And the Karmic Wheel Goes Round and Round, Round and Round!

Picture a wheel! From the center you can see multiple spokes going out, the outer rim is perfectly round and the points along the outer rim are equidistant from the center hub.

Now, imagine that the center point represents your soul in its totality beyond the parts you have played in any lifetime and the points on the outer rim are all the lifetimes that you have lived on planet earth. The different lives are like costumes you put on in order to learn through different experiences. All these characters you have played served a purpose. If we zoom in we can see the time you played the monk and we can see the time when you took on the form of the corrupt businessman. We see the life when your physical beauty dazzled and we also see the time when nobody wanted to be around you because you were disfigured.

We observe you as a world class athlete as well as the time when you could barely put one foot in front of the other as you make your way to an unknown destination in an endless trail of war refugees.

All these lifetimes are equally important to the soul’s evolution. When we reach a state of enlightenment, we will be centered in the middle of the wheel and the importance of the costumes will fade and we will walk away from all the lessons lived as wiser, more compassionate souls.

Until we get to that place, most of us become over identified with the outside of the wheel because we favor certain parts over others.

Some of us love to play the spiritual parts including the monks, the yogis, the prophets, the healers, the preachers etc. We are less concerned with worldly possessions and favor spiritual power to worldly power. When we have to play parts that are very physical or where we all of a sudden have to deal with a lot of material abundance and worldly power, we will be severely uncomfortable and try to get back to a role where we feel more identified. During these times, our consciousness and ego are hanging on to the outside of the karmic wheel, which keeps going round and round. 

We subject ourselves to a lot of suffering because we are required to take part in all of the classrooms sooner or later.

An enlightened being is capable of playing any designated role in an enlightened manner. There is no character that is always “bad”, au contraire; all parts have an enlightened version available.

Other souls are more engrossed with worldly power and fame. These souls can get so hooked onto playing kings and queens, the richest person in the land or being famous inventors and artists that they develop soul addictions. Every time they are not in the desired position they will suffer tremendously and do anything to get their next fix. Souls that suffer from what I call a “Royal Complex” will want to turn everyone in their environment into personal servants or have them play a part in their entourage.

No matter where you fall on the spectrum, sooner or later we all need to learn to surrender and to return to the center of our karmic wheel (unless you are still enjoying the roller coaster, of course).

Determine for yourself which roles and parts on the earth game you value above all else. Then look at the ones that you feel are the most meaningless because these are important to integrate as well. We need to make peace with all aspects of ourselves in order to make our way back to the center of our karmic wheel.

Remember, there are no small or insignificant parts only in our perception.

Meditate on things you have learned in moments that seemed less important and embrace all experiences you have ever had.

Because the karmic wheel goes round and round and it is up to you if you are spinning on the outside rim or if you are resting well balanced in the center!

Put Down the Cross; Someone Else Needs the Wood!

Martyrdom is very popular with old souls. And really, who can blame them.

It is one of the most celebrated archetypes in history and one that rarely gets criticized because at the end of the day, who doesn’t like to have a self-sacrificial person around them willing to pick up the slack?

It is nice to be loved and wanted on this planet especially since the percentage of pain caused by isolation and rejection runs fairly high. So yes, let’s sign up for martyrdom. Add a few centuries of religious dogma that instructs us that it is better to give than to receive plus a bleeding heart complex where the internal need to help can only be satisfied if we assist to carry our fellow traveler’s pain and suffering. And voilá, you have a perfect concoction of being weighed down by the burden of so many crosses, that you have lost count.

Now, if this resonates for you, let me ask you this:

Aren’t you tired yet?

Have you started feeling resentful and underappreciated?

Do you feel heavy, sluggish and tired?

Is it hard to get out of bed in the morning?

Do you feel like you are trapped in a version of spiritual “Groundhog Day”?

Have you come to the conclusion that martyrdom isn’t as cool as it used to be?

Are you annoyed that the people around you have stopped evolving and keep coming to you with the same issues?

Have you finally reached the point where you feel that self deserves a vacation?

If you’ve answered yes to any or all of the above questions, it might be time to put down the cross(es) and leave the classroom of martyrdom behind. It was fun while it lasted but on your journey to enlightenment, there are other classrooms to enter.

Let’s aim for a more balanced life where you teach people how to fish instead of feeding them fish. You won’t turn into a self-centered, greedy person; you will just refuse to carry other’s burdens. The good news is two fold.

