Category Archives: Spiritual Direction

Daily Inspiration

Posted on by Sare

I get daily inspiration from a variety of different sources, some of them ancient turns of phrase, some of them new reflections on the same wisdom we all tap into. I have mantras that I write for myself, or occasionally get from somewhere else. I have  Morning Prayer which incorporates some of those ancient turns of phrase – some of them only a thousand years old, and some of them more like three thousand years old. I move and twist my body while I do yoga and that seems to move and twist my mind and my spirit and delicious ways. And I have things emailed to me every morning that are inspirational.

Why?

Funny you should ask. It’s nice at any point in my life, and right now it’s absolutely necessary. It’s a stressful pot of crabs over here – moving out of a commune, getting married, the job I’ve created for myself over the past 3 years finally materializing, every other vocational thing taking off and taking time, and the necessary balance… Let’s just say I go to bed grateful that I can rest and I wake up grumpy, despite saying Compline or Night Prayer with my beloved.  My daily inspiration is the way I transform GrumpMuffin into Grateful, Smiling Sarah.

And so I share with you here two pieces of that daily inspiration. The first one in the picture above comes from the magazine Real Simple who, despite its grammatically sketchy title, provides a lovely ‘Daily Thought’. I subscribed to their magazine for a few years, but grew beyond it. I have yet to grow beyond the Daily Thought, and I deeply appreciate it. “If you can dream it, you can make it so.” – Belva Davis.

The second comes from the mac widget produced by The Secret. Today’s ‘Daily Teaching’ is a quote from Marcel Proust. “We don’t receive wisdom. We must discover it for ourselves after a journey that no one can take for us or spare us.”

I hope you all have a very lovely day.

The Clarity of Hope

Posted on by Sare

What does desire have to do with faith?

When we feel a strong need, there is desperation in that need. Even if we’re not used to putting it quite that way, it doesn’t take a whole lot of introspection to identify it. God doesn’t dwell in desperation. Faith is where God is found – faith, hope, love, joy, peace, bliss, light, life… Yes this is the stomping ground of God. This is, in fact, That Which Is God.

When we feel desire – and here I take the stance that we can feel desire apart from need – there is no desperation, there is no fear, there is no sense of lack or incompleteness. There is a freedom and openness in desire – the exact opposite of desperation. When we feel desire, this open, free sensation makes faith easy. And faith isn’t about buying into a belief system, a set of historical events that may or may not have occurred. Faith is about placing your heart inside of this Hope-Love-Joy-Peace-Bliss-Life-Light thing that is God. Faith is about saying ‘that’s what I want, that’s how I want to live, that’s what I’m going to do, that’s how I’m going to be’.

When we feel desire it is easier to sense the abundance around us and we can very easily be in tune with the stomping ground of God – we can be faith-y, placing our hearts inside of hope, love, joy, peace, bliss, light and life.

When we have faith, we can know that our desires are possible. It is God’s happy joy to answer our prayers, but when we are trembling in fear or anger then we’ve already separated ourselves from God… and it’s that separation which needs to be addressed before any other prayers can be heard. God is, loves, and wants faith, hope, joy, love, peace, bliss, light and life for all of us, and God wants it RIGHT NOW.

So… Get in the groove. Practice giving up the desperate sense of need (which is a spiritual practice all on it’s own, popular in every major religion, under different titles), and embrace Holy Desire – where we can have the clarity of hope and the fullness of faith. Also, Joy. Lots and lots of joy. (All the joy! All of it!)

Self-Sabotaging Behaviors

Posted on by Sare

Last night in the kitchen (the kitchen of the commune in which I still live, at least for the next three weeks) I was having a conversation with a housemate. We were talking about self-sabotaging behaviors, mine in question was procrastination on a specific project at work. I’d struggled with procrastination all the way through two graduate degrees and beyond and never quite mastered it, you see, though it had been getting much better. Okay, slightly better.

The gentleman I was discussing this with had his own self-sabotaging behaviors that he shared, though he balked at the word ‘sabotage’ on the basis that the behaviors weren’t conscious, so they couldn’t be actual sabotage – sabotage implies consent and intention.

But here’s how I see it:

My procrastination is a coping mechanism for when I feel overwhelmed. Now, I used to feel overwhelmed because I wasn’t actually capable of finishing successfully, or didn’t have all the information and data and didn’t know how to ask for it. Now, I feel overwhelmed because it’s really important and it could affect a lot of people’s lives in really incredible and positive ways… but I know I’m up to the challenge, I know I have all the resources I need. But my coping mechanism is going to protect me at all costs. 

And what is the cost, in this case? What is being sabotaged by this behavior? Not my current sense of self. That’s what’s being protected at all costs. It’s my vision of who I want to be. The ways I’ve articulated, the list of attributes that I’m working steadily toward that include things like joyful, enlightened, following my bliss, loving, grounded, influential, a change agent, deeply peaceful, inspirational. This is what is at risk for sabotage because my coping mechanism is willing to protect my current being at all costs. And in this case, the cost is who I want to be. I sabotage my future and desired self when I pull this sort of thing.

So it stops now. :) And it’s a lovely feeling, being free of it.

Life Coaching

Posted on by Sare

Joy is our birthright.

If you or I aren’t dwelling in a place where Joy is constantly accessible to us, we’re missing out on something delicious. Living peaceful lives, experiencing joy as often as we like, and becoming loving people is the goal, no matter what sort of situation we find ourselves in – the tricky ones, the hard ones, in the midst of crisis.

In the words of one of my teachers, Bob Perelli, it’s easy to be calm, cool and collected when people are sending you flowers, giving you chocolate and writing you checks. The level of our emotional maturity isn’t measured when things are going so easily. We know we are really making good progress when we can remain calm and peaceful when people are snarking at us, when they’re pushing our buttons and when things don’t seem to be going our way.

And when we start to change this, when we start to increase our emotional maturity… then some pretty remarkable and miraculous things start happening. Quite naturally, more good things start entering our view screen and the goals we made for ourselves that seemed so out of reach become shockingly close to us.

This is hard work, and it is useful to have help – that’s why there are life coaches – or if you prefer, Spiritual Directors. Same thing. If you want this help, email me.

Migraines and Self-Care

Posted on by Sare

Turning Migraines into Mountains

Once again, I have a migraine and once again I’ve taken something for it. Now, there’s the night time stuff and the day time stuff – both over the counter, not prescription medications mind, my migraines aren’t quite that heinous (though trust me, they’re migraines, so they’re pretty heinous), but the night time stuff makes me drowsy and stupid for about 12 hours and the day time stuff has caffeine in it.

Given that I woke up at 5:45 this morning with this puppy, at 7 am I was practically bouncing out of bed with a grin on my face. But that’s  the thing – the medication takes me to a silly place, really, one where I all too easily forget that I’ve given myself a migraine and perhaps a smidgen of self-care is warranted. Now yes, there are things I’ve scheduled to do today, but some of them could happen another day. I could take it easy. But it’s not easy to recall that when I’m bouncing out of bed ready to climb Mount Everest.

So, let’s talk about this conundrum of self-care,  yes? Continue reading →

Spiritual Direction?

Posted on by Sare

Have a cup of health!

Spiritual Direction.  Maybe you’ve heard of it.  Maybe you’re wondering if it’s a special type of cartography.  Either way, the question that might be rattling around right now, since I’ve mentioned it and all is… What the hell is Spiritual Direction?  Closely followed, perhaps, by Is Spiritual Direction right for me, right now?  And then of course, there are other questions to ask…

So if you’re curious, do read on! Continue reading →