What do you really hunger for? It’s spiritual hunger I’m speaking of – a hunger for wholeness, balance and a sense of connectedness. When you’ve satisfied your spiritual hunger, you make do with a lot less of everything else, no longer needing or wanting to clutter up your life.
How often, in your work-a-day life, do you live on automatic pilot, moved from one task to the next by the patterns that you’ve allowed to arise and take hold in you – patterns of thought or behaviour which formed in response to events in your life and became habits of being and doing, through repetition. It’s these habits of living that you now mistakenly identify as “who you are and how you do things.”
“Habit is either the best of servants or the worst of masters.” Nathaniel Emmons
Automatic Pilot – A Comfortable Drive?
For the most part, habits allow you to know what you can expect of yourself. You may be aware of some of your patterns and may be comfortable operating on automatic pilot.
It has served you well in the past, kept you out of trouble with little or no surprises and so, you continue to exist in this way that doesn’t require too much conscious attention to decision-making. Until one day, you hit a metaphorical wall, come face to face with a personal crisis or maybe wake up and feel empty, depleted and generally unsatisfied with yourself and your life.
Eventually, it may dawn on you that living on automatic pilot takes more energy than it offers. That it’s not regenerative or Self-renewing. There’s no sense of reward…you find yourself always only doing…and feeling like you’re never good enough, you’ve never done enough…like there’s never, ever, ever enough.
Addictions – What are they all about?
States of being reflect what we think about ourselves…the estimation in which you hold yourself – your sense of self-esteem, self-respect or self-worth.
In this patterned and soul-numbing existence, you may try to fill your inner void with noise attempting to escape from the terror of the inevitable inner gnawing, or maybe you stuff yourself endlessly with “food” that doesn’t nourish in an attempt to quiet the insatiable thirst and spiritual hunger for meaning in your life.
What is it but fear that keeps you small? Fear of success or fear of failure, or a bit of both? Yet, you know, deep down that fear is often manufactured – you manufacture it to keep yourself where you are …”no change, is better than the unknown” you may think.
According to Eric Hoffer, Fear and freedom are mutually exclusive. Perhaps you are familiar with some strategies your ego may use to keep you in the automatic pilot mode that’s easy to control.
Have you ever:
- Attempted to still the unceasing clamour of the Self-negating voice by avoiding silence?
- Found yourself eating anything and everything to try to fill the inner lack?
- Consciously or unconsciously cultivated addictions to help you escape and keep you busy from facing what truly, deeply matters to you?
- Attempted to shut yourself down, cultivated eating disorders, other self-negating behaviour or conditions which only tended to alienate you further and compounded the sense of emptiness you felt at your core?
The Freedom of Becoming Whole – A Self-Healing Process
It’s only when you stop all your busi-ness, stop spinning your wheels and face your Self that you can break this self-destructive, Self-negating cycle. And when you do, you are inevitably rewarded with an experience of renewal and regeneration – A process of becoming whole that heals old wounds and builds integrity and resonance throughout our entire system. All healing is Self-healing.
“What’s needed is for you to “Transcend your schedules, fixed habits and rigid attitudes that thwart your attempt to change. Overcome your self-generated resistance and cross the well-guarded threshold to your inner world. Commitment made to your inner journey propels you into a new realm – a new way of being.” Dolores Krieger, RN. PhD.
“Healing has been described as a “process of bringing parts of ones self together at a deep level of inner knowledge resulting in an integrated, balanced, whole with each part having equal importance and value.” Dossey, Keegan, Guzzetta, Kolkmeir
Conscious Living – A New Way Of Being
“Before you can tell your life what you want to do with it, you must listen to your life telling you who you are. You must listen for the truths and values at the heart of your own identity, not the standards by which you must live-but the standards by which you cannot help but live if you are living your own life.” Kovan J., & Dirkx J. 2003
As you get to know who you are and what you want, you become clear about what it is you value. Your spiritual hunger now appeased, you become increasingly capable of speaking straight from the heart.
Every time a value is born, existence takes on a new meaning. Guided by the principle of mindfulness-in-action, mindfulness coaching you create awareness, learn to reclaim your energy, receive inspiration, restore your balance, recalibrate your perception and bring intention and attention together for inspired action.
Values in action become virtues. A virtuous life is a life built on conscious choice, creating habits of being and doing that create integrity, harmony, and equilibrium resulting in a meaningful and satisfying life.
Be Proactive – Take Action
“Our physical world can be managed by change” – we can relocate or renovate our homes and workplaces. “Our psychological world however, can only be managed by choice” – how we perceive and respond to internal and external stimuli.
The more you focus on taking actions that help you gain control over how you perceive and respond to situations in your life the more empowered you become. Personal leadership training, developing healing and self-care practices and mindfulness coaching can provide a phenomenal advantage.
Until one is committed, there is hesitancy, the chance to draw back, always ineffectiveness concerning all acts of initiation and creation.
There is one elementary truth, the ignorance of which kills countless ideas and splendid plans: that the moment one definitely commits oneself then providence moves too. All sorts of things occur to help one that would never otherwise have occurred. A whole stream of decisions issues from the decision. Goethe
About Julia von Flotow
