“What am I supposed to do?” is a question I hear a lot in my intuitive practice.
A more challenging question is: “How do I become my best self?” This melds the search for identity and meaning with the practical, emotional, mystical, and, yes, fun aspects of our personal and professional lives.
The best thing? Both questions have the same answer: Get out of your way and get love.
Okay, fine, you say, but how do you do that?
You connect — with yourself, others and the community of all life. Yes, it’s hard work, but it will forever change how you look at the world and your role in it.
Ready? Here are five tips to get you started.
1. Change your mindset. As humans we’re trapped in a mindset we created: it says that we are at the “top of the food chain,” and so in charge. The problem is, the human paradigm of the world is wrong. From my intuitive practice of speaking and working with all life, whether animals, homes, businesses or nature, I know that everything is alive, has a soul, consciousness, responsibility and free choice. Most important: we are equals with all beings. This is the earth paradigm, and it is absolutely the way the planet really works — the only ones who don’t seem to know it are humans.
Meeting all life as equals is liberating: freed from the burden and ego-lock of being in charge, we can discover how the world really works, and how we can work with it. Everything changes — science, technology, medicine, art, politics, religion, culture, our daily lives. How do you live in a world where everything, from our chairs to animals to a volcano, has a job to do — and an attitude?
We can better find our way in the world when we understand the path that other beings take, and how the patterns weave together. It’s easy enough to do: sit down and talk to other beings. For example, ask your home how you can make it more comfortable in its work. When we expand into wonder, awe, respect and collaboration, we learn how our unique talents and abilities mesh with those of all beings, and how we each contribute to the welfare of our living, conscious planet. If we’re open to experience life as it really exists, we’re open to the mystery of the universe itself. Fun happens. Great choices (and conversations) abound.
2. Tap your intuition. Tapping our intuition is no more (or less) a spiritual practice than tapping our other senses. We are incomplete without our intuition. Dig deep to discover your strongest intuitive skill: knowing, seeing, feeling or hearing. Practice with simple things, like choosing dessert or buying a new shirt. As you intuitively learn to make better daily choices, you will enhance your ability to make life-changing ones, from where to live to what work to do. Intuition is our birthright: learning to use it means you’re taking the blinkers off being fully human, enriching your life and all others.
3. Claim your power. Never give your power away. The power sappers can be subtle: “synchronicity” and “what’s meant to be” can be two of them. It’s inspiring to get signs that offer both insight and connection, but sometimes things just happen. Learn from them, but never surrender deeply informed personal choice. Be resourceful, thoughtful, inventive. When you seek outside human opinions, accept only what resonates with your deeper, intuitive self. What is your truth? You, and only you, are the leader of yourself.
4. Get practical. Keep your day job. Taking care of the basics will help you get firmly grounded and balanced in the everyday world. Practicality informs inspiration.
5. Get creative — take time off. Taking a break is not only okay, it’s necessary. Taking time to laugh, play, and explore the world around you refreshes and enlightens you. Honest.
These five tips will help you become your own best self. Of course, they all come down to one: get connected.
While we all want and need to find meaning in our lives, our deepest yearning is for connection to the mystery of life itself. We find it in a healthy, balanced, collaborative relationship with the community of all life. We find it in love.
We start by creating our best selves. By changing our mindset to recognize the equality of all life, fine-tuning our intuition, and becoming strong and practical and creative, we shake off the “should” and free ourselves to love. Love connects us to our essential worthiness: we need to love and be loved, we are worthy of love, and we achieve that by loving ourselves first.
How we carry that into creating fulfilling lives is the mystery we’re here to explore. Have fun with it!
© 2012 Robyn M Fritz
Thank you to New Connexion: Pacific Northwest’s Journal of Conscious Living, for publishing this article on Sept. 17, 2012
Excellent advice! Especially #4–Get Practical. In my opinion, there is not enough discussion about the marriage of practicality and spirituality. Sometimes it seems that spiritual teachers, writers, etc. just ignore practical matters as they if don’t count or aren’t of any concern whatsoever in a person’s life. Like those “follow your bliss” and “do what you love and the money will follow” tropes that were in such vogue in the 90’s among New Agers. In some ways, I think those were very destructive messages. Sometimes keeping your butt parked in a cubicle and attending to your job *is* spiritual action.
Thank you for your smart remarks, Kristen. I think you are absolutely correct: Fallon and I see a lot of people whose lives are damaged because they think they have not ‘found their bliss’ or ‘don’t know how to find their life’s work,’ and believe they have done something wrong. They also think that the practical real life work of making a living is somehow not worthy. Yes, we should all do what we love, but that doesn’t necessarily mean we can make a living at it in the moment, or that what we are doing does not somehow enlighten us, from the mundane to the enlightening. What it means is that we can develop enriching, satisfying lives by realizing that we are all wonderful and beautiful and worthwhile, and there is plenty of meaning in simply staying centered and focused and doing the work that is in front of us. I love your phrase: ‘keeping your butt parked in a cubicle and attending to your job ‘is’ spiritual action.’ You are absolutely correct and wise to recognize this. Everyone’s job is valuable, particularly if we recognize it as what we need to be doing right now. Growth comes from being anchored in the real world and then exploring beyond that. It takes discipline and focus and a sense of humor. I am always in such awe of the many jobs out there, from grocery clerk to wildlife biologist to offfice manager. Being the best we can be at the work we are doing right now is exactly how we find ourselves: our self worth, our place in community, our beautiful friends. Being practical keeps us grounded and helps us distinguish between things that matter and things that are idle speculation, and all things between! Thanks for your wise comments.
“Being the best we can be at the work we are doing right now is exactly how we find ourselves: our self worth, our place in community, our beautiful friends.” Yes, I agree! I too, sometimes get caught up in the trap of thinking that I made the “wrong” decisions about my career (well–careers to be more exact) and that there is some perfect career or job or business out there that I somehow missed that would be “more” spiritual. But the reality is, spirituality is everywhere—it’s not hiding in some career I haven’t discovered yet. And if can’t see it where I am in the moment, I won’t find it anywhere–even if I became a priest.
You are absolutely correct, Kristen! True wisdom comes from our everyday lives, in all their messy glory. Bless your beautiful self!