2.
GROWING SPIRITUALLY: SPIRITUAL
ACTIVATIONS AND MORE
How
exactly do we progress spiritually? We have
described in our Getting Thru to Your Soul
book and Intuitive Techniques program about
the Seven Spiritual Stages. These
activations provide a revealing overview of
the spiritual path. Each activation has
benchmarks regarding particular lessons to
learn.
Mastering these lessons takes you forward. We measure soul growth by many indicators that show in a person's actions, outlook, light quotient and other factors. We described these aspects at length in the Getting Thru to Your Soul as the "Continuums of Change." Through our research and work with many clients and students over the years, we have found this map to be quite descriptive of the spiritual journey, in which we all uniquely participate.
In this article, we'll look at the activations and other related key elements that can help get a better sense of the bigger picture.
SOUL LESSONS
In brief, the spiritual activations, which reflect the seven chakras, involve these benchmarks:
1st Activation: recognition that there is a spiritual connection
2nd Activation: renunciation of group identity and group think
3rd Activation: empowering self on individual path
4th Activation: embracing yourself more deeply, integrating wounded parts
5th Activation: expressing your sovereignty -- transcending co-dependent relations based on being controlled or needing to control others
6th Activation: integrating societal archetypes (see http://www.gettingthru.org/sn0503.htm), which balance deep, subtle imprints from society's institutions and family, intergenerational programming
7th Activation: transcending limitations and applying the above experientially gained knowledge/wisdom to be in the world but not of it.
This is a brief overview and it takes more than the left brain to understand it. It's good to sit with the information and study it further. As a note, activations sometimes can take as little as months to as long as lifetimes to complete, and lessons are reviewed at deeper levels as we progress.
HOW TO KNOW YOUR NEXT STEP ON THE SPIRITUAL PATH
Here is one starting point. We can help ourselves and others by seeing where the person is in the activation stage. This is not a judgment, but just a frame of reference. In other words, you would work with a junior high student differently than with a college student, to use a rough analogy. You can determine a person's spiritual stage through observation, intuition, and muscle testing. We're open to reassessing as we discover more information. It's good to not let the ego try to make this into a better than/worse than exercise and cloud your perceptions with faulty connections.
Once we assess where the person is, we can be of more service to him/her. If the person is in the 3rd activation, for example, we might suggest self-empowerment tools rather than very deep clearing, which might be more appropriate to someone in the 4th activation or further. Self-empowerment might be attending a motivational workshop, or going on an adventure, or undertaking a new project. If he/ she was in the 4th activation, we would emphasize deeper internal changework, perhaps meditations, healing wounded inner parts, and journaling. Keep in mind that everything is individualized to best serve the person at hand and needs to be put into context.
IDENTIFYING FEATURES/ CHIEF DEFENSE
We often help a person identify his/her chief feature (see last month's article at http://www.gettingthru.org/sn0307.htm). The seven features -- self-deprecation, arrogance, greed, self-destruction, martyr, impatience and stubbornness -- are key overarching patterns that hold a person back. Often they are so subtle and pervasive that a person can't initially identify which one he/ she resorts to under stress, although it may recur many times daily. It's expressed through emotional/mental habits.
For instance, if
one's primary defense is to self-deprecate,
the person will frequently negatively
compare herself to others and put him/ herself
down and try to please others. Such
fear-based patterns are often unconscious.
By
having a person simply observe these
limiting patterns, it creates more room for
the soul to emerge.
We are not our defenses, they simply try to
manage our pain and fear.
SOUL CONNECTING
As a reader of this newsletter, you probably know the all-important value we place on soul connecting (see http://www.gettingthru.org/sn0599.htm ). So when working with an individual, we have a person do some soul centering, so the person experiences the flavor of his/ her own soul, with its expansiveness, peace and acceptance.
We can then have her compare being in a soul state with running a defense pattern, like self-deprecation, arrogance, martyr or any of the seven patterns. It then becomes more evident that the spiritual journey takes us deeper into our true identity, which merges more with spirit and the larger universe.
ENERGY HEALING
In addition to pointing out the defense patterns, we help a person clear individual blocks and receive soul guidance. We end with a soul affirmation (see http://www.gettingthru.org/sn0207.htm ) that emerged from the session.
AN ILLUSTRATION
Joyce was in the third activation -- empowerment -- and she was troubled by people not listening to her. Phillip suggested some communication tools, particularly ways to overcome restrictive thinking patterns that come from limiting viewpoints to either/or choices. By widening her choices to more than just two, Joyce could express herself better and see more possibilities. Phillip and Joyce explored ways for her to have three choices: 1) Either you can ignore him, 2) make a request 3) or ask him a question about it or something else.
Joyce then used EFT (Emotional Freedom Techniques) to clear her emotions around not being heard. Phillip helped her to reconnect with her soul, which she sensed as herself floating on water. Her inner intelligence's message for her block about not being heard/ feeling disrespected was: "Everything is interconnected. Just let it flow."
To conclude, Joyce agreed to use the visualization daily of a rock with water flowing it and to state the soul-based affirmation "Everything is interconnected. Just let it flow." She would "tap" in this image and affirmation with the EFT pressure points.
CONCLUSION
To sum up, we have covered several elements to accelerate spiritual growth:
-
Determining your spiritual activation
-
Identifying and minimizing defense patterns
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Becoming more intimate and connected with your soul
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Using energy-healing like EFT to clear blocks
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Saying soul-based affirmations regularly to help you keep progressing.
This is what we have found effective with ourselves, our clients, and our students. Zooming out and seeing the bigger picture, we would add that wherever you are on the spiritual journey, it's wise to continually merge with spirit and let that flow through you every day..