Keep Going

The Union Path Podcast - Keep Going
===

Sometimes the most important thing we can do is just keep going. Sometimes the most important thing to do is just something.

Especially in times when we're stuck, especially in times when we're confused, it can be easy to really buckle down and really try to find the perfect behavior, the perfect solution to what we're going through.

But there's a problem in this, right? There's a problem in that how do we actually know what's perfect? We may think we know. It may seem perfectly obvious, but that's the thing about consciousness is that we can only act from the consciousness that we currently have,

and sometimes to really get to where we're going to really find the solution we're after, the first step is actually have our consciousness expanded. Is to actually understand things we don't currently understand. Is is to actually l earn things we don't currently know.

And oftentimes we achieve this by doing things we've never done. Or at the very least, by doing things with a different attitude, with a different approach than we've ever taken.

But even times when we aren't stuck, even in times when we feel we're just in some kind of liminal space, where we're in between the where we are and where we want to go, and day by day we're persevering. We're putting one foot in front of another, and we're continuing forward.

Sometimes in these less eventful, sometimes stagnant places, it can be really easy to make ourselves more stagnant, more stuck, because we're looking for that perfect solution, that perfect behavior, that perfect change.

But if we assume that we can predict this ahead of time, that sounds a lot like overconfidence to me. That sounds a lot like the missing piece might actually be a bit of humility, a bit of openness to actually try something new, to actually do something where we can't predict what will happen.

Because obviously one of the most prominent qualities of a state like this is that we're really in our heads, we're really thinking a lot, probably overthinking what we should do. We're making plans. We're doing pros and cons lists.

We're running the future activities of our life through this rubric, through this set of filters around what we know and what we don't know. And of course we don't wanna be reckless. Of course we don't want to just jettison truths that we've learned, but it's a balance, right?

It's a balance of continuing to move forward, of trying new things, of constantly learning, constantly paying attention, constantly adding to our experience of life, which in and of itself adds back to our own consciousness,

our own understanding of ourselves, of our lives, of our place, and of our path. It's a balance.

It's a balance of integrating what we've learned while still staying open to learning new things, or perhaps relearning things on a deeper level, understanding things more,

adding depth and richness and texture to what we already know, expanding ourselves along the way. Because life has to be lived, and it has to be lived forward,

no matter how much we want to recreate past experiences, or duplicate past results it doesn't necessarily work that way.

We have to move forward from where we are rather than just trying to recreate where we've been.

Because when we're stuck or when we're stagnant, when we know we're on the path from where we want to go to where we want to be,

it can be really easy to paint ourselves into a corner through eliminating all sorts of possibilities, based on our own perceived knowing of what's best for us.

But this knowing can always be expanded. It can always be deeper. It can always be more true. It gets expanded by adding different types of experience and feedback to our lives.

We create change by not only desiring it, but by then being it. By doing something different, by choosing different types of expression, different types of thoughts and perspectives and behaviors.

In a lot of ways, what we are is who we're currently being, and we understand who we're currently being by really being aware of what we're currently doing. Really being aware of what our real intent is behind our behaviors, really understanding ourselves and really understanding why we've done things.

But then even this understanding can lead to a bit of a paradox. Because when things happen to us or aren't happening to us, it can be really easy to really do a deep dive on why,

really endeavor to understand why things are happening to us. But the reality is a lot of times this clarity really only comes in hindsight.

It's really kind of the last gift that our experiences give to us.

And over time these outcomes may very well shift. We've all experienced it, right, of something that feels like the worst thing that ever happened to us, over time actually becomes one of the best. One of the best because we learned something, because we were expanded, because we evolved.

And perhaps that evolution took a little bit of demolition at first. Perhaps we had to break through some old habits, some old blind spots, some old holes and errors in our own consciousness, to be able to be the person that we're trying to be.

Because this is life, right? A lot of life is spent in between. A majority of life is spent in between. These times of the awareness of the desire to experience something different and the fruition of that experience actually occurring.

We spend a lot of times in these in-between, liminal spaces. And to the overthinking mind, this can feel torturous. This can feel like torment.

It's one of the funny things about really getting clear about what we want is that the absence of it in our lives can be really frustrating.

We can feel the void, we can ruminate and get lost in the, "if only".

If only I was such and such, if only I had this thing or that, if only I was with so and so. The yearning, the grief, these can really color these in between times.

But in these in between liminal spaces, this is where tools like faith really come in handy, because faith is the support that we need to get us from here to there.

And the beautiful thing is the more we put these ideas into practice, the more we see these ideas actually work, the more we find ourselves really connecting with who and what we really are,

and then aligning ourselves and everything in our life and that general direction, the success and that attainment builds that faith, builds that knowing. Because for it to be real, no one can give it to us. We have to experience it ourselves.

To really know it on a deep level, to have it be beyond a thought or even a belief, it has to be a knowing. And it really only becomes a knowing through experiencing it.

It really only gets integrated into who we are, by seeing it play out for ourselves in front of our eyes.

And so it's important to just keep going when we've done the work of really getting to know ourselves, when we've really done the work to really bring a lot of awareness to our lives,

towards ourselves, towards the effects that we have on the people around us, as well as the effects those people have on us.

The more we understand what we really want from the basis of who we really are, and the more clear that gets when we combine that clarity with faith, the path gets so much easier.

