s90-Day A Better Me Series

Part II: A Journey of Perspective

What Launches Us Forward: The Stable Foundation

Day 35: Love in Our Spirituality

“Love is the ultimate Truth at the heart of the Universe and transcends ALL BOUNDARIES.”

-Deepak Chopra

We each have our own individual spiritual journey. We may be introduced to religion at a very young age, and that is part of the journey, but it’s just the beginning. Spirituality is more than being told what to believe. Our spirituality is about our connection with the Being that we believe is the Creator(s) of ALL things.

Our connection is personal. It cannot be shoved down our throats, forced, or coerced. We feel the connection inside or we don’t. We have to determine for ourselves how to feel more connected and what makes us feel less connected. This piece is a little more personal than many of the pieces I’ve written so far in the 90-Day A Better Me Series. It’s because the spiritual journey is a personal journey. I can’t tell another person the right or wrong way to connect. I can only share my journey from fear to love and what that did for my life, my connection, and my feelings towards others.

One of the ways I feel more connected through nature. I get to connect with the pure energy running through the Earth that my feet touch, feeling air grazing against my skin, hearing nature in action, seeing the miracles of each creation, and tasting the foods that nature brings to my plate. I see the Divine Creator in the energy of life. I connect through my AWE.

Another way, I feel connected is through meditation. I once heard that prayer was a place to ask the question and meditation is a place we can be quiet enough to hear and feel the answer. That has proved true in my life. When I’m really connected, I’m amazed at what can come out after a meditation.

I can also feel more connected with an individual, group of individuals, or stories about individuals experiences who share the same excitement about connection. This connection is not always spiritual to the people I’m with, that I’m watching, or reading about. But to me, anytime we are celebrating acts of love, I’m connected to Spirit. It’s part of the reason I can cry anytime I’m moved by a stories that express love. It could be a beer commercial and if I’m connected to an act of love, I’m one with the Divine Creator—And yes there can be waterfalls coming out of my eyes during beer commercials.

As for what disconnects me, listening to individuals teaching fear makes me feel less connected. I remember sitting in church as a little girl and something didn’t feel right. I felt shame sitting there. I felt unworthy. I felt unlovable. As I grew older and experienced different religious practices with friends, I saw that not all religious services were the same. I saw not all interpretations of the Creator made me feel unworthy. I didn’t realize that it was my connection to spirit leading me at the time, I actually felt lost for many years. The Divine had actually been answering my prayers and I wasn’t lost, I was being led on my spiritual journey.

I’ve been drawn to many books, classes, religious services, and people over the years that find away to connect different religious practices through their stories of love in action. I’ve been drawn to services that make me want to take notes because they give me so many ideas on how to incorporate practices into my daily life. Looking back, every note I took gave me ways to add more love to my life and feel more compassion and understanding about my views of others and  views about myself.

As I got older, I finally had my AHA moment. My spiritual journey connected to Spirit through acts of love. That is why when I was taught to fear my Creator it didn’t feel right. That is why when I heard someone say, “I’m a God fearing man”, I would have a visceral reaction. That is why when I finally saw the definition of love in Corinthians in the Bible EVERYTHING came together in my head. I had to remember all the editors of these stories, interpreters of the words, representatives of religious practices in every work of religion are HUMAN! Every person interpreting the work is going to be affected by the words in their own way. Humans have agenda. The agenda may be for people to create more love, but others may be to instill fear. That’s why we can go to six different services within the same sector of religion and hear and feel messages of fear or love. Some of them try to mix the two, which by the definition of love that I follow (See Day 32), isn’t love. Love doesn’t cause us to fear our Creator. Humans do. Love doesn’t cause pain—FEAR DOES! My connection to Spirit has nothing to do with how other individuals view the printed word, scriptures, and/or sermons.  How they read a book and interpret words is their personal journey.

My connection is through the love that I feel in my heart and soul. I literally feel it in my body. My connection is through the miracles in life that have been about acts of love. Wayne Dyer described ego as, “Edging God Out.” When I connect to Source (Spirit, Divine, Creator, God) through love, my spiritual path feels clear and unclouded. I don’t do things in fear that I won’t be accepted into Heaven. I do thing because I genuinely want to show love and compassion to all that has been created, even if I truly don’t understand its purpose.  I do things because I want to make this Earthly experience better. I do things because I want to leave this world knowing that I spread as much love as I possibly could. I want to leave my body knowing that I loved and appreciated it for the time I was meant to have it.

I don’t have to believe in each person’s interpretation of Spirit to connect to him or her. I connect through the love that I know a person has inside them. I can pray for a person to find their way out of the dark (fear, hate, blame, shame, judgment). I can pray for myself to not get caught up in mine. My spiritual journey has led me to appreciate the love in the world. I’m not going to follow a figure through acts of fear—I follow through acts of love. Part of my journey has been about not confusing the two.

I personally love hearing how people connect to their personal spiritual journeys. When I HEAR and FEEL the love people have in their heart, it’s a palpable energy that creates miracles. I don’t have to believe what someone else believes to feel the love (light). Just like I don’t have to believe what someone else believes to feel the fear (absence of light). I also don’t have to accept someone else’s darkness.

As a human, I won’t always spread my light in a perfect way, because I still have dark parts of me that get triggered in the face of other people’s darkness. I have to sometimes step back  to gain some perspective and see how to approach a situation with love. My reactions can still be quick sometimes. In those moments, I’m not connected with Source energy. I’m not connected by my love; I’m connected to my fear. The blessing is with sometimes a little prayer and quiet, other times with a lot of prayer and quite— I find my way back. It’s all about the journey!

Just for Today

Look at what makes you feel connected and/or disconnect from Spirit. How has this affected your spiritual journey? Do you energized when you are connected? Do you feel depleted when you don’t? What can you do for yourself to help you increase your connection?

With Love and Gratitude,

Rachael Wolff ©2019

Today’s Letter from A Better Me is, “Embracing Love on My Spiritual Journey” Read it here. Scroll down to follow if you want to get notified when new posts come out.  Thank you for reading!