Clarity is alignment. It’s as simple and brilliant as that.
Back in the day, I didn’t have “alignment” in my vocabulary.
Everything was cloudy. Those were the caterpillar days. 🐛 Living to please and fit in the modern culture I belong to didn’t help those efforts along.
And that’s most of us living in metro America and cities.
In those busy places, you’re surrounded by noise and not much inner peace as you live satisfying cultural norms and staying busy most your time.
But, you get clarity from your spiritual life that’s in the deeper space and crevices inside you that are also wired to Creation and everything that is creatively abundant. 🌕
And this article is about gaining more clarity for your Content Creation Life.
…Which btw, we’re all content creators if we want to be.
You make something and put it out in the sharing Universe and BOOM, you’re a creator.
The big “C” Creator is reserved for only the Divine.
And as a creator, realizing the messages sent out is co-created can sometimes take years to develop. We can give those non-winning points to our ego that loves that.
And ego doesn’t want us to know that our thoughts are not ours alone.
When the truth is we are not alone even if we’re by ourselves.
…And that helps us out by leaps and bounds that’s better than if we had a life manual. That can be part of our discoveries on our journey.
Early on in our life journeys, we’re focused more on what we can do in our own might and giving credit to our work when all along that move was what we were destined for (aligned to do)… and with a little nudge inside us, we did our little part by making a simple micro action of hitting a button or saying something.
Getting co-created revelation can be a profound journey.
But in the beginning, we don’t have that clarity. We sorta think it (maybe hoping), but still question if it’s in our lives. Does anyone out and up there care?
Early on (no matter what age that is for us running our own race), we haven’t made enough room yet for the Universe to manifest in our purposeful living, teetering back and forth to limiting beliefs in earthly living.
And our lives are supporting the culture beliefs on earth.
That’s what my life was about growing up in the Washington D.C. suburbs where keeping up with the Joneses, as in suburban mall life was a way of life.
If I counted how many times the word “mall” came up in friend-related conversations, it would be a crazy number. Maybe not as many as the words I’ve written here, but it was often in phrases… let’s meet at the mall.. what store do you want to go to?…there’s a __ at the mall… what time will you be at the mall? 😊
I even worked in the mall at the information desk, retail shops… oh, and one of the restaurants I planned parties for was IN THE MALL!
It was in the Tyson’s Galleria.
…And I like to joke that my watch measured that I walked 4 miles for one event. I thank the mall for nice, comfy shoes. 👟
But so the more that I leaned in on pro-cultural norms like the mall, and doing work-life that looked good on paper and people pleasing, the less I liked myself and who I was becoming.
…And when I didn’t people please, I felt guilty not living up to pressures and culture’s standards. That’s how we were groomed from school age up.
So gradually I felt like I was losing my message.
I was blending in while the younger generations were moving in.
Where in my era of growing up, we wanted to be the same. Now everyone wants to be different so they can stand out.
…And that I believe is the better way because then you get to be YOU in your you-niqueness. You’re not trying to fulfill an image.
But back in my day, I was in a tug-o-war with my corporate work personna fitting in and living out my side purpose-filled spiritual desires.
And today is the same dilemma, there’s still a divide for most people living in culture with spirituality.
…Just turn on the news and you’ll see exactly what I mean.
And that is unconsciously building up pride by not running in the opposite direction… where a life of more meaning is.
If you don’t turn on your conscious intentions, then you get swallowed by the subconscious negative thoughts that make their way in… OUCH!
I didn’t like that in me.
So with season changes, I moved away from that life.
…I didn’t like not being aligned with my thoughts and out-of-touch with feelings that writing helped me escape.
Tapping into my deeper spiritual self side gave me the more satisfying-purpose driven life and personal growth I needed for a healthy and whole life. And that led to a higher, creative path, daily content creation, and aligned clarity.
Alignment and clarity that I never knew about before.
Clarity is not certainty as no one can claim a clear crystal ball belief as truth until it happens in life. Life is like a sport. We play it out.
Even if we believe in our gut, heart, and prophetic ways what will happen.
But clarity doesn’t live with the same level of anxiety, fears, and worries that are living amongst cultural norms filled with fear at the root.
And when you spiritually transform fear and worry, you move away from lifestyle triggers of anxiety that modern culture and suburbia operate in.
Then you can more easily develop clarity and build creativity muscles. 💪🎉
In purposeful living, the glory is in you… and leaning on your higher self for guidance is the higher way of life that lets you pursue passions (and not meaningless work and desires).
And if that’s what you want…
Here’s how I started… I realized one day that I won’t get my time back.
None of us will.
And you can take that thought as your motivator.
Because tomorrow will be yesterday in 2 days. And forgotten as we focus on today. That’s not a riddle, it’s the truth. 😀
And in the end of our lives, most of the things we achieved in this life won’t matter to us.
They were placeholders.
They got us to the next moment and step… that got us to who me and you have become.
Btw, I used that in a job interview when I was in my Corporate Life… and I got the job.
So someone believed that too. 😉
And when you consider all those past jobs you had that have faded in impact in your current life… you get to realize that most never make it back to memory without prompting. So it’s not that important.
And this wiser concept and way of thinking grows, the more years and experiences you have here on earth.
I lean into forgetting parts of the past as helpful… having selective brain fog is a superpower 🔌 and is often spiritual guidance to help you and me toward our clarity light. 💡
When you look back and realize that the experiences and some early on breaks you got in your 20s and 30s didn’t last… you can start to wise up that there’s more to this life.
And the only way to fully discover that is to move on.
You often get a hint that “it’s time to move on” listening to that inner wisdom.
Doing so means growth.
And we are meant to personally grow.
To personally grow spiritually means birth to the deeper feelings of living a life of meaning and satisfaction that produce clarity-alignment.
You naturally grow out of your past or the things you once needed, but now no longer do.
