Is spirituality a hobby for you?

For some of you, the study and pursuit of spirituality is one of your favorite pastimes. You love to takes classes, read books, have sessions, and so on. But, I want to ask you a question, something that only you can answer. Be brutally honest with yourself. Is spirituality a hobby for you? Perhaps I should say more about what I mean by hobby. A hobby is something that you enjoy doing and like to use your spare moments for. For some this time is filled by music, dance, art, handicrafts, camping and the outdoors, gardening, boating, carpentry, or one of numerous other interests. It is a way to enjoy yourself and to express your passions. When I ask if spirituality is a hobby for you, I am asking you to access what place it holds in your life.

Here are some indicators that spirituality might be a hobby for you. Perhaps you pursue something, have fun with it, take some classes, play around with it, and after a time begin to lose interest. Let’s say you begin with feng shui and switch your interest to tarot or perhaps to an art class. At any rate, you find your interest and enthusiasm are now focused on different pursuits. This may show that spirituality is a hobby. Another sign might be that you are working with a particular spiritual practice and it triggers some deep energy for you that is not comfortable to handle. If you decide that isn’t the fun that you signed up for and let it go, finding, perhaps, another means of expressing your spiritual interest – spirituality may be a hobby for you. Perhaps you have many sticks in the fire, dabbling with this and that but not going too deeply into anything in particular. Another indication is that, like hobbies in general, spirituality is a sideline for you. It is not something that is the forefront of your mind day-in and day-out. You focus on it some evenings or weekends, but day-to-day it is business as usual, with your focus on the “real world”.

If you consider all of this with “brutal” self-honesty and say “Yes, that is how it is for me and I like it that way”, we say “Fine” and we want you to enjoy this hobby and pursue it as fully as you desire. I will warn you that you will likely continue to see yourself as a victim. Your life will probably not live up to what you truly want it to be. If your response is that some of this is true for you, but you are not sure how you feel about it, let’s discuss it a little further. If you want to experience, spiritual growth or – beyond that, realize your ascension – spirituality as a hobby will never get you there. If it is a sideline for you, there will only be marginal changes in your life. Is that fine with you?  If so, that is wonderful, but you probably won’t have an interest in reading further today.

If you are saying to yourself that you want to experience more, to transform your life, you may want to revisit your “spirituality as a hobby” patterns. If your pattern is to move on when the newness of a spiritual interest wears off, try staying with it. Follow it deeper. Perhaps that means dropping some pursuits so that you can really focus on a few or even just one. There was a previous message that explained how the ego likes to divide and conquer. What draws you the most? Focus your energy. If a spiritual direction begins to threaten the ego, reasons will be suggested to move on to something different. When you stay with a spiritual practice, things will eventually be uncovered that you would rather not look at. This is the point you have wanted to reach if you have expressed the desire to transform your life. This is your gift. This is the place to face your fear and walk into it. This is where your spiritual pursuit is upgraded from a hobby into your life. This is the magic moment.

Now is the time when you decide to put your spiritual development on center stage. It is no longer related to the sidelines, to the weekends. It is no longer a bit player, but the star of the show. Your path becomes a daily focus. You are aware of it when you wake up in the morning. As you go through your day you try to bring awareness into each moment. It is the last thing you meditate on at night. You are not always successful at holding the focus, but that is your intention. Everything now takes a spiritual perspective. Perhaps this brings about the dropping of activities, relationships, or goals from your life. Everything will transform, whether it stays or leaves. Your deepest relationships become those where you can share your spiritual path. The energy around your job will alter, or you will find a new work. In like manner, your other hobbies will transform or begin to drop out of the picture. All of this can be quite scary. Putting spirituality in the spotlight will position you face to face with your worst fears.

This brings us to the second question. The first question was “Is spirituality a hobby for you?” The second question is “Have you made a clear commitment to realizing your ascension or your divine nature?” If not, you can be caught in a kind of “no man’s land”, a DMZ (DeMilitarized Zone) between hobby and commitment. This can be a rather uncomfortable place. You’ve left behind the seeming security of “spirituality as a hobby“, but you don’t have the strength that comes from intention and the support from Spirit to deal with the challenges that will come. You are stuck in the middle. It is not uncommon to have a lag time between leaving the hobby status and making a clear commitment. That intention does look frightening, and the ego has many reasons to convince you not to go all of the way. It looks like you have to let go of absolutely everything in your life. We are not saying that you should commit. You will know when it is time. Before that it would be a lie to you and to God. However, in the meantime you will likely face challenges that feel beyond your ability to handle.

My purpose is to support you in being perfectly clear about where you are and what you are choosing. You have three options: 1) Spirituality as a hobby 2) Spirituality being put on center stage 3) Absolutely committing to realizing your divinity. What does commitment mean? Commitment means that you say to Spirit:

“I want you to support me in fully realizing my divinity. I want you to bring whatever changes that would best support that realization into my life. I want you to help me to change my thinking about absolutely everything until I am fully aligned with God. I want you to support me in seeing the divinity in not only myself, but in everybody. I want you to support me in forgiving every judgment I have, I want you to support me in seeing the perfection of every moment. I want you to support me in receiving everything that comes my way as an absolute gift. I want you to support me in choosing You over the ego in every moment.”

I will warn you that once you fully commit, there may not be any way to go back to what seemed like safer places. The only way out may be to go forward and through it. However, your commitment allows you to do just that. Putting spirituality on center stage encourages all your fears to come creeping out of the dark. Committing to Spirit gives you the tools to fully deal with them. The fears aren’t real, but you are. Wherever you are in the three stages, I am absolutely with you, as is Spirit, as is God. There is no judgment, only loving support. All you have to do to feel that support is to say “I will take it”. The voice of Spirit will always guide you home.

God Blesses You,

Sanhia