One of the things that I have come to almost anticipate from time to time are panicked last minute emails from clients, past and present. It’s those “OMG what do I do” moments when they email me with rushed, incomplete thoughts without a clue about what to do and how to handle a sudden situation that has come into their lives.  I often find myself always responding in the same way – after a sympathetic virtual hug I have to give a little tough love.  After all, as a client of mine despite all the fun we have getting together, we’re doing real work!  So I have have to say “Don’t forget your practice!  This is when you need it most.”

A client of mine, Janet {name changed to protect the evolving soul but permission given to share her tale} sent me one of these emails last week.  In the same day she had a massive fall out with her sister in law in the morning and later in the afternoon when she arrived at work she was told she was being let go.  Janet felt like the world was crumbling around her.  The fight with her sister in law was bad enough because she was expecting it to spill into a fight with her husband when he found out, but losing her job on top of it was just too much.

In came the emergency email.  “What do I do!?!  How am I supposed to handle all of this at once? Why is God punishing me after all the work I’ve been doing!”

First of all God, Goddess, Source, the Universe, whatever you want to call it is not punishing you when things like this happen.  It doesn’t matter how much time and work you’ve put into your spiritual growth, shit happens.  You’re still living life and having the often complicated human experience.  Things will go wrong, you can bet on that!

Your practice serves to help you better navigate these things.  It helps you to be able to come at your challenges with a more positive and open mind and heart.

 

[Tweet “A spiritual practice helps you handle rocky times with grace but it doesn’t make life a cakewalk.”]

 

Just because you meditate, pray, use affirmations, honor the Divine, connect with nature…whatever your spiritual practice is…doesn’t mean that you’ll never face a challenging moment in life again!  It simply means that when those challenges come up you have tools and skills to help you handle them with more ease, grace, patience and compassion than you did before.

Sometimes we just need to be reminded of that.

When I told Janet to pull together a few of her specific tools we’d be working on – mainly affirmations with mala meditation and looking for gratitude in her challenges – she followed my advice.  She took the next day to go out to a local park and spend and hour journaling and meditating.  The following day she emailed me to share her experience from just an hour of practice and a good night’s sleep – she felt a ton lighter even though she hadn’t actually taken action yet on either situation.  She had plans to though, and she felt confident, positive, and sure of herself that things would be fine.

As it turned out the issue with Janet’s sister in law resolved itself over the weekend with a 5 minute conversation where both admitted to everything being a huge misunderstanding.  After hugs and a few glasses of wine, everything was right between them again.  As for Janet’s job, she was enthusiastically putting together a resume to start sending out.  She took her practice of working with affirmations and visualization and was putting all of that into her intentions with finding a new job quickly.  I know it will happen for her in no time, but more importantly she knows it will!

 

[Tweet “People with strong spiritual practices are not immune to struggle – they know how to handle it.”]

 

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