And when you let go of the former things, the Universe will meet you there! 💕
Speaking of Universe, if you think of the astronauts stuck in outer Universe floating around with their hair sticking up, you’re visually reminded they’re in another place.
…Not just overseas, but above earth in outer space.
They have digital contact with earth, but they live on a spaceship in another space, at least temporarily.
Their new home is not the cultural norms we live in.
They don’t deal with the daily norms and noises we have on earth.
They don’t see cars, wildlife, and trees.
They are aligned with the rhythms up in space.
And in our different spaces and existences, we all have the ability to reach our spiritual potential, so we can live a life that’s focused on creativity and love, and away from fear.
How cool is that!
We’re tethered by our inner forces.
And aligned with clarity, we’re clear no matter what the distance is.
There’s not muck interfering. Our attenas work.
…Our daily fears, limiting beliefs, and subconscious insecurity wall defenses that lead us to the actions we take and reactions we make are knocked down.
Because left unattended, they become blockades and blockages and show up in our visible lives on earth.
…That’s when we can’t hear what’s outside our immediate world. We listen to our heads and what we see (cultural norms).
Living this way, not in full potential, keeps us stuck.
When we tap into our higher inner self, that’s when we can grow and manifest greater things that exponentially grow (beyond our thoughts) and yield clarity where we’re importing ideas from the Universe that knows better about the future.
…The higher Universe orchestrates coincidences as part of creation intent.
Next time, I’ll share more about creative blocks that are 100% removable when you want to let it happen. 🍥 I hope you’ll join me here same day, same channel. 😊
Joy is used and experienced in many ways in life. And spiritual joy is one of life’s mysteries that doesn’t have to stay a secret to you, to help your life now.
Seeing a painted sky through a window can be a joyful experience that brings us closer to spiritual joy. 🌄
“Things and conditions can give you pleasure, but they cannot give you joy.” – Eckhart Tolle
But in our lives, most of the daily joy is not lasting as we get bored or the scenery changes, such as the season we’re in or a pretty sunset. 🌅
Daily joy is a common calm feeling we can have when we sip on a nice comfort tea… or get reminded of something that puts a smile on our face… or have a good outlook about the future days ahead.
I had one of these joyful days yesterday with a cinnamon chocolat-y flavored rooibos tea… that’s good anytime for Ayurvedic balance, and especially great in season and life transitions that’s life now and always for all of us. 🌿
I can always tell my daily balance state by my tea and spice desires.
Feeling calm is joyful. And feeling warm and fuzzy inside is where joy and happy feelings meet…
Joy is the new happiness.
Joy is used more often in trending media channels associated to describing general things in specific life seasons like: “I felt a sense of joy for…”
These descriptions are usually external triggers that are situation-based.
…Something in our surroundings prompted the joy.
These common joy ways are acceptable and often more surface fleeting feelings (if a deeper purpose or meaning context isn’t added).
“Joy” in daily word usage can often get tossed around like word salad and is not the same as the deeper joy that’s spiritual rooted, where the deeper meaning is often missed… and this article is about the spiritual joy you tap into.
But it’s good to know that daily joy can help you more easily get into spiritual joy.
It can be the primer or vehicle to get you there.
By contrast, someone or something at any moment can ruin your fleeting daily joy, peace, and pleasant feeling with a piece of sad or irritating news as quickly as the joyful feelings arrived.
“Stopping to smell the roses” 🌹is a good self-care practice that initiates or resets daily joy that’s good for calming and mental health.
…In a more relaxed headspace like out in calm nature, this can help prep you to look deeper for your spiritual joy that’s within and anywhere you go.
…Or you can miss the spiritual joy messages.
Spiritual joy is the kind of joy you don’t experience unless you’re intentional to tuning in.
The spiritual joy source is the higher world channel that’s inside you (spirit).
You can look up to the sky or Universe if you need a visual reminder.
Or it’s where you search inside you for ad hoc bright ideas and higher possibility inspiration. 🎨
In this spirit acknowledging realm, you are internally connected to the Universe.
You can do this in prayer, or just simple quiet acknowledgement that you are not alone.
With your spirit, you’re never alone because the spirit is another energy source inside you.
Acknowledgement helps you to unleash spiritual joy that gives a deeper satisfied feeling about understanding this Universe and that you matter to more than just the people you know.
It’s a higher way of thinking or a knowing like a gut instinct.
An example is when you feel goosebumps when seeing a solar eclipse in-person that has deeper profound meaning that makes us wonder about our existence, who we actually are inside, and why we’re here on earth.
It’s heartfelt, and we feel the outer ripple effect as sensations on the body and skin.
How to experience spiritual joy (or more of this deeper feeling):
Tap into your quiet spiritual inner being channel.
One way is you do mindful active listening for the quiet whispers inside you.
It’s not woo woo if you don’t make it about that as our lives zoomed out are big woo-woo miracles from the start 🎉🎉… and so you make your spirit about higher purpose living and your personal growth… while keeping level-headed and your feet on the ground for most your waking hours.
This can become your everyday healthy life as it is for me, as much as daily cooking and reaching out in community. 🌱
You can do this out walking in nature or sitting in a quiet spot indoors.
And to go back to your daily living, you shut out the spirit whispers that is subtle like daily wind.
You get back to your busy headspaces and to-do lists, listening to your thoughts and the noises of the external world… or simply get back to the work in front of you.
That’s the frequency most of us are on during our awake hours, unless we’re intentional to carve out time for something else higher.
If you’re in a loud restaurant or sports arena with friends, it’s unlikely you’ll hear your spiritual joy calling there.
But, spiritual joy can happen even if you’re not purposefully trying…
Maybe a wave of emotion strikes you in the air, or you blurt out impromptu somethings that feel right at the moment as the spirit inside you tries to help lead you to your better purposes in this life.
But at the time that happens, you don’t know why you did or acted out that way that was harmless, but curious to you.
