as your life blossoms.
I’ll be waiting for you in that field…
To Your Emergence!
by sublimity-001-main | Jan 19, 2013 | 2013, Emergence, Healing, Post, Spiritual Growth
Our attempts to pray, affirm, or visualize away all the bad, ugly, filthy parts of ourselves and our life are like a seed trying to pray away all the dirt – which is made of everything that has died and decayed before.
If it could, and it succeeded, it would find itself sitting atop a rock, no dirt in sight. And when that sun came out – the very thing that is meant to activate the life within that seed – it would burn it to a crisp!
Instead, that seed naturally plants itself in the dirt. Buries itself in it. It doesn’t reject it, it embraces it. It doesn’t see it as a grave, but a womb – from which it draws rich nourishment and begins to “grow down,” not just up.
As the roots dig deeper, the shoots reach higher. As it descends into the darkness, it ascends toward the light. If you look at an X-ray of an oak tree, the root system is like a mirror of the branches, showing that what’s below is not only as important as what’s above – it’s all one.
Our culture has taught us — and unfortunately, the self-improvement movement has only exacerbated the idea — that the dark, dank, decaying parts are to be fixed, hidden, manifested over, or eliminated altogether.
And all our efforts to change, cover up, or ignore these parts have only served to make them stronger. What you resist, persists. What you fight, you fuel. What you can’t be with, won’t let you be. And like a monster locked in the dungeon, it eventually breaks out and wreaks havoc.
But when we embrace these alienated, judged, rejected aspects of ourselves, we discover they’re not our enemies, but our allies. We realize that they hold new gifts, talents, strengths, and abilities heretofore unimagined.
That angry part of us, denied out of fear and ignorance, becomes our greatest source of power and protection, helping us transform from victims to victors. That selfish child within, covered in shame and guilt, when honored and set free, shows us how to finally take good care of ourselves.
All the dark, dirty places become the rich fertilizer in the soil of our soul that allows the seed of our potential to grow. When we finally relax into the ground of our being, all the energy we had used to stay on the surface becomes like the sunlight that finally activates our evolution.
There is nothing wrong with you. You are not broken or lacking. You were not born in sin, under a bad sign, or with bad genes. Everything you’ve been through and everything you’re experiencing is divinely designed to awaken you to your true identity and fulfill your destiny.
Embrace those aspects you’ve been trying to deny or destroy. They are wounded children acting out, only needing your love to heal. Ask them what their lesson and blessing for you is. Ask them what they need in order to take a constructive place in your life.
Then honor their guidance – and watch as everything you’ve been fighting for begins to emerge in ways that are beyond your imagination, without the stress and struggle of self-improvement.
If you do this, you’ll discover a great truth: The self you’ve been trying to improve never existed. It was a fiction, born in the mind of a child – while your real Self, whole and complete, watched the drama unfold, awaiting the day when you could recognize it.
Just as Michelangelo believed God had already done all the work, and his job was simply to see the completed masterpiece imprisoned in that block of stone and release it – take time today to behold that masterpiece hidden in this block of mortal stone… and set it free.
Until next time, live authentically, love unconditionally, and follow your destiny!
Derek
