ego death
Finding Your Silent Space Within
Finding our silent space within is the essential spiritual practice. Cultivating a sense of inner stillness, mindfulness, and presence is crucial to any spiritual, metaphysical, or esoteric practice, as it allows for a deeper connection to your higher self, the universe, and the divine.
The silent space within is the inner connection point to our spirit or soul — the part of our being that is eternal and transcendent. This relationship is fundamental to most spiritual, religious, and esoteric traditions, which often describe the silent space within as a portal or bridge to a deeper understanding and connection with the soul, the divine, or the universal consciousness.
In many traditions, cultivating the silent space within is considered essential to achieving enlightenment or spiritual liberation — the realization of one’s true nature as soul or spirit, beyond physical and mental limitations. This realization of inner silence is our awakening to the eternal aspect of our being.
A concept used in various spiritual, meditative, and mindfulness practices, the notion of a silent space within symbolizes the inner sanctuary where one can retreat to find inner peace and strength, clarity, and a sense of centeredness, regardless of external circumstances. It is where we feel a deeper connection to something greater than ourselves, which is central to any spiritual path.
Your Divine Duty To Not Be A Goofus!
Why are some people so rude, unkind, emotionally immature, foolish? Are we not all spirit beings in human form who should know better? I recently asked my wise grandmother in spirit this question. As one of my ancestral guides, I always turn to her for help in dealing with complex life issues.
The person who inspired my recent spiritual inquiry is a very problematic, mean-spirited neighbor who I have seen and heard verbally abuse people, as well as his own dog, in ways that would infuriate anyone.
This man seems to enjoy verbal abuse as a means of self-aggrandizement and is very immature and unkind. I have also seen him damage a security camera after being asked to stop his dog from relieving himself on the steps of the building where we live.
I connected with my grandmother during my morning meditation and asked her why some people are so disrespectful and unkind. Her answer seemed strange at first because she showed me a mental image of Highlights, the children’s magazine she used to subscribe to for me when I was a child. It is a well-known kids’ magazine full of fun, educational stories, games, puzzles, and crafts that has been around for decades.
The Constant Battle Of Head Versus Heart
Have you ever second-guessed yourself, done or said something that went against your gut, only to realize in retrospect that your initial feeling or hunch was right? Had you acted differently, it could have saved you a lot of heartache and loss, emotionally, physically or financially?
If you have ever been in this position, know that you are not alone. The “head versus heart” dilemma can be very confusing and frustrating. Many of my clients struggle with it and some experience a great deal of confusion, stress and emotional discomfort as a result.
When faced with difficult decisions or challenging situations, we usually have a good sense of what the best course of action might be. But then we tend to look for concrete evidence to support our feelings and intuitive hunches, and when we cannot find any, which is often the case, our heads take precedence over our hearts. So we end up discounting our feelings and intuitions, usually to our own detriment.
The struggle between head and heart is a common theme in philosophy, literature, art, and popular culture, as we all regularly experience inner conflicts between reason and emotion, logic and intuition, responsibility and passion.
The Transformative Power Of Vulnerability
I find that spirit wants to remind us that vulnerability offers us a special kind of magic in our lives. It is a theme that comes up regularly in psychic readings I do for my clients.
Vulnerability can transform lives, careers, relationships and families in profound ways. But for many of us, life has taught us that being vulnerable is a ‘weakness’ that puts us at risk.
Many of us have built walls around ourselves to protect ourselves because we feel we risk rejection, judgment, or failure if we allow ourselves to be vulnerable. The ego tells us it’s best not to take those risks at all!
Instead, we harden our hearts and keep our distance, choosing to figure out what others might think, feel or do before we are willing to put ourselves out there in any way.
But by shying away from being open, authentic, and transparent with our thoughts, feelings, hopes, fears, and desires, we actually block the very outcomes in life that we hope for.
So, how do you get more comfortable opening up and allowing yourself to be authentic and vulnerable? And how does that open you up to the very results you want to manifest in your life?
Spiritual Growth Without Judgment Or Guilt
I recently had a nasty fight with my ex-husband that was definitely not in line with the spiritual values and principles I teach my clients. Afterwards, I felt very defeated and disappointed in myself for not practicing what I preach.
But then Spirit whispered in my ear.
“It’s okay not to be perfect all the time. Sometimes you need to let the toxic air out of your human ego balloon.”
Upon further reflection, I was reminded that we are all spirit beings in human form, which automatically means we are limited and fallible. No one is perfect in this world.
After all, we have signed up for a very challenging physical adventure in this lifetime, which means we all have problems from time to time and we all make mistakes. That is how we learn and grow. In fact, one of the least spiritual things we can do is pretend we’re perfect.
Sometimes we need to let off steam by releasing pent-up negative energies that tend to build up in our auras as we navigate the ups and downs and many frustrations of our daily human existence. Yes, indeed, there are times when we need to go ahead and just beat the heck out of our ego piñata to get rid of some bad juju! When we release these unwanted energies, we detoxify our energy field to live a more abundant and fulfilling life.
Spiritual Self-Care Or Ego Indulgence?
Spiritual or metaphysical practice is a pursuit designed to help bring greater meaning and fulfillment to our lives. It is a lifestyle that requires us to be very honest with ourselves and very intentional about the choices we make. But lately I’ve seen a lot of discourse around spirituality that basically encourages you to do pretty much whatever you want in the name of ‘free will’ and ‘self-care.’
Free will is sacred. Yes, it’s true that we are divine, spiritual beings who get to enjoy this incredible adventure of physical life. We get to choose how we move in the world, what we want for ourselves, and how we want to live. But there are two sides to this coin. Yes, we can choose what we want to manifest and how we wish to live our lives, but that does not absolve us of our karmic responsibilities and the consequences of our actions.
I’ve written before about karma and how it’s not meant to be a punishment, but rather a teacher. There are to metaphysical laws that are the basis to our karmic responsibility in this lifetime, namely the universal law of cause and effect and the spiritual law of karma.
The universal law of cause and effect is that for every action there is a reaction. There is a natural order in the universe in which our actions always have consequences, both good and bad.
The spiritual law of karma is a more specific application of the law of cause and effect. According to this law, the totality of our actions in this life, as well as all of our past lives, determine our future. This means that our actions create the conditions for our future experiences, both good and bad.
Dealing With Ancestral Karmic Debt
When a loved one crosses over, they transcend this dimension to enter the next. In the spirit dimension we revert from human ego consciousness back to universal consciousness, and our awareness is no longer limited by time and space.
I like to think of our constantly evolving soul or spirit as ‘cookie dough.’ When we cross over and revert to the broader perspective of universal consciousness, our soul energy is like a ball of dough that has been proofing for a lifetime.
As the Universe, or the Divine Cookie-Maker, rolls out the dough of our returning soul, there will be some karmic ‘lumps.’ These lumps are the unwise choices, mistakes, transgressions, missed opportunities, failures, crimes, and sins for which we didn’t make amends during this lifetime. It then becomes our karmic debt.
Some of these karmic debts go back many generations and have become part of the ancestral legacy of our soul family. It has sometimes dire consequences for everyone we are spiritually connected to in this life and the next. It becomes a shared responsibility for the entire soul family, for which someone needs to step up at some point to break the cycle.
Making amends and striving towards karmic healing is therefore not just something we do for our own sake, but also for those that came before us, and especially for those who will come after us.
Our ancestors on the Other Side are also continually striving to resolve their karmic debts, and for this they may need our help and support. If we hold them, or ourselves, in a state of unforgiveness, they cannot move forward with their karmic healing, or the next stages of their soul journey.