SPIRITUAL RECOVERY
What is it? In essence, it's Returning to Wholeness; it's the feeling of fulfillment from within. We can say it is a process of reconnecting to our Inner Spirit that has been lost, forgotten about, or just plan ignored. Please note that as human beings, Spirit is always with us and is only separated when the body expires. For too many reasons to go into here, we humans will at times try to replace that connection to Spirit with other things, things outside of ourselves, and for a while they do fill us, but since they are of a temporary nature to start with, the feeling of fulfillment is impermanent. So when we come to a place where we are feeling unfulfilled, we do one of two things. We begin to look for a more permanent solution for happiness, peace, love and/or joy. This search leads many of us to go within ourselves to know more about what makes us tick, why we feel the way do or, more importantly, why we are here. Which leads us to ask: what is my purpose here on earth? The questions can go even deeper; not only why am I here, but also where am I going in this life and after this life? When it comes to looking outside of ourselves for peace, we might look for a new relationship, a new place to live, a new job, a new family, new friendships, etc. While none of these things are inherently negative, we have to understand the motive behind them. Remember that relationships come and go (not always by our choice). It's rare to stay in one home for a lifetime and even then, we frequently remodel it, trying to make it better. And then there is the new job. That, too, will only work for a while, until we become dissatisfied or complacent. If we keep looking outside of ourselves for lasting peace aren't we just doing the same thing over and over, expecting different results...and you know what they say about that, don't you? There are many types of people attracted to this work, including those in Twelve-Step programs, because they have already begun to think and see things differently. Others are those who have a negative, poor, or no relationship with God. Something happened in their lives that was painful and led them to stop believing in and communicating with God. They've now reached a point where looking for fulfillment outside of them is not satisfying, and so they begin to go within. Yet others were raised in a faith that was forced upon them or didn't make any sense to them. Perhaps they were made to fear God. Many times something surrounding their religion caused them pain and humiliation. As adults, they now know there's more to life than what they're experiencing and they begin searching for a religion or spiritual path that makes sense to them. They want something that encompasses love instead of fear, joy instead of pain, respect rather than disrespect. There seems to be an underlying thread running through all the ways of being disconnected from Spirit. That underlying thread is pain. Why? Because it is our natural propensity to be connected to Spirit and to be content, fulfilled and happy. Because we are Spirit, when we are not connected to Spirit, the experience we are having is not fulfilling or lasting, and eventually brings about some form of pain. Looking for answers on the outside sometimes takes the form known as "mid-life crisis." Between 40-50 years old, things just don't satisfy us the way we want to be fulfilled. Men try to look young again, replace their old wife with a new one, or buy that sports car they couldn't afford in their youth, etc. Women continue to do whatever they can do to keep themselves from aging and to make themselves look younger. We've all seen it; some of us have tried it. It's all about looks. "If I look better, I'll feel better," they think. And it works...for a while. Now I'm not saying that we shouldn't have nice things in our lives. Or that we shouldn't take care of ourselves. But when we believe those things to be the so-called answers to Happiness, Joy, Love and Peace, we are deceiving ourselves and looking for those things in the wrong places. Remember that Waylon Jennings' song..."Lookin' for love (in all the wrong places")? Again, pain is very patiently waiting to awaken us. We cannot fulfill our Inner Self with temporary things. "Pain is the touchstone of Spiritual growth," said Bill Wilson, co-founder of AA. And many saints and sages of all traditions have said the same. In the Ah-Man Blog this month, I will talk about some of those things that have brought us to our knees. And how, from that touchstone of pain, we are able to change our perspective to see things differently because of a spiritual awakening or Divine experience. |