“I introduced them to the concept of being a spiritual warrior, explaining how that involved the conquest of the ego, the small self. You compete against your previous best self; the opponent is secondary. And I stressed the necessity of struggle and needing to get comfortable being uncomfortable. One side of the coin is freedom and potential; the other is uncertainty and anxiety. The Danish existential philosopher Søren Kierkegaard called it ‘the alarming possibility of being able.’ Anxiety must be accepted and fully experienced. As former poet laureate Robert Frost said, ‘The best way out is always through.’ As spiritual warriors, we have to train ourselves to overcome the internal obstacles and difficulties that stand in the way of allowing our latent abilities to express themselves. That is what unlocking is all about.”
He also tells us: “No struggle, no swag. That could be the motto for everything we do in life. Without struggle, we don’t grow. Without something to push against, we don’t become stronger. It’s not just a matter of physical strength either. It’s the same for emotional resilience and wisdom. Nothing is worth anything if it’s easy and effortless. It doesn’t mean anything if you don’t pay for it in sweat and blood (literal or metaphorical).”
Obstacle Make Me Stronger.
Easy in theory, horribly hard in practice.
But worth it, to be able to justifiably regard oneself as a spiritual warrior.
Photo by Joshua Earle on Unsplash
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