Spiritual rat races
Hello dear soulmates,
Today I would like to talk to you about something that I feel like is swept under the carpet in the spiritual scene. The "Spiritual Hamster Wheels".
When we recognize that we are soul and set out on a spiritual path, it can happen that we get caught in a spiritual hamster wheel time and time again, sometimes even in several at the same time.
And that's completely normal in my opinion. Happens. However, I think it is important that we recognize the wheel and, when we are ready, get off it again. Because the huge problem with the spiritual hamster wheel: the longer you run in it, it takes away your joy for spirituality, takes away your desire for spirituality, it suddenly makes the path seem difficult and tedious, it doesn't bring the hoped-for, desired inner peace .
Let's look at some "Spiritual Hamster Wheels".
What others might think
When we start walking a spiritual path, when we start to "awaken" and we start to perceive more than science can currently prove, we quickly start to worry about what others might think about us. That they think we're crazy, that we lose our circle of friends, that we can no longer tell others what we think, etc.
Yes, it is a difficult time. The art here is to find a healthy balance from "it doesn't matter what other people think of you" and "I don't have to smack my spirituality around everyone's ears" to "I create an environment where I can be as I am” 1.) we don't have to run around telling everyone that we talk to angels, commute, do shamanic work, etc. Ultimately, spirituality doesn't mean doing this or that, but being like this and like that.
It's about being "peace," being "love," being "balanced," being "fulfilled," etc. All the rest are practices that lead us toward that state of being. There are a thousand ways to come to these states of being, each as unique and beautiful as there are souls on earth. And whether you go to church, cook meditatively, sail alone on the sea, rescue animals, commute, oracle etc. is the same, here your "being" always counts.
So it doesn't matter what others think of you, because it is your way of finding your "states of being". It is important that we get off this hamster wheel in order to be free, otherwise we always make ourselves dependent on others and their opinions and thus keep ourselves small. Your being will do the work.
Jump on every new horse
When I thought about writing this article, I thought back and grinned at how many horses I've jumped on my spiritual path, because they said "this is the real thing about enlightenment" and "it has to be like that you do it and no other way”, regardless of whether it feels right to me or not. If it doesn't feel right, then you're doing something wrong.
So there was the "Puh-Er" time, when everyone suddenly just drank this tea, then "boil water for 5 minutes and drink it lukewarm" - the miracle cure. Then the "Sun Salutation" and the "5 Tibetans", then the "Chakra Meditation" and then "Fasting", then the "Magic Cube" and "The Secret" and then "Hatha Yoga" and "Kriya Yoga" and then the "oh so delicious celery juice" and then and everything else... from one to the other. Regardless of whether the lukewarm water always made me nauseous, I thought my legs would break off while doing Hatha Yoga, I didn’t want to get up in the morning because I didn’t feel like doing the “sun salutation”, etc.
Welcome to the Spiritual Hamster Wheel of Methods.
So that we don't misunderstand each other, I'm always very much in favor of trying out new things, sometimes overcoming my weaker self, being inspired by others, but the art here is: believing in yourself and your own perception. Does it feel good? Does it feel like you want to do more of this? Is it enriching? Does it fulfill you? Does it challenge you? Does it bring you further on your soul development path? Then stay tuned, then we will also be ready to take hurdles, expand our radius, leave our comfort zone to rediscover ourselves.
But if the methodology becomes a burden, then you won't get anywhere. And even if the methodology is great for 1 million people, you can decide for yourself to go a different way without belittling the others that their method is crap. Don't forget: so many souls, so many paths of soul discovery.
It is important that we take responsibility for ourselves here. And finding out for ourselves what is good for us and what isn't and being willing to try new things, revive old things and actually go overboard with some things. This is how we get off this hamster wheel of chasing the "latest spiritual craze" and can truly arrive at ourselves
spiritual competition
There is no "spiritual competition" - that is clearly my perception of spirituality. Everyone is there where they can best recognize themselves in their very own way. But how many times have I witnessed spiritual competition: when I went to Kriya Yoga and you actually wanted to outdo each other in who wasted the least time sleeping in order to practice the most hours of the exercises.
