Do you sometimes struggle with being in the world? Do you feel like you’re not of this world, that it seems to confront you at every turn, and yet you have to find a way to exist in it? Do you yearn for more, but you can’t seem to find what you seek in the world? I often feel like I’m a stranger here - that I don’t belong – and yet, I’m here. I have to find a way to be in this world, this world that feels too harsh, that often grates against the me that feels so sensitive, so tender, so not of this world.
Why do I feel like I don’t belong? I shy from the competition, struggle, and strife that dominates the world. Whenever I can, I retreat from the hustle and bustle of a world that clamours for my attention and makes empty promises about products and experiences that it deems I should have… for what? To be popular? To have what everybody else has? To respond to the latest trend? To feel a sense of accomplishment? To attain outer measures of success? To find meaning? To matter?
For so long, I sought to quench my inner thirst within the outer world. I thought I had to look harder, longer, in different places with different people. It was only when I realized that what I sought existed within me and that I had been looking in the wrong places that I found solace and fulfilment beyond anything I had experienced fleetingly in my life. I realized that the outside world could not provide anything that would fulfill my inner yearning for more. The “more” that I sought could not be found in any “thing,” any new thrill or experience, or indeed, any accomplishment. I might experience a brief feeling of euphoria or triumph, but the feeling never stayed. It never truly quenched my inner thirst for more. Rather, the feeling waned and I found myself looking to create another experience in which I could feel that “high” again. The feeling couldn’t and wouldn’t stay because it was based on the acquisition or accomplishment or experience of something external. The only way to feel it again was to look for the next best thing to acquire, attain, or experience, and it became clear that would be a never-ending cycle. Nothing that arose within the external world could truly answer my inner yearning for more because that call comes from my soul, my spirit, my true Self.
Do you feel an inner call? Do you feel a yearning deep within your soul? Are you paying attention? That inner call asks us to remember who we truly are, to take off the blinders that prevent us from seeing our true identities as spiritual beings. It asks us to look beyond the appearance that we are separate individuals because we inhabit bodies during this life experience. It asks us to realize that without the inner light that our spirits bring to our bodies, they are but empty shells. We are the life energy that we can feel pulsing within us – the wise, tranquil, loving presence in which we find ourselves – when we get still and focus inward.
That inner call reminds us to seek more than we can see and experience with the five senses of our physical bodies and to begin to open to deeper levels of meaning, interaction, and communion. That yearning calls to us and asks us to pay attention to what has lasting meaning, to what speaks to our inner truth. As our awareness opens to the truth of who we really are, the outer world loses its appeal. We begin to realize that we can’t find the meaning that we seek in the empty promises of the egoic world because it exists outside of our true nature. Rather, the meaning that we seek can only be found within – in the still, quiet presence that is our soul. It is there that we experience the peace we have yearned for, the knowing that we have sensed, and the love and meaning that we have sought in the outer world. It is there that we find our truth.
In order to be in this world, I have to spend “soul time” every day. I have to get quiet and go within to the still presence that waits for me to return. I have to spend time in reflection and prayer so that I can stay grounded in a world that is founded on the belief that we are all separate, all in competition for scarce resources, all striving to get ahead and be successful. Isn’t it all based on an inner yearning to find meaning, to matter, to be somebody? That meaning and knowing that we matter unconditionally can only be found from whence the call originated… on the inside. The source of the call tells us where to look, and as soon as we are willing to do that, we begin to find our way back home to the Divine, to God, our true Source and Home.
How do you find your “grounding” so that you can be in this world? How do you respond to your inner yearning for more? Please share in the comments box below so that we can connect as the spiritual family that we are. Namaste, my dears. I send you great love.