A few years ago, I broke my foot. What amazed me most about the healing process was how quickly the calf muscles atrophied in the temporarily unused leg. Within days the muscles were smaller and weaker than the other leg. No particular sensations were felt in the leg, no red warning light came on, it just happened. After the foot was healed, the muscle took awhile to get back to normal.
Similarly, during a recent and intense round of holiday preparations, with all my busy-ness, I allowed my spiritual and abundance study and practices to get much reduced attention – less exercise. And, you guessed it; I began to experience atrophy of my spiritual/abundance muscles.
At first it was very subtle. I had to work a little harder to keep my thinking straight, be a little more alert, had to forgive and laugh at myself a little more often for slipping into negative thinking. By mid-week, some unwanted fear scenarios started popping into my head and by the end of the week I had a bad dream. I kept thinking, “That’s okay because as soon as (whatever I was working on) is done, I can get right back to my practices.” But then doubt set in and the ANTS (automatic negative thoughts) started taking back control. I wasn’t quite as sharp-minded and insights weren’t coming as readily.
The remarkable thing is that as I made each little decision to skip what truly is my priority and concentrate on the chaos at hand, there was no signal; no red light came on saying, “Stop.” In fact, the lights all seemed to be green. Who would think that a loving decision to care for someone’s house, go hunt down that extra gift because it would be so perfect for a loved one or make that extra batch of cookies to give the neighbors, might not be “green light” activities? The transition from thinking that is directed by that inner Power and Presence and that directed by the small ego, can be totally seamless and feel so comfortable and right!
Well, I’m fine, chasing those ANTS out and telling them to take all their brothers and cousins with them, and awash in gratitude for the season and all that it means. I recognize that while all the loving little acts we do or think we are doing for others are great, the greatest gift we can possibly give to any and all is to be the most expanded version of ourselves that we can be, and that takes doing our spiritual exercises FIRST, and keeping those muscles strong. That’s a big GREEN LIGHT for sure.
Our thanks go to Esther Roberts for this blog post.
Esther lives in Colorado Springs,and will be our guest
on this blog from time to time.