Your spirit inside you knows better because it’s prophetic.
And you can be in ordinary circumstances like a concert or conference and a speaker that comes on discussing a topic or mission in the world that you’re aligned and passionate about that strikes your spiritual joy… or you meet The One (your person) at a grocery store and you feel instant chemistry without saying a word in the smoothie drink aisle.
The alive-in-you spirit can show up at any time without invitation to give you clues to help you.
This is the essence of the joy of the spirit.
There are also times when some people get spiritual awakenings for longer than moments or a day.
Those are not as common, but it’s the same spirit source creating spiritual joy.
Many wonder if they have a spirit inside them…
There’s a spirit in each of us that’s gentle and quiet if we listen.
To be clear, this is the same as the Holy Spirit living in us as defined by the Bible for Christians who understand what that means.
The Holy Spirit (or Spirit) is a heavenly being living daily and inside you ready to do life with you when you choose to invite this being into your life.
Believe me, a decade ago I didn’t know this.
…And like former-me, everyone is not aware of this spirit presence, but everyone still has a spirit inside them.
Depending on actions and how they choose to live their life, the spirit can be the good and effective influence in their life.
How you choose to live is your personal willpower choice.
You can purposefully invite in your good spirit.
It’s 24-7 operating inside you like a quiet and invisible angel… ready to help you (and other lives around you that you encounter) if you’re willing to be helped.
Helping includes suggesting with higher thoughts and sudden reminders, and guiding you to make the next best steps that you can choose to listen to (like a passing gut instinct), or ignore and listen to your louder thoughts.
Unlike people, our good spirits don’t hurt people. Only we or other people have the ability to do that as we have an ego in us.
The good spirit can’t create any harmful situations because it comes from the heavenly perfect good realm that isn’t earth bound.
It’s easier to explain this to anyone as the Universe looking out for you.
And now you know better how unleashing spiritual joy works inside you if you didn’t before.
This can be a part of your daily way when alone or finding quiet time.
You can give praise and gratitude for the daily favors and blessings you experience to re-center, get back to calm and daily joy, and remind yourself of the spirit in you.
With more favor comes joy (like the common happy-joy kind) because you deeper know you’re cared for.
You also naturally get better answers in life that are higher truths if you tune in regularly.
You’re less likely to make a wrong turn when you keep your steps close to tuning in consistently (and not taking a busy season off that can easily happen in our cultures).
This is where you gain wisdom and get better aligned perspectives.
You can get epiphany that it’s not about the things you do or acquire, but who you are and are becoming that matters most.
People, things, and situations are an integral part of our lives and they help move us along for our purpose discovery, and so we can help the world we’re in.
With the help of your spirit and developing more faith, you can trust the future and believe in what you don’t see in your life but believe all will work out for good (that fear and ego can shut out).
And if you’re new to spiritual joy and finding faith, one of the biggest challenges is tuning into the quiet frequency in a noisy world, and deliberately tapping into your spirit for answers vs. culture’s comments.
These ideas can be intriguing to a curious beginner (that was also once me)…
But like anything else new, it takes intention and practice.
The first habit step can be to set an intention or goal if that works better for you, to invite in your spirit in your life. A goal example could be you measure the number of days you do this.
You can achieve this in meditation, yoga, or in any quiet time.
Learning to relax and repress the mind’s loud ego thoughts also work to quiet the noise that internally competes and drowns out how the spirit softly communicates (that’s as different in us as each of us is).
Even if we’re listening to relaxing instrumental music, that can crowd out our spirit if we’re day dreaming on something else or focus-thinking about the music itself.
There’s a time and place for that if we’ve had a long day or just wanting to relax.
But remember, coming back at least once a day to your higher channel helps us in so many life aligning productive ways! 🌅
Without our spirit’s quietly working in us, our planet would be a hopeless, chaotic mess.
But our world is not this way… it’s organized under the hood with the help of our spirit working in us.
It’s not perfect or perfectly good and never will be, but there’s more quiet good than bad.
…Just look at all the productive and buzzing actions going on in nature daily. 🌱
And when you unleash your spirit outward (that’s the only one you’re responsible for), then you feel a sense of deeper joy and positive outlook living on this planet.
It’s life changing and life-giving as connection.
You’re never alone.
…And you’re fully loved.
And when you go out in the world doing your daily rounds and business, you can keep your head up and appreciate the kind people and the favor their spirits are greeting you with.
It’s a positive energy, and if we send our joyful spirit out, then that’s usually what we get back. And if we don’t get that, we still celebrate how we showed up.
With new insight about yourself and your spirit that’s with you always (and always has been even before you knew), you’re a better person.
You keep growing in ways you couldn’t have imagined before, and the way you started isn’t where you end up!
Finding out what that is, is everyone’s bread crumb journey. It’s a life adventure that’s exciting (and not boring).
Having lived both sides fully, starting out in my 20s thinking I had to make everything happen on my own and then evolving into relying on my spirit to guide me decades later, I would never go back to the old ways. 100% never.
With accumulated wisdom and new insights, comes purpose and meaning in a transformed life that optimizes the one life we live.
We get transformed inside and that brings joy and higher self-perspectives as veils are lifted. That’s the opposite of self-suffering that when you look back was survival existence.
You no longer have to deal with past self-hangups in phases of life created by former beliefs and perspectives.
You wisely let go and grow out of former patterns and Imposter Syndrome.
Your spirit of joy helps to grow and transform your healthy mindset, attitude, and insecurities. That’s something to celebrate. 🎂
I celebrate with food like a balanced delightful bowl. How do you celebrate?
Transformation change such as changes in identity (and realizing that you won’t go back to past and old identities that no longer serve you) lead to personal growth and purpose.
That’s what this article is about.
