How New Age Spirituality oftentimes lacks nuance

Im feeling a little exhausted as of late — particularly by the “spiritual” discourse culture that I see on Instagram. I am really seeing that we live in a culture that pathologises every single lived experience, that prompt one to be so quick to jump to conclusions, that potentially lack true exploration and depth. I am at times overwhelmed by the quick-fix-diagnosis and quick-fix-affirmations — because to me I feel the work is incredibly slow, life-long and furthermore, continuous.

In my experience we do not get to a point that we are suddenly like “poof” we are healed! It is ever spiralling, it is a journey, not an event — that takes a certain level of application and devotion. The healing part is coming to an internal balance, an acceptance through time and exposure, and with that exposure is an assimilation process that comes with letting go — all of which initiates a forward momentum, and exaltation. 

Quick fixes never work long term. We only learn from lived experience, and true initiatory processes are long and hard — a master is never born without thorough application and trial. When we allow the space and time to explore and be with something, this is when we bestow ourselves with the agency to make embodied change within our lives. 

It is really about how we apply ourselves day in, day out — not just scrolling on our instagram feed thinking that if we read a couple of memes and positively affirm them — that is doing the work or the answer. Quick fixes and affirmations fall short to even try to begin to address the complexity that is this life.  

We consistently encounter experiences in life that force us to face ourselves, our wounds, and the wounds of our ancestors, time and time again. Each time, grinding on us that little bit deeper to see what we need to see — through our reactions, and the way in which we are made to feel through these more uncomfortable and harsher realities. It is when we experience something, that would have triggered the living hell out of us previously, and we see that we aren’t as affected by that experience any more, that true healing has taken place.

I feel that we cannot always be so fast to point the finger to a finite explanation for why we are experiencing something, and the meaning behind it. Our wounds are a spectrum of diverse experiences and encounters — it's everything that we have lived, and furthermore everything that we have inherited. Which becomes very multifaceted and complex as you can imagine. Not to mention how complex it becomes, when we consider how the experiences of others lives also come into affect with our lives too. 

We live in a very transaction based culture, where we have an addiction to getting what we want, when we want. This extends out to knowing all the answers. We look to where we can do better, always looking to fix, always looking to annihilate any dis-ease from our realities. But in this, I question, are we bypassing the actual substance — are we rushing to forced conclusions that can further bind us and separate us from the truth. Instead of exploring the depth, meaning and multiplicity that could permeate from these contemplations and experiences. 

Do we think we are giving ourselves agency, when in fact we are taking it away?

It is so important to feel into: how ok are you being in the mess? in the discomfort? in the midst of a raging storm, or sitting in the fire and feeling it all. And, only taking to the fire what needs to be transfigured, when we mean it, when we deeply know it. The knowing, coming through penetrative discernment of what needs to be burned. Allowing ourselves to co-exist with it, without vilifying it, or shaming ourselves in the process. So we do not bypass the denser substratum — so we can come to an embodied acknowledgement and acceptance of these parts of ourselves, and our experiences. 

For when we step out of the way, and truly see ourselves, and our part within the inter-relational web, we begin to see it in its totality. And when we engage from this intricately zoomed out place — we will find that none of us are victims, we all have our part to play, as we are all participating in this paradoxical full spectrum reality.

3 | I really question, do you deny yourself a big part of the mystery when you constantly pathologise? and is this pathologisation, further entangling us in a system that has set us up to fail? a system that further separates us from the magic and mystery that is nature, that is life? 

Because the quick eye catching content is also bound to a system that is so incredibly ocular, trend, and money driven. And hey, I am here, engaging on this platform, but what I am pointing towards, is how this looks in your life outside of the mental grid — what you do outside of this platform, and what are the practices and routines you have in place that assist in exploring yourself, and the nature of your reality?

I see the current trend in patholigisation as just another means to try and quickly dominate our realities. When in reality, it is a fight against the most uncontrollable, the most unknown. Life is a mysterious event, in encompasses Love and loss, life and death, and they are all but the same spectrum of forces — the things that guide our way, the things that are most oftentimes completely out of our control.

Instead, I feel it's so important to acknowledge and educate people on the woes of life. The normalcy of enduring hardship, and the acceptance that it is part of this existence, and part of being in the body. It is about learning how to be there for ourselves in these times, and also how we can be there for others. And putting it all into practice. 

Traversing our emotional waters, and our mental plane, and distilling the adversity endured is a big part, a constant even, within this life. People need to recognise that life is far from perfect, life doesn’t always go to what we plan. And at the core of life, is change and transformation, is letting go, and it requires death — whether it be metaphorical or physical. 

The knowing that these experiences make us, they make up life, but they don’t have to define us — is where our power lays. The wisdom gained through our pain, through the portal that slices us open, that calls us into feeling, into intuiting what really matters, into facing those longings deep within our bones — is second to none. And, we are constantly being called into deciphering and acknowledging what really matters. So we can continue to align to that, or learn otherwise. 

We do not have to go down a sadistic path of constant betterment — as I see it is in fact another perpetuation of our outdated un-nurturing societal reality. I feel one of the most important things to remember is that we are whole — within the perceived good and the bad, the ugly and the beautiful, the love and the pain. The pain, the chaos, and the mediocrity, is all worth the process of long term change — the transformation that utterly alchemises our lives. Adversity is the path to our power.

When we stop denying our nature — denying our complex relationality and multiplicity —  we recognise that beauty is to be found in the most peculiar. When we finally accept our organic nature, this is only when we can and will truly accept ourselves, and the nature of our reality. 

Utopia doesn't exist in this third dimensional reality, it's a state of being that encompasses the highest octave of compassion and acceptance for ones life.

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