“Discerning the spiritual truth about a condition or circumstance
is one of the greatest skills we can learn.
To make the leap and reap the benefits
we must escape our attachment to our conditions
and embrace greater spiritual awareness.”
- Rev Dr Michelle Medrano
Being attached to our conditions? Just what the heck does that mean and how can I get rid of it?
The dictionary defines attachment as having an affection, fondness, or sympathy for someone or something. So it could be a love affair or a relationship of sadness and grief that binds us to a specific situation.
Inherent in our Life attachments is our perception; fueled by our beliefs, memories, and suppressed feeling energies. This is the connection our ego uses to establish and maintain control in our daily Life.
The control presents as a repetitive cycle of rehashing thoughts, fueling negative feelings, and staying stuck in that focus. Thus reliving a cycle of the same experience over and over again.
Remember the movie Ground Hog Day?
Phil? Phil? Is that you Phil? (Yikes!)
We can get triggered in our need to judge or to defend ourselves. We might demonstrate our need to explain or to control the situation. Sometimes we just really need to be right or have a deep yearning to feel better.
This is a surface relationship with the “happenings of Life”. A reaction from our ego - needing to protect us from our perceived threat and discomfort.
In this needy place we can feel lost and insecure, mistrusting and alone. We have separated ourselves, in belief, from our oneness with God, our Source, the truth of our Being.
This attachment calls upon the shadow in us. That part of us that interjects distraction, plays on our self-doubt, and challenges our worthiness.
These parts of us exist and persist only to the extent that we keep them hidden. We pretend we’ve got it handled while underneath we are preoccupied with desperately juggling our emotions.
As children we chased our shadows, playfully gyrating in a dance with that part of ourselves. We marveled how frisky our shadows were to mimic and synchronize with our every movement. We celebrated victory when we stepped full face into the sun and our shadows disappeared.
Perhaps we all could benefit from an adult version of that. . .
“Denial is ignoring your shadow. Disaster is surrendering to it.”
- Deepak Chopra
If you’ve recently found yourself focused and attached to Life “out there” you might be squirming just a bit or preparing a rebuttal should you be given the opportunity.
As a kid, I spent lots of time in the swimming pool and as much time as possible in the ocean. I loved the freedom of the buoyancy of my body. A game I played was to search the sky for cloud creatures while floating on my back on the surface of the water.
Spontaneously, I’d close my eyes and plunge my feet straight down to the bottom. Then like a rocket, I pushed myself back up to the top for air. Up and down I bobbed, regulating my speed and how long I could wait at the bottom before shooting up again.
It was a real euphoric rush I tell you!
Sometimes I would stay down a tad too long before I would burst out of the water to fill my aching lungs with breath!
Just telling you about this brings up those familiar feelings -an awareness of being a part of the big picture, of Life and the Universe. The recognition of my own power to move around in it. To make choices, to stay or to go. . .
Recently I found myself stuck in needy attachments to several big aspects of my Life. I had fallen out of sync with my true nature. I was interacting on the surface, reacting to perceived threats and exclusion.
My ego’s sense of safety and well-being were truly being activated. It got really dark down there in my shadow. For a time, I lost my ability to discern the spiritual truth in these experiences.
And then I remembered!
I have the power to move, to shoot to the top for air! I have the tools to bring me into alignment with my connection to all things, to the spiritual truth within.
So back to my breath. To my physical connection with my spiritual self! To my meditation, yoga, conscious breathing, prayer, emersion in nature, and choosing to be deeply present with my cherished animals.
With this re-connection, I practiced this short process to help me align with my path of peace.
What is the spiritual truth in this situation?
When I did this with recent challenges, I found I had spiraled way out in my thinking, caught up in my shadow’s negative and repetitive explanations. Pausing to seek the spiritual truth gave me a glimpse of “what is” without my emotional interference and fear.
What has been my part in this separation?
When I stopped to really assess from this open and willing attitude, I could easily see what I had been contributing to the situation. I recognized my need to nurture my hurt feelings, blame someone or the circumstance, or take things personally. Phew! That was a tough blow to my ego!
What is one step I can take now to embrace
this spiritual awareness?
Funny how even the deepest rut can be negotiated successfully with a shift in perspective. When I get to this place in my healing process, I am always so grateful to receive a download in response to my inquiry.
Whether it is a new idea, a new direction, a willingness to forgive, or my next step clarified, I am lovingly empowered to move out of the shadows to step fully into the sunlight of the spirit!