Letting the soul rest

It seems as if the world is one of instant gratification: fast food, instant communication, living life at breakneck speed... And so, when it comes to inner change, we often come to expect instant results of ourselves as well. This is a bit like driving along with a kid permanently in the backseat of the car asking: "Are we there yet? Are we there yet?"



But change is an incremental process. Just because a dramatic shift can sometimes occur in an instant, doesn't mean that this will always be the case. We need to learn to go with the ebb and flow motion of change...

Cultivating patience...
This means that there will, on occasion, be periods in your life where it may feel as if there's not a lot happening - which can be very frustrating! I'll certainly put my hand up for this one: cultivating patience is a real challenge for me. A friend shared the following "prayer" this morning, which made me laugh as I recognised myself in this:

Lord give me patience... NOW!!!

Oh dear, if patience was a commodity you could buy somewhere I'd be ordering it in bulk lots! But, alas, it's something that you need to find in yourself. So how do you do that? Well, I've actually found a good way is to focus my attention outward, on the natural environment around me - there is something very grounding and reassuring about reconnecting with Nature.

Remind yourself of the farmer, sewing and reaping his crops in tune with the season. And periodically allowing a field to remain fallow - resting the soil. This is to give it time to regenerate, ready for planting again. Sometimes that's what you need to do for your soul as well - it doesn't help to churn things over all the time, like constantly digging away at the field without giving anything time to grow and come to fruition.

Try it for yourself...
Next time you're feeling impatient with yourself about the apparent lack of speed of manifesting some desired change in your life, take yourself out into Nature somewhere - a garden, the ocean, the wilderness...

Take a moment to be still and connect with the cycle of the seasons, with the rhythm of breath and of life. Allow yourself to be fully present there and feel your anxiety or frustration flowing downward and away from you into the Earth, being gently absorbed and transmuted back into the universal lifeforce.

Allow yourself, and your soul, to rest...