You are here! Reading this! Which means we can talk openly about it, can’t we? Or didn’t you let spirituality in, when it knocked on your door? Is it still outside, knocking, waiting for you to open the door, while you are hiding behind your screen, reading this? That’s ok. Because the knocking won’t stop. There is nothing to be afraid of, worried about or to hide from. It is a natural part of you, that you were already born with and that for some reason now tries again to be heard. It seems like it thinks that you are ready for its call now. Are you ready?
Probably not completely and this is the reason you found this article or rather it found you.
I have been there. I lived my pretty life, guided by logical decision and trying to make sense of life. I grew up with a mum and some of her friends reading tarot cards, talking about crystals and I got some crystals because, I mean, they look pretty. But I just gave all that hippie, spiritual, naive dreamer stuff a little respect, because well, it was my mum and I love her. I accept that she likes stuff that I can’t make sense of, that I don’t believe in. She never pushed me to look at those things. They just coexisted, if you will.
In times where everything seems uncertain or where you are in pain or where things are just damn hard, everything that sounds like helpful is worth giving it a chance, don’t you think? There is nothing to lose anyway.
Not that I believed in those cards or any of those things but now that things were complicated enough I could as well also try out something new in the meantime.
That being said, spirituality means something different to different people. But for me it simply means having this innate knowing that we are all connected and that there is a bigger force out there a bigger system than earth and what we can see. How people call it doesn’t really matter. God, universe, higher power, higher self – the concepts overlap. The way it knocks on our doors also varies a lot. For me it was not only tarot cards or crystals. For me it was an inner voice holding me back from what I was always dreaming of at a very inconvenient time. It was confusing back then, to say the least. But I just couldn’t help myself but listening to it. I refused job offers, that meant to get what I had been working for, for years, while I was just about to close the company I was leading. I refused job offers that would have been just the way I planned life, which meant I wouldn’t have a job for some time. I took four weeks off, trying to gain clarity. In those four weeks, I completely dived into this inner voice and my spirituality. I had been doing some of this work before, since I started practicing yoga but not very seriously. But it felt like the right thing to do, it felt like the only right thing to regain clarity about what I really wanted in life. I thought that there had to be more about life than simply working for status and money, in order to be able to pay for traveling or so. I was looking for some deeper purpose. And this is the time most of us get the call or the knocking on the door. When we are at a low point in life or simply questioning our status quo. Can you relate? Is there something like this in your life right now or has been when spirituality first came into your life?
Here are a few things I learned from transitioning from a logic guided life into an intuition guided life:
1. Don’t be afraid of your intuition:
Most of us grew up in the believe that our intuition is no reliable source when it comes to important decisions in life, if ever. Because it is not tangible. We need to know it, in order to make the right decision. We need a study confirming it, other people’s experiences or we need to see it. I grew up like this. I lived like this most of my life. Although, if I really didn’t feel like doing something, I didn’t do it, no matter what any study or expert said. Funny looking back to it, I always trusted my intuition more that I recognized. Plus, today we know, confirmed by studies, that around 95% of our decisions are made subconsciously before we consciously make it. So, no matter how much we overthink a decision, it is already made before we know. But it is not always made by our intuition but very often by our mind based on old patterns and conditioning, trying to keep us safe. Which sounds great except for it isn’t. Why? Because it is trying to hold us back from anything new, risky, that is out of our comfort zone. Where does personal growth, the big dreams you have happen though? Exactly. Far out your comfort zone. Your intuition instead, is making decisions based on your highest good. That includes risks, and stepping out of your comfort zone, knowing it will take you to your biggest potential. This is why we shouldn’t be afraid of our intuition but rather of our subconscious, conditioned mind making the decisions for us.
Just because everyone is telling you to do it differently, doesn’t necessarily mean it is wrong! Think of legends like Steve Jobs. Did he do what everyone did? Did Henry Ford built a car because everyone told him to? No. They followed their own voice, their intuition, their own dreams despite everyone telling them they were wrong. We all know how this turned out. Maybe you are even sitting in front of a screen of an Apple product or own a car. Everything you think is the right thing, is valid. It might not be right for others, but it is right for you, for a reason. Trust your intuition. At least, give it a chance! You can always go back to the old way of living life. But chances are, you won’t want to.