You will feel lighter plus you’ll have the time and energy to focus on your own homework and you will learn to lead by example.

You will force the people around you to learn their own lessons, which will allow them to be more independent.

So, are you ready?

If so, meditate and envision yourself surrendering all the burdens and crosses you have been carrying to Divine Source. Let them be transmuted by the Violet Transmuting Flame. Repeat until they are all gone. And of course, be free to improvise and add your own techniques.

Martyrdom can be addictive. Depending on your level of attachment you might have to work through a twelve step program and join MA (Martyrs Anonymous ;-)).

The biggest pitfalls I noticed in my own journey were:

a) I didn’t know what to do with the freed up energy and I had to redirect it first before I felt inclined to carry other people’s stuff again.

b) I felt guilty for feeling well while others were still suffering. In the meantime, I have gained the awareness that I can actually be of greater assistance when I am healthy and doing well.

You may or may not be ready to change this aspect of yourself. My advice:

Quit while you are ahead. Sooner or later one does become resentful for having to suffer for other soul’s karma and in the big picture that is not the way it is meant to be!

So, put down the cross and remember nothing is ever lost, so be sure the wood will be recycled and end up somewhere as a beautiful antique or a nice warming bonfire and you will be free to join in the dance of life once again.

Don’t Despair! All Roads Lead Home, Eventually!

One sentiment that a lot of souls share as they wake up to their soul reality is a longing for HOME! It is the awareness that earth isn’t home and an aching in the heart that reminds us of where we came from. That desire can be so strong that many of us disassociate from our physical bodies and live primarily in our upper chakras during these periods.

 At times, we find ourselves judging earth reality more harshly than usual and there is a sense of impatience for this part of the journey to be completed.

It’s painful! You are homesick! I get it! I have lived in this place for many years myself.

Now, the good news is that we are all on our way home. No matter how long the journey is, how many twists and turns there are in the road or how often you want to give up because you just felt too exhausted to continue. You are still continually getting closer to that place where you will be reunited with your loved ones in a dimension that suits your soul perfectly. When exactly, I don’t know but eventually it will happen. The question is: how can you be a good sport until you get there?

I spent most of my teens and early twenties longingly gazing up at the stars with a deep knowing in my heart that home was somewhere out there. Even though, I was never suicidal, I wasn’t completely committed to life on planet earth either. I wasn’t respecting my physical body or space that well and experienced any aspects of earthly manifested reality as rather superficial.

Well, here is what happened that made me rethink my point of view and taught me a valuable lesson in “be careful what you wish for”.

It was during my first year in college, a friend of mine and I decided to spend a long weekend in January in New York City. We drove from Ohio in her car and had a great time talking, smoking, stopping for endless cups of coffee and felt like we owned the world. Other than the freezing cold, we had a fun weekend.

On the way back we were pretty tired and decided to spend the night in a motel.

When we woke up the next morning, it had snowed. The car wasn’t equipped for snow but my friend was in a hurry to make it home where her little son was waiting for her. We decided that even if it took many extra hours we would make our way back.  We crawled along the Interstate at about 15-25 miles an hour. It was still snowing and there were few other travelers on the road. Ten hours went by. We stopped for gas a couple of times and continued on our journey. It was now dark when we pulled back onto the freeway. All of a sudden, I was filled with a sense of unease.

As we drove, two street lamps went out right as we passed underneath them.

My first thought, we are going to die on this freeway tonight! (Now, for anyone who knows me, I am not the paranoid type at all. So, this thought was rather unusual to enter my mind.)

I saw my life flash before my eyes and I realized that I had evoked this moment through my strong desire to go HOME!

My friends, my family and all the things that I love about planet earth rushed to the forefront of my consciousness.

And with a jolt, I realized that I wasn’t done living my life. I started to pray with every fiber of my being to be spared on that snowy, January night somewhere in the middle of nowhere between Ohio and New York. Ten minutes later, a street lamp on the other side of the road turned on as we drove by. It was a brighter lamp than the two that went out. I continued to pray and thought to myself,  “something is going to happen but we will live.”

Ten minutes later, my friend who was driving screamed:

“Sh**, oh no!”

“What?” I asked

She doesn’t answer, but has her eyes are filled with horror fixed on the review mirror.

I turned around just in time to see two gigantic lights rushing towards us at high speed.