At the meditation course who can sit the longest in the meditation sitting posture. At spiritual fairs, who can best see the aura, who shines brightest, who hovers the highest above the ground (yes, ironically), etc. The very word "sleeping sheep" indicates that you are actually entering into a spiritual competition has, us against those who do not follow "our" way.
As always, you can do it that way, but for me it's a "spiritual hamster wheel" - competition never sets you free. It always forces you to compare, to judge, to judge, to award podium places. But spirituality is not a competition - it is a path to your true soul-being. A path on which you constantly rediscover yourself, perceive a new facet, try out a new being. We all come from the One, all have the same creative potential, only our expression of this potential is unique and special.
That's why I find it more important to inspire each other than to educate. Enjoying each other's expressions rather than judging and depreciating. Only you are able to perceive yourself in your spirituality and there is nothing to judge about that, other than to constantly celebrate you for the great path you have taken here, no matter what point of self-discovery you may be at.
Enlightenment Puppet
And then someone always comes around the corner to tell you: one is not one way or the other when one is enlightened and you take that to heart and hey presto you got on a spiritual hamster wheel. I like to call this hamster wheel the "enlightenment puppet". Supposedly you don't take any more money when you're enlightened (you only live on air and love), you don't have any more negative feelings when you're enlightened, you don't have any more desires when you're enlightened - and I say that : "what a bullshit" (yes, you don't say that either when you're enlightened) - we experience the enlightenment puppet in all its glory.
I used to let myself be very offended by these statements, thinking I should be particularly holy, particularly ascetic, particularly esoteric: I should become an enlightenment puppet. And I didn't feel happy at all. Not luminous at all. Actually not good at all. Feelings were suppressed, needs were suppressed, desires were suppressed.
Until at some point the whole "Eso-shit" (yes, that's how I felt at the time, the artificial enlightenment and "artificial" spirituality) got on my nerves so much that I withdrew from it completely. To start over. To take a deep breath, to find me. Did I have wishes? Yes, I had wishes. Did I want to live on air and love? No, I didn't want to - I finally didn't want to live in constant fear of not having enough money to feed myself and my family. Did I have so-called negative feelings? Yes, damn it I had, and hugely so.
The enlightenment puppet was the biggest hamster wheel challenge for me. To free myself from everything that others wanted to sell me, how I have to be, to be allowed to wear the seal of “being spiritual”, to be “enlightened”, what kind of master title I know.
The enlightenment puppet took away my joy in the spiritual path, but above all it took away the most important element of soul existence for me: it took away my creative power.
The most essential thing that makes up your soul: the power and strength to draw. To create, to create. To build a world in which you are fine, in which the other souls are fine. So I also got out of this hamster wheel and suddenly "enlightenment" came by itself, little by little (there is still a spot that can have more light, still a soul discovery that is dormant - perhaps the most important realization of all: we are always teachers, we are always students - so we form a connection of eternal creation).
Since then I create, make mistakes, recreate, enjoy, recreate, rejoice, create new, make mistakes, keep creating, am in humility, create even more, feel the light, create a little more and then I come to the state of "I am". This is the way for me.
I share this path with you. And everyone can take what inspires them and leave what they find completely stupid. And yes, I feel on this path of creation: for me, feelings are a conversation with my soul. "Negative" feelings tell me "there is still something to change here, it can become even more luminous". "Beautiful" feelings tell me "enjoy, you have created beautifully". So turns the wheel of soul creation, but beyond the enlightenment puppet that is not free. For me, enlightenment is ultimately always self-liberation.
The discipline tightrope
Let's get to another hamster wheel that can go in two directions, the "discipline of applying spiritual practices". Who doesn't know the thoughts and bad conscience when you think "I urgently need to do my yoga exercises" or "my meditation exercises" - "Today is Beltane - I absolutely have to do a ritual" etc.... and... you don't do it.