Because once we first start to figure out some of these things, the feeling of the absence of these things can be pretty profound.

Sometimes when we realize that the expression in our lives that we've chosen doesn't really fit us, isn't really what we want, isn't really leading to a place that we want to be,

there can really be some profound and powerful feelings around that. There can be a lot of grief. It can be a lot of self-judgment and recrimination.

We can feel like we just wasted a lot of time, and even worse, maybe we feel it's too late. We missed our chance, we blew our shot. But of course, it's never too late. Awareness is never late.

We are where we are for a reason. Timing and circumstance is always perfect for us, and so we can trust it, we can have faith in it,

because we can only make decisions from where we are, and to judge ourselves too harshly on the things we've done or haven't done is missing that we didn't have the awareness to do anything different.

We were trying the best we could at the time. Or at the very least, those past judgments, although they may inform our awareness going forward, aren't always a hundred percent helpful.

Because we can only move forward from where we are. We can only use the awareness that we have access to right now. And if we're stuck or stagnant, maybe there's some new awareness out there that we need to experience first.

Maybe spending too much time stuck in ideas like, why is this happening, is distracting us from focusing a little bit more clearly on what's happening.

All the clarity and insight that we need will come in time from our own awareness.

And so if we can focus a little bit more on what's actually happening to us. Focus a little bit more on not necessarily understanding why things are the way they are before we do something different,

of instead endeavoring forward anyway, knowing and trusting that those whys will fill in, eventually, the clarity will come.

But right now we are where we are and the only step we can take is the next one. So what feels like the next step in the right direction? What feels like the right thing to do, right now?

And maybe the answer is nothing. Maybe the answer is we're right exactly where we need to be, nothing's out of order, nothing's out of whack, and our job today is to just abide.

Or maybe there's something different that we need to try, and through all of our rumination, all of our overthinking, we can't hear the tiny voice inside of us, beckoning us toward trying something new.

Maybe we need to realize that a lot of our overthinking is fed from fear. Especially if we've spent a really long time feeling frustrated and sabotaged by life, faith isn't really there yet. The trust isn't there because it hasn't been earned. It hasn't really been experienced.

A lot of these ideas around trust and faith are theoretical, but again, to really be able to have that confidence, really be able to have that faith, we have to try. We have to trust first. We have to make the first move acting as if l ife is trustworthy. Acting as if there is a plan and a path here. Acting as if the destination as well as the clarity that I want will be revealed along the way.

So I might as well just keep going. I might as well do the things that feel like they're in line with where I want to go, because the worst thing we can do in these liminal places is to let go.

We need to be providing a growth pressure in our own lives. All the change we want ultimately is going to come from us.

It comes internally from us, and so we're the ones that have to keep going. If we really want change, it's one of those things where, we can't just be completely passive. We can't feel like all of our work is done as soon as we've figured out what we want.

At the same time, if we have attitudes that we're always frustrated, were always undermined by life, or by the people around us, those unhelpful beliefs need to go too.

We can trust life. Life is trustworthy.

So it's both being able to not push and force, but at the same time not letting go of where we feel we need to go. Not being frustrated by the lack of results, but at the same time not giving up hope.

We're the ones that ultimately set change in our lives in motion, and that change, that creation, is all started through intent, through the wanting of something different,

and one of the big skills of life is learning to walk an intentional path, but to do it with ease. To keep going, but not grip too tightly along the way.

To be open, to have the humility as well as the perseverance to continue on, taking one step more, while the same time, keeping our heads up, staying open and aware of what's happening, what's really happening,

in learning as much as we possibly can along the way. Life will show us everything we need to see. Life will teach us everything we need to know, but we have to engage with it.

In a lot of ways, we're the ones who direct it. That's our creative power. It's getting really clear on what exactly we're trying to create, and then walking the path towards it, however that path unfolds for us.

It's a cooperative process. It's not just taking everything that happens to us and pretending that's exactly what we wanted out of a sense of fear or ease, but at the same time, not getting overly frustrated when things don't seem to be going our way.

Because that's where the humility comes in. Because on some level, what do we know? On some level, how many times have we been surprised and what we thought was perfect for us ended up being anything but, or what we thought was a calamity for us ended up being a boon.

This is really the tricky give and take of walking through life. Of integrating both what we know, as well as learning what we don't know yet.

Of being able to walk a path without forcing the ends that we seek to come through in any particular way or at any particular time, but at the same time, continue forward towards what we want.

We cooperate with life by both contributing to life through our own intent, our own behavior , while also allowing life to give back to us through learning, through awareness.

And along the way our consciousness gets expanded, and we in turn are expanding life. We're both adding to it and taking from it and vice versa. That's the cooperation.

And that's why, we need to keep going. Life is meant to be lived, but it can only be lived one step at a time. It can only be lived in the present moment.

And we grow and expand by taking in everything that's happening to us, by paying attention to everything we're doing, and allowing that awareness to build us.

Allowing that increased consciousness to not only make our lives more full and rich, but really fill in the details on where we're going. And yes, eventually, really illuminate why we're going there.

But in the meantime, every day along the way, we just keep going. We keep learning, we keep growing. We keep doing the best we can.

We keep allowing life to expand and build us, and we keep fine tuning our contribution back to life as a whole. That's the dance of existence. That's the give and take of being here.

And so we just keep going. We keep going and we keep learning. We keep growing, and we find our way on the way.