Next thing I know we are hit hard from behind. The back of the car caves in, we are spinning at high speed into the opposite lane. The semi-truck that hit us keeps going. We slam into the center divider. The impact on the slippery surface keeps us spinning until we finally come to a stop on the shoulder, mere inches away from a steep cliff.

We were both shaking, but miraculously okay. The car was totaled front back and sides were demolished. We couldn’t open the doors and had to wait for the rescue team to cut us out.

I repeated silent prayers of gratitude as I fully committed to life.

We suffered only from shock and severe whiplash.

I got back to campus and started to clean up my act immediately. I quit smoking, I started working out and I stopped whining. I took full responsibility for my life and have made the best out of every possible moment since.

It was humbling to have to be reminded, in such a drastic way, about how poorly I had been conducting myself.

I have to say that that  was one of the most profound experiences for me this time around.

So, if you feel homesick take a moment and look around you. Who and what would you miss if you were to leave today? What would you regret not doing at least one last time? There are many souls that you have come to love during your stay on planet earth that don’t call the same place home that you do? Enjoy them while you are here. There are so many things that are unique to this location that you owe it to yourself to pause and take inventory?

After doing that, are you really that much in a rush to depart for good?

Remember, HOME is ultimately where the heart is and our hearts are big and have the capacity to expand. The place you are longing for is your destination ultimately but maybe not today.

(And remember, there is this place in your heart where you can visit with HOME whenever you want. Go there in your meditation. It works like an Intergalactic version of SKYPE.)

Commit Random Acts of Kindness I: Don’t Overwhelm Younger Souls With The Wisdom It Took You Centuries To Gain!

How much patience and compassion do you have for your fellow travelers? Do you ever find yourself saying things like: “I would never do that”, or “ I just don’t understand why he/she doesn’t fix it; I already told them how to”, or “ the issue that they are dealing with is really not that hard, it should have been fixed ages ago”, or “my intuition showed me clearly that it’s all their stuff and has nothing to do with me”.

Do people ever reflect back to you that you are harsh, given unsolicited feedback, that you are being arrogant, that you overwhelm people or that you get snappy and impatient when your advice and wisdom isn’t put to proper use?

If any of this sound familiar (and please for everyone’s sake, let’s be brutally honest here), it might be time to ease up a bit on the world around you! Life on planet earth is challenging and it takes thousands of years to learn certain lessons. If you, as an old soul, have mastered certain lessons, good for you! Now please, check your past life records and remind yourself that you didn’t get there overnight. In fact, look at the areas of your life that you are currently struggling with and see how much time and energy you have already spent into “fixing” it. Imagine some enlightened master coming along and telling you to get over it. How loved would that make you feel? Would you experience that kind of approach as supportive and constructive?

I know that I wouldn’t!

We all desire to be seen and met, where we are at in our evolution.

Picture a kid in school. When that kid enters first grade he/she will be excited to learn the alphabet, if you come along and demand an essay on Shakespeare and get impatient, the kid might be discouraged to even learn how to read and write because he/she will experience himself/herself as a failure. If the same kid gets taught the skills with love and patience he/she will want to excel and feel good about himself/herself and in a few years he/she will be able to write the essay.

A music student who is tone deaf will not become a concert pianist. Would you yell at him/her because you happen to have a perfect pitch?

In these examples, it is very obvious what we can expect from a fellow human being.

However, the stages of soul evolution aren’t always as apparent.

A person playing the part of your boss, your parent, your older sibling might all be in truth much younger souls who have a lot less earthly life experience.

Gauge the person’s soul age instead of getting confused by their physical appearance.

When you find yourself saying: “ She is my mother, she should know better”, or

“I am twenty years younger, I shouldn’t have to explain this over and over”. Think again!

If you find you are annoyed and losing your patience, it is a wonderful opportunity to work on compassion and to become a kinder more effective spiritual mentor.

Treat others the way you would want to be treated if you came across a more evolved being than yourself.

Gauge others evolutionary capacities and meet them exactly where they are.

You will be amazed at what a difference this can make and how much more open younger souls will be to actually listen to what you have to say!

Does This Ego Make Me Look Fat?

As you might have noticed, you can’t buy an insurance policy for the ego! 

Quite the opposite is true, if you observe life carefully, especially through the wide camera angle that spans over several lives, you will see that the universal, divine teacher is a great leveler and every ego ultimately will be cut down a few sizes. Ouch, it’s not a lot of fun when one is put overnight on a zero calorie ego diet, especially, if you have allowed yourself to pack on the pounds for a few centuries! 

