How do I Live NOW? – How do YOU Live Now?

There is an old question which challenges the very basis of our life and how we live. “Are you a physical being having the occasional spiritual experience or are you a spiritual being having a frequent physical experience? ” In the simplest of terms we either live a material life or a spiritual life. Can the two be mixed? Well, it depends on what we mean by spiritual, as ‘spirituality’ is not religious and it has little to do with spiritualism! Many believe they can be ‘material’ and ‘spiritual’ at the same time but it does cause certain types of confusion and tension, at least to me.

When we live a ‘material life’ we learn to ‘identify’ with the material world around us. As a consequence we create our own emotional disturbances (sadness, anger and fear…) which are triggered but not caused by changing events and circumstances, almost all of which are beyond our control. On the other hand when we live a spiritual life we do not invest our identity in any ‘thing’ out there! We are therefore not adversely affected by material events because we have realised and accepted that everything in the material world is constantly changing its form at both the macro and micro levels whether you like it or not. Continuous change is the very nature of material reality. But it’s not OUR reality. Spirit doesn’t change its essential ‘form’…which, in material terms, is formless!
The essence of the spiritual life has two dimensions (in this short article at least!). The first is that while spirit animates matter, expresses itself through matter and ‘uses’ the material world, it is ‘aware’ that it is non-material. It is aware that it is not subject to the same laws of change and processes of transformation and decay that happen in the material world. The second is the realisation that I don’t have a spirit but ‘I am spirit’ sometimes expressed as ‘I am consciousness not matter, I am soul not body!

When we know our ‘self as spirit’ we view a) the form that we inhabit b) other embodied souls/spirits around us (family and friends etc.) and c) the world, very differently. It is that change in perception which defines the shift from material to spiritual. Our perceptions are ‘spiritualised’… so to speak, and that changes everything at all levels. It empowers us to live a very different life and create different responses to the world around us. For example, at the four basic levels of relationship in life, we would notice the following shifts within our consciousness, and their beneficial consequences, when we move from a material life to a spiritual life.

Our Self
When we no longer ‘identify’ with anything or with anybody in the material world, including our body, we automatically restore a deep inner freedom. This allows us to diminish our stress in the form of our emotional reactions whenever anything changes ‘out there’. And that includes our own body. That’s not to say we do not care for the body that we occupy, the things we use and the people we’re dealing with. In fact, this spiritual perception and awareness of our ‘self as spirit’ allows greater emotional stability which then allows us to extend greater care to the form that we occupy and to all other forms ‘in the world’. (caring, in this sense is not an ‘emotional’ intention but rather a loving intention!)

Other People
When our perception of others (including things) is ‘spiritual’ we see those around us in a different light. They are also spiritual beings on their journey in and through the material of life. This lessens our ‘attachment’ (my favourite theme to theme) to their forms and personalities, which allows us to convey and ‘connect’ with a more authentic love. Love and attachment being quite distinct where one is open and other closed, one is freeing the other is grasping. Our perceptions of others ‘as spirit’ also frees us from the habit of compartmentalising them according to the old ‘material’ labels like, race, religion, nationality, profession etc. This in turn lessens and eventually eliminates envy, animosity and conflict.

  Specific Things
When our perception is spiritual we can gradually diminish and eventually end the conditioned desire to acquire material things. This in turn weakens and eventually heals our habit of creating feelings of ‘insecurity’ which was the result of basing our self-esteem and self-worth on material stuff. While we still use and respect the physical essentials of life such as shelter, transport, clothing etc. we no longer base our happiness and sense of well being on material acquisitions. We know that all material objects and people as well must eventually move on. Our fears and sorrows are thereby dissolved as we accept and surrender to what we realise is the inevitable. Only then is ‘real relaxation’, peace if you will, possible as we realise that from a purely spiritual point of view we have no (material) thing to “lose”, or (material) person to “lose”! I have never own anything or anyone in the first place. We could only use things in a dignified, worthwhile way. With regards to people, we never own them either. We can only be with them with all our heart and love completely, totally and detachedly with all our undivided, undiluted love. This, to me is spiritual living. No fear! No anxiety! Just pure living!

Wider World
If you were able to sit in stillness for one year just watching a garden full of flowers and trees, with mountains in the background, you would see the passing of the seasons. You would think nothing of the continuous process of birth, growth, flowering, decaying and dying. You would watch the changing colours and textures of everything around you and perceive it all as perfectly natural. Even the occasional storm tearing up trees and flooding rivers would be just another passing scene, and a perfectly understandable and acceptable event in nature’s raw elemental world.

Similarly when we no longer see our self as material beings, but as the enlivening spiritual light of consciousness, all change and transformation in the world of interpersonal and international interactions, at all levels of human life, in all cultures and contexts, no matter how dramatic, are perceived to be as natural as the seasons of nature. The rising and the falling, ebbing and flowing of events and circumstances far and wide, which we sometimes call ‘the news’, are seen as the natural changing colours and textures of the dramas of human life on earth. This perception and interpretation is then the foundation of our ability to observe and be ‘undisturbed’ by whatever appears to happen, anywhere and at anytime. This, in turn, allows us to maintain our inner peace and access our innate wisdom as we extend compassion, love,  care, support and spiritual sustenance to those in obvious need.
Even the difficult bit that we call ‘death’, the bit that represents the greatest fear of so many, that moment when our body is finally spent, would be seen and accepted as both natural and inevitable, and even necessary to the process of living. And not necessarily an end in itself!

Crossing the bridge, so to speak, from the material life to a more spiritual life is an obvious challenge that seldom happens over night. It is not made any easier by the fact that so few seem to make the crossing and stay on the other side. Perhaps that’s because it’s on the other side that we truly do start to think and act somewhat differently to the majority. And if we are still in any way dependent on others’ approval and acceptance we will find it hard to live a life that a) can seem to walk against the tide and b) not give us what we probably still believe we have ‘to get’ from others. But that said, perhaps that is what the world now awaits. Not people with the courage to step over, just those who have realised who they are as spirit. Only then is courage unnecessary. It is, in the end, a very personal choice and process. Some do seem to attempt to avoid the choice and delay the process by trying to walk on both sides at the same time. Fun for a while perhaps, but it is likely to result in an obvious tension and anxiety and that still unresolved and nagging question, “Who or what am I…exactly?”

So perhaps the answer to that opening question is, “We are spiritual beings lost in a material experience knowing that we are much more than ‘matter’ but not knowing exactly how to be the spirit that we are…yet!”

But then you may have your own way to say it!

Some exercises for you:

I’d like you to ask yourself this: ‘To what extent on a scale of 1 to 10 do I feel the ‘pull’ to live a more spiritual life? ’

And reflect on the question, ‘what do I think stops me from crossing over? ’ – write a list just for your own awareness, OK?

I still have got one more exercise for you to do. Make a list of three things that you know would take you closer to living a less material and more spiritual life.                                     
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Ross Galán, NLP Spiritual Life Coach
Spiritual Life Coaching School