And I believe what this Life is meant for (…while enjoying the perks and good foods that our living planet offers). 🎉
Consider: why would you stay the same as you started as an adult? You know the better way now than you did even a few years ago.
As adults, one identity we all grow out of is our childhood identity as a rite of passage.
With more years, we gain more experience, knowledge, privileges and freedoms, and respect for our wisdom gained and shown in our lives and communities we belong in.
Accumulated wisdom is a wealth of knowledge as byproduct of transformation change.
And life transformations are about wise growth and celebration of life where each year we live, we can celebrate a new year and our birthdays.
We also get the free-will choice to live life differently than our past… making healthy changes.
And a positive transformation change from personal growth would enhance our future lives (for the rest of our lives).
Embracing a new change inside us could change us deeply.
While we’re not in control of our life destinies or even what opportunities come our way, we can take wise daily steps that lead us to the right ones for us when we’re ready.
If we’re open to and available when something big comes our way or when opportunities call that may not be what we thought or thought we wanted, that can accelerate our growth and reaching our fullfilling purposes we’re destined for.
If we’re stuck, going in a different direction is worth investigating.
Avoiding a new direction in front of you would be like trying to turn back time or fit the genie back in the bottle to the former life seasons with the better perspectives you have now.
Because today and now is already yesterday tomorrow. The clock and current situations move whether we want it to.
…So being proactive and unafraid to jump into our lives’ fullness is a good way to look at making big leap changes that’ll help us sooner and head us toward our brighter future. 🚀
Being open to what we didn’t know before as truth and NOW DO know is even better.
No regrets of the past because our past led us to better discoveries and ways today.
And that keeps us fearless and pressing onward.
Making a radical transformation change (personality, beliefs, and identities) could be the difference maker. And from what I know, it comes from within…
It starts with you.
No one can make those decisions for you except you.
And no one can make other people’s life decisions except them.
So often we want to help others and our input backfires.
They do what is not best for them anyway because of their strong emotions or beliefs running inside that can go in any direction.
And sometimes what we miss about what they did was actually their best for them at the time. They were called to a different destiny than the one we thought they should head toward.
We have no control over that or them, so we stay mostly in our lane and focus on working on ourselves for our healthy lives.
I think everyone reaches a crossroad in their life where they get to pause, wonder, and productively cross-examine if they’re still on the right path… not the right career or where to live that changes over time anyway… but the higher path that’s also the wiser path.
I know for me that became evident when I had life problems in every balance wheel of life area that gave me my first gray hair stress sign at 25. That was not a wisdom hair.
…I didn’t know where to turn. So that set me on a quest to seek answers and a transformation change and transformational path that I may not have entered otherwise.
And when those problems gradually resolved (that felt like forever at the time but lasted a few years), new season challenging circumstances took their place.
Transitions happened often in my life. A lot like today’s world where two years is a long time.
But back then, I felt like the poster child for adaptability in new work environments.
From taking close, harder looks from my experiences, I realized the beliefs I had were mostly culture-influenced.
…And doing me no healthy good. They were hurting me.
I grew up and worked mostly in the Washington DC metro area that’s one of the most competitive areas in the country.
I leaned on the external clues to measure success, growth, and happiness.
But over many packing up moves and career moves, I realized it’s not about career or where you live that matters most.
It’s what you carry inside you that determines what happens next and how healthy you are (mind-body connection).
And I’ll pause here a second to recognize that I know not everyone sees life problem signs as helpful ones to make a life change…
But doing so is a gift.
It was a blessing for me so I didn’t have to live the same life I started in.
…And one that can make designed life transformation change more smooth and enjoyable than fighting truths (what’s meant to be) that can be exhausting and anxiety-fear filled.
Truths align and lead you to fulfilling purposes and your best future destiny outcome.
An illustration: we see signs blown up in celebrity’s lives who live under microscopes in America.
In prime media channels, we see whether their lives have evolved in a healthy or in an unhealthy way… such as trying to live their past selves because that’s what made them into a celebrity identity.
But holding on would hold them back in personal growth and transformation where they’re meant to move into other areas with greater impact.
It’s the same for us peeps in ordinary lives. 😊
We are all on this journey of life living and learning in the One Life we‘re given, where we look out from our perspective. No one else has the exact same perspective.
We can make our vantage point an advantage in our lives.
The point we stand is different for all of us snowflakes, but to grow, each of can ask ourselves: what am I missing in this life?
Questioning life is always good… because there’s nothing more important than life.
And if the complicated mind feeds you ideas that there is a companion, a pet, dream job, or better career that hasn’t shown up yet… then keep looking deeper and higher.
Because none of those earthly desires are answers to forever happiness. It’s what you do within that will bring the daily joy and happiness to carry you along moment by moment.
External things are a temporary vantage point.
If you were living out the dreams, after some time reality challenges would show up and the honeymoon happy feelings would wear off because now it’s every day… and that’s why we have good and bad days so we can celebrate the good ones.
Happiness is not about getting what you want, like children and young adults would tell you.
Fleeting happy feelings and getting stuff keep us moving ahead in life until we’re more mature, so we can handle more and get to the fulfilling, fruit bearing stuff that become our life passions in ripe timing.
It’s the deeper discovery within and above that will bring the joy on Life’s journey. And life transformations are the vehicles.
The life choices made today take us to tomorrow. Wisely, they will also be a part of the past soon enough. So the only thing not fleeting and temporary is who you and I are in our now vantage point that we look out from that moves with us.
We carry us and our vantage point everywhere we go, even on vacations.
And if ever stuck, we can ask the Universe to help us with our intentions: can you take me higher?
Reminds me of the song lyrics in “Higher” by Creed:
At sunrise I fight to stay asleep, cause I don’t want to leave the comfort of this place, ‘cause there’s a hunger, a longing to escape.
It’s a choice to get insight from our higher selves. This accelerates growth and in areas that may never grow if we stay doing life the same way we’ve always done.
