by Norma Gentile

Connecting with Spirit (in 3 minutes and 50 seconds)

It is so easy to be caught up in 'doing' that we forget our status as human 'beings'. Those things that draw out of us a remembrance of our 'being' side are usually left behind as we focus on 'doing' more.

So we overlook the fact that we haven't listened to music just to let ourselves be lost in it. We haven't sat and watched the sun rise or set, or we haven't gone for a long run, totally losing track of time. What have we been doing?

Focusing on the inner life, the inner stillness is essential to being able to accurately express an outward living vitality. Connecting with the inner you is as easy as being in the experience of enjoying what you are doing. Or loving another person. Or, as a friend puts it, "Seeing God in the eyes of everyone you meet."

For those of us who haven't achieved yogi status, (yet), we may connect with our inner selves by losing ourselves into an expression of another's true spirit. Listening to music created out of another's ecstasy and reverence for Spirit draws out of us our own resonance with that same ecstatic and reverent state. It brings that state into our awareness, and allows us to experience our 'being' side.

Whether you would choose to run, dance, listen to music, read, or play it makes no difference. Any type of expression you participate in where the expression itself, not the outcome, is the focus, will bring you into communion with your own inner self. In this way you invite Spirit to be the catalyst for your expression.

How often have you felt unmotivated in your routine? Can anyone really find spirit while cooking dinner and rushing off to an evening meeting after a long day at work? Here is a situation where the 'doing' energies are most apt to enter. Minimizing them might include an acknowledgment that you can't do it all! And most certainly you can't do it all in an hour and fifteen minutes!

Some part of you knows this, and is willing to give you a hand in organizing what it is that you can do, easily, if you simply ask for help. Here is where the connection with your inner self comes in handy.

Take a moment and simply go inside, go to that sensation or feeling that you have when you are doing something that lets you commune with Spirit. With that energy of 'being' filling your awareness, ask what it is that you most need to do in the time you have.

Immediately, usually before you have finished stating the question, you are apt to get an answer. Not the voice of God thundering in your kitchen (well, at least that isn't my experience!), but an insight, a sudden flash or intuition. Something like &endash; "yes, I remember that casserole I froze and could use now, giving me time to take a shower and feed the kids!"

Sometimes the insight won't make sense, and you may choose to let it go. It is always up to you to decide whether or not to act on your insights and intuitions. While Spirit may be speaking clearly, to the extant that your own energies are dominantly those of 'doing' you won't be able to hear clearly.

Building a connection with Spirit is as easy as acknowledging that you already have one. Your connection to Spirit is so genuine that it is what binds you to your body. It is in your every breath, every cell, every motion, every wisp of emotion, and every act. Be God. Be Spirit incarnate. Listen to your Spirit in music, in dance, in the sunlight, in the faces of all that you meet.

(It will have taken most of you under 4 minutes to read this, and in that time you have connected with your inner Spirit)