Surviving and Thriving

The last month of this year is proving to be as much growth as anything that has happened thus far. I am expanding on the learning that we cannot do anything about other people but we can continue to work and expand on ourselves and that work is always going to exist. We will forever expand upon our spiritual life more and more. 

I have learned that I do need more experiences in life outside of the box that I’ve been living in- different people and different places so that I can spread my wings. I am also realizing that the much expansion that I will gain from outside, I will also gain from inside. As we are inside and limited in what we can do during covid, I have the chance to work on the inner mind right now. It helps to even listen to Sukhmani Sahib, simran, or kirtan to help get our mind in a different direction and to keep working. Sometimes in a slump it is really hard to find a way out but I have found listening to something is easier than doing it, so even if you can listen to some form of Gurbani it helps to change what the mind is doing. Right now we are all being pushed to our maximums. The world is in chaos. This is the era of kaljug represented in a massive way, that it is universally difficult times. I think to prevent ourselves from just experiencing emotional lability each time something happens, we have to hang onto the stability of our Guru and rebuild that over time. I definitely felt like I had a bigger buffer at the beginning of the year than I do now, but that doesn’t mean you can’t gain it back. You just have to work at it. 

In Sikhi we know that all is Hukam, there is no separate creator than destroyer, it is all One and I think that understanding really gives us the perspective that there is no one to blame. There is no “other” out there. There is no one else, there is nothing else. We meet sangat in the method and time that God delivers for us to be joined with them. It is very interesting and intriguing how we get to meet the people we do and under which circumstances. It would seem to be by some miracle, accident or magic that we meet our most influential sangat, but it is just Hukam. We can learn something from each interaction and the people that have played key roles in our lives. 

Like many, I am tired. I am growing this deep internal fatigue that is more of a sense of just wanting to pause time and space to just recover and fill up my inner cup with light, joy, humor, chardi kala. Each new challenge that gets added weekly is like another cloth in a load of laundry. More and more to wash. I think that the mind has a stellar ability though to be able to clean that all out through Gurbani. We know that we can burn away karms, thoughts, actions, a lot of things that are burdening us through Gurbani. Doing your paath might be the last thing you feel like doing when you are tired but think about doing some form of connection- whatever that form of connection looks like for you. In small and slow steps you will be able to wash away the things you don’t need to hold onto as yours. I am starting to switch out of simple survival and it is feeling good. I don't know how long that will last, but it is such a blessing I will take it and run with it. I will take every ounce left of my energy to move myself as far out of survival as I can today because I don't know what tomorrow will bring. Building up resilience in increments is important.