One healthy way to look at it is we embrace transformation change.
That’s the deeper wisdom and the higher path.
Those will lead to the highest purposes for our lives here on earth.
I used to be afraid deeper spiritual change would lead me to a life I would hate or a life as a martyr, but trust led to grander things than I could have imagined.
There’s no magic age where purpose aligns in our lives, but the sooner we reach up and out, the sooner we get to leave our former caterpillar identities we started out as.
We get to transform to butterflies sooner and enjoy the sweet nectar and honey that comes along.
In yoga terms, we can go from looking down to the ground in caterpillar pose to opening up in butterfly pose and choosing to look out and up.
That’s the wise growth path I know and maybe one that helps you on your journey. 🌱
Potato waffles are like being born again where you can’t turn them back to the mashed potato form they were before. And they’re so much better. Recipe below. 🧡
It’s a mysterious term that you don’t hear often. It’s a miracle and life changing event like being born. You only do it once by choice, if ever. And then usually as an adult. It’s a personal decision.
Similar to an important event like getting married or landing a dream job that can be highlighted milestones in your life, there’s no taking back.
And like the potato waffles pictured above that started out as another form of the same food, these spuds can’t go back to before. The recipe is below. 🧇
You can’t take back what’s already happened in the past and you can’t go back in your mother’s womb. Or in this born again case, back into your pre-born again old identity.
Once you’re born again, you’re alive with the spirit living inside you. In the Bible, it’s the same as the Holy Spirit. There are no accidents in becoming Born Again… like the miracle of life.
The story of your real life birth from your birth parents may have sounded like you were an accident oops! baby, but it was no spiritual accident.
And it’s another miracle.
In choosing to be Born Again, you won’t have signed up if you’re not ready.
The choice to be Born Again requires a level of maturity that you’ll know when, and your spirit will help prompt when.
Likely, it has been building up inside you. And one day a water baptism opportunity will show up and call you.
And if you do go through, no other earthly person would know whether you’re born again or not unless you told them or they witnessed your water baptism.
The event is the primary marked outward expression. It’s equivalent to an official wedded ceremony and is spiritual bonding bliss.
But unlike most marriage weddings, the dress code is casual wear like a tee-shirt that will get soaken wet and you will too, as you’d be fully immersed in water either in a bathtub of sorts or outdoors in the open waters.
I know this experience because that’s what happened to me. And as life is an adventure, I never set out for that mission.
I didn’t grow up religious either. This was something I grew into gradually. Never having been baptized before and then for the first time, that’s when my Born Again life began.
Born Again Feelings In the Beginning
It was an ordinary day with extraordinary impact. You never forget the day. You wonder how being submerged in a pool of warm water can be so profound. But it is.
And you’re never the same person you were, again. Because you apply meaning to what just happened in your ceremony.
For one, you get to be a butterfly experiencing more of life’s abundance compared to a caterpillar’s existence with even more limitations.
It has unforgettable, deep feelings like the day you experience a once-in-a-blue-moon total eclipse as it’s happening…
You feel chills and something deeper emotionally happening inside you that you can’t explain with logic and leaves you with a wave of tears and emotions.
Or when you see a painted sky where something is special in the air around you even if you’re the only one who notices.
And you know life is not just what you see in your daily busy life. You know there’s so much more meaning and that can make you want to discover more about yourself and your potential.
You know you were touched by the Universe in love and finding out what that means for your life can be the greater step.
When you’ve already been leading a spiritual life and have gained Biblical knowledge that precedes a baptism day, you know the source of what you’re experiencing.
You know there’s a spirit living inside you.
Referred sometimes as the wind or a dove 🕊️, it’s the same spirit that connects us all under the sun.
There’s an energy that connects us all.
It’s also the guided handed helper, comforter, and all-knowing messenger all rolled-up-in-one.
And those first few days and weeks after baptism, you’ll likely be intentional to live out life differently.
After The Born Again Honeymoon
But then after some time has passed, you’ll have forgotten your baptism event day like everything else in life.
The feelings wear off. And you’ll want to set reminders to what you want your life to be about post-baptism.
You’re back to your life reality, except you have a desire to do better and grow further.
You still carry the same mind as before (pre-baptism), and you’ll still make mistakes like all us humans do.
But now you are aware that you can lean into your deeper gut or heart feelings where your spirit is for higher answers, and trust those be the ones best if you want to live a life of meaning and purpose designed for you.
Pre-Born Again life, you may have called these gut instincts. They still show up as whispers or hunches, but now you’re aware they’re as real as you are.
So you’re now a little wiser and want to live the higher ways of living. You’ll want to learn from like-minded others and to help you with interpretations from the one resource manual guide (the Bible).
And as a new butterfly now, you went through a transformation. Your human wings are invisible as are your changes.
There’s no going back into your chrysalis.
You can choose to become more humble as you see through another higher lens.
Looking back, I could see that I acted pretty foolishly when I was younger, but I thought I was invincible and smart at the time.
And had I stayed as is, today those would be regrets… but I know I needed to go through those phases to get to the season of maturity needed. That’s usually how it is.
And then by learning lessons, never wanting to go back to those old ways that we’ve grown out of.
Been there, done that, got the kid T-shirt. And now I have an adult baptism shirt (and you can too).
What to Expect With A New Life
Expect to have favor in your daily walk if you maintain a deep relationship with your spirit and God. Also expect for you to be the change as nothing changes around you for certain prayers.
That goes for the details of ordinary daily life from when you walk out the door, run errands, are working, and then are back home.
You also give up some control of your life (yes, more than what you have been experiencing). But you gain more control in other areas explained below, as you keep reading.
And remember, none of us are in control anyway.
For me, that was the hardest part at first.
Letting go was not my strong suit. Because I did life on my terms my way as a strong-independent person.
I learned and was groomed that way since I was a kid.
