“The spiritual Path requires giving up fun, worldly enjoyments and all the ‘good things in life’.”

This is another myth that scares the hell out of the ego. It is so convinced that its current strategies of living are leading to having the life it wants, one day in the future. It is counterintuitive that by letting go, all the best things in life will come to you by themselves, with no effort. The ego thinks you have to work hard to get love and approval and respect, so it is addicted to struggle. It strategizes in order to build and safeguard its image and reputation. This by itself absorbs a great deal of available energy. It struggles to amass enough money so it can feel secure, and it has a whole list of life goals, that it is convinced are essential to being happy and fulfilled. From this very limited level of understanding, there is no time to take the eye off the ball. You are like a mouse on a mouse wheel. Then, when you are exhausted, you escape into all kinds of entertainment and addictive habits to distract yourself from the stress of your life of clinging and struggle and resistance. The ego calls these the “good things in life.”!!

The ego fails to see that the times you have felt best in your life, were always when you were most loving, when you felt best about yourself, and were most free from negative thoughts, emotions and conflicts. When you were the least fearful, and not disapproving of yourself. The problem is, most people have not yet learned how to get into that state, because they haven’t learned how to release negative thoughts and emotions, how to work through inner conflict, and how to be attuned to higher energies. So the ego has no choice but to be always repressing its negative feelings and escaping from its fears. The difficulty with this approach is that as soon as the mode of escape is over, the lower energies are still there, the karma is still there, the conflicts remain, and nothing at all has changed about your life.

How many times have you noticed, you go away on holiday, feel relaxed and good for a week or two (or maybe you cannot even fully relax for the first week), and then a couple of weeks after you are back, it is like you have never taken a holiday at all, and you are back in the same old merry-go-round, dealing with the exact same stresses you had before you left? Maybe you cannot even relax fully while on holiday. Why? You take your mind with you, even on holiday. You can be surrounded by some of nature’s most breathtaking scenery, and if you are wanting approval, worrying about the future, or trying to control some situation back home, you will be suffering.

Growth is the only way to permanently free yourself from the stresses and difficulties of life. Without growth and higher consciousness, you cannot discover life’s magic. The greatest thing in life is LOVE. Divine Love. Realization of who you are. (These are one and the same). This comes from discovering the untapped power within you, and bringing your entire being into harmony with the Universe. You cannot find this ‘out there.’