We are all souls trying to live in a physical environment.

 

 That can be very difficult.  

 

How do you place yourself in the physical world and still live spiritually? There are tools you can use to follow through in your own "vein of life."

 

According to The Guides, we have to understand deep inside us.  Each of us has a path that is carved just for us. To be successful on our unique path, we have to learn to be compassionate toward ourselves. That will teach us to like ourselves.

 

 

There are many things you can do to live more spiritually in the physical world.  The first tool to use is to recognize your own rules--the ones you set for yourself to follow.  If you do not know what they are, look at your life. You will immediately see them--the disciplines you place upon yourself...your rules you think you must live by to stay focused on the life you want.

 

Without self-criticism, self-condemnation, even self praise...just factually recognize your set of personal rules. That's all you have to do with this first tool. That's the first step toward finding the "depth" of who you are and being compassionate toward you.

 

 

The second tool to use in living a spiritual life is to learn how to deal with conflict.  You may not want to have anything to do with it; yet, it is a workable tool that brings you back into yourself. It helps you find the real you and what you need to learn.  The Guides say conflict is the medicine “to heal the disease of challenge.”  Challenge creates hurdles in your world.  By understanding the need to console the conflict you are experiencing and confront it, you learn how to overcome it and bring peace to you.  If you walk away from conflict in your life, you will only feel anger toward you.  You will feel unsupported and “put upon” by others.  Avoiding conflict takes away your journey and creates unnecessary hardships for you.

 

While The Guides say you must not enjoy your conflict, you must not turn away from it. It is as important to you as loving you. You are not afraid or cowardly if you don't enjoy conflict. To feel secure in the conflicting situation you are in, truly understand what created it. Look at it as an opportunity to grow. You will look better at yourself and feel safer within the conflict. You will then able to resolve the mystery of the conflict itself.  As the old addage goes: Sunlight is the best antiseptic.

 

 

The third tool is to live as though you have your own wings.  You do not need anyone else’s pair.  When you are not open to your own abilities, you limit your choices in your life.  When you feel you have no choices, you have no wings on your back, and you will never soar.  

When you don't know what you're capable of, you believe you have been poured into a situation you do not want to be in, and that takes away your choice. It eventually creates a spoiled attitude.  You stomp your feet. You begin to rebel, and the anger begins to fill your soul.  Your life no longer feels in balance, and you run away from facing you.

 

You have choice. You have wings.

Use them.

 

 

The fourth tool is very useful when dealing with your past. Learn to destroy parts of your past that no longer have effect on your future.  To be more spiritual in a physical world, understand the importance of the past, as well as the unimportance of it.  When you dwell on what you were, instead of what you are or can become, you lose sight of your own glory.  

 

It's hard to think back to a time in your life when you were very proud of yourself; yet, you have no great difficulty remembering a time when you felt humiliated and small.  When you allow the past to take over your life by constantly "dealing with it," it brings you no pleasure and truly robs you of your future.  To confront the past, deal with the emotion that stirs within you moment by moment. Confront it. Try to identify it.  When you do that, you will be able to release the burden it carries in you.

 

 

The fifth tool is to be more expressive of who you really are.   You cannot just speak your truth. You must LIVE it. Sometimes that is difficult, especially in a world where everyone strives to be the same.  It is hard to look at things and identify them by their thought, to recognize them for what they stir inside of you.  You must become more expressive about yourself and what you value. When you allow yourself to be manipulated and controlled by someone else’s desires or thoughts, you eventually will lose your own.  Learn the importance of speaking your own truth, of knowing what is important to you and how to express it.

 

As a soul, you came into this physical life having to learn to express yourself with words.  It is not something that is given to you, but something you learn. For that reason, The Guides say, "It is the struggle that is a lifelong confinement—like anchors on your ankles."  

 

Just like most everyone else, you have difficulty expressing yourself the way you want others to hear you.  That may seem more real to you at certain times.  What is important to you today is not to lose sight of what you want from you.  To do that, listen to how you express yourself. Learn how to speak only truth about you. 

 

 

See yourself as one who survives, who is not beaten.  That is the sixth tool. When you are able to set your goals and know where you want to be in the final outcome in any situation, you will understand why you needed to achieve that goal.  You only survive when you feel there is the need to survive.  If you allow your life to become limber, you have no reason to be. Soon, you roll right out of the reality of life.  You lose the “content” of what is in your life.  

 

“For that reason,” The Guides say, “souls become old in your world and they lose their lives.  They become burdened with pain in their joints, difficulties in their feet. As you begin to lose control, you soon find that you have let go of the desire to survive.  Survival is something you must see as pleasure, not as work.  The moment you begin to think of it as work—no matter if you are young or old, it matters not—you take from you the spirit in you, robbing you of choice in your life."

 

 

We have now come to the seventh tool to use in finding your spiritual self: Dedicate yourself.  In order to be physical and to live completely in the spiritual, you must know what is important to you, and who and what you choose to spend your time in, and with, and about. 

 

What are you dedicated to--Is it your family?  Is it your choices?  Is it your work?  Is it your spirituality?  

Where do you want to spend most of your time? 

What is the greatest value you own in life?  

Honest answers to these questions will help you heal your life.