I’m still fundamentally that person, but I exchanged control for a more fulfilling purposeful and creative life.
I started out my adult life mostly in the structured corporate work life. And had I not been made aligned with my identity (Born Again) and my second act of my life’s work, then I would’ve missed what was in the cards dreamt up for me before I was born.
Dreams I never had when I was younger.
What I did feel when I was younger and in my late-20s and early 30s, was that something was missing inside.
Daily life didn’t seem all that exciting even though I had a good job, health, stable work-life balance, side hustles, great relationships, a lakefront home, nice cars, and everything else that I thought I needed.
And yet I felt unfulfilled.
I thought there had to be more.
That didn’t feel like wisdom at the time. It felt like self-pity.
Then suddenly I lost a job and a career when the industry was wiped out.
About two years after that incident, I got Born Again.
And that’s when life got really quiet around me. I was working but the work was easy.
I found I had time to look at personal and spiritual development areas that I didn’t delve into before.
That’s part of the inner peace that comes with being Born Again, knowing that you’re provided for and having some direction to seek levels of growth.
You know when doors shut it’s not a coincidence and that forces you to keep looking in other directions. And when they do open, you’re magically aligned.
I had work situations like that which were problem-filled but since I was anointed to be there, they immediately got fixed without my fixing.
Those bittersweet open doors were short-lived.
But in those experiences, I starting realizing this life isn’t about what you do. It’s about what you’re becoming in this life.
And on the journey, you can be proud to look in the mirror at who you are that’s not just the aged person staring back.
You’ve transformed fear, anxiety, and worry that don’t have to take over and permeate life. Especially fear.
When I was a child I was afraid of everything from lightning, darkness, to boogie monsters. And then as an adult, the opportunity to exchange fear for love became part of the process.
We can grow away from those unproductive beliefs. When you take action to move toward love that’s part of being Born Again, then you choose to exchange those negative earthly feelings.
It’s also co-created, as you seek toward your growth desires and the spirit helps you from the inside.
You can count on that as the spirit isn’t earthly.
You’re never alone. Not for one moment. When you seek help, you get help, truth, and comforting answers. They may not match or exactly match what you thought you wanted.
But as your perspectives align with the higher ways, you know that they guarantee your highest and best use in this life. So don’t worry if you feel you’re blooming late. You and your spirit will help you grow and make up for lost time.
And you can use the weekend brunch potato waffles as a reminder that these waffles started as mashed potatoes, and became these plate tasty treats. You can find this potato waffle recipe, potato dip, and other brunch waffles.
Shadow work helps dig out the deeper things holding you back that may be hidden from view and you may not be aware of today.
Artwork is one metaphor for our lives. This spiral art piece brings out the light and shadows where you’re seeing only a partial angle. This can be what’s it like when we look in the mirror at ourselves, where we don’t see the light in our inner selves.This is a full view of the same art piece by Ellsworth Kelly that shows many more lines and color dimensions that can shine like us in our discoverable selves.
It’s work and discovery you do on yourself that pays off as you learn more about your inner self so you can better shine in your authentic and best you you’re meant to be.
And you can find your loving self and steer away from your darker sides that cast shadows in your life.
I know this from my own journey. I was a late bloomer for many years and areas of life. And just when things were coming together nicely, then all of the sudden around 35, I went into a now what do I do? season.
I was hit with a spiritual intervention and no roadmap life manual to help me along that season.
Life springs things on you where you have no concrete guide to follow. No one teaches you that a spiritual intervention can happen at any time in your life journey on your life blueprint that you don’t have access to.
A spiritual intervention is not commonly heard of but it does happen in this miracle we call Life.
And yeah, that’s what happened to me.
Before I get into the details, the reality is we’re not in as much control of our planned future as we want to think. We get to choose to believe in faith over what we think is our future based on our past and what we’re currently working on.
And believe that a greater force above has our back and a better plan.
And in my spun out-of-my control season, I ended up relocating back to where I came from when I had no plans or thoughts to do so. It was more shocking to me than to my friends and family who were happy to hear I was moving closer back to the area.
It was a healthy move, even though it was unconventional as spiritual changes and growth often are.
The days leading up to my move, the healthy marriage I was in fell apart because of the intervention reveals that made the step-to-step moves easier. There was sadness leaving, but no drama.
I ended up in a hospital with no physical health diagnosis. There was nothing wrong with me. What appeared as a mental breakdown I knew as a spiritual awakening. Is that how you diagnose inner voices? Apparently.
The immediate trauma reality I felt when I was released was the sting of the hospital bill. Ouch and oh btw, I would have to pack my life up today and start all over with new work, step back, and build a new adult life while the world around me kept going.
I couldn’t even tell you the songs playing on the radio waves then or what the major news headlines were going on.
Those few final days and weeks before were a total blur. I must’ve thrown out many scrapbook album memories in the preparation for my move. Discarding my past was a metaphor representation of how I felt with this new life ahead of me.
It was nothing less than an invisible higher force that took over and moved me one step at a time.
And I knew this as God co-creating and ordering my footsteps, who got in the car with me and drove me back to the area I had left.
It was surreal. My hand was on the wheel but he was unmistakenly the GPS, so I felt safe even though I was confused.
So there I was back to the area where I grew up with a higher plan that I expected would unfold. An old church friend God-wink coincidentally had a room available as her last roommate had just moved out.
Even though I was in the same area I grew up in, it seemed miles away from my growing up familiarities. This time around I was closer to the city and further away from the towns where many of my first memories of childhood and early adulthood were formed.
Some memories were accumulated past trauma from childhood and early adulthood that I needed shadow work for to help me discover forgiveness.
And others were happy memories from friendships and past experiences made.
It was a bittersweet come back. I was then recently laid off from a career job I had been at for years, so I had to lean on trust that I would be provided for during those recession years that wiped out businesses and the corporate tech industry I had just come from.
