Taking a Correction ~ How to Handle Spiritual Feedback

This is such an important part of the journey that it seems to require its own post. So here goes.

We all need help. We all need guidance. The forms of that help and guidance vary. The first mistake most of us make is not to reverently honor the guidance we receive. What does that mean? Probably not what you’d imagine. DEFINITELY not what you “think.”

When we receive a “correction,” on the path to enlightenment, to spiritual advancement, ascension, living a better life, or whatever our goal might be, our egos will, first and foremost, try to sabotage that correction. The ego misinterprets the information, and, truth be told, downright lies to us.

The thoughts we have are that we are not being correctly perceived, not being seen. If the guidance is real, the truth is usually that we are being correctly perceived and our ego will do ANYTHING to avoid the discomfort that causes. It will do ANYTHING to protect its behaviors. Mine did this over and over. I know whereof I speak. You can always tell the voice of the spiritual ego. It is always “right.” I stopped caring about being “right” decades ago. I care about the truth. Don’t you? Your ego does not. Trust me on this.

So, we dissemble. We deflect. We tell ourselves we have been misjudged, hard done by, and that our hurt feelings are justified. And we defend that to the hilt, never seeing the disservice we do to our essence and our awakening.

Here’s how to handle an energetic or spiritual “correction.”

1) Before you huff off and get all up in your egoic defences, take a breath. Remember, only egos take offense. {there is such a thing as spiritually offended, but that is another topic}

2) Then, take another breath, or as many as it takes to stop the triggering spiral from escalating.

3) Own your feelings. “I feel hurt. That was mean. I feel unseen. I feel hard done by.” Okay. The truth is, those are egoic reactions. Every. Time. Only egos are embarrassed, feel shame, or victimization.

Even the most enlightened among us can get their feelings hurt, usually by those they have been assisting, who have, metaphorically, bitten off the hand that feeds them. But, we’re talking about how someone on a spiritual or ascension path handles direct and, sometimes brutally honest, feedback.

There is an etiquette to this.

For example, Amritanandamayi, known as “Amma,” the hugging saint, gives physical hugs to sometimes as many as 75 thousand people in one workshop or seminar. I do not exaggerate. My body could not sustain that. I am in awe of her physical stamina. Not my gig.

Amma travels with a retinue of healers, including medical doctors, acupuncturists, massage therapists, and many others who help her through the physical and psychic pain this type of exposure costs her. It is considerable. Be that as it may, our story continues…

One of the blessings Amma bestows is the time-honored Vedic ritual of breaking coconuts. This is done to release karma and free the recipient thereof from their karmic setups and setbacks. The karmas fly free, move through, and are then complete.

One of the three times I sat with Amma, I purchased three coconuts to have her break them. I knew that by infusing the coconuts with whatever persistent karmic issues Source knew I was ready to release, I could, by my intention and with Amma’s help, be free of them. I knew the tradition. I knew the karmic shitstorm I was potentially setting myself up for. I wanted the clearing and the light, more than I cared about what I might have to go through.

This is the etiquette. When you ask enlightenment for help, you don’t piss on what happens, and how it comes to you. That intensifies your karmas, rather than alleviates them.

Source is never going to punish you, but you will get your faceplant if you’ve set yourself up for it. And, SHE will always be there to pick you up, dust you off, and send you on your way, if you haven’t shut HER out, preventing HER from so doing, that is.

A friend of mine, who happened to be one of Amma’s devotees, saw the garland of flowers I’d purchased to put around Amma’s neck, then her gaze dropped to the bowl in my hands that held three coconuts. She looked like she was going to pass out. “Oh! You don’t want to do that!” she exclaimed, loudly enough to stop the conversations around us {and Amma’s gigs can be loud}. I laughed, “Oh, yes, I do. “ My friend insisted, “You’re healing. You’ve already gone through so much! Why would you ask her to break open more karmas?”

Part of me thought, “Wimp.” I’m not proud of that thought. I offered it up, laughing at both of us, reassuring my friend, “But, I DO want those karmas dissolved. And, this is a rare and precious opportunity to have help with that. I want the light, the truth, NO MATTER WHAT.” The woman backed away from me as though I had the plague.

Most people are that afraid of what they fear they carry. Most people project those fears out onto the most powerful source around them. In other words, they blame “God,” blame Source, for what they themselves have set in motion. To become enlightened, ascend, raise your vibration, or whatever, you have to stop that! Your reactivity is your responsibility and no one else’s.

A spiritual correction is not what you think. It is not an insult. It is not meant to belittle, or humiliate, {some Eastern traditions do use humiliation, and I disagree with this method} but to break through the hold the ego has on someone who wants to become the Source that they are. You.

I am so blessed, so lucky, to have sussed that as a child. Did it make the breakthroughs easier? No! Not at all! What this knowing blessed me with is the understanding that Source, in every form, always has my best interests at heart. I trust that… and my trust muscle has had some training.

As we spiritually mature, we learn to “take it on the chin,” even stand up for that when things have really hit the fan because we know a course correction is the greatest blessing we can receive.

Or, would you rather be a mule? A mule is an animal with long pointy ears, that kicks out at everything it fears… {I’ve massaged the lyrics a bit}. Or would you like to swing on a star? Carry moonbeams home in a jar? You could be better off than you are… you get the point.

I have been harder on myself than I would ever ask, expect, or request of ANYONE. It wasn’t always what Source would have blessed me with. What it taught me, however, was not to constantly protect my own feelings. I learned, the hard way, to not take my ego so personally. I learned to take correction gratefully, even when what my body wanted to do was to hit back, HARD.

How do you learn to do that? Assuming you’re interested, of course.

Do the steps above. Do what you must to get the triggering to stop.

THEN, take an honest look at what is going on within you. What are your feelings? What is the internal motivation for those feelings? What pattern was triggered? Why is it so bloody important that you’d sacrifice your light for it? Process your reactivity.

AND

Take what you’re feeling as an opportunity to progress, to clear, to become more light. “I don’t want to look. I feel hard done by.” The way the world is right now you have two choices. Get over it or die with it… and that is not a setup you want to be going on with.

SHE will always help you. You have but to ask.

AND

Seeing a pattern is not the same thing as clearing one. First, we see. Then we surrender. Let it go completely and unconditionally. {HINT: That’s the hard part.} Anything you want to hold onto will surface immediately. With a bit of practice, this actually becomes fun.

The whole world is going through a massive shamanic death, a series of identity crises, and a general shitstorm. What a grand opportunity to clear the decks! {our own}

New reality will not support old cycle baggage.

Just saying.

Blessings to you,
Nalini