Tuesday, May 09, 2006
Getting Lost To Find Yourself
How many situations can you remember that only by getting lost you found your way?
I literally do this all the time. In fact, I usually make a point getting lost, so I can learn my way around. It happens each time I move to a new place. I call it the "Game of Getting Lost." It is time for exploration.
I get into my car and go explore places. I drive into the roads less traveled, so to speak, and go around and around finding my way around back to the main road, getting into the little veins of the city, observing the areas around me, especially the beautiful houses and yards and nature on my way.
I love it when I see an obscure road expecting great surprises coming to me. Granted, the surprises come. I get lost into rural areas, business districts, school areas, the industrial part of town, the poor side of town, the rich side of town, the train tracks, downtown... it is all very fascinating.
I get to learn where shopping places are. I pay close attention to those businesses that particularly interest me. "Ah... this is where such and such is!" "Oh, look at what they have here..." Those are just some exclamations of pure elation.
And each time I find my way, I celebrate it with a great gusto. I know I am back to a familiar place, which give me great pleasure and fills me with a sense of security and safety. Even though invariably I find myself in a different place from where I begun, I know something has changed. I am now wiser, more knowledgeable, more experienced.
So, how can we use this game to improve our life spiritually?There are two ways:
One is by going to the "underworld," that is, by using a traumatic event to get to know our own demons, to face our reality, to transform our shortcomings, and so on. It usually happens when we are faced with a severe disease or with an extreme broken heart. Though the situation is highly stressful and intense, this is a great opportunity to study who we are, to cleanse what is ragged, and to add what we most desire.
The other circumstance is when we decide that our reality is not serving us anymore; the life we lead is not that joyous, we do not particularly appreciate what we have become and what we are manifesting into our life, and we understand it is time for a change. This is a conscious choice that we make and from there, we look for opportunities to better ourselves.
Interestingly, when we are ready for this change, most times we don’t even need to look for these opportunities: they will fall into our laps. We only need to take advantage of whatever is being offered to us as a steeping stone and go from there.
This is when we play the Game of "Getting Lost." Both ways are not easy, though one is much less traumatic than the other. They demand that we look deeply into our soul, get lost within ourselves, travel our most obscure roads, observe our surroundings, to finally find our way, victorious.
I literally do this all the time. In fact, I usually make a point getting lost, so I can learn my way around. It happens each time I move to a new place. I call it the "Game of Getting Lost." It is time for exploration.
I get into my car and go explore places. I drive into the roads less traveled, so to speak, and go around and around finding my way around back to the main road, getting into the little veins of the city, observing the areas around me, especially the beautiful houses and yards and nature on my way.
I love it when I see an obscure road expecting great surprises coming to me. Granted, the surprises come. I get lost into rural areas, business districts, school areas, the industrial part of town, the poor side of town, the rich side of town, the train tracks, downtown... it is all very fascinating.
I get to learn where shopping places are. I pay close attention to those businesses that particularly interest me. "Ah... this is where such and such is!" "Oh, look at what they have here..." Those are just some exclamations of pure elation.
And each time I find my way, I celebrate it with a great gusto. I know I am back to a familiar place, which give me great pleasure and fills me with a sense of security and safety. Even though invariably I find myself in a different place from where I begun, I know something has changed. I am now wiser, more knowledgeable, more experienced.
So, how can we use this game to improve our life spiritually?There are two ways:
One is by going to the "underworld," that is, by using a traumatic event to get to know our own demons, to face our reality, to transform our shortcomings, and so on. It usually happens when we are faced with a severe disease or with an extreme broken heart. Though the situation is highly stressful and intense, this is a great opportunity to study who we are, to cleanse what is ragged, and to add what we most desire.
The other circumstance is when we decide that our reality is not serving us anymore; the life we lead is not that joyous, we do not particularly appreciate what we have become and what we are manifesting into our life, and we understand it is time for a change. This is a conscious choice that we make and from there, we look for opportunities to better ourselves.
Interestingly, when we are ready for this change, most times we don’t even need to look for these opportunities: they will fall into our laps. We only need to take advantage of whatever is being offered to us as a steeping stone and go from there.
This is when we play the Game of "Getting Lost." Both ways are not easy, though one is much less traumatic than the other. They demand that we look deeply into our soul, get lost within ourselves, travel our most obscure roads, observe our surroundings, to finally find our way, victorious.
