If the Buddha Got Stuck_ A Handbook for Change on a Spiritual Path - Charlotte Sophia Kasl [4]
This does not preclude achieving, learning, or taking good care of yourself, but you do so because your body, mind, and energy converge to do whatever feels in harmony with the aliveness that you are.
From this point of self-acceptance our consciousness spills over into the vast expanse of human experience and we start to see the connections between all sentient life, between our brothers and sisters everywhere. Said another way, we start to experience love.
This book is about the journey from being stuck to unstuck, from feeling trapped to being free; from compromising our values to living at one with our integrity; from being immersed in thoughts from the past to living in the present. It’s a process and a journey that sometimes starts with a dull ache and other times with acute pain. It’s sometimes motivated by survival needs and other times by the thought, “There’s got to be more than this.” Some people are visited by grace with a mind-opening experience that leads them to realize there is a whole different way to live, and becoming more open and at ease becomes a touchstone for life.
Getting unstuck is not a one-time endeavor because, as the moon waxes and wanes, life’s natural experiences of loss and change repeatedly challenge us to let go, shift our perceptions, and bring new ideas and plans into our lives. A pulsing, flowing life is about letting go in hundreds of ways to allow for something new. Sometimes getting unstuck feels like pushing through fear. Other times it’s more like leaping off a cliff. And still other times you just sit with whatever is going on inside, neither expressing nor repressing it.
Becoming unstuck is about becoming free. My hope in writing this book is to encourage you to explore wherever you feel stuck—bored, scared, protective, petty, exhausted, afraid, or unfulfilled—and to believe you can have a much more satisfying life. You can make both the small, daily changes that will bring more spark and flow into your life and the bigger changes, both internally and externally, that can shift the whole landscape of your existence.
It’s incredibly easy to get stuck in life. Whether we’re just starting out, building a career, nurturing a family, in the throes of falling in or out of love, the increasing pace and pressures of life, economic uncertainty, and the constant seduction to believe that more stuff or more activity equals more happiness can trap us emotionally and financially. And many of us feel trapped not only by the demands of the present but also by the pull of the past. We’ve developed physical patterns of becoming rigid, tense, afraid. We have all kinds of critics and nay-sayers intruding in our minds, fighting against our best intentions and making us feel guilty or inadequate. It’s no wonder that getting unstuck and breaking free can feel like swimming against the current.
People often talk about how hard it is to change. It is and it isn’t. Change requires deep questioning, internal shifts, giving up the known, and often the images of who we think we are. But many acts of change—the small shifts and first steps that can add up to something much bigger—can be surprisingly easy. And not changing is even harder. Think about it. What does it cost you to constantly censor the parts of you that want to stretch, adventure, and express themselves? How does staying in a rut affect your body, heart, and mind? What regrets would you have if today were your last?
So go ahead—let