That moment when you feel like everything is falling apart.
Your relationship seems to be cycling around the same issues. You’re not sure what’s the next step in your business. You feel completely out of alignment and disconnected from your deeper purpose. It may feel like you are backsliding into the same patterns that are keeping you stuck playing small and unfulfilled in key areas of your life.
That moment when you hit your wall and you know deep down that something needs to change, but you aren’t sure where to start.
When it feels like there is nothing to be grateful for in your life, or that the things you were once grateful for have turned out to be something other than you thought, it is time to release, renew, and realign
It can sometimes feel like gratitude takes more effort or work than at other times, especially when your relationships, business, and life seems to be repeating the same patterns, and begin to feel stifling or unfulfilling.
Paradoxically, this itself is something to be thankful for.
Release
When we are hypnotized by the dream and unconscious to our inner divinity, we are lulled into a dull sense of numbness where the discomfort of the too-small roles and trying to fit into the preapproved societal boxes is easily ignored.
But the divine within cannot be contained and will continually push against these internal illusory and programmed limitations in order to reach its fullest expression.
This is where that divine discontent comes in, where we know that what we are experiencing in our lives is only a pale imitation of what we are truly here to experience and we choose to go deeper into the unseen and unknown to discover what that means for us.
Awakening is a continuous choice to take the blinders off, face yourself and your life with radical honesty, and devote yourself to bringing the something greater within to manifest.
So when things are feeling like they are falling apart or it seems to be all force and no flow, instead of making an enemy out of what is and resisting the present moment – which is usually the ego-shadow’s first defense against awakening – pause, take a breath, and observe.
Get curious about the stories you are telling yourself – where are you comparing yourself or life to someone else’s? Where are you hanging on to outcomes and expectations that may be blinding you to other opportunities and gifts?
Take a few days to bring this discomfort into your loving awareness and get clear on what exactly is not working. As you express and explore the narratives that are limiting your fuller expression, getting honest with what is not working and standing in your power again in your life you will begin to release the very limitations that have been subconsciously influencing your behavior, feelings, and thoughts.
Renew
Having Gratitude for the big and small things in life was one of the first practices I came across when I started my journey. It has become a cornerstone of my practice.
Each month, after asking for guidance and reading the energy to come, I make a numbered list in my journal. Each line will come to be filled with one thing I am grateful for that day. It can be simple, it can be profound. The only real parameter is that it fit in one line, and that isn’t a hard & fast rule.
There are times when it can be hard to find things to be grateful for, or simply difficult to stick to the practice.
One of the first signs your ego/shadow is running your consciousness is finding it difficult to find things to truly feel grateful for, big or small.
When we make an enemy out of the present moment it can feel like being grateful is hard work.
Instead of easily connecting to the awe of being a single conscious being on a planet of dirt spinning through space and sharing atoms with stars, we find it much easier to come up with reasons to be worried, fearful, and stressed.
But in truth, gratitude is our natural state as spiritual beings. To be alive in this present moment is a gift and where we have the most power to choose how we show up for ourselves and others.
Next time it feels hard to practice being grateful, or it feels like it is taking more effort, shift your perspective for a moment by taking three deep breaths, going outside and looking at the night sky.
The same intelligence that crafted those galaxies and stars out there has also crafted you and still works through you. It guides and supports you, wanting nothing but the best for you and only waiting for you to say yes.
The powerlessness that you may feel as you face the uncertainty of the unknown in any area of your life is only the ego sensing its own smallness in the face of the divine.
The ego is limited in what it can sense or provide as it is completely conditioned by the past, yet the soul within you yearns for a deeper and fuller expression. It will inevitably pull the ego to the edges of its comfort zone, where you will recognize the smallness of the ego’s creations and be invited into a larger expression.
Realign
Releasing the limitations of a programmed ego and renewing your vision and broadening your perspective will allow you to realign to the creative Source energy that birthed the entire universe.
When you are aligned with the creative intelligence of the Universe itself, rooted in your Being, and in a state of nonresistance to what is, everything that you do becomes empowered and touched with the divine.
Struggle seems to morph into something much more handleable, even laughable, and what used to cause you anxiety, worry, or stress doesn’t even hit your radar any more.
Opportunities, gifts, and surprises seem to come out of nowhere when you allow your soul to follow its fullest expression.
It can suddenly feel as if there is too much to be grateful for – something that can be difficult to get used to when you’re used to anxiety, struggle, and stress. You may find yourself resisting the ease with which things begin to flow toward you.
While it can be painful or even frightening to go through those times when it feels like everything is heavy and you’re unsure what to do next, as we practice surrender and acceptance, we can find ourselves shifting back into alignment with the creative intelligence of the Universe.
Love First, Love Always,
Ae