Recently I watched the Hay House tribute to Dr. Wayne Dyer. About halfway through, Carolyn Myss took the stage and spoke about the life of a contemporary mystic; she spoke about the responsibility we all face to listen to our inner mystic and allow that part to pull us along on the journey. What she said felt bold and powerful and all from a place of love and strength and true kindness as only a person who is herself living this principle can do. And yet, I could tell people didn’t like to hear this:
A mystic is someone who comes into contact with an awakening. They awaken from what they’ve known. An awakening happens and they have to live it. An awakening happens and they’ve got to share it.
Part of the great suffering of our time is that the search so many people are on and continue to be on should have long come to pass…you should have found what you are searching for by now. The search that so many people continue to be on and what we have made our spiritual journey about is the identification of what we do not believe rather than in naming what we do….we are far more comfortable being unsure than discovering with deep faith and resolve what it is we do believe.
You are a contemporary mystic.
An awakening is happening.
Now is the time to live it.
People will sometimes say, Wow, that Carolyn Myss, she’s really tough. But really, she isn’t. She is standing inside the heart space and inviting us all to do the same. Yes of course we can all use a softer touch at times but still, truth is truth. I feel it is time for those of us who are on the spiritual journey (and say we want to be there!) to really get this.
We are contemporary mystics.
An awakening is happening.
Now is the time to live it.
Are we living it?
The other part to this teaching…
In our lives and in our businesses and on our personal journey and as it comes to our finances and as it comes to our own self-care and especially in our relationships, a contemporary mystic knows that there is a choice we are all being asked to make and it is this: 100% responsibility for our journey.
I am free to choose how I want to roll with life. Said another way, I am 100% responsible for my journey. I am in charge.
You are free to choose how you want to roll with life. You are 100% responsible for your journey. You are in charge.
I remember once teaching a circle of students and I spoke about my 100% responsibility pledge and this guy completely flipped out. Lost it. First, he was mad at me, and then he was mad at God and then he collapsed into a puddle of tears saying he was so effing tired of being told it was all his fault. That somehow he was so bad and shitty and horrible, that this thing he was upset about was a punishment. His badness was the cause.
I could relate to his breakdown and also I was having a breakthrough just then: it really is true that I am responsible for how I am choosing to see it, to spin it, to react to it… I am. OF COURSE, I AM NOT CAUSING HORRIFIC THINGS… that’s not at all what I am talking about! You are a contemporary mystic and you are awake and it’s time to live from that place of what you DO know rather than what you are angry about or upset about or struggling about.
You are a contemporary mystic. An awakening is happening. It is time to live from that knowing.
This is not the time to slip into shame about what you’re doing wrong.
This is not the time to blame the other person for not helping you get to where you want to be.
This is the time to take 100% responsibility for your journey.
This is what contemporary mystics do.
It takes so much courage to ask yourself: Have I done all I could do? What could I be doing here that I am not already doing? Is there something I continue to do that is not serving me? Are there repetitive places I have allowed myself to slip into which do not serve my highest good?
Sometimes the answer is 100% yes I have done all I could be doing, and then the practice is simple: I am doing all I can be doing, now I need to keep the faith and trust.
Most of the time the answer is no. There is something more I could be doing… and then it’s time to dive in and see what else you need to do to stay committed to yourself here. Meditate on this. Keep quiet and study the interactions you do with life.
I have often asked friends I see in session if they are willing to take 100% responsibility for the role they play in their lives.
Being willing is all it takes. Not 100% perfection or even 100% on it all the time…. but just would you even be willing?
Most become very still and even a bit teary and then they say yes. They are letting the inner mystic lead them forward. Yes.
When situations in our lives are ongoing and repetitive and we are living from a place of swirling and drama and chaos, you can bet there is some stuff that you are contributing to this which needs to be addressed.
I would know.
I spent most of my 20s and the better part of my 30’s being lost in blame and victimhood and chaos. Embroiled in one drama after another. Numbing out and financially spiraling out of control. And one day I became so clear: this all lives under my own skin. There is chaos, drama, and also victim energy in me–it’s undeniable. And while I may not have necessarily tattooed this on my forearm or erected a massive billboard with these words on my front lawn, I began to live by this truth: I am responsible for what I see. I became willing. I began to study and practice and receive help. I started really sitting hard with the one in me who feels sorry for herself, and blames everyone else, and (ew yuk this is the hardest one to admit to here) the one in me who is needy to excess and wants attention for her sad and depressed and sick self because she didn’t have the love for this growing up. I sat with this all and I practiced. I spent my sessions with my own healer looking in earnest at what my part was.
I started asking: what is it I am doing to be complicit in this, what’s my part? I had to know. I had to stop the insanity.
And you know what? When you do this for yourself on a pretty committed basis, things get better. Life gets better. The path moves forward with less crap and horror. It does. There is a feeling that even when stuff is hard–and it is–you are doing all you can and you know it.
One of my favorite Course In Miracles lessons:
Say only this, but mean it with no reservations, for here the power of salvation lies:
“I am responsible for what I see.
I choose the feelings I experience, and I decide upon the goal I would achieve.
And everything that seems to happen to me
I ask for, and receive as I have asked.”
Deceive yourself no longer that you are helpless in the face of what is done to you. Acknowledge but that you have been mistaken, and all effects of your mistakes will disappear. ACIM T-21.II.2.
You and I are contemporary mystics.
An awakening is happening.
It is time to live from that knowing.
Yes. I am all in. Not perfectly. Not 24/7. But I am willing. I am. What about you?
I hope what I shared resonates deep and allows you to breathe more fully into your path.
xo
