Spiritual Life Coaching and
Waiting for the Bus
Spiritual life coaching can make the ordinary extraordinary
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We spend a lot of time waiting. Waiting in line, waiting for someone to show up, waiting for the noise to stop or for the pain to go away. Becoming upset, angry or stressed while waiting at these times can put your health, your relationships, and even your career at risk |
But even if we remain calm or keep ourselves preoccupied while waiting, we still run the risk of leading lives that are much less than what they could be. We do not see what else is available to us in everyday activities, such as waiting.
The challenge we have is learning "how extraordinary the ordinary is.” Learning how to develop this outlook in our lives is the focus of spiritual life coaching.
Spiritual experience is not something rare or exotic. It is not reserved only to those who belong to organized religion or practice a particular faith. It is not mysterious, not "out there", not “churchy” or irrational. It can be a characteristic of everyday life and a source of personal transformation if we are open to its possibility.
When we are open to it, any event can suddenly interrupt our daily routines and force us out of our habitual way of looking at things. How the experience happens or how sudden or intense it is can vary. But what is common to all spiritual experiences is a sense of wonder or awe or insight.
At its core, spiritual awareness is a way of seeing ourselves, others, and the world. This is difficult for us to understand because it requires us to look at experiences without applying reason or scientific inquiry. It asks us to look at the world without trying to figure it out.
This new way of seeing is like falling in love.
When you fall in love, you see what you did not see earlier. The change doesn’t happen because of your effort. You don’t will yourself to see something lovable in the other. Falling in love happens to you, not because of you.
The same thing happens when you solve a problem you haven’t been able to crack. Suddenly you see the solution. The answer comes to you on its own, without your effort.
Similarly, something suddenly clicks in a spiritual experience. What had been unclear is now clear. At this moment you understand what you could not understand earlier.
You let go of judging or evaluating an event or a situation for the moment and see it as a mystery, as full of wonder, as a gift that arrived on its own.
Spiritual life coaching helps you to develop, or even rediscover, this sense of wonder by showing you how to pay attention.
It directs your attention to what you are not seeing in everyday events. It also teaches you skills that help you better realize the mystical potential of ordinary moments, skills such as sensory awareness, moments of silence, reflection, and focused attention.
However, paying attention is not as easy as it may seem. Interrupting the ongoing chatter in your mind, changing your habitual way of seeing the world, and learning to be comfortable with stillness can take years of practice. Even then there is no guarantee you will get the results you seek. The best you can do is to wait for it to arrive, like waiting for the bus.
You can wait for the bus to satisfy your need to be taken somewhere, or you can wait for it in stillness to reveal something wonderful and unexpected, something that made the waiting worthwhile, maybe even life changing.
Try it! Spiritual life coaching can take you to places you never imagined!
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