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    Outside world intereferring with spiritual life?

    What can i do when my the life I need to live, such as work so i can eat, pay bills and have shelter, constantly seems to interfere with my spiritual life? I'm so frustrated, I feel like I want to be doing SO much more spiritually and work and life keep getting in the way.
    What can I do? any suggestions?
    I seriously wish I could just GO away on retreat spiritually for a while but i simply cannot afford it.

    #2
    Re: Outside world intereferring with spiritual life?

    You could try taking a day a week to devote to spirituality. Or add small thing like prayers or lighting a candle over each meal. Taking an hour or even 15 minutes for meditation. Spending the time before you fall asleep in contemplation, or reading on some important text. Spirituality isn't just about the big things, it's also the accumulation of the small things. Find ways to infuse spirituality into everything you do. Consider your behavior and attitude and how those are compared to how you want them to be to meet your spiritual goals.

    If you're into nature, bring plants into your home, travel out of town once a week to a nature area or find a good park with lots of woody areas where you can observe. Where that's impossible try to learn about nature. Read books on identifying plants and animals. Find religious books on nature and the philosophy and practice of nature beliefs. Perhaps meditate on creating an internal nature area if you can't find one. The same can be said for Norse mythology and practice, etc. Whatever interests you. A good understanding of what you believe in and researching it once a week or even a few minutes each day would be a good step. And there's always more to learn, it just might take longer to find new information.
    We are what we are. Nothing more, nothing less. There is good and evil among every kind of people. It's the evil among us who rule now. -Anne Bishop, Daughter of the Blood

    I wondered if he could ever understand that it was a blessing, not a sin, to be graced with more than one love.
    It could be complicated; of course it could be complicated. And it opened one up to the possibility of more pain and loss.
    Still, it was a blessing I would never relinquish. Love, genuine love, was always a cause for joy.
    -Jacqueline Carey, Naamah's Curse

    Service to your fellows is the root of peace.

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      #3
      Re: Outside world intereferring with spiritual life?

      This is very much what I have been trying to do. I just don't feel like it is enough. my spirit is craving so much more. It's hard to explain. It's like I have this intense urge that I should be doing SO much more, but I am being held back from doing so. I will certainly try lighting a candle with my meals, like you said every little thing helps. I just wished I could satisfy this intense fire inside that it yearning for so much more.

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        #4
        Re: Outside world intereferring with spiritual life?

        Can't your WHOLE life, be your spiritual life? I like to view money as though it is crops and I am no different to my ancestors: cultivating my wealth in order to live. My deities are Celtic and frequently concerned about farming, so this comparison works well for me. The societies who originally worshiped my deities, were very hard working. Life was tough. They rose early, worked hard and struggled when crops failed, when livestock became diseased or when conflict with other tribes resulted in deliberate sabotage or theft etc. Did these people live a spiritual life? Maybe, maybe not (probably not in the case of everyday farming folk), but they DID honour their gods and thank them when times were good, or when they survived the hard times.

        Being spiritual is not about having no stress, or getting everything you want, or even always coping well. It is more a state of mind, and something that can vary massively between individuals. If, like many of us, work and stress are unavoidable, then try seeing it as a spiritual act itself. Dedicate your toil, as I do, to deity and thank them when (on pay day), your crops are harvested and food is on the table!
        夕方に急なにわか雨は「夕立」と呼ばれるなら、なぜ朝ににわか雨は「朝立ち」と呼ばれないの? ^^If a sudden rain shower in the evening is referred to as an 'evening stand', then why isn't a shower in the morning called 'morning stand'?

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          #5
          Re: Outside world intereferring with spiritual life?

          I pretty much agree with the advice given. Spirituality is a way of connecting with the Divine, and once you see the divinity around you it becomes easier to have your spiritual life flow with your activities (though I do disagree to what extent).
          my etsy store
          My blog


          "...leave me curled up in my ball,
          surrounded by plush, downy things,
          ill prepared, but willing,
          to descend."

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            #6
            Re: Outside world intereferring with spiritual life?

            This is very much what I have been trying to do. I just don't feel like it is enough. my spirit is craving so much more. It's hard to explain. It's like I have this intense urge that I should be doing SO much more, but I am being held back from doing so. I will certainly try lighting a candle with my meals, like you said every little thing helps. I just wished I could satisfy this intense fire inside that it yearning for so much more.

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              #7
              Re: Outside world intereferring with spiritual life?

              One way I do it is to try to find a lesson in everything or see how certain things could help me grow. One particular thing I do is sit in silence for 5 minutes. No music (so hard to do!), no talking, just silence.
              my etsy store
              My blog


              "...leave me curled up in my ball,
              surrounded by plush, downy things,
              ill prepared, but willing,
              to descend."

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                #8
                Re: Outside world intereferring with spiritual life?

                My path is my life and my life is my path. Do everything with awareness, with intention. With love. With spirit.

                And a word to the wise.... it's the little things that build spirituality, and whether you're aware of it or not, that's what you're doing now as you try to juggle your life and your path. It's as it's meant to be.

                Take heart and be brave.
                www.thewolfenhowlepress.com


                Phantom Turnips never die.... they just get stewed occasionally....

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                  #9
                  Re: Outside world intereferring with spiritual life?

