We all have that one friend who took yoga too far. Please send them this article.
Hi. My name is Rogier. I'm a writer. And this article may have been send to you by a great friend, family member or partner who really, really loves you. They've send you this article however, to ask you to slow down on your spiritualism. We are all happy for you that you think you are on the path to enlightenment. But we - because we love you dearly - think it's become a bit much. We want to ask you to maybe tome it down a little. Please don't be angry. We do this out of love. Allow us to explain.
You are probably feeling really good about your mindful life and routines. And that's great. However, if you have reach that 'feeling good' point without going through a lot of mental and physical pain first, it indicates that you are only experiencing one half of the spiritual journey. You've got the 'light' part down. But your inner darkness has not been exposed to you just yet. You've only reached the yin, not the yang.
In the end, the path to 'enlightenment' or 'inner balance' or 'mindfulness' or 'awareness' or as Bruce Lee probably called it, 'Kung Fu', isn't supposed to be great. It's a nasty, bitter and excruciatingly painful process if you do it right. Spiritual growth, the bedrock of any good storyteller, is a nightmarish process, with full-on anxiety attacks, days filled with crying, deep frustrations, anger, often years of self doubt and bucket loads of failures. The night is darkest before dawn my friend.
Enlightenment is fucked up.
So, if you haven't experienced anything like that, then I'm sorry to break it to you, but you ain't on a path to enlightenment. God knows what path you're on. But it sure as hell will not lead to your spiritual breakthrough any time soon I'm afraid.
Look, I know it's no fun to hear this. Know that I do yoga about twice a week, meditate multiple times a day, manifest, surf, and practice QiGong. Yes, you've guessed it, I'm one of those. But before I got there, I had a huge burnout, years of anxiety, excruciating physical pains and I don't know how many therapy sessions.
And no, I had a normal childhood.
This life on planet Earth, that we live so quickly before it is all over, is full of pain in all its shapes and sizes. Even if your childhood was okay. Reaching enlightenment means that you've made your peace with that. How? You Ask? Well, you've connected with the world around you on a spiritual level and are able to - quite literally - feel the energies of everything living and material around you, and in some rare cases, even connect to energies that are imperceptible and will feel downright crazy.
And no. Contrary to what you may think, that is not necessarily a happy place. It can be, and can give you a real epiphany. But it often also just means you've become more sensitive to the bad moods of others, making you feel angry, sad and depressed.
That's what enlightenment is: being connected. And that is what being connected is: you get the good and the bad stuff.
Still wanna get there? Are you absolutely sure? Well, hold on to your socks. Because the only way to get there is to painstakingly remove all the 'clutter' that you've accumulated throughout your life. All your beliefs, all your notions, all your habits whether good or bad, all your human connections... everything... every single thing will need to be examined and felt and analyzed and removed if it clouds and clutters your soul from seeing the real, constant connection you have with this planet Earth.
When the clutter is removed, colors will become brighter, people will smile at you more, dogs will come to you without explanation... you get the gist.
In the end, you'll hesitate to even squash a fucking mosquito. THAT'S HOW FUCKING CONNECTED YOU WILL FEEL.
And then you remember how you got there: By making friends with that deep, dark, ugly monster inside of you that is scared of every single itty bitty thing about life. And it took you two, nay, five, nay, roughly ten years to get there.
The monster that everyone has. Everyone. No exceptions. So yes, you too.
And you remember you made peace to the monster inside. And you squash the mosquito. And you will feel both bad and good about it at the same time. It's confusing. It's weird. It doesn't make sense. You will feel like both a bad and a good person at the same time. And you will forever not be able to understand it.
But... you've accepted. And that acceptance is why you've ascended.
And that's the good news. Now... keep doing your spiritual stuff. Your yoga and your manifestations and your meditations and magical spells. It's good. It'll get you there.
The only thing we ask of you, is to tome it all down a little, when we meet you. Because we've already been there. And it's actually a more quiet place than you may think.
See you on the other side. (And in the second article ;)
Love, as always, and plant trees people, plant trees.
Rogier
Check out my book The Whole Story - The Ultimate Guide to Storytelling.
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