The kids are circling around, today of all days you’re bickering with your partner, your best friend needs help and the apartment looks like a battlefield… well, let’s do the yoga exercises tomorrow, or the day after tomorrow, the day after tomorrow, so definitely soon. But instead of assuming that's the way it will be, our thoughts keep spinning, "Tomorrow I'll start! And I'm such a loser that I can't make it today!” Instead of going into the exercise with joy, it becomes a chore and tedious and joyless.
My little tip: In order to recognize yourself, to turn on the light within you, you don't necessarily need to do yoga or meditate. Yes, there are ways to get there, but if you don't feel like doing it all the time, I would invite you to feel whether these practices are at all consistent with your current life situation. We can also let it rest, let go until it fits or never fits. That's fine. Spirituality also means that we flow more and more in our very own soul rhythm.
And then the opposite can also happen, the "over-discipline" - then the spiritual exercises become almost an addiction. Everything has to be right, everything has to be perfect. What if I forget to salute north during a ritual? What if I didn't manage to meditate on the 4th Rauhnacht? What if instead of a green candle I only have a red one? What if I forgot this and that - then it's all for naught... no, of course not.
This urge to just do it right, with the fear behind it that if you don't do it "right" something bad will happen, binds our energy to the hamster wheel. I'll tell you something: nothing bad will happen. All rituals, exercises, practices are "suggestions" on how to do it. A guide to get you started.
You can practice with it, but then make it your own. There is no right or wrong here. You can't celebrate the rough nights right or wrong. You celebrate them. You get inspired by this or that, try things out to find your very own individual path. Spirituality is ultimately true individuality in connection with all that is. Ultimately, spirituality is very simple, non-strenuous, non-judgmental, non-judgmental.
You can't do anything "right" or "wrong" here, just be as you are right now in order to experience and recognize yourself. Very easily. Therefore, it makes no sense at all to put yourself under pressure, because sooner or later pressure creates counter-pressure and rejection.
My suggestion: take the spiritual practices as an invitation to perceive yourself free from pressure, free from judgement, dare to change, dare to make mistakes, dare to change and see what it's like to change until it feels fulfilling to you. This is lived spirituality.
And last but not least, a "spiritual hamster wheel"
guru complex
The "Guru Complex" is perhaps the greatest "Spiritual Hamster Wheel" we can get on and run and run thinking, "I want to be like...." (insert appropriate spiritual teacher name, such as Osho, Lindau , Betz, Sadhguru, Jesus, etc.) - dangerous ground because we start contorting ourselves to walk in someone else's footsteps already walked, forgetting ourselves, our uniqueness, our soul path.
Please don't get me wrong: I love to be inspired, not only by "spiritual" greats, but simply by people. I am constantly learning, knowing myself through them, so we are connected. But there can "only" be one Jesus ("unfortunately I don't have a Jesus photo for you today" J). Another wheel that binds you where you can lose yourself to be someone you are not.
The invitation is, look what Jesus or Osho or whatever master said and did that touches you and then find out why it touches you, what it invites you to do. Where would you like to change to and yes, of course we can then get role models, but to make something of our own out of it. Your very personal soul expression. It's not about being like Jesus.
It's about: being YOU - authentic, truthful, getting to know yourself. And as I write it again and again, in the end it's about: being love, being peace, being appreciative etc. - with your own personal expression. Your love will be very different from Jesus' love. And that's good, that's how you touch yourself and others in your own unique way. This is what the soul longs for.
We still feel this longing to be someone special. And you already are. From the beginning. You don't have to become that first. The art is now to bring this peculiarity into your expressions of being and to radiate into the world. This is how we can get off the hamster wheel of the guru complex and be who we are, how we want to be, how we want to experience the world. And here we can always go on a journey of self-discovery.
This is spirituality: finding yourself, giving yourself in, recognizing yourself even more, changing your own being and giving in further. Sharing with everything that is, touching - a taking and giving.
Spirituality can be fun, can also be exhausting and annoying, but actually always fulfilling, pulling, inviting, lovingly accepting yourself - spirituality says "you are perfect, you are unique, how would you like to experience and share this being"
I wish you a great spiritual path, recognizing the "spiritual hamster wheels" and don't forget: Spirituality is also laughing, about yourself, about the cosmic joke. spirituality is you
Love, your Jennifer