Best-selling author Caroline Myss is famous for her inspirational books Sacred Contracts (Three Rivers Press, 2001) and Why People Don’t Heal and How They Can (Three Rivers Press, 1997). Myss has also been described as a gifted pioneer in the field of energy medicine/chakras and a spiritual leader, but don’t tell her that. Myss laughs at the gifted description, “It’s really just that I’m so-ooo opinionated. Primarily, I think of myself as a teacher and a writer in the field of human consciousness.” What’s most important to Myss’s teachings today? “I think there is an intense desire people have for making an authentic and deeper contact with their soul.” Below Myss answers questions about how we can get in deeper touch with ourselves and achieve balance through inner spiritual practice.
HL&S: What’s the simplest way to start a spiritual practice?
Myss: Let’s just start with basic ground level stuff. Spiritual practice starts with self-awareness and accountability. That’s number one. Number two is to stop focusing on yourself. We’ve made spirituality the most narcissistic game in town. True spiritual life is riding the paradox between one eye on yourself and one eye on the other. We forgot the other eye, it’s my needs, my health, my time, my quality time, my, my, my, my, my! We’re obsessed with ourselves! The truth is we need very little, but we want a lot. It’s an attitudinal shift we need to go through.
HL&S: How do you make that shift?
Myss: Through raw, honest, self-awareness. It starts with how you see yourself and asking questions like have I created a hyper-sensitive, demanding ego? What is it that I actually believe and where is it that I am actually living? For example, am I really forgiving, and if I’m not, what are the excuses that I use to get away with that? How manipulative am I?
HL&S: It’s important to be self-aware, but we shouldn’t beat ourselves up over our imperfections, right?
Myss: Precisely. Stop shooting for perfection. The whole goal is to learn to live within your flaws and imperfections consciously and not run away from your shadow because then all you do is indulge your weaknesses. So take a look at when you’re being manipulative or dishonest or anything and own that. What you want to do is simply maintain a conscious effort of balance per day. And in that balance, you want to bring integrity, honesty, and the absence of fear to your life.
HL&S: One of your latest works, Caroline Myss’ Journal of Inner Dialogue (Hay House Publishing, 2003), can help us with this process.
Myss: Oh yeah, because it makes you work. Inner balance doesn’t happen because you want it. You’ve got to do the action. You’ve got to take the time to journal. Journaling is essential to the inner life. You’ve got to take the time for introspection. And that book is filled with questions for introspection.
HL&S: Besides the suggestions you’ve offered here, how do you personally achieve inner balance in your daily lifestyle?
Myss: I do a lot of walking. I know that I need to have a lot of alone time “I wish that I didn’t need as much because it’s not always the easiest thing to get to do. I also need to create on a daily basis. My greatest stress comes from an overactive, creative mind. I can’t stop it; the way for me to stay in balance is to let my mind express itself. I have your ordinary, quiet social life. I don’t do huge parties, I don’t do a wild night life. I see a lot of my family, a lot of my friends. And at the end of the day, every evening, I go through a gratitude list . . . I’m grateful for my everything; my hands, my legs, my face, my experiences, I can see, my eyesight. When I get in the shower, I think I’m grateful for fresh water, “I’m not kidding you”, my everything!
By Jill Daniel
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