 And trust me, I speak from experience here. And yes, of course the indulgences were a whole lot of fun. Who doesn’t enjoy to boss around an army of servants, be the belle of the ball, be the richest man in the country, make their opponents weak in the knees just thinking of you and your genius brain or save a hundred orphans single handedly out of a burning building?

 Ah yes, these were the good old days when the world was perfectly alright and every cheer and compliment, every medal, every jealous side look glance went straight to the ego’s midsection before it turned into a gigantic triple chin. Yes, that’s right, I made it all about myself and walked around like my S**t doesn’t stink, and felt utterly superior to the average mortals.

 Well, as I said, it was extremely great fun while it lasted. But the karmic wheel has no mercy and it just keeps going ‘round and ‘round and propelled me into a bounty of lives of service and utter humiliation. At first, outraged “don’t they know who I am?” then shocked and stuck in a giant pity-party “poor me, I don’t want to live anymore, give me another whiskey!” to “I am not worthy, I can’t believe how much I messed up” until I ended up in my current predicament “I get it, what do I need to do? Fine, I will cooperate.”

So there we are a few thousand years later. One thing I know for sure, I do not wish to repeat this cycle. Therefore, I keep asking myself: “Does this ego make me look fat?” If I feel the slightest twinge, I voluntarily go on an ego diet instead of waiting for the divine leveler to enforce one.

So, if you have come to the conclusion that your ego is currently a few pounds too heavy, consider an ego diet.

Here are a few tips:

1. Put others first!

2. Let go of ego expectations and count your blessings instead!

3. Commit random acts of kindness and don’t wait for a return!

4. Do charitable act anonymously!

5. Catch yourself in egotistical thinking patterns and reframe them.

6. Hang out with people you consider inferior and figure out what they can teach you.

7. Join a class or do something that is new or hard for you. While doing so, work on finding an attitude of humor, curiosity and surrender.

8. If you tend to make fun of others, learn to make the jokes about yourself.

What you are not funny yet? Well, practice, you are to the rest of the world!

Once you get the hang of the ego diet, it is actually a lot of fun because big egos are pretty cumbersome to navigate around the planet and for enlightenment purposes our ego does have to fit through the eye of a needle.

On that note, I will go back to my diet!!!

The Problem With Chronic Soul-Guilt!

Guilt is a tricky emotion. In my work I have found it to be possibly the most difficult one to deal with, especially in the context of clearing past-lives.

Why?

Well, there are a number of reasons. But let’s first, explore the positive side of guilt.

We are here to learn. In order to learn and to make well- informed choices, we need feedback from our environment. If I go out of my way to harm someone with my behavior, I ultimately want to be affected by witnessing the consequences and that often time happens through a healthy dose of guilt. In that sense, guilt is a great teacher. Best-case scenario, I offend, feel guilty, make amends, learn my lesson and change my behavior for all future occurrences.  As soon as I get the lesson, the guilt vanishes because there is really no reason to hang onto it. Its job is done!

As we all know though, there are circumstances, even in this lifetime, where it proves a little harder to forgive yourself. At times, we file certain situations as unforgivable and we feel like the damage that was done is beyond repair and even though, we have learned our lesson and wouldn’t repeat the mistake, we hang on to the guilt indefinitely. In the beginning, it’s a sore spot, but the more chronic it becomes, the more it fades into the background because its color permeates the whole landscape of your life. Next thing you know, things are not working out for you quite as smoothly. You are up for a sports scholarship but injure your knee. The love of your life leaves you, or maybe you just can’t get pregnant. In your mind, you wouldn’t necessarily put the two situations side by side because you don’t realize the influence your co-creative power has via your guilt channel.

Some guilt is even sneakier; it is the guilt of the survivor, the winner or the favorite sibling. You might feel bad that your popularity or good fortune is hurting someone else and start blocking your own good karma in order to minimize the impact.

I have found that nicer, more conscientious souls/people tend to more readily suffer from this condition.

Add some past-life guilt to that for the time you got pregnant out of wedlock (which you believed was going to transport you straight to hell) or fall in love with your brother’s wife and you have created the perfect storm. And that doesn’t even remotely start to touch the surface of the guilt for the lives where people were killed or huge crimes were committed by your will or your own hands.

