personal growth
Your True Legacy According To Spirit
What is your legacy in this lifetime? Many people believe that it is the money or property that will be passed on to their children, or the status and membership they have in this lifetime, that can be passed on to future generations.
There is nothing inherently wrong in wanting your loved ones to be secured with an inheritance of material wealth. However, from a spiritual perspective, one’s true legacy is about your current contribution, purpose and mission on a daily basis, and less to do with what you still plan to achieve or acquire, and then pass on once you are gone. In other words, your material legacy is about the future, while your spiritual legacy refers to being present in this moment.
Your spiritual legacy is the mark of your essence that transforms you, as well as others, during your time on Earth. It’s a bit like the exercise of writing your own obituary, and imagining what others would say about you. But, such an exercise may only elicit dread or guilt, and that certainly is not the purpose here.
The truth is that your children, spouse or partner, friends and co-workers will mostly remember the time you spent with them, the laughter you shared, the smile on your face, and your hand on their shoulder when you were there to provide support or comfort.
Your true legacy is therefore not about your death. Your legacy is alive today! It is all about how you interact with others every day. It’s about your presence in every small exchange, and how you treat people in every facet of your life. In fact, you may never know just how much you have transformed the life of a stranger, just by bringing your inspiring, uplifting energy into their world! This is your true legacy if you choose to embrace it.
Are You Living An Unexamined Life?
According to Socrates, “The unexamined life is not worth living.” This statement is very powerful, yet it has a very simple meaning. What you do not change, does not change you. When your actions remain the same, so do the results. If you cannot examine the things that are eating at you, the things that have gone wrong in your life, and even the things that have gone right, nothing changes.
We must look at our life and go behind the mask that we may be wearing, to cover up the fact that we are vulnerable inside. There are often so many aspects to our life that requires change in order to move forward to a better place.
For example, are you repeatedly settling for the same type of person as a partner and find it constantly failing? Are you going to a dead-end job day in and day out, that you hate so much that merely entering the workspace already makes you despise the day before it even starts? Do you look in the mirror and see things about yourself that makes you miserable?
Take off the mask of pretension and make an effort to change what isn’t working. Examine why you keep repeating the same patterns.
If you are ending up with the same type of person every time, ask yourself why? Are you trying to meet someone in the same way? Are you settling for someone that is not all that you would like, but feel it’s better than to have no one at all? Are you compromising on what you want? If they are not what you seek, cut them loose. They are not going to suddenly change.
Spiritual Transcendence Requires Human Interaction
You are pure energy. That is your soul and you chose to incarnate in this world to experience the duality of energy and matter. You chose this because there are learnings available here on Earth in material form that are not available when one is a ball of light. Therefore, human contact, or human interaction is as important as the experiences of energy when we are incarnated here on Earth.
You have the opportunity in this lifetime to transcend. Incarnation gives you that opportunity. You should rise to the occasion – after all you signed up for it. Running away from the physical inconveniences of incarnation is not the best of choices, if you are interested in transcendence and living an awakened life – unless your life path is one of abstinence.
If you have never practiced any kind of abstinence (fasting, voluntary poverty, celibacy) trust me when I say that it too has challenges, especially in the beginning. This is something to think about if you do practice any form of abstinence. Are you running away? Or are you taking on a spiritual practice to help you with your transcendence. And how can you be sure?
In today’s world, social media, texting, and virtual interaction prevail. There is a trend of decline in the skills of human relations, physical interaction and social skills. We see this in the workplace, as well as in our romantic relationships, family dynamics and parenting. We suffer a loss in our quality of human interaction in many ways, such as fulfillment, honesty, authenticity, conflict resolution, intimacy and many more areas. We are by our nature social creatures, and learning to be social simply cannot happen online. Equally, learning about and working with others humans is a different experience in person than online. You might prefer online, but make sure you understand your choice and consider if you are choosing avoidance rather than engagement.
What Is Blocking Your Progress?
Picture yourself driving down a nice country road. There is no traffic to speak of, the sun is shining beautifully in the cloudless sky, and all is right with the world. You have no particular timeline or agenda in mind, this is a rare moment of bliss which you totally intend to take advantage of.
