This is NOT an article about 10 Ways to Look Like a Spiritual Guru! So if you want to look like one, keep reading because there's more to life than ten step programs!
How often do you doubt yourself? Self-doubt comes up for me just about every day. However, it does not consume me in the way it once did because I have learned how to support myself through those moments. Keep reading to see what this has to do with spiritual materialism.
Lately I’ve been actively pursing my dream to be a spiritual mentor. This is something I have always felt drawn to and yet I’ve noticed myself having doubts about my ability to do this work.
I’m a small female (4 foot 11 to be exact), I have blonde hair (not natural) and even though I just turned 30, I still have people telling me I look like I’m a teenager. Sometimes I feel like a strong woman but other times I feel like a little girl. I noticed myself wondering if anyone will ever take me seriously; especially because I don’t want life to feel overly serious anyways! I wasn’t raised in a religious family and I can’t teach anyone about any religion in depth. I’ve only learned bits and pieces.
When I picture a spiritual person that guides others, I think of an old guru in India sitting crossed legged with minimal clothing or a priest that knows all the passages from the bible.
They are nothing like me! Who am I to teach anyone about spirituality?
How often do we hold ourselves back because we feel we are not a worthy fit for a role we feel drawn to? I would say this happens more often than we would like to admit. We get stuck in believing that we must act a certain way because of our appearance, status in society, culture, our family and friend’s expectations on us and the list goes on. We get stuck in fear and limit ourselves.
We are all spiritual beings! You do not need to give up all your belongings and go to an Ashram in India to find yourself and be awed by the universe. Not that there’s anything wrong in taking that path. There are so many paths to take, each unique to the individual.
You do not need to live off the land, eat a raw organic vegan diet, drink only from mason jars, and do yoga every day do be on a spiritual path. Though these things might help some people, too often we get caught up in the idea of spiritual materialism. We believe if we modify our external world in just the right ways, that this will somehow lead us to enlightenment and it is simply a farce. We must honour both our inner and outer world. They are both a valuable part of the journey in this world.
Our ego is here to protect us, but because we live in such a fear based culture, it is on overdrive. It is hyper-vigilantly focused on the outer world because it believes that we are unsafe. If we focus on the spiritual side of life, this may leave us open to physical or emotional harm. Many of us have been conditioned to believe that there are so many fears to watch out for like being robbed, getting fired, being made fun of, falling on the ice or larger threats like natural disasters and terrorist attacks. We are taught to be careful as though the world is out to get us and bring us down. There are people who are raised to see things different but in general the norm of our culture currently is rooted in fear and the belief that we need to gain as much as we can in the physical world to be happy. The time is coming to move beyond this fear mentality and start trusting that the universe here for us. Even when challenges arise, as they always do, we must hold true in believing there is a reason and a lesson to be learned from this experience. We are in the process of learning how to reconnect with our spiritual selves.
We must ask ourselves if we are making changes to our outer word because we believe in them or because someone else has sold us into believing we need to be a certain way to gain approval. Are you dressing the way you do because it makes you happy or because that is what a nurse, spiritual teacher, woman, man, nurse, lawyer etc is supposed to look like in our part of the world? Have you even thought about it? How often do you make decisions based on what you have been told are the rules? Who made up these rules and why do we still follow them? Especially if there isn't a serious safety reason for them. We are so conditioned to follow everyone else's rules that we have forgot how to really think for ourselves and trust that we can pave our own path.
We don't need to get all worked up and go rebel about this though! It's just something to be aware of. We can go to either extreme in getting totally immersed into the physical world that we over identify with it and we can also get so focused on being spiritually "pure" that we end up over identifying with that as well. Of course it is important to be mindful about making ethical decision with our purchasing power, however you will find yourself feeling lost and possibly angry if you are very concerned with your physical surroundings. Balance is key, as always!
You also don’t need to go to a church or mosque to have a sacred moment. Sacred moments can be found in a park, on a city bus, at home with your cats or after recovering from a drug overdose.
As humans we tend to over complicate things with fancy words and big buildings that make us feel like we need these things in order to connect with the divine force within us and around us. We have come to rely on other people telling us how to be spiritual rather than trusting ourselves to discover this on our own. We have an epidemic in North America of being disconnected from our intuition.
We are all on a spiritual journey whether we are aware of it or not. Once we develop awareness that there is more to this life than making money and having security, we can start to unravel the mysteries within ourselves and then the world around us.
These are the thoughts that I was able to access after my brief moment of insecurity. In the past I may have spiralled downward into self-doubt, resulting in self-sabotage. However, because of my commitment to listening to myself and connecting with the wisdom of the universe, I was able to access love and guidance rather than being overcome by fear.
Are you tapped into the infinite wisdom of source/the force/the universe/god? It is with you always! We just spend so much time wrapped up in what fear has to say that we forget to listen.
As a spiritual mentor, I am not about telling people what to believe in. I am inspired to help people reconnect with their inner soul, which is essentially one in the same as this infinite wisdom I mentioned. I want everyone to learn how to trust themselves and strengthen their intuitive abilities that we all have.
When we can identify fear, we can learn to let it go so it is no longer the one guiding us. Imagine how much better the world would be if we could be guided by love and connection instead of fear and hate. It is not as hard to access as it has been made out to be! In fact, this wisdom was with us when we were born but we have layers of pain and misguidance that have caused us to disconnect with this part of ourselves. Let’s find the way back together!
I offer one to one mentoring to help people find their way back to themselves and wake up to who they truly want to be in this world! Connect with me for details!
Sending my love!
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