From Role to Soul: 15 Shifts on the Awakening Journey by Annie Burnside

Author:Annie Burnside [Burnside, Annie]
Language: eng
Format: azw3
ISBN: 9781939288578
Publisher: Wyatt-MacKenzie
Published: 2014-09-13T16:00:00+00:00

S H I F T

#7

From Striving to Contentment

FROM TRYING TO SIMPLY BREATHING

FROM STRUGGLE TO RELAXATION

FROM HOLDING ON TO LETTING GO

FROM ATTACHMENT TO SURRENDER

FROM PLANNED STRATEGIES TO ORGANIC GROWTH

FROM PROJECT MOTIVATION TO SOUL CALLING

FROM NEEDING A TIMETABLE TO TRUSTING THE PROCESS

FROM LONG-TERM GOALS TO SPONTANEITY

He turned around and began climbing down the huge pillar of other caterpillars. This time he didn’t curl up. He stretched out full length and looked straight into the eyes of each one. He marveled at the variety and beauty, amazed that he had never noticed it before. He whispered to each, ‘I’ve been up; there’s nothing there.’ Most paid no attention; they were too intent on climbing. He realized how he had misread the instinct to get high. To get to the ‘top’ he must fly not climb.

TRINA PAULUS

Many feel that if we give up striving, we won’t accomplish anything. From my perspective, this couldn’t be further from the truth. When I speak of “striving,” I’m referring to an underlying energy that creates anxiety, unrest, and a lack of flow—the opposite of contentment. If we spend our lives striving for the next moment rather than basking in the organic unfolding of our own life lived, contentment will remain forever out of reach.

Productivity doesn’t have to be at the expense of contentment. When we let go of striving, we continue to hold a vision—continue to change and grow and learn and try. It just feels so different. The paradox of “everything has meaning” and “nothing really matters” comes into play. As a blended being, both perspectives hold true simultaneously.

It’s a change of input that’s called for with this shift, not necessarily a change of output. Practical plans of both the short-term and long-term variety are still made, but the energy comes from a different source. We become task-specific rather than strategic, allowing focus and action to rise and fall one task at a time. Being task-specific is a totally different way to move through a day—a life. It flips on its head the traditional energy thread of always striving. We still work hard. It’s just that our focus is more on organic growth and trusting the process rather than on goals, projections, and timetables.

Contentment, Numbers, and the Big Arena

At the beginning of a recent summer, I felt quite tired. Not hard-physical-labor-fifty-weeks-a-year tired. Not single-parent tired. Not grieving-for-the-loss-of-a-lovedone tired. But nonetheless emotionally, mentally, and spiritually tired. My eyes began to feel strained and ache. This was the first sign that a shift in perspective was about to be integrated.

When I started out on my current career nine years ago, I imagined my professional trajectory being similar to the many New Age spiritual authors I’d read. Write a book, create a brand, gain a following, and eventually enter the big arena. Author Brene Brown remarks that it takes great courage to step into the arena. But during this particular summer, a nagging feeling I’d stuffed down for years began to surface—the feeling that it also takes great courage to step out of the arena once inside.

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