What is spiritual living? What does it mean to live spiritually? This is the question I’m still pondering. I think the final SAT 2400-point answer, the go- straight-to-heaven one, or as the Buddhists call it, getting off the karma wheel of Samsara, is not completely known. But, from my years of study and practice, I have lifted the canvas cover on a number of key truths.
With this website and through the book I’m writing, I hope to share what I’ve learned and offer it to you as guidance for your spiritual journey. While no one can do the work for you (dang it!), I can show you some short cuts to reduce the time you wander around with your sleep mask on, deciding if you’re in some dark closet tangled up in that old macramé wall hanging from college, or in the morning sunshine breathing in the dew and watching the sailboats on the far horizon. Think of this as your cheat-sheet, the one you wish your homeroom teacher had passed along to you years ago so that you could have been living in bliss all this time.
GOOD NEWS! Here is that help, just as it should be, in the perfect timing of the universe. You have come across this knowledge at the precise moment you are meant to have it and that is one of the most fundamental truths I can offer you. Grok that, and you are three-quarters of the way to enlightenment! Accepting “right timing,” as many wisdom traditions call it, will drastically reduce your feelings of frustration and alienation from Spirit and from others. To go to the accelerated class, read on.
Once you have begun accepting the timing of Spirit vs. your clouded view of how things should be (which took me more than half my life to understand, this is one of those “do as I say, not as I do,” things), you’re ready for the BIG secret… always come from your heart. And, just what the &@#* does that mean, you ask?
It means coming from who you really are, your Divine essence, the seat of true wisdom: your heart. How do you do that? First, by being grateful. By practicing gratitude, (my Lysa Rohan Gratitude MeditationSM is a most excellent way to do that), we begin to discern gentle messages coming from our hearts. Our heart speaks to us in a small, quiet voice we often miss as we zoom through our day matching our socks in the morning, removing bubblegum from the dog’s beard, rushing to meet a work deadline, and nearly blowing an eardrum dealing with the coffee shop guy who never gets your order right. Spirit is talking to you as you focus on these activities. She’s the one who told you to take your umbrella yesterday so that you didn’t soak your fabulous new linen jacket. She’s also the one who invited you to turn left last week when you were trying to get around a traffic nightmare that involved an opossum, two compact Japanese cars and a duck. You remember the “thought” you had—“Turn left right now!”–the one you dismissed for being cockamamie? Too bad you ignored her and sat there for two hours and missed your concert.
To begin coming from your heart, you need not only to listen but also to allow the voice to come through. Pay attention to those little prompts you receive, those hunches, inklings, nanosecond flashes of insight. That’s Spirit talking to you through your heart. She’s helping your days and nights be easier and more joy-filled. Meditating on what is going right literally and figuratively turns up the volume on these heart messages, it’s a way to speed dial yourself into listening and connecting with your heart. My Lysa Rohan Gratitude MeditationSM can be your first stored number. Download the free App and adopt the Lysa Rohan Gratitude MediationSM as your most important to-do list. Practicing gratefulness and thanksgiving, as often as you remember, will strengthen your heart connection to Spirit, to God, that small quiet voice. Saying thank you to others will strengthen your heart connection to them. This double-barreled approach will catapult you into a joy-filled life lickity-split. I promise.
Once you begin to discern the small, quiet voice of your heart by practicing gratitude, the next step is to trust the messages you receive.
Remember that pile-up? If you had trusted that advice, you’d have heard Springsteen play that 23-minute improv of “Born to Run” with Eric Clapton. So, add in some quiet time and begin to sense the messages coming from your heart, those thoughts that feel true down in your bones. Then act upon the messages you receive. Just do it. See what happens. The more you tap into your heart, listen, and follow its instructions, the stronger your connection to Spirit will become, and the closer you will feel to your favorite folks and other folks on earth. After that, your soul will shine like a thousand suns and you will be a model for all to emulate. Enjoy all that while you’re scraping bubblegum from the dog’s beard, because, yes, life does go on.
To ease your mind, I will answer the nagging question spinning in the shadows: Your heart will never, can never, tell you something false, or something that will hurt you or anyone else or the planet. If a message you get seems anti-good, even the least bit fishy, it came from your head, which is the only place destructive thoughts originate. Ask in the quiet of meditation. The truth will come to you and you will know it.
Now rest your mind and open your heart. I offer this lantern to guide you toward a more spiritual life. Living spiritually is up you.
