N Patience

No:14 September 2003

Another morning bringing a sense of one step forward two steps back. I
constantly feel like I should pull myself together or talk myself out
of it. The strange thing is that I do not seem to be alone; everyone I
speak to seems to be feeling the same. Even meditating seems like a
waste of time, more of the same old stuff, always positive and yet
nothing seems to change?.

" Patience is the key lesson, not just the act of waiting but the
ability to know the right time, the right signals and to be able to be
calm and centered in the meantime.

True patience is not waking up at 3am with anxieties and suppressing
them with the light of day. True patience is learning to trust your
intuition, your inner guidance and to fill the waiting time with rest
and relaxation.

By being impatient you can disrupt the course of events that will take
you forward. But equally to take no step at all can be equally
damaging.

How do you know when to move and when to stay still? The answer lies in
the amount of resistance you encounter within yourself. But that, I
hear you cry, is not always reliable; great enthusiasm has been met
with great disappointment. But spiritual progress is not measured by
reward, it is measured by the degree of learning that is
achieved.

Usually the greatest mistakes provide the greatest learning - the
opportunity for self-reflection and transformation. Therefore, it is
not a mistake if the learning is absorbed.

So, if enthusiasm is not necessarily a signal what else might you
listen out for?

True spiritual purpose runs in your veins, it provides a thread to all
your activities and your interactions. It is the uniting factor, the
sum total of who you are.
Therefore, one of the most reliable signals is synchronicity, things
coming together from several directions that serve many purposes and
which create an internal harmony. Internal confluence does not
necessarily mean external harmony.

But when you are quiet and alone and reviewing an interaction, a
decision then does it flow as one? Does it give succour to your
intellect, your feelings and reflect the values within your life? If it
does then the decision to move forward will be an easy one, often
realised long after the choice was actually made."

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