But, as you come around the next bend in the road, there, out of the blue, appears to be an exceptionally large branch completely blocking the way. What to do now? Well, you have always thought of yourself as a somewhat smart and resourceful soul, so there is no doubt in your mind that you will arrive at a logical and workable conclusion.
After careful examination, you begin to realize this is a little more serious than what you had initially thought, so now alternate plans must be put in place. Out comes the trusted cell phone, to call the nearest towing company. Perhaps they will be able to haul the branch out of the way!
Oh no, you are in a cellular dead zone and there is no signal, so the calling option is out. What next? Well, with a little pushing and prodding, maybe you could clear the path yourself? After an exhausting attempt you quickly realize this is not going to work either. Time out is called for, so you may rally all your brilliant thoughts to reach a viable and successful conclusion.
Then you have an inspired idea. If all else fails, maybe you can navigate around the branch just enough to get free and clear, and continue on your merry way? You try and…well, lo and behold, that worked amazingly well!
Do You Prefer Spiritual School, Or Life School?
Your life path was designed by you and your guides, for you to evolve as a soul. This means everyone is on a spiritual path, whether they know it or not, and whether they believe in spirituality or not. We do not ‘have to’ consciously work on ourselves. Life is the ultimate teacher, and you will learn what you came here to learn, one way or another. Whether you learn well, or your learning is average, or if you don’t learn much of what you came here to learn (and have to come back for a do-over) life and life circumstances will teach you.
How much and how well you learn is completely up to each individual. If you decide you want to consciously work on yourself, that does not, in and of itself, make you a better person or more advanced than others. What matters most concerning a choice to do conscious work on yourself is how you take on the work and the energy behind your choice.
If you think you are broken, or you want power and prestige, your work on yourself runs the risk of being inauthentic and even abusive towards yourself. Choose to work on yourself because you are unhappy in life, or something, some energy, is ‘nudging’ you to learn more regarding self-mastery and being an authentic being, living with integrity, morality and ethics. You might want to read Awakening Loving-Kindness by Pema Chodron, as a starting point to better understand your choices regarding doing conscious work on yourself.
The Spiritual Symbolism Of The Pelican
When a bird flies directly onto your path, or you see images or photos of the same bird repeatedly, within a relatively short space of time, this is often a spiritual sign that the energy of this bird is calling or guiding you.
I live on the coast and I am lucky to be able to watch various seabirds, and encounter other birds drawn to the local water ways. The pelican is one bird that has specifically caught my attention. The day I was inspired to paint this amazing bird, he literally strutted down the hallway of my home!
Even to this day, pelican continues to literally soar into my experience whenever I need to draw on his wisdom. Even though they seem large and clumsy, there is something gentle and caring about their nature. If pelican has waddled or soared onto your path, let his wisdom and symbolism guide your way.
I started building my connection with the pelican’s energy by observing and sketching the local birds. Through the process I found a sense of awe for the pelican’s beauty, which was a shift in my perception, as I had never before considered them to be very attractive birds.
I also noticed they followed a set routine, and similar flight paths, depending on the weather. It inspired me to become more aware of my own patterns and habits. At this time my work schedule had become somewhat unbalanced and dysfunctional, without me being aware of the impact. Pelican taught me that it is vital for my self-care to ensure that I work within a routine and structure that better supports my creative outlets and energy levels.
Spiritual Awakening ‘Turns On The Light’
What exactly is a spiritual awakening, and is there a way you can tell if you are having one? Here are some ways to be aware of what is happening to you.
The first sign is usually when you are no longer living in a ‘dream world,’ where you used to see everything through your human ego and you were overly focused on the future and your past. This is a clear sign that you are becoming more spiritually aware. You have a greater awareness of your individual self and the connection between that and everything else. Things start to come into better focus in your life and make more sense.
When you closely examine various religions and faith traditions, there is usually a common thread that describes this state of heightened awareness as nirvana, enlightenment, or awakening. This new consciousness happens when you stop being the observer, and instead ask yourself, who is observing?
Many people go through life on ‘autopilot,’ because that is what they were taught, or they simply fell into a routine without giving much thought to who they really are, or what they truly need or desire to make their life meaningful. Asking such questions about yourself is important for your personal growth and self-realization. It is ‘turning the light on’ so to speak. The first step in growth is always the awareness of the present moment followed by an impulse to change something. Continue reading