But this life changing event wasn’t about just a move, a job change, or a season transition. This was a life transformation.
I was entering a new way of life on earth that was foreign to me and the cascade of events leading up were so bizarre. Even though I felt secure under the Universe’s wing, I didn’t know how to start this new shaken up chapter of life.
Now what? kept coming up in my thoughts.
One of my first set of tests was letting go. I didn’t know how to surrender my old thinking ways. And that’s when I got really deep into introspection and shadow work and trying to figure out what happened on my own.
Miraculously, planted in me was the awareness of harmful ego ways. With a little freed up headspace from not being so busy, I became aware that I had healing work to do on myself. I had never paused before from work to successfully get to know the real me.
I went to church healing rooms to see if I could gain a little insight and closure. And got some comfort and was able to purge some past trauma. This was as close to therapy as I would get.
Life Before The Spiritual Intervention
I was always choosing to be busy and that was ingrained in me in the DC metro area culture I grew up in and was now back in. But this time around, my surroundings were quiet as my friends were grown up too. They were busy with their family and lives. I had to figure mine out.
My life looked nothing like most those I went to college with where they moved up the corporate ladder, settled down, and had a family. They lived close by but our world’s were far apart.
I felt alone in navigating what next, but I also felt optimistic that my life would take off because of the spiritual intervention experience I had lived out in the hospital that showed me some prophecies about work and relationships in my distance-off future.
I knew there was a plan but I just didn’t know when, how, and what the real life specifics were. And when some life pieces came to life, I recognized them later on as shown to me in prophecies.
Those were miracles, and it all sounds bizarre on paper, but that’s how it also felt. Beautiful and bizarre.
And at the end of the day, none of us know the uncertain future so nothing looked that unusual about me or my life from an outside onlooker.
One area I knew I could focus on building was my deeper spiritual self and building traits I would need and may have missed developing along the way.
Ego work was just the tip of the iceberg. As mentioned, I was in and grew up around America’s capital. This is an area filled with smart, affluent people where pride and ego are waved as invisible badges of honor, but now I was ready to get rid of those non-serving ways.
People outside or living there in short transition or temporary assignments don’t realize how strong the political daily air is there outside the news. And so much so that nobody talks about it there as common practice to not create further divides.
It’s a unique invisible bubble that rarely gets talked about as ego is not usually a subject matter of discussion.
So, now you know the situation better.
And a year before this new season’s reveal, I was made aware I was holding onto past trauma from childhood and an adult situation that created PTSD I had blindly been holding onto. That’s what a spiritual intervention and shadow work can help reveal.
I grew up under the house of an immigrant parent who had a dominant ego disorder that grew worse over time. And after I moved off to be on my own, I fell victim to a dangerous work situation in a brick and mortar business.
This all came to light in this revealing spiritual intervention season.
I realized my past situations grew my victim mentality. And that fed my ego that loves to hang onto woes me for my situations.
It’s the same ego that thrives on protecting our pride and does so much damage in all of us, showing up in all kinds of daily, harmful non-serving ways.
If you’ve worked around people long enough, you will have seen this and not necessarily know that it was their ego that created their undesirable behaviors.
Our ego is our shadow until we become aware. Bringing out your shadow into the light is the shadow work that can align you to your whole self where your life begins to unfold more purpose and meaning.
I became ego conscious-aware that my ego played me in my subconscious insecurities as it does for most unaware.
Before then, I could be emotionally triggered and all of the sudden be stricken with an ugly cry with my then-husband.
It was like a recurring sound bite scene from Love is Blind where the American dating participant, Chelsea, is crying “clingy?”
Clingy wasn’t my manifestation, but my ego reared its ugly head wanting me to be right and win in partner conflicts.
And instead I lost the debate and all conscious streams of thinking that came from allowing the ego game to be played in me.
I didn’t know how to shake off or walk away from my turmoil feelings that started out as harmless thoughts.
That was work I needed to do. A real life mirror partner had reflected back to me what I needed to work on.
I ignored those prompts until I became aware of the ego years later.
Today’s Lessons
Your old brain is still a part of you that you carry along wherever you go. When you’ve moved on, your past memories and old lessons learned never die.
They travel with you and show up on your vacations.
If you’ve ever seen couples or friends fighting on vacation and you wonder, what’s there to fight about on this dreamy once-in-a-lifetime beautiful serene blue ocean or castle fantasy backdrop?… it’s the ego rearing its ugly head into the situation.
At any time, your ego can take old information and create fear and exacerbate worry in your situations today and in the future that are related to your past. Bring love to the situation is the cure.
If you bring out love from your past situations to your present, it shows up in your calm emotions today and also in your healthy body.
Ego situations and how they play out look different for everyone. If we could pinpoint one situation for everyone we would have figured this out collectively. But ego is a trickster.
Some even refer to their ego as an imposter that shows up.
The outward sign is that it’s not reality happening even though it feels like it is to you or the person. You’re not being chased by a tiger, but it can feel that way with modern digital message triggers.
Unknowingly, you undetect where the havoc source is coming from as it’s subconscious.
You can’t see through those thick clouds and insecurities. And that can lead to knee-jerk reactions.
Another sign for everyone is an unhealthy ego acting up is rooted in negative thoughts about yourself or others like self-pity, self-loathing, or blaming others.
It’s Edging God Out. The opposite is love and being conscious.
An unhealthy ego moment is a twisted form of overprotection for your best interest where you lose, lose control, and those around you lose if they get intertwined.
Bottom line: it doesn’t come from love.
Everyone is best to walk away in peace rather than play the counterproductive ego games.
Becoming aware of ego’s ability to harm you and relationships today and healing your past with new rewritten loving narrative thought memories are two of the healthiest shadow work moves you can make.
On a larger scale, you can rid of victim mentality so you can live fully whole and healthy in the now. You can be happy for others and their progress as you are for your own.