As an old soul, I can guarantee you that you have participated in events and have experienced situations that you are not proud of.  If you haven’t reached enlightenment yet and there are areas in your life that you haven’t been able to heal despite all of your efforts, there is a good chance that you are suffering from chronic guilt.

Chronic soul guilt can be invisible. You might not even feel a twinge in your emotional body. Whereas fear and sadness from past-lives make it to the surface much quicker because we feel that we deserve to heal from them, the guilt that is labeled unforgivable is not making itself known because you don’t feel like you deserve to be set free from it. That’s when it turns into a vicious circle. It will block every coach, every remedy, every doctor and every spiritual practice you seek out for help, until you clear it!

(Also, read post “Learn To detect Undercurrents”)

My suggestion for anyone pursuing the path of self-healing and soul-evolution, work on clearing guilt and forgive yourself even if you believe there is nothing to clear.

How do you do that?

Here are a few tips:

1. Reframe your perception. We are all here to learn and therefore, are students of life.

We switch up the roles of victim and violator in order to evolve. Certain frequencies can only be learned in this force field of shadows and light. I.e. forgiveness can only be experienced if something went “wrong”. Who needs unconditionality if the conditions are light on light and love on love where everything is perfect?

So, in the big picture, it is always about learning and accepting the classrooms that we have been part of.

2. In prayer and meditation, send out apology emails to all the souls you have ever hurt and pray for their healing as well as forgive all the souls that have ever hurt you.

3. Get some flower essences for forgiveness.

4. Practice self-forgiveness meditation. One way you can practice that is to sit in front of a mirror and look directly into your eyes (this is also called soul gazing).

It helps to do this with soft light and to place a candle in front of you. Then repeat either out loud or telepathically: “I forgive you. You deserve forgiveness. I accept you and love you in every aspect of your being.” (Feel free to change the wording a bit to tailor it to your situation)

Practice for forty days, every day. If you miss a day, start by counting at day one again.

5. Seek out a professional to assist you, especially if you have memories of a situation that you don’t know how to reframe, or someone who is capable of filling in the blanks and help to release trapped energy.

6. Check for spots where your ego gets stuck. Most long-term guilt trips have a strong ego component to them. We feel that we should have done/known better and we stubbornly ignore our lesson and responsibility within the karmic set-up.

As always, add your own tools to the list of suggestions and remember, when you feel stuck and things are not moving, do consider chronic soul-guilt as the potential reason for your struggles!

Update Yourself!

Most old souls I work with are stuck somewhere in the past. I mean the past, as in past centuries or millennia, not just a few decades.

It shows itself in form of nostalgia and by giving a lot of power and attention to ancient artifacts, ruins of holy sites, the worship of spiritual rituals from other cultures and the wearing of fashions (native American medicine man, ancient Egyptian high priest, Tibetan monk, African shaman etc).

While there is nothing really wrong with this approach, I still would like to remind you, that if you are one of the souls that is stuck worshipping the past, it might be time to update yourself.

Why? First of all, you most likely already lived the part that you are trying to recreate.

If you give too much power to the past and its form you run into the danger of becoming a bit rigid. The point you might miss is that it is not about the form at all, but rather about the spirit and the energy that runs through it. At times we might give too much power to a form and/or our own past. I.e. if you played a powerful spiritual role in a past life (and here it doesn't matter if it was Tibetan, Native American or Ancient Egyptian to name a few), you might feel drawn to rituals from these cultures more to boost your ego than to get actual spiritual work done. When we practice these we have to be aware of our motivation, because we might entertain the notion of superiority over others (other cultures/religions and souls that is), while not moving an inch closer towards enlightenment.

I believe that God/Divine Source is an infinite, creative energy that continually morphs.

In the moment you try to capture it as a constant, it runs like sand through your fingers.

We have to learn to dance with it, so that it can continue to flow through our hearts and beings. Trust yourself! Find the sacred tools/rituals and objects of today. Make your current home your temple! Send love via Facebook and the Internet. Bless your car and your blender and your washing machine, because collectively it took a long time to manifest these little helpers.

 And remember, God isn't closed minded. Any form will do for divine flow as long as the prayer and intention come from the heart, they will carry more power than any ancient mantra recited a million times from a place of ego.

What does your holy life look like in the modern world?

Ready for your update?

Then go and have fun!

