I’ve discovered throughout the years that great swathes of individuals have been groomed to believe something that isn’t accurate. They’ve come to accept as true that in order to embody a spiritually fulfilled life, their experience must run in tandem with calmness, gentility, and sometimes a very passive move through life. You know the type: The fictional guru sitting cross-legged on a pillow with nary a response to outside stimuli, the prayerful individual with the lazy smile and unaffected mannerisms, or the vivid photos of Shaolin monks in colorful robes practicing in the temples where they’ve dedicated their lives to meditation and enlightenment.
This notion that spirituality is synonymous with serenity is misguided at best and at worst a false façade leading people to conjure up a belief that they don’t have the merit to achieve higher states of Illumination.
Spirituality and the depth of your connection to the everlasting are, in actuality, going to be represented best when practiced in tandem with your natural predilections in life. For the busy minded, you in no way need to be meditative and gentle in order to live with a constant connection with God. There is no objective demand for silence and remote atmospheres necessary for you to develop a strong connection to eternality. The perpetuation of this myth can stop with you and the best way to do it is to understand that your desire for Illumination will actually arrive only when you are your most authentic self.
If you, in your craving for a more spiritually relevant life, adhere to practices (like the ones above) that are foreign to your natural state, you’ll find most often that failure is the result of your endeavors. Will you learn a few things? Sure! Will you stick with the programs? Nope. Why? Because you’re called to be your authentic self while dwelling in the beautiful state of Illuminated thought and presence. If you are the ADHD type, A type personality, or a very intense progressive minded person, you are going to find God within the realm of your own authentic state of mind. These traits aren’t negative despite popular statements otherwise, they are YOUR traits and Spiritual Illumination can meet you right where you are at.
For active, progressive, busy minded individuals that have travailed in your yearnings for a more spiritual life but think you need to be something you’re not, this is your article. You can find Illumination and powerful spiritual insight being exactly who you are. Yet, if you have time for some treetop meditations once in a while or a trek to the canyon for some quiet time, even better. In the meantime, people like yourself can do many things in order to find the spiritual attunement you need. It still takes commitment but these actions are more in line with your personality and the lifestyle that has probably been fashioned by it. So, toss aside those old prior notions and consider them antiquated systems of practice that can place no demand on who you are. Consider the following instead and you’ll find just what you’re looking for:
1. Your actions themselves must be considered a prayer.
For more detailed information on the embodying prayer, read this article for clarity. Once you recognize the power of living your prayer instead of bending to the practices promoted by others, it will be easier to understand how your connection can be elevated. No more thinking of the demands of solitude and ideological prayer practices; for a mind like yours, your ethical and world contributing actions are a prayer in themselves that, in turn, mold you into a more spiritual individual not by your requests, but by the repetitive actions you commit to and the content they possess. Embodying Godliness in action transforms you without you having to beg for it in word and its manifestation arrives often like a tidal wave in the form of constant affirmations.
2. Stop heeding to the ideologies of others.
The depth of manipulation that has come from those in power over us as we grew up must be removed. The manacles of such narrow beliefs have to be broken. The rigorous laws of whatever belief system that was laid before you needs to be supplanted with better ideas and truths. Forego the marked demands of structured prayer, pew based worship, and the thought that God is found in an orator or the practices of those adhering to that specific faith. The God that you need is found, in the most condensed and purest form, within you and your authentic actions. You will discover your greatest spiritual connection within the broad landscape of your own design. To live every day with ethical practices that are sourced from your Soul’s love and desire to contribute to this magnificent world will provide returns on your investment that is beyond what can be inscribed here. It is where fulfillment resides and where God awaits you.
3. Realize that people of your exacting mindset are sorely needed
What is wonderful about the busy minded, forward thinking personality, is when they focus correctly, their actions carve worlds. It is your type, like no other, that are the giants of society. You’re the builders, the communicators, and the designers that get things accomplished and through your actions, the teachers, the dreamers, and the students are able to perpetuate their ideas and desires to help others. You are NOT called to change into some passive and solemn provisioner of spiritual aphorisms but to be an active constituent of change by the nature of your ability to get things accomplished. THIS is how you inhabit Illumination, THIS is how you worship, THIS is how you love, and THIS is how you draw feverishly close to the designer you so deeply yearn for.
4. Search for fulfillment in duties and not in external resources
Your personality will find fulfillment primarily by seeing the results of your actions when they have been devoted to projects that benefit society. The devotion of your mental resources to these endeavors and the extent by which you invest them will result in returns that are far greater than the effort. Some individuals thrive on the offerings of others, some by prayer and supplication, some thrive in internal environments where family is the primary component; others are fulfilled by being members of a service organization that provides relief to those in need, and yet others can find contentment in their job while devoting income to organizations that work for the betterment of society. Your primary spiritual contentment will arrive by your very own actions and the way you can use your skills, no matter how complicated the mission, for increasing the greater good in society. It can be a mighty task, but individuals of your mindset are rarely not up for it.
5. Stop beating yourself up for any inability to commit to specific practices
For those of you who have attempted varying means of spiritual connection devices in order to draw closer, but have failed or quit the attempts, it’s best to stop making such demands of yourself entirely. In other words, stop making plans for drawing closer to Illumination as if it were a test study. After realizing that your best method is in the LIVING and DOING and not in the asking or the procedural, this can make it easier.
If you want to try varying methods there is no harm in it, but don’t fault yourself for lack of commitment or the impoverishment of results. As long as you are being true to your authentic self by committing to a life of ethical action, these side attempts should become nothing more than enjoyable endeavors that arrive without the weight of personal demand. You’ll find that doing varying spiritual technique become at best something you end up sticking to because they’ve lost the weight of demand and at worst a fun novelty that was worth experiencing in the time you allotted it.
The beauty of a busy minded personality is that your ability to devote your time to projects and actions that are ethically sound and spiritually fulfilling will, in themselves, transform you into a representation of the very acts you’ve committed to. Some may grow through serenity and constant meditation, but you will grow through action, commitment, and a constant state of motion. This type of fertile ground is NO LESS capable than the serene kind that others may require. Your desire to BE a more spiritual and Illuminated person will be unnecessary because you have to become it organically through inhabiting the nature of who you authentically are. The magnificent spiritual adeptness you wield will have arrived in the way it only could have all along: By accepting yourself and working within the framework of that exact design.
