On Believing in Spirit

It is one thing to believe that an elevator in a building exists and quite another to believe in the elevator to take you safely to the twenty-first floor. Likewise, it is one thing to believe that spirit exists and another to believe in spirit to take us through life.

To believe that something or someone exists requires little to no risk on our part. To believe in something or someone is risky. It requires trust. 

When I go beyond believing that you exist to believing in you I put myself at risk. I make myself vulnerable to the possibility of being harmed financially, physically, emotionally, mentally, spiritually, and socially.

So it is with spirit. When I go beyond believing that spirit exists to  believing in spirit, to trusting my spirit, I put myself at risk. What could happen if I trust my own spirit rather than what others tell me about how to live my life? I won't know until I try it.

Since believing that spirit exists is challenging enough for many, I recommend to those who already believe that spirit exists to go slowly in believing in spirit.

First, understand what believing in spirit is. It's trusting our own spirit. It's trusting that which makes us alive. Trusting our own spirit is trusting our spirit to guide us in what sustains, nurtures, and nourishes our own life.

Secondly, understand why we can trust our spirit with our life. It is our life. It is that which makes us alive. Its nature is to live and do what sustains its ongoing existence. When we trust an elevator to take us safely to the twenty-first floor, we trust the elevator to do what it exists to do. Likewise, when we trust our spirit to keep us alive, we trust our spirit to do what it exists to do: keep us alive with the purpose of becoming the unique individuals we're meant to become.

Thirdly, be aware of how our spirit communicates with us. It communicates with us in our instincts and our thoughts. By our instincts our spirit guides us to eat, drink, rest, sleep, relax, look, be on alert, stop, go, run, approach, avoid, have fun, have sex, and engage in a wide range of various behaviors that protect, sustain, and promote our continued spiritedness.

By our thoughts our spirit guides us with words that influence our behaviors either directly or indirectly by way of our emotions. We think it would be good for us to do this or that and we do it. We feel fear or any other emotion and act accordingly. Many of our thoughts and emotions are our own spirit guiding us to act in ways that protect, sustain, and promote our continued spiritedness.

Knowing the above, we can better attend to our own spirit and how it guides us in living. We can begin to trust it with small risks at first. As we learn from experience and gain confidence, we can gradually trust our spirit with greater risks. As we do, we will truly live spiritual, that is, spirit-related lives.