Be Aware Of Soulism

Soulism is a word I made up. If you think of racism and sexism i.e. you can see that the term refers to prejudices towards specific souls or soul-groups other than our own.

A lot of old souls have managed to get beyond judging people based on gender, religion, race and economic backgrounds. Why? Because they have spent too much time playing different parts throughout history to give that kind of weight of judgment to somebody's costume (a.k.a. outside form/body/ circumstances). We can recognize our fellow travelers and soul mates by one gaze across a crowded room and catch up where we left off.

Now, the same way we easily embrace the souls we love, there might be a tendency to reject other souls.

Catch yourself in statements or internal judgments:

"This soul/person is so unevolved/dark/one dimensional/weird."

"Strange/unfamiliar frequency."

"Wow, what a young soul, there goes the neighborhood."

"Where did these guys come from?"

"What was God thinking? Truly strange creation."

"I am ok with them, as long as they don't sit next to me."

As you can see there are plenty examples when we intuitively reject the unfamiliar.

Remember, we are here among other things to learn unconditional love. When you find yourself caught up in soulism, try to shift it into curiosity and acceptance.

So you might say:

"Interesting, this soul's frequency makes me uncomfortable, let me investigate a little further."

"I wonder what that soul could teach me?"

"Do you want to sit next to me?" (I remember what it felt like when I was new here!)

As it has benefited you to overcome some of the other '-isms', this one will also be worth your while tackling!

Think Fusion

One of the recurring themes I see for 'old souls' is the need to integrate seemingly polar opposite frequencies. That can pose a challenge for the personality, because we are used and conditioned to decide between the either and ors in life.

Imagine/remember, that you have had many experiences as a soul in the world and played many different parts. You have been a monk and a healer, a warrior and a queen, an orphan and a criminal, a mother and a prostitute, an artist and a politician. All the skills you have learned are part of you in one form or another. For many souls this is a lifetime dedicated to healing and integration of all aspects of self. If we hold on too much to the individual forms, we block our creative abilities to see how we can create our own unique fusion archetype.

In order to do so, tune into the conflicting voices within and listen carefully to what they want.

The monk aspect might wish to have a rigorous spiritual practice, while the artist archetype demands to have no restrictions at all. Imagine these two as the colors yellow and blue. If you mix them together, you'll end up with green. Fusing the monk and the artist will lead to a balance between flow and structure and the focus on the internal, as well as the external world.

Be willing to make room for all aspects of self. Each one can bring a quality that is healthy, especially when aligned with the heart and in harmony with other parts of the soul.

It is like fusion cuisines or music. There is plenty of room for new flavors and inventions.

And I do believe that some of us will need to find our soul fusion first, before we are capable to perceiving our calling, which often times require our ability to find new and expanded ways of dealing with a more and more complex reality.

How To Fit Spiritual Practice Into Modern Life

The other day a depressed client confided in me, that he didn’t know how to fit meditation into his life. I was a bit perplexed, because he usually was rather cheerful and very applied in his spiritual process. Come to find out that he had attended a seminar where the ‘spiritual expert’ said, that if you don’t sit in meditation for at least two hours morning and night, you are not truly meditating, nor tending properly to your spiritual practice (even though these kind of comments grind my God given gears, I did end up at ‘interesting, let’s look at this!’).

Here is my take on the scenario. Meditation is ultimately about cultivating awareness and staying in the observer-self, while your mental and/or emotional body, or the world around you might be going crazy. We don’t have the luxury in every life to practice in a quiet, serene, protected cave or monastery, so how about rush hour traffic on the 405, or the dreaded dinner at the in-laws house. We have the option of choosing to be aware 24/7. Can you be present, in the moment and focused on your breathing, while your kids fight and decide from that place what to do? 

That is a form of meditation. Adding prayer, a Mantra, some deep breath or a consciences moment of gratitude to our day is a form of meditation. Strengthen the observer self, the part that is objective like the narrator of the story, that has equal distance to your thoughts, emotions and physical self and that doesn't get swallowed up by the drama, but has the strength to lean back and say 'interesting'.

Sometimes more evolved souls, that have mastered the meditation practice within a monastery, do choose to test themselves in a more busy, stimulating environment, to see if they can find the peace and alignment there in the midst of the chaos and disruption. Even, if you have only a few minutes here and there, no candles and no altar, practice your awareness.

At the end we are all spiritual beings having a human experience, so your spiritual practice is being alive, no matter what the circumstances, or the lessons.