Understanding
what you need to work on
As
part of our spiritual growth, we need to look at our life and ourselves every
now and again and address any restrictive patterns of thought or negative
feelings. Both of these highlight what we need to work on.
·
First of all we need to find out exactly what
causes us to overreact and take action to restore peace and balance. Others may
appear to be responsible for our troubles but it is our own minds that create
the negative reactions within us. When we react badly it is because we are
suffering in some way. Being in an unsupportive environment leaves you feeling
unfulfilled as your spiritual potential is not being allowed to surface. This
is the root cause of many issues, anxieties and stresses in life. For example
you may be surrounded by people with values and ethics that are different from
your own, you may literally have no peace and quiet anywhere at home or work or
you may be in a situation where it is just not possible to be your true self.
When this happens you will inevitably experience low moods, self-doubt,
uncertainty and a general dulling of the spirit within. In other words, you are
in a soul-destroying environment.
·
If you want a new life yet are afraid of
change, ask and meditate upon which part of you feels insecure and threatened. If
you have had to be very independent in life, having spent a lot of your life
alone, you tend to think you must face change and challenges on your own, which
can be daunting and overwhelming, leading to a tendency to put up and shut up.
(I’m guilty of this one myself!) Maybe the lesson here is to learn humility –
tell someone you need support, comfort and ask for help. It is not weak to ask
for help and to need others.
·
Create peace in your life as much as
possible. Peace in yourself leads to peace in your relationships with others. If
you are surrounded by negative people who drain you, take action to reduce the
amount of time spent with them as much as possible. Equally try to extend
compassion, understanding and forgiveness to others. A gesture of kindness can
go a long way.
·
Try to develop positive thoughts by
practising gratitude for the blessings you do have and positive affirmations.
Stop the negative thoughts as soon as you catch them and replace it straight
away with a positive one. We all have thoughts like “I’ll never be any good at
this” but you can stop that thought and say “I’m getting better and better at
this every day”. By the same token I also think it is very important to “Know
thyself”. So maybe the lesson is that maybe you won’t actually ever be great at
what you’re trying to do but you will get by. However there will be something
else that you really will be good at and that’s what you should focus on
instead. Accept yourself as you are and work to transform aspects of yourself
that you don’t like.
Dealing
with Challenges
Even
if you have been on the spiritual path a long time, you can still be thrown off
course by life events, circumstances and challenging people who put your new
found wisdom to extreme tests! This can happen to any one of us so you
shouldn’t beat yourself up too much about it, thinking you should have handled
it better. It is always worth checking in on where you are at and where there
is room for improvement. Here are some things I have found beneficial when
dealing with my own challenges:-
1. Regularly
make time to sit still in peace and quiet to listen to the voice within. Allow
yourself to feel and acknowledge the emotions you have been suppressing. If you
don’t have a peaceful home, try the garden or a park.
2. Walk
in nature to clear your head.
3. Meditate,
particularly a compassion based meditation where you focus on your heart centre
and extend love to those you are in conflict with. You can also journey to your
sacred space within, call in your spirit guide and ask them for advice.
4. Ask
the angels for the help you need to move forward. We all have a Guardian Angel
who is just waiting to be asked!
5. Remind
yourself of your good qualities (they often seem to disappear when we are
stressed and negative!). Let your good qualities of kindness, compassion,
empathy, respect and tolerance guide you. This is a great opportunity to
develop unconditional love.
6. Realise
that you are only truly responsible for yourself. We must show care and
consideration but always remember that other people’s happiness is up to them.
7. Don’t
let fear hold you back – a tough one, I know. Life can either be an adventure
of courage, risk taking and exploring possibilities, or it can be uneventful
and meaningless. When you think about it, the latter option actually sounds
more terrifying!
8. Realise
you have the power of spirit within you, along with the support of your guides
and angels. You truly have infinite potential.
9. Increase
your own personal energy through one-point meditation, Reiki healing or a simple
chi kung exercise such as The Accordion where you build up an energy ball
between the palms of your hands then focus it in your hara power centre.
Spiritual
growth does not proceed in a straight line with week by week improvement.
Rather we make progress in cycles with new challenges bringing us the
opportunity to become more kind, caring, compassionate, empathic, responsible,
creative and aware human beings. There will be periods in your life where you
feel passionate, energised and creative, then you will experience a period of
lethargy, restlessness and fear when you need to heal old wounds. Our major
life lessons usually re-occur time and time again, even if we think we’ve
already deal with them. It is like the Universe is saying “Let’s just go over
this one more time”, testing you and giving you a chance to affirm new,
healthier choices.
Helen
Shortland is a Reiki Master Healer/Teacher, Meditation Teacher, Holistic
Therapist and Tarot Consultant based at 15 Wheeler Gate in Nottingham city
centre. Helen offers several healing treatments such as Reiki, Angelic Reiki,
Faery Reiki, Angel Therapy, Fairy Blessing Guided Journey and Crystal Chakra
Balancing; holistic therapies including Reflexology, Indian Head Massage, Hopi
Ear Candles & Facials; as well as Usui Reiki and Faery Reiki training
courses and tarot readings. She has been on the spiritual path for 18 years and
has extensive knowledge of healing and the healing journey. For further
information about her Reiki courses, therapies and workshops, please visit her
website http://helenshortland.com or visit and ‘like’ her Facebook page Helen Shortland
Holistics, Healing & Tarot.
