Growing Spiritual muscles

A few weeks ago I was spending time with friends, and we were sharing all of the gifts and challenges in our lives.

As one of them shared about a difficult experience he was going through, and the process by which he was transmuting that difficulty into strength, someone shared a visual metaphor that came to her about shredding muscle.

That really resonated with me.

In an oversimplified nutshell, the way to grow physical muscles is this:

1. Intensely exercising them to the point of trauma.
    
2. Once the muscle breaks, the body heals the break.
    
3. In healing the break, the body develops new muscle which is greater than what was previously there.

Growing spiritual muscles is basically the same.

Step 1:
Intensely exercise our skills of self-awareness to the point of seeing the limiting beliefs, painful stories, and traumas that are holding us back.

Step 2:
Once those stories and limiting beliefs 'break,' use the powers of Presence and Truth to heal the break.
  
Step 3:
Notice how our spiritual self develops a greater capacity to handle future situations, including the same adversities which we had to 'break' in the first place.

The alternative to growing muscles isn't pretty...

A lot of people say they want bigger physical muscles, but aren't willing to do the painful work to -break- their existing muscles and create room for something new.
  
With spiritual muscles, again, it's exactly the same.

Most people want bigger, better, more abundant lives. But they aren't willing to do the serious inner inquiry to -break- their existing limiting beliefs and painful stories to create room for Presence to fill them up with the gifts of true transformation.
  
It's reasonable. We are instinctively pleasure-seeking-pain-avoiding creatures. Comfort is what we seek. Most of us do not want to delve deep into our pain and be with it with Presence and Truth. Most of us just want to be rid of the pain without understanding it. The thing is, understanding our pain through Presence is what actually releases it.

Unless we're willing to break our spiritual muscles, at best, comfort is all we'll really get.

And I don't know about you...

But when given the choice between comfort...

And a truly incredible and great life...

I'm happy to shred the spiritual muscles of comfort knowing that the following growth will be beautiful and wonderful beyond my wildest imagination.