“The old skin has to be shed before the new one can come.” ~ Joseph Campbell
A spiritual journey can be likened to peeling back layers of an onion, with every shedding of old attachments and limiting belief systems we reveal a fresher and clearer part of our “self.”
We are always the same person we were when our journey began, it’s just that over time we begin to lose our energetic “baggage,” so to speak. At the beginning of our journey, identifying limiting beliefs and ego attachments may have been fairly simple.
When we first touch into “the truth” of reality and start to realize that who we thought we “were” (ego) is simply made of intangible ideas in our mind. Many seekers feel relieved to find clarity in what they may have always known or thought deep within their being, but never had the words to fully express to themselves or others.
However, the integration of our ego process and identifying of these limiting beliefs becomes a little difficult as our process gets underway, due to the fact that subconscious beliefs are often so ingrained in our sense of self that it’s common to not even know they are there until much integration and healing has occurred.
Also, since many of the most deeply embedded belief systems that those who are becoming “self-actualized” identify with, are spiritual in nature, they may be harder to cast away so easily as the belief systems were aligned with third dimensional reality.
Eventually all seekers must come to the point that they realize the limiting nature of their belief systems.
To know that all beliefs are a misstep at some point, (to know that “all is one, one is all” signifies that the idea of “belief” points to something other than the one in existence, to “believe in” something is to say that something else is there to believe in, besides the only one there is) eventually brings us to the point where we must identify the spiritual belief systems that are beginning to inhibit our life’s experience.
While some amount of belief is required to be here, beliefs only become an issue or limiting belief, when it has become something that one clings to as a part of their identity and/or is afraid to lose for fear of losing a part of “themselves,” (or what they believe is themselves.)
As with most things in our spiritual process, a shift in perspective is required to begin to drop all beliefs, even the spiritual ones.
In order to align with a more expanded perspective, one that allows for all moments to be exactly as they are without us attempting to cling to some idea in our mind as our identity, or some storyline about what is happening and why it is happening, we must learn to discern between two very important aspects of our being… experiencing vs. controlling.
Experiencing our process vs. controlling it
“Once you are dis-identified with your ego, you don’t care if it lives or dies. It is the ego that dies again and again over the course of our lives. Like a snakeskin it is shed again and again as the soul expands far enough to outgrow it’s current restrictions.” ~ Teal Swan
Reflect on the most deeply held beliefs you have regarding your spiritual process. Things such as, “I’m an empathic healer, I am healing the planet by filtering out negative emotions, of myself and others,” or “I am undergoing an energetic healing, it’s important for me to constantly be aware of how I feel in order to make sure I feel everything, because what I feel, is what I am healing.”
Or even “I am living multi-dimensionally and my awareness of reality touches into dimensions that are beyond what most people are able to access, it is difficult for other people to understand me due to this,” are all examples of belief systems that you may resonate with on some level.
Now, as you reflect on these, or even write some of them down if you think it may help you identify them more effectively, ask yourself if you are willing to let go of this belief, even if it is only for this moment.
If you feel a slight tinge of fear or anger even to have your most deeply held beliefs challenged or dismissed, this may be a sign that there is still some amount of spiritual ego unraveling that needs to be done in your energy field.
This is completely okay, but simply identifying these beliefs begins the process of beginning to disengage from them. The fact of the matter is, in the present moment, none of these beliefs mean anything nor do they matter.
No matter how true they feel and how deeply you “know” them, at the point where they become something we are afraid to lose or something we feel we need to defend, they become limiting. It is possible to know things about your experiences here without feeling the need to defend it as your identity.
You can believe you are a pleadian starseed from the 200th dimension here to save the world, but in the present moment, you must come to know, even as magical as this sounds, it doesn’t matter. In the present moment, nothing matters, yet everything is valid at the same time.
The tricky part of a still intact ego inter-mingling with our spiritual process is that the ego sneakily begins to try and “control” your spiritual process rather than just experiencing it, and this is how we often subconsciously get stuck in our journey without realizing it.
The ego desperately wants something to be in charge of, so by tuning into how we “feel” in our heart space constantly – in order to assess, diagnose or analyze our emotions is how it can still feel relevant in our lives. Or if identifying as an energetic filter of lower vibrational energies becomes our new “sense of self” the ego will attempt to try wear this mask with pride as well.
In order to break out of this sly way our ego tries to hide under spiritual masks, we must come to know (and even saying this statement out loud works to help jiggle the clutches of our ego out of our energy field), “I am not in control of my spiritual process, I am simply the one experiencing it.”
Saying this out loud immediately shifts us out of belief systems and into experiencing the present moment… as it is, without any spiritual filter getting in the way of our experience. Imagine if you knew nothing about anything, about any “spiritual journey,” about any “energetic healing process,” about any “this emotion feels that way and that emotion feels this way,” and simply experienced this moment exactly as it is.
Rather than trying to control the emotions as they arise in our body, we simply let them bubble up, and soften into our being with each breathe, or imagine not even having to feel anything in order to know that you were “alive.”
When it becomes completely ok to say, “I have no idea who I am, what I am doing here, what I am feeling (if anything) or why I am feeling it,” we immediately open up the space to begin to simply be without the need to keep our story straight, which is the true meaning of being present in the present moment.
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