                  Originally posted by Jembru View Post
                  Can't your WHOLE life, be your spiritual life? ...

                  Being spiritual is not about having no stress, or getting everything you want, or even always coping well. It is more a state of mind, and something that can vary massively between individuals. If, like many of us, work and stress are unavoidable, then try seeing it as a spiritual act itself. Dedicate your toil, as I do, to deity and thank them when (on pay day), your crops are harvested and food is on the table!
                  This. All of this.

                  It's hard for most people to see their 'spiritual' life and 'everyday' life as an integrated whole. You have to work towards it. Find ways to drag the spiritual into everything you do.

                  Taking a shower? That water is sacred. It's been on this earth a loooong time, and it's washing you clean. You may be scrubbing your buns, but that doesn't mean you can't say a prayer, or do some cleansing visualizations. It's taking parts of you with it to add back into the water cycle, making you a part of everything around you.

                  Cooking? You add spices and stir - but you're also adding your emotions and energy to that food. Need healing? Energy? Pack it right on into dinner. Offer some of it to your house spirits or dedicate it to a deity. Make a toast into a blessing.

                  Going to work? Be in the moment, do your job well, and try to send everyone away with a little spark of the divine. Talk to your coworkers or clients a little bit - get to know them, build a mini-community.


                  Here is a real-life example. A testimony to magic, if you will.
                  Today was a stressful day for everyone at my job. I work in a big hotel - almost 4000 rooms, with about 100 employees at our front desk, another 100 in Room Reservations, couple hundred in Housekeeping. I'm the night auditor, which means I control time and cash flow. I end the operating revenue day and prepare the hotel for the next day. We're doing a major software/server upgrade, so I had to go in 12 hours early and make it tomorrow 12 hours early. In other words, at my hotel it's tomorrow already, & has been since 3pm this afternoon.

                  Prior to going into work, I took a shower. I let all my anxiety, concerns and worries about today's events wash down the drain. I've been carrying everyone's anxious energy around with me for the past two weeks (which was how much advanced notice we were given). I knew that I was prepared, that I had briefed everyone beforehand, rearranged schedules to ensure competent people would be staffed, that the other departments affected would be prepared. In other words, I know my shit down to the last minute things could be done. My biggest anxiety is the Coyote Principle: Every time you plan something in minute detail, somewhere, Coyote is laughing (Coyote is a trickster, for those not in the know). But Coyote went down the drain with everything else.

                  After my shower, in the car ride to work, I just listened to music. I worked on grounding and centering myself. It's hard, because being up in the day is weird for me. I visualized myself being in a big, radiant bubble of absolute calm. There's a lot of hectic, frenetic activity that isn't apparent at 3am. We've got two major events in Vegas right now, so traffic was snarly and everyone's trying to get somewhere fast, but I put my bubble around our car. When I arrived, everyone was buzzing around in a panic, but I enlarged my calm little bubble & watched everyone sort of slow down, take breaths and realize that everything would work out just fine. It was like 60 people turned around & said, "Oh, she's here, cool, we can relax". I kept my little bubble going and took over direction. Everyone had a purpose - they started checking out reservations, checking in reservations, communication smoothed out, I called other departments & spread that bubble around.

                  Now, I practice and I use my energy regularly. It's not easy to maintain a bubble big enough to hold several departments worth of people, but once people have focus and direction, they take up the slack. They don't know that they're working with magical intent, and they don't have to. They just do. Human bodies recognize rhythm and pacing, and if one person can get a good beat started, everyone picks it up. Everyone maintained a cheerful demeanor, and that spread to confused guests who were trying to check in and facing delays, it spread to people with problems with their rooms, and I heard less anger and frustration today than I do on any normal night. My early audit processes ran smooth, even with some hiccups from the actual computer I was using, and everything was finished before the IT department brought the system down. No one had any cash overages or shortages, everyone understood what they needed to do - and I just made sure I was present on the front line & not hidden in my office like I normally am. I also made sure I said only encouraging, reassuring and positive words about the process. No negatives, no 'this is a disaster', no 'oh Gods, what are we gonna do?!?!?!'... nope. Just calm, reflective positive reinforcement. The supervisors & managers even got their lunch breaks. When I came in, half of them were planning on staying at the hotel all night until the system was back up. They all felt confident enough to leave when their regular shifts ended (and before me, I might add). And when I left the hotel, I made sure that everyone was ok, understood what they needed to do, walked out of the calm bubble & left it behind for them.

                  Now, psychologically speaking, all I did was put my war face on. Because I am experienced and knowledgeable about the process of hotel operations everyone had a single leader to turn to when they had questions or needed direction. And because everyone knows I am a reliable old rock, they could relax because instinctively they know I will take over and get the job done. Creative visualization, a little glamor and the force of charisma behind words doesn't hurt. But, the practice of grounding, centering and being able to radiate that is definitely pulling my spirituality into my workplace. If it wasn't for meditation, energy work, extended vigils, etc. I would have been as much as a headless chicken as everyone else was when I first walked in. Of course, now, at midnight, I'm freaking exhausted, and this is when I'd normally be starting my work day, lol.
                  The forum member formerly known as perzephone. Or Perze. I've shed a skin.

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