Spiritual Work – How to continue our spiritual work when there is no visible change in our life. What to do when we hit a roadblock on our spiritual path.
If you’ve been undergoing a healing or self-discovering process, there is a great chance that, at some point, you’ve hit a roadblock. Perhaps you’ve been trying to attract financial abundance in your life. But, although you have uncovered your limited beliefs and have been working tirelessly to change your way of thinking, your finances haven’t changed much. Or, maybe you’ve been trying to lose weight for the past two months, and the scale hasn’t moved a gram?
Well, this happened to me a couple of times. In fact, at some point in my awakening process, I tried to get in shape and restore the optimal health of my body. Although I was trying everything I knew, from affirmations to regular exercises, and from blessing my food to visualization, for a long time, nothing seemed to work.
This was a clear indicator that I was missing an important lesson. I stopped all work and decided to take a completely new approach.
In this article, I present 3 simple strategies for overcoming setbacks when practicing our spiritual work.
1. Ask Your Higher Self for Help
When we start the journey of spiritual work, we immediately notice the small but mighty changes in our day-to-day life. This serves as a sign that whatever we do is good for us. Moreover, all the miracles that we encounter, however big or small, are our biggest motivators to keep going and keep doing our best.
Yet, when nothing happens for some time, it is a clear sign that we are missing a point. The issue is that it is hard to discover what is going wrong. Otherwise, we would’ve worked on this aspect and cleared the roadblock, right?
When we are focused on one issue, we may miss the big picture. Or, perhaps we become totally blind to a deep-seated belief that comes from our childhood. In any case, it’d be very helpful if someone else takes a look and points it at us. And who else would be the best one for this task if not our Higher Self.
Our Higher Self knows us in every aspect, and knows what our highest purpose is. Our Higher Self always looks after our best interests and our spiritual growth. In other words, if our mind is not able to pick up the true issue, our soul sees it clearly.
Practical Tools for communicating with our Higher Self
There are many ways to talk with our Higher Self. After all, this is not something out there and out of reach. Our Higher Self is our consciousness that coexists in our body and the non-physical realm. It is the easiest source of information and love that we can access at any time and in any situation. To connect to it is the logical step in anything we do, especially in our spiritual work.
Some of my favourite and well-tested tools for communicating with my soul are automatic writing, Oracle cards and mediation. In fact, I often use them all together.
Automatic writing
Automatic writing is the process of relaxing our mind, tuning in the non-physical realm, and writing down channeled messages. These messages are always loving and encouraging. That is how we know they come from the Divine rather than the Ego. These messages are always true for the moment. And although our Divine guiding team would never tell us what will happen, they always provide guidance on what is the current situation and what could help us.
The process is very simple. It starts with a meditation to quiet our minds and continues with a prayer of gratitude to connect us with our Higher Self, guardian angels, Divine family, and others. Next, we write down our specific and concise question and let the answer flows. Don’t look for the answers by employing your mind but concentrate on your heart and follow your inner voice.
In my experience, the best and easiest-to-follow guide to automatic writing is Michael Sandler’s Automatic Writing Experience. He has published a book guide on the topic and has a course as well. I’ve tried all the exercises in the book, and they worked like a miracle.
When I was facing the issue with my weight, I asked my Higher Self and Divine team for help. The answer was immediate and somehow not surprising. Without going into the details, I was facing some old issues with feeling unsafe (in terms of shelter and food). Interestingly enough, I thought that overcame my trauma. But, as it turned out, I did not fully uncover and recover from it. It was true that much of the work was done, however, I still had one or two hills to climb before declaring victory.
Oracle cards
If you are not inclined to start the automatic writing exercise, you can always refer to the Oracle cards. There are countless decks on any topic and theme. All you have to do is meditate for a few minutes, ask your question clearly, and pull a card. Trust that the message comes from your Higher Self.
What I do when working with the Oracle cards is shuffle them until a card falls out of it. I truly believe the card to be pulled by my Higher Self or guardian angel. The proof is always in the message because it is not what I want to see but what I need to see 😉 That is why, I never take a second card. Like it or not, I feel the truthfulness of the message.
Just as with automatic writing, the cards do not predict the future. Instead, they pinpoint the real issue and provide guidance on the best course of action.
I have only one deck, Ask Your Guides, and it is created by Sonia Choquette. I love it because it provides guidance on all aspects of my life ranging from spiritual work to mundane dilemmas.
Mediation
This is perhaps the simplest way of communicating with the Divine. All we have to do is to close our eyes, concentrate on our breath and let the monkey mind quiet down. After a couple of minutes, ask the question and patiently wait for the answer to pop up in your mind. Again, the key is to trust your heart and not to push for the answer with your mind. You will be surprised by what you will discover. Don’t be afraid and relax into knowing that it is all for your highest good.
2. Make a Continuing List of Your Accomplishments
As I mentioned above, through the combined process of meditation, pulling an Oracle card and automatic writing, I received the message that my issue was still feeling unsecured in terms of a place to live and having enough food to eat. It was well hidden in my subconsciousness that I couldn’t realize it. Not surprisingly, this trauma was at the bottom of my belief in lack.
In particular, every time I face a stressful situation, it triggers my auto-response to look for food while there is still some. Consequently, my body hangs on each calorie due to the fear that there might not be another proper meal for a long time. I know, it makes no sense but I wasn’t doing it consciously. This explained why no diet worked on me.
The receiving journal
To overcome this old belief, that was not serving me anymore, my Higher Self suggested starting a receiving journal (I received this guidance through an automatic writing session).
Each evening, before going to bed, I write down all the great and happy things that happened to me during the day. Anything and everything that excited me and made me happy.
Going back to my spiritual work related to my weight, I started noting all proof that I was safe indeed. For example, I was grateful for the abundance of fresh and delicious food, my beautiful home in a quiet neighbourhood, my well-paid job, etc. I was even grateful for the small and positive changes in my weight. I made sure to write down everything good and reassuring.
The purpose of this exercise is to train my brain and mind to accept the reality that I have access to all I need to live an abundant life. That is, my body had to believe that there is no need to stock fat and calories for the unforeseen future. This was in the past, and my life changed for good long ago.
3. Keep Going with Your Spiritual Work Anyway
Since we live in a time-space reality, we should expect that our dreams take time to manifest. The manifestation process could take 7 days, 7 weeks, or even 7 months. It all depends on how deeply our negative limiting beliefs are rooted in our minds.
It is important to note that it’s not about how big the issue is or how big the trauma is. It’s all about how hidden the problem is. As soon as you uncover the true reason why you are not progressing, it’s a matter of a week or so to start seeing the results.
That is why, whenever you hit a roadblock on your spiritual path, don’t give up but keep working. Use the tools, presented above, try different methods and strategies, and trust that everything happens for your highest good. Instead of feeling disappointed, ask your Higher Self for help and listen with an open heart.
Your life is meant to be abundant. Don’t give up on your dreams!
