If we believe we have a spiritual dimension then why not go a little further and accept that Self as our real self, and one which wants to not only be expressed but guide our lives all the time?
This is what I am learning and it involves morning reading of what takes me back to a sense of enjoined consciousness and then sitting in that connection for as long as feels right before embarking on my day.
More recently I have stepped it up to make sure that at any point during the day when I feel my human self slipping back in and taking over, I pause, and consider what it is I really want to accomplish this time around. Peace, and foremost, the memory of my Self in Christ.
I practice letting go of the constructed identity which constantly wants to reinstate itself around me every day. Remembering who I am without this body is a daily endeavour, and all the thoughts built upon belief in it beat at me the moment I awake. But I am not this body, I am Spirit in origin and entirety. The certainty with which I make this statement comes from years of contemplating it as an idea, but more recently trying to live it and let Spirit run things.
Evidence appears nearly every day that this works. Things fall into place, people appear and disappear. But more importantly I gain peace quicker and quicker and worry less and less, in fact, my attitude may even appear as though I do not care about very much at all, and this is because I don't. But not in 'I couldn't care less' kind of way, but an acceptance that whatever is is and I do not need to interfere with it or even have input. The ability to withdraw from opinion-offering, unless asked, is very freeing.
It takes up much energy all those opinions we have and hold dear to us; how we like things, what we want others to do or be like, what is wrong with the world, who is not doing the right thing...on and on...it's a prison we place ourselves in.
Be free for once, try not being perturbed because someone did the wrong thing, or isn't behaving how you think they should, nine out of ten times it will not matter or change the outcome if you do not offer your thoughts.
Of course, some of us think we are being helpful to point out another’s problematic personality or the potential issues it could create. It says more about you than them if you think you have assessed them correctly because you probably haven't. Instead just tied them, and you, to the concept of a body, and the impermanent, something that will pass and means ultimately nothing. Spirit does need the body to be.
What about asking for your sight to be cleaned and made truth-full, take that 'difficult' person and instead of separating off from them, ask for Spirit's guidance as to what it is that would be truly helpful in this circumstance. This (partial) Psalm from the bible is helpful to consider,
Psalm 25:4-5
Make me know Your ways... Teach me Your paths. Lead me in Your truth and teach me.
The way to hear Spirit is to stop and ask, acknowledging that you may not know what is really before you and why it has come. Troubled people who cross our path come to us for a reason, sent for us to learn how to pause and ask for correct understanding of our role. Remember also that a lot of what we, our egos, believe is the other person's issue will be our projections.
Pausing to ask Spirit/Christ/God or whatever you feel comfortable with, is the only way we can learn to disengage from the arrogant intelligence of the ego. An intelligence which is as temporary as this body. Disconnect from the dominance of this place and consult your Spirit.
What if every person we encounter is meant only to aid our own return journey home, every face we look upon hand-picked for our internal education required to know ourselves in God and His Spirit.
Try it out, I have been, and things dissolve the moment I surrender both opinion of the other person and the need to control and be the 'clever' one. Intelligence is always used by the ego and often over others, disengage from it or you won't know your Spirit and hear its call. You only need to answer the call, not come up with the solutions to those things and people you see as problems. Go to God on the inside the moment you feel your peace lost, the moment you hear your tongue speaking about another in a kind but concerned way, too many ego's run this place, withdraw yours from being the decision maker and you will find that you are not faced with many decisions at all which are not self-answering and quickly resolved.
It's hard for us to stop trying to run our own lives but if you want Spirit to have a presence then you need to withdraw your ego-self, however good intentioned it convinces you it is being. It is not so much what you say about another but from which 'self' it comes.
The ego will have the need to offer its 'well-intentioned' opinion and will always speak first to your mind. Spirit waits on invitation and does not assess anyone or forecast future problems stemming from another. You will feel peace from its approach and response to any issue you may perceive as real. Whereas the ego will get involved in many discussions, Spirit initiates gentle actions respectful for all concerned and often silently done.
Welcome the stranger without so they do not become the enemy and allow your Spirit to demonstrate its power. Offering no resistance to what and who is opposite you will encourage you to go further and ask for Spirit to respond to what you are seeing as a problem with them or an issue between you both.
Then forget. Forget the whole thing you conjured up in your mind-space and be free, no past, no judgements and no future worries. This clears the way for Spirit to operate down here through you.
So I work every day at accepting only that I am Spirit and offering, in prayer or meditation, my gratitude for that being the truth. All else will fall into place and come to pass as it should to keep me travelling home. I need do nothing else but accept that I am healed and whole to have this show up in my life somehow. Therefore if I'm ok, you're ok, and that little space when I'm not sure, I use to go within and reaffirm we can be joined by Spirit to assist in overcoming any difficulty.
