One of my clients, who has only believed in the physical level of experience, is currently finding that this is limiting him in his personal growth. He has been very resistant to opening up to any kind of spirituality, having had some very negative and confusing experiences with religion and spirituality in his past. He recently came to the conclusion that he doesn’t really know what spirituality is. And so he asked me how I would define it. The below is my response to him. Although, of course, the subject is far more complex than this preliminary answer, perhaps others will find it helpful.
God is the essence of all that is true and real. It is truth, intelligence, life, love and goodness. It is all that really exists beyond illusion, delusion and fear. It is the source of safety and well-being from the broadest perspective.
The Divine is a high frequency vibration of love, of intelligence, of life, of truth — and is the essence of who we are. People can be a vehicle for the Divine vibration, so can music, so can words, and many other things. The person or the experience that has been affected by It is like a harp’s cord that has been plucked and resonates to It’s vibration.
When an actor, or a musician, or a singer, or an athlete, or anyone who is really functioning at the top level of human expression, gets into a zone where some perfection is pouring out through them, a channel has been opened allowing the Divine to express Itself through them. That channel being open is what causes someone to stand out as a star.
We can either feel in the Divine flow or not. When we are feeling in the Divine flow, life flows smoothly; it’s clear to us what decisions to make, what thing to do, and in what order. It flows effortlessly and blissfully. We feel in alignment with life, with whatever comes up for us. We get inspired thoughts for our creative work. We feel a lightness, a full-of-life feeling, a high vibration, a feeling of joy or bliss, especially when we’ve got inspiration flowing through us.
We feel not in the Divine flow when nothing seems to work right, when we have to make a decision and have no idea what to do. We come up with a blank, run into road blocks right and left, don’t getting inspired thoughts, and our energy seems stuck and heavy.
Being on a spiritual path requires receptivity. It requires us listening for and to Divine guidance or inspiration. There are certain things that open up a portal to Divine inspiration, Divine knowledge, Divine experience, Divine flow. One of them is truth.
Having faith that when you get to truth, things work out, a solution is found, transformation happens — is having faith that the way things really are (which is what truth is) is perfect; it is the state in which life works. People who live a conscious life, committed to following a path of truth, find that when we are in truth, we experience that life, in fact, does work. We find it is the avoidance of truth that causes our lives not to work. This demonstrates that life lived in truth connects us with an intelligent, Divine order in things.
Another portal to the Divine is accessed by coming into the present moment, the here-and-now. One approach to coming into the present moment has to do with accessing the heart of the matter in any particular moment. This is often accessed when we become aware of what really matters to us in that moment. And it is oddly difficult to do. It would seem that one could get to the heart of the matter fairly easily, since that is what the obvious issue at any moment is.
But often our conscious and unconscious minds cause all kinds of distractions and emotional defense systems, diverting us from the living moment. This is particularly true in the areas in which we have made childhood, unconscious, limiting decisions*. The job of our defense systems is to avoid experiencing what the truth is in the areas of these decisions.
This is because when we made limiting decisions (such as decisions that we are unlovable or bad, or that the world requires constant struggle) we decided that the truth about ourselves and life, in those areas, is unbearably negative. As a result, we keep ourselves from being conscious and present in those areas of experience so as to never really find out what the truth is. We are then also cut off from what matters most to us in those areas, such as truly receiving love or being at ease in the world.
Moving through that stuck place to experience what is true in the living moment, where the heart of the matter resides, is where our whole experience of reality has the potential to radically shift. This pivotal, transformational place of the living present-moment is where truth is known, and where we can assess what matters most to us. It is where our limited and distorted experiences of reality can be realigned to Divine truth.
*Limiting decisions: An NLP term used in NLP TimeLine counseling sessions to mean unconscious decisions, made in early childhood, that are some form of that life doesn’t work, and usually that there is something inherently wrong with you — such as “I am powerless,” “bad,” “unlovable;” “People can’t be trusted,” and so on. Limiting decisions are never true. NLP TimeLine counseling sessions facilitate clearing limiting decisions, in order to release the negative patterns in your life that are caused by them. For more information on limiting decisions and NLP TimeLine sessions, click here.
I invite you to leave any questions or comments in the below comments field.
Author’s Bio: Jane Ilene Cohen, Ph.D. is an Intuitive & Transformational NLP Counselor, and an NLP & TimeLine Master Practitioner and Hypnotherapist, with a private practice in San Diego North County (Encinitas). She does individual counseling with children and adults (includes the NLP TimeLine Process and hypnosis), works with couples, families and other relationships, and facilitates groups and workshops. She is also the Founder of the “Life is Designed to Work” thought system.
For more about Dr. Cohen’s counseling services, go to: JaneCohenCounseling.com . For a free phone consultation to decide if this is right for you, or to make an appointment, call Dr. Cohen at (760) 753-0733.
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