The ego will try to make these darker sides invisible to you so you continue as is, but if your desire is to grow and be happy, you can outwit your ego and not play the games.
We all are damaged goods in some way because of this built-in ego feature that we have a choice to change. It’s no one’s fault.
And that’s why when you’ve been aware long enough you can forgive others for their unconsciousness and behaviors… and hope they will try to get informed, grow, become conscious, and be accountable for their behaviors.
The Healthy Shadow Work You Can Do Today
So many of us would benefit from shadow work.
For one, you could discover and change negative moods coming from inside you. You could learn more about what triggers you.
You can replace these non-serving moments with higher and loving words such as those found in the New Testament Scripture.
“Do not be conformed to this world, but be transformed by the renewing of your mind.”
A daily reminder verse to call out your ego thoughts front and center daily helps.
You can build lasting character traits such as those in Galatians 5: patience, kindness, goodness, self-control, peace, joy, and love. These are the higher living ways.
They can take deep inner work and the first step can be shadow work discovery.
Becoming self-aware is timeless and absolutely necessary for growth.
And knowing the ego never shuts off and can show up in many ways in our mind roles such as:
critic
judge
competitor
fighter
dictator
imposter
One role ego doesn’t play is peacemaker. When ego is behaving and healthy, it helps you to strive for healthy goals.
We need some healthy pride to push us along. Or if you’re in real danger, ego can help motivate you to protect you.
But the undealt with unhealthy daily ego critic sitting on one shoulder shouts loud thoughts that appear logical to you (or the person), while the whispering angel spirit in you is gentle and loving preferring humility over pride.
The more you practice the softer humility sides, the more you can see the harmful pride.
Ego is subtle to you…
If you have a balanced way or a sense of making good decisions usually, logic can appear as harmless as “everyone is doing that.”
In those thought moments, you have a choice to not be everyone and do what you know is best or loving when you know better. We all have a choice.
If your ego is fighting you, you can be prepared with spiritual weapons like the armor of God spelled out in Ephesians, and in renewing your mind.
The more preparation and practice you have, your discernment increases the next time and you grow.
Still wondering how the ego shows up?…
So, I used to let the ego run the show. The daily mind show that is where I accepted all thoughts to enter as mine.
Some days a whole day would go by with the same repeated past memories. That’s classic ego.
I didn’t know I could exercise changing my thoughts. That was revelation when I learned and how to replace the thoughts.
Even if you had a great childhood or life so far, your ego will at some point take something from your past and spin it to a negative thought even if others would see it as a healthy and happy moment. It’s in your control to change the narrative fed to you.
Being the observer of thoughts and not letting the thoughts play out after the thought movie reel has been played once is a good strategy, so you don’t lose a whole day of productivity and peace.
And then stay aware the next time. You can make a decision that there’s no room for the two of us as it’s cramping growth, and simply kick out your unhealthy ego. Don’t play the games.
Sometimes it take mental wresting strength to let the thoughts pass through without energizing them to replay. Be determined to do what you know will eventually work for you.
And as part of my light bulb moment discovery, I found that ego was not just once in a while playing havoc in our lives, it’s the source of most problems in our day.
Because the ego is a feature in all of us in this world. Behaviors are trickled down among other people involved and their operating egos.
Imagine if the leader of a group or business had ego issues that showed up. You could only imagine (or have experienced before) the tricked down dysfunctional effect in the management hierarchy.
This observation becomes more obvious when you know (or have been made aware like I may be stirring in you today).
You witness in your daily interactions with people… one minute they are agreeable and friendly and then one day the season ends and they turn out to be something else. They’re unaware they’re being played by their ego.
This happens in relationships all the time and is at the crux of partner power struggles.
Without the harmful ego aspects, our world would be a better place because we would be better acting humans, heal ourselves, and those around us.
But until my hospital incident, I didn’t know how destructive the subconscious and invisible ego is on our planet, in our lives, and in me.
Shadow work examples such as going to therapy or light journaling tools can help open the doors to discover more of your deeper and hidden self.
The answers are inside you so deeper spiritual self-help may help you like healing rooms did for me.
And in my spiritual intervention rebirth.
Leading up to that point, these shadow work resources helped and can help to open the awareness…
What Did Help and Can Help You in Shadow Work Discovery
Turning to some self-help books opened my eyes. One in particular, Eckart Tolle’s The Power of Now is one of those books that comes alive in your when you’re ready for the message because your spirit lights it up.
It’s a deep book that you’re either ready for or not. You’ll know if you are because your eyes won’t glaze over the sentences. And when it’s an easy flow read, the chains have been released and the pain-body is exposed. The book is an experience. It can be so powerful that you may only need to read it once to gain the knowledge, and it’s forever in you.
That opened the spirit inside me like a lotus flower to make more room for awareness when my spiritual intervention season entered years later. 🪷
The Bible was another spiritual book I had as a tool. I had let the contents and words of Scripture occupy space and spill over inside me. 📖
You can re-read Scripture over and over again and find new tidbits of wisdom and helpful Biblical truth. You don’t get the same experience each time.
New words can jump off the page with meaning to you when you’re ready. Like my eyes skipped over the mysterious “spirit” word on the pages until I was ready.
The Bible is an instructional self-help life manual and is the only book that’s still being translated in so many languages.
Letting the higher words permeate to brain wash out all the muck that occupies the day for things that won’t matter in the years to come, is life giving.
Those are good starters.
And then be open and let your life’s journey unfold.
There’s so much more to this world and it’s inside you. As Deepak Chopra says, “the world is in you.”
“I am not in the world. The world is in me.” – Deepak Chopra
Doing deeper shadow work is underrated and will produce so much more in you and out of you as you impact the world with your greatness you were born with. 🎉
And can be born again with. Something to consider and maybe enjoy over an angel cake recipe 😇
