"The on-the-spot practice of being fully present,
with an open mind can be done at any time;
feeling your heart, and greeting the next moment
with an open mind
can be done at any time.
When you wake up in the morning, before a difficult
conversation,
whenever fear or discomfort arises.
This practice is a beautiful way to claim your warriorship,
your spiritual warriorship.
In other words, it is a way to claim your courage,
your kindness, your strength."
~Pema Chodron
From Buddhism, a spiritual warrior is a person who battles with the "universal enemy" self-ignorance; the ultimate source of suffering. Warrior, a brave or experienced soldier, and the suffix "-ship" denotes a skill in a certain capacity.
So, how do you claim the evolution of your Spiritual Warriorship?
With the closing of January, I reflect on the theme for this first month of 2014.
In our Soul Sisters Journey group, we focused on reconnecting & aligning with others, in Freedom to Change Stems from Within, we shifted from blaming sources outside of us to taking personal responsibility for the world we create.
And throughout the month, there has been a steady gentle whisper, to live in the moment, to express gratitude, to slow down, to just...Breathe. We can change our thoughts and reclaim our power by going within, listening for and trusting; the voice of our "inner wisdom".
However, Life in the fast lane is addictive and we must continually remind ourselves to slow down and smell the roses. The beauty of social media and of immediate, unlimited access to information, is that we experience such an abundance of choice. The other side of this freedom, is the overwhelm and distraction that too much data can deliver. One minute, I will be looking up a subject on-line and two hours later, my surf has morphed into topics and sites out of sync from where I started.
So again, I come back to this simple message of truth, as I understand it, practice it, and vow to live it.
There is nothing more fascinating or fulfilling than journeying inward to discover ourselves!
The really cool thing is, everything we ever yearned for, is available 24/7 ~ just like on the internet! Only the data revealed, the direction defined, and the freedom granted, have been uniquely created~ custom designed ~ just for you!
As I think of being the heroic pioneer of my own Life,
I find myself humming a tune from Jana Stanfield, a favorite folksinger of mine...
"I'm Not Lost, I am Exploring"