Spiritual Straight Jackets

Spirit is many things to different people, and in a nut shell, is about the choices they make to feel at peace. It is interesting that the choices that people make in order to find spirit, love, unity, success and mystery can often become the straight jackets that lead them to misery.

HOW SO?

IMAGE

Jen wanted to look upscale and polished. One day she put her jeans and flannel aside, and became a member of a gym where other fit professionals attended. It cost her an exorbitant price to belong. At times she wondered when she would actually be invited to the parties and dates she foresaw if she just kept working out there. To enhance her image potential she traded in the jeep for a new car, and soon, a beautiful apartment in an upscale neighborhood. Jen began to feel as if she were wearing a straight jacket of debt. Her financial anxiety lost her sleep. To attain spiritual happiness, living the image of “old money”, the present had no meaning to her. Her image became a straight jacket, and every waking moment was caught in the desire of an unseen future.

FAME

Seth is a book writer. He believes with all his heart and soul that his first book will become a movie. He understands there are self publishers and looks down on every one of them. Seth believes if your writing is any good at all your book will speak for itself. He lives and breathes the moment an agent will embrace him and take him to fame. Year three has gone by and with it, his agent rejections. Many of his writing friends have had their books out, yet Seth deliberates for his moment in the best seller sun. His spirit is caught in a straight jacket of arrogance, while his creative works remain unseen.

ROMANCE

Lisa was very sensitive and beautiful. She had a pattern of falling in love with spiritual players, a new kind of sensitive man. Tyrone was on her mind and she was fascinated with his knowledge and his compassionate nature. He listened to her with rapture and even met her for meditation and yoga. She noticed a huge amount of other women knew him. After class one day he escorted her in the car back to her studio apartment to toast the completion of a painting she was proud of. After a glass of wine they made love. She was thunder struck by his knowledge of Karma Sutra positions, afterwards which, they had a cuddling session. Tyrone asked her for a lift to the coffee house, and as she was driving him through the bustling streets of Chicago, he casually called another woman to meet for dinner. Lisa was shocked, once again, spiritually straight jacketed by yet another bad romantic choice.

MARRIAGE AND STEP CHILDREN

Sienna is in a marriage with a wonderful man and has several step children. She imagined that in coming to this family she would give the care and nurturing to complete their lives. What a shock. Increasingly she finds that her stepchildren do not respect her, and worse, her husband does not stand up for her when his children act out. Worse, her own children are now caught in the dynamics, and their behavior has become hurtful. In frustration, feeling persecuted, her husband only walks away when she complains. It is as if she is alone. Birthdays, Christmas and family outings have become a battle ground. Sienna feels as if she is straight jacketed in a spiritually motivated marriage, turned miserable.

LONELINESS

Seth was the guy that was expected to go far, and he had. Surrounded by admirers, winning contracts, travel and winning business conquests, he had an amazing income and material success. There seemed to be nothing he could possibly want for himself or his wife. The problem was that he was never at home, and when he was, he was either on the phone, in his office or chronically late for plans. It shocked him when his wife, Chelsie, left him for another man. After all he was a winner. Except there he was barefoot and unwashed, sitting in his leather wing back, in a pair of sweats in an utterly beautiful empty house, feeling like a loser. Every friend he had ever cherished, including his own family, had become strangers. Seth had lost sight of how fast time flies, and with it, loved ones. It was obvious as a winner, he had confined himself to a straight jacket of facade and shallow work friendships. They were not the kind of people you cried to. They only were interested in wins.

WHATS THE ANSWER?

Understand that everyone has to crash to learn. It's when our patterns become chronic, and we can't see the destruction coming, it is wise to seek counsel. Remember the old baseball rule, "3 STRIKES YOUR OUT!" If what you are doing has happened more then 3 times, its time to take your foot out of the wasp nest of pain and change. Sometimes we just need someone to point out what we can't see right before our face and shed some light.