Symptoms Of A Stagnant Spirituality
The definition of 'spirituality' that we use in The
Step Beyond is not determined by religious dogma or
the specific theology of any one faith or denomination (or,
for that matter, by the non-theologies of atheism and agnosticism).
As you have experienced - perhaps dramatically! - in the
training room, we believe that any "--ology" is
only as useful as the results it produces in your life
So we thought it might help you understand what we mean by
the 'spiritual' dimension in the Step Beyond training, to
describe what it looks like when it's NOT working.
There’s no place of sanctuary or sacred space
in your life.
You move through all the locations of your life and none
of them are special. None of them have that interior silence
that fills the air between the treetops. None have the light
that shines through the stained glass into the aisle of
the cathedral. None of them fill you with serenity like
the surface of the pond where the turning leaves fall to
nestle against the sky’s reflection.
Similarly, you have no space in your insides that reflects
any of these qualities. You are filled with busyness, worries,
frustrations, and distractions, and there is no room for
quiet, for silence, for stillness.
Worse, you don’t even know you need them.
At the Step Beyond, you can find the place for the sacred.
- Inside you.
You care too much about things that don’t
matter enough.
When you are dramatically confronted with your priorities
– a loved one is in an accident, your beloved grandparent
dies, a friend or a co-worker is diagnosed with a terminal
disease – you are suddenly aware that you devote too
much time and attention to things that aren’t significant.
At the Step Beyond, you can reset your priorities. -
Permanently.
Love is not your lifestyle.
You play to win. You go for the gold. You keep the pipeline
filled. You handle emergencies. You manage. You mind the
store. But you don’t let your heart be touched. You
ring hollow in the middle of the night when you wake in
the wee hours
You have hidden your deepest self away, you have declared
yourself unlovable, and you have given up the effort to
bring that child out of any dark forest. The people you
live with aren’t nurtured by your affections, and they
aren’t sustained by your affirmations. They are starving
for your heart, and you won’t hold them close.
At the Step Beyond, you can open your heart again. -
To let love out.
You don’t serve anyone except yourself or
kin.
You hoard your time and are miserly with your talents.
You give money but no medicine. Your contributions to charity
are how you insulate yourself against service that brings
you into close contact with need, with pain, with sorrow,
with grief.
You don’t help teach, you don’t help build, you
don’t help heal, and you don’t help carry any
load except your own or those of your family.
At the Step Beyond, you can remember who your neighbor
is and that he is your brother.
Your integrity leaks.
You shake your head at CEO’s and CFO’s who have
gutted their employees’ future for their own greed,
but you know how such things happen. If your own dealings
were made a matter of public scrutiny…
You stand mute or turn away in tolerance of exploitation,
bigotry, harassment, and abuse instead of declaring your
principles clearly. You don’t live your professed values.
You compromise your ethics so you don’t have to make
difficult choices.
At the Step Beyond, you can commit to what’s right.
- So you may stand tall.
Nature holds no wonder for you.
You aren’t filled with joy at sunrise or brought to
tears by moonset over the ocean. The veins in a leaf are
just lines, and stones are merely rocks. You don’t
notice clouds, a breeze, what flowers are in bloom, or how
many birds are singing at any given moment in your environment.
You don’t take walks in the rain, you don’t play
with mud, and you don’t know what the stars look like
when you are at least 20 miles away from city lights.
At the Step Beyond you can recapture your sense of beauty
and rekindle awe.
You don’t play with animals or with children.
You haven’t learned that dogs are the incarnations
of exuberance, and that a cat that’s purring in your
lap is anointing you with grace. You see a horse and think
‘for riding,’ not ‘wind and strength and
passion, exulting!’
Your knees don’t bend to bring you to the level where
a child can see you level, eye to eye and heart to heart.
You don’t take time for or find pleasure in silly games,
or puns, or riddles made of wit and whimsy. You haven’t
read a children’s book in years. Or decades.
At The Step Beyond, you can come to God as a child.
- Galloping, if you like.
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