A Burning Yearning for Change - How is it Spiritual?
You might be one of those with a strong sense to want to change your reality - and indeed the wider world. Yet we're so often told of the need for "acceptance and surrender". The two truths, the two impulses, seem to conflict. And how exactly does consciousness change our reality for the better? You may have strongly catalytic tendencies that cause you to witness injustice in the world and want to do something about it. So what's happening with all these different energies? How do you balance what's going on within, and maximise your creative impact in the world?...
Acceptance and Surrender are not always the Same
Firstly it is important to realise that acceptance and surrender are not necessarily the same thing. True spiritual surrender is not acceptance of 'anything goes'. This just builds another identity. Yet true surrender is not needing a particular outcome from the situation. The key word here is 'particular'. Because it's right for the soul to yearn for change - to me, that's a key characteristic of the soul. But to want and need a particular outcome would only be ego.
It's because the universe is naturally working toward balanced harmony - unraveling injustice and inequity where it exists. And since your soul is an integral part of this realigning energy, then you'll naturally feel it flowing through you - which to deny, is to create extra layers of identity and ego.
Work with the Arising Energy
In some people, this realigning energy is immensely strong. It can well up within you, and feel so powerful, you could literally explode. This frequently happens in me - fortunately I've learned not to explode! Instead, I began to recognise, that when I felt like this, it was usually to do with a situation of injustice in the wider world, although perhaps kicked off by some personal situation in the microcosm of my life. So when it happens, I let myself express the energy. It could be a power walk in nature, working out in the gym, swimming or dancing to music - I find a productive way to harness and express the energy.
What I notice when this happens, is that my attention is drawn to some synchronicity of positive change in the wider world. You've connected up to a realigning force of energy, harnessed it, and sent it out in a positive way, to do what it's meant to.
Breaking down is Necessary for the Emergence of the New
The great thing is you're getting a positive feedback loop. The upwelling feels fulfilled and connected. So you know you're expressing authentically, having a beneficial effect. Bear in mind though, this will also unravel - breakdown - unjust situations of inequity; so whilst it may seem like a destructive force sometimes, it's important to recognise that breaking down is necessary for the emergence of the new.
So there's a vital difference between desperately wanting a particular outcome, and connecting with an upwelling - a burning yearning - for change. Whilst the former is clearly ego, the latter is most definitely emanating from the soul. In which case, to gain the maximum sense of fulfillment from life, the maximum amount of personal success too, give maximum attention and focus on the upwelling. How ever that wants to express, give it all you've got.
Then watch the energy positively shape your life and the world around you in the most profound of ways.
Namaste
Open
(Publishers - please publish with links intact and the Openhand brief biog. Thankyou <3)
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Comments
Amazing words - thanks for sharing
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Wow - truly amazing words Cathy - thanks for sharing. <3
For Longing
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These beautifully inspiring words from Irish writer and poet, John O'Donohue, came to me synchronistically today around the time I saw your article this morning, Open. It feels like the right time and place to post them.
FOR LONGING
Blessed be the longing that brought you here
And quickens your soul with wonder.
May you have the courage to listen to the voice of desire
That disturbs you when you have settled for something safe.
May you have the wisdom to enter generously into
your own unease
To discover the new direction your longing wants
you to take.
May the forms of your belonging -- in love, creativity
and friendship --
Be equal to the grandeur and the call of your soul.
~John O'Donohue
x Cathy
Keep dancing with the universe
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Keep dancing with the universe Cathy!
It's clearly paying dividends.
Open *OK*
rhythmic dance
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This article speaks deeply to the rhythms of my soul. Thank you, Open. I once confused my soul's burning yearning for positive change with lack of acceptance of what is and attachment to outcomes. You helped me to "get" the difference during the last Openhand workshop in Victoria a year ago when you said that the yearning I felt wasn't ego but soul.
I frequently feel torn up by the massive suffering engendered by rampant inequities and injustices in the world. My heart burns with passion for positive change. I feel the realigning energy of divine benevolence so strongly at times that it feels like I'll bust wide open. I witness this yearning to unravel injustice in so many other souls. Many committed social activists demand and attach to outcomes. And many searching souls hide and escape into a false bubble of love and light preferring to remain blind to the outer mirror and the connection between individual and collective consciousness. There is a fine line between surrendering to what is and giving in to anything goes. Between expressing the soul's yearning to unravel injustice whilst staying open to what wants to unfold and attaching to particular outcomes. Between succumbing to anger and despair and finding the Light beyond.
It feels like I'm in a continual dance with the Universe between stepping up and speaking out about injustice and 'alighting' upon and publicly celebrating the joy of positive change to help light up the world. That rhythmic dance keeps my heart and soul burning bright.
x Cathy
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