2. Spirituality is a unique practice & journey
Taking care of your spirituality doesn’t mean you have to start reading tarot cards, surround yourself with crystals, praying, going to church, talking to your guardian angels or whatever you heard about it. All of those practices are valid but not necessarily made for you. Your intuition will guide you to the practices best for you. And they are subject to change over time as you evolve your spiritual practice. Try things out. Be open to the things around you. Do your research. Just play with it a little. And yes, when it comes to spirituality play is definitely a big part of it! We also often grow up believing we need to be serious about our spiritual practices. We can’t joke about it, we are not allowed to laugh, we are not allowed to approach it playfully. But we can! We can approach it in any way that feels right to us! There are no rules. And people who tell you there are rules or try to make you feel guilty for the way you approach things, forget about them. Get back to your intuition and do it your way!
3. You can always count on your intuition, once you learned to differentiate it from your ego
This is a large topic in itself, but I just wanted to say a few words about it, just to make sure you are aware of it. How to eventually get there, is a complete other story and a topic I can’t fully explain here. If you start listening to your intuition (or maybe you already know), you might find that there are more “voices” inside you, trying to get your attention. One is ego, combined with old believes, conditioning, doubts and fears and all the things that will lead you to make decision within the comfort zone. And there is your actual intuition. Again, I tell you this here, simply so that you can become aware of it. For now, I can only tell you to practice differentiating those two. The intuition is generally the very, very first respond to a question or the very first feeling about something. But it is very subtle often short and the mind jumps in so quickly, that we almost overhear the first reaction. And this is when it becomes difficult to differentiate them. But you will figure it out! Why I’m so sure about this? Because you got all it takes to do so! And there is a lot of information out there and amazing people who can help you with it. But after all you already have the ability within you, so don’t worry too much about it. It will come over time.
4. The relationship to yourself, is the most important
Spirituality practices are all about yourself and the connection to yourself. It is an ongoing personal development practice. And this is what made it even more appealing to me. It is not about manifesting your future, looking into the future, it is about being present and taking action today for tomorrow. It is about finding out who you really are. Finding your innate powers, you have been hiding until now (we all have some hidden powers, even when you don’t think so or especially when you don’t think so – they are hidden from you!). It is all about you and the collective, about all of us. It is not about a god telling you how to live life. It is about what you can do for yourself and everyone. How can you serve the world, how can you change it for the better? You know how? By working on yourself. By healing yourself. By taking care of yourself. We are all depending on each other. There is no “self-made”, there is no lonely wolf. Because you didn’t invent the internet, you didn’t build the device you are reading this article on, you aren’t the person who wrote this article, I assume you also did not make the clothes you are wearing all by yourself and so on. No matter how much we might physically be alone, how hard we work on our own, we always depend on the support of other people in a variety of ways. That means people also depend on you! You already contribute to the world by smiling or simply doing your current job, even if it is not the most fulfilling one or by simply sitting alone and meditating. Everything that makes you happy, that keeps you healthy makes you valuable for the world because you contribute to it in your unique way. Not everyone needs to invent something that completely changes the world like Steve Jobs or Henry Ford. You can, but you don’t need to in order to make a difference in this world. Just create the most beautiful relationship to yourself and you will intuitively find a way to contribute to this world.
5. You are stronger than you think, even when you already think you are strong
Getting to know your true self, will show you sides of yourself that you didn’t see before. It will bring up dark sides but what I really love is, that it can show us our true strength. We are able to achieve things we never even thought about. There are powers within us, that no one is talking about or that people don’t want you to know about. This is also something I just want you to know. You are stronger than you think. And if you already think you are strong (like I did), you will find a whole new dimension of strength within yourself.
Spirituality comes in many different ways and forms. They are all valid. We don’t need to like them all. We don’t need to try them all. We don’t need to believe in all of them. But we can, if we want to.
We can do anything we really want to. And this is was any spiritual practice shows us. If spirituality knocks on your door, let it in. Start a slow relationship, get to know each other, become friends, support each other and grow together. It is to be taken very seriously, because it is more valid than many people make us believe. It is a big part of our personal development to tap into this part of ourselves. The way you do that, is up to you. Just be open to it, you will figure out the rest. Even if it still seems unreal to you, love is also not tangible. We can’t see love, we can’t touch it, we can’t scientifically explain it fully. And frankly, we don’t need to. Once we are in love, we are in love – end of story. So why not open up to the possibility that there are more things we can’t see, touch or scientifically explain?