If you are a Spiritual person on the path of awakening, growth and transformation, it’s likely that you have run into some of these precarious misunderstandings, misconceptions and pitfalls.
I’ll start by saying the Spiritual path is such a beautiful one… I absolutely love this journey, and it’s my desire that you do too.
After years of being on the Spiritual Path, facilitating lots of workshops, and living in Spiritual hotspots, I’ve noticed there are a lot of misunderstandings lingering around out there, and that many people adopt them as truth. This is my attempt to clarify those. I ask you here to listen to your own heart and truly determine for yourself, your truth.
1. Accepting that All Spiritual Information Is True
Spirituality, just like all other subject matters, entails people representing ideas, concepts, beliefs and systems, which they believe are true. While there is a lot of wonderful information and wisdom out there, much of which resonates as truth for me, there is also a lot I had to do deeper searching on, consideration and thoughtfulness to find my own truth.
I believe the Spiritual information out there and those propagating it is an invitation to go deeper into your own introspection and heartfelt space, to determine what is your truth.
Ideally, we want Spirituality to be the place where we don’t have to sift through the bullshit for the gold, or want to rely on the wisdom of elders and ancient cultures as being more true than our modern context, but all in all we are still humans and are still evolving these concepts in our own lives and have to determine what’s right for us!
2. Waiting for Divine Timing
Now, I will say there is an absolute miraculous nature of time, and how things seem to come together and work out in the perfect moment, and I would label that as what is traditionally called Divine Timing.
However, I meet people all the time that are waiting to take action in their lives. They generally seem to be waiting for the right moment when everything is clear, effortless and simple and it seems like Source paved the golden path for them to step into.
While some stuff works out that way, I tend to notice for many the waiting game is simply resistance keeping you stuck. Resistance is the opposite of growth, and that means you are staying stagnant. Spirit loves when energy moves, so when things are stuck in one way, think about how you can pivot another way or take a look at what is keeping you waiting in the first place, and consider to take action! Do your best to make things happen as a Creator of your own life and path.
Don’t force things, while honoring the natural cycles of things, and embrace yourself as extremely powerful and your empowered actions mean the right time is always Now.
3. Thinking Living in the Moment Doesn’t Mean Planning for the Future or Considering the Past
Many feel as though to be present means to float in the experience of the now without any need to consider the future or past. I also notice many, not all, of these people are dealing with immense challenges in physical reality: money, stability, good home, healthy routines and a path of purposeful service.
I love the moment and it’s where I choose to live. And when I mean the moment, I mean the full moment, where every past and future experience are merged into a singular experience. I believe this is what true presence means, to consciously create your reality forward and backwards, because they are all converge here.
4. Bypassing to “It’s All Perfect”
Yes, it is all perfect. Everything in life is a grand design in which there are no mistakes, which is a very supportive realization I think many of us have had.
That said, we are also here to grow and evolve, it’s in our DNA, and in order to do so we have to learn and recognize where we have room to improve.
5. Not Fully Letting Go
This is more of a pitfall than a misunderstanding. As Spiritual beings in a rapidly changing World, it’s almost natural for us to want to move past our traumas, challenges, blockages and anything we feel the need to heal from very quickly.
That said, Letting Go of things can, but not always, take a solid amount of time, experience and consideration. Also, often these perceived weaknesses are our greatest strengths, we just have to let go of the triggers around them and step into our power to see how these experiences can serve us in a greater way.
6. Confusing Surrender on Your Journey To Mean Not Making Choices for Yourself
I’ve done this so many times! I’ve left myself stranded on the sides of the road waiting for a sign from Spirit as to my next steps. “Where do I go from here?”
I learned the hard way I need to work with Spirit in order to determine the choices I would like to make for myself; what I would like to create with my energy and where and how I want to function in the World. Surrender means allowing it all to unfold and accepting what is… but it doesn’t mean not making empowered choices for yourself.
7. Assuming the Law of Attraction Means All You Have To Do Is Think About What You Want
Let’s just say the Law of Attraction is more complicated than The Secret initially led us to believe. Most of what we think doesn’t instantly manifest constantly, and there seems to be deeper clues as to the power of our emotional and vibrational resonance and how we manifest in a deeper way.
By all means, focus carefully and do so in a way that makes you magnetic for your desires, but make sure to take action so your desires are grounded so they can come alive in the World. You could wait for your dream job to miraculously find you or you could take steps to create it right now.
8. Forgiving Internally without Reaching Out
This is a simple one! If you work internally to forgive someone for something, that’s awesome and is a major step in the right direction. Just make sure that if the opportunity exists to reach out to let them know you forgive them, be brave and do so.
As Spiritual people, our internal Worlds are very active, just make sure the good work you do in there is reflected in the actions you take in your outer-reality.
9. Chasing Spiritual Highs
From Kundalini Yoga, to Psychedelic Experiences, Orgasmic Meditations and more, there are a lot of available Spiritual ecstatic and blissful experiences available to us.
These experiences are wonderful and highly influential for those who do have them, which is why they are so heavily discussed and marketed. However, it’s important these highs are a natural process of practice, and that we aren’t rushing or hurried to chase Spirit.
Spirit has a way of distancing itself from us the more we attach ourselves to it, and chasing Spiritual Highs can be an experience of attachment, often associated with disassociating from the Physical World. Don’t chase highs, just practice and let them come to you!
10. Overly Categorizing People by Their Level of Consciousness or Evolution
This can be an honest mistake, as we attempt to distinguish ourselves in terms of the things we are aware of, our values and the growth we have done as people.
However, it’s not the most conscious thing to passive aggressively judge or practice cynicism by virtue of this distinction. Those “unawake” people are actually constantly guiding, teaching and showing you through their own actions how you can live more consciously. In this way they are an immense gift, and should not be judged for what they simply aren’t aware of or aren’t ready for yet.
We are all One, anywho!
11. Thinking the Times When You feel Disconnected Will Last Forever
Luckily, I have experienced firsthand this is not true! We all experience the feeling of being disconnected from Spirit, and those feelings can last long durations of time, even in spite of our practices and daily rituals.
That said, those feelings are never fully true, as underneath it all we are connected to everything all the time. Often these experiences are driven to show us unique qualities about ourselves and things we need to visit in our lives. Don’t think it’ll last forever, you’ll get through it!
12. Thinking Being Spiritual or Becoming Enlightened Means Being Happy All the Time
I hope I’m not bursting your overly optimistic bubble here, but I think it’s important we create a more exciting experience of Enlightenment than being stuck in the single emotion known as happiness, as wonderful as it is.
Being Enlightened and Spiritual, to me, means being open to experiencing the full range of emotions without attachment to them and the embracing of the dynamic cycles of life. Music shows us best the vast emotions we can experience during a single song. It’s important we enjoy all those experiences and not get stuck on just one single peak.
13. Thinking There is a Perfect Place You’ll Reach
I promise as you continue to practice Spirituality and continue to Awaken to your Truth of who you Truly are, your life will in general greatly change and the challenges that have loomed for a seemingly long time will fade into distant dreams.
However, I believe it’s vital to be aware there is no perfect place to be reached and no final destination to be found. It’s all right here, in one continually happening, exciting and unfolding moment – and embracing and accepting that in its fullness is one of the best ways to find your own Truth and not get caught up on the misconceptions and pitfalls of this precious path.
~ Amateo Ra, co-founder of Creator Course, an Online School for Conscious Living which is currently being built. For the last 4-years, he has been training with Global leaders in Spirituality, Channeling & Conscious Business.
