{"id":31775,"date":"2021-05-21T18:17:18","date_gmt":"2021-05-21T18:17:18","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/marnix.nl\/homepage\/welkom\/?p=31775"},"modified":"2021-05-21T18:25:27","modified_gmt":"2021-05-21T18:25:27","slug":"spirituality-lets-keep-it-real","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/marnix.nl\/homepage\/welkom\/2021\/05\/21\/spirituality-lets-keep-it-real\/","title":{"rendered":"Spirituality: let’s keep it real."},"content":{"rendered":"\n

This is for all you spiritual people out there creating posts, stories, podcasts and programs:<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

Let\u2019s keep it real.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Because we don\u2019t, most of the time.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

And I get it.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

I know most of the people who read you or listen to you or watch you or aspire to be you want the fairy tales and the highs and the rushes of hope.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The \u2018My life was a fucking mess for 40 years and now I am happy all the time!!\u2019-stories.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The crunchy \u2018One Insight Changed Everything\u2019-anecdotes.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The \u2018I Wake Up With A Smile As Big As The Grand Canyon Every Single Day\u2019-quotes.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Because they taste really good.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Because optimism and achievement and waking up feels empowering.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

I get all that.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

But the core of most stories is also misleading, or at least unbalanced.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Almost all of them paint a picture that is only partially true, that shines a light on a single part of the equation, that exposes just the highlights.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Like most of what gets posted on Instagram.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

And I believe that to be unfair, and unrealistic, and even unkind.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Time and time again I come across people who feel embarrassed about their perceived lack of spiritual growth, their mediocre state of enlightenment, or the fact that they felt quite good for a while but now are totally confused again.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Most of them know EVERYTHING intellectually, they\u2019ve had glimpses of bliss, but life is still complicated very often.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Because it is.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

(Even though it is technically all made up).<\/p>\n\n\n\n

It really is.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

And I deeply, truly believe we should be honest and open about that.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Life can be really fucking hard, and the spiritual gig is part of life.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

It’s not just a question of ‘Ah, NOW I get it!’, and you’re done.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Most of the time there are DECADES of conditioning and Deep, Deep, Deep convictions and ideas and views that have to be dealt with or seen through or somehow destroyed.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

It’s a pretty big deal, for most people.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

It’s painful, and uncomfortable, and unreliable, and can be really very dark.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

And as long as we keep on selling the idea that it is all Hunky Dory after the insight has hit us (even if we sometimes mention some confusion and agony in between), we\u2019re setting people up for disappointment.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

We shouldn’t.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

I love, LOVE the spiritual journey.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

It has made my life ridiculously fascinating and tantalizingly interesting.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Most of my days are filled with joy and buzzing contentment (although most certainly not all of them).<\/p>\n\n\n\n

But I have struggled a lot, years and years and years, and it took many battles and disappointments to get where I am.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

(Even though it’s all made up, technically.)<\/p>\n\n\n\n

So let\u2019s enjoy the magic of the unfolding.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

And let\u2019s keep it real.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Because it is.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

—<\/p>\n\n\n\n

(Photo by @benwhitephotography for Unsplash)<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

This is for all you spiritual people out there creating posts, stories, podcasts and programs: Let\u2019s keep it real. Because we don\u2019t, most of the time. And I get it. I know most of the people who read you or listen to you or watch you or aspire to be you want the fairy tales […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":31776,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_et_pb_use_builder":"","_et_pb_old_content":"","_et_gb_content_width":""},"categories":[99,97,117,100,116,113,103,112],"tags":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/marnix.nl\/homepage\/welkom\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/31775"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/marnix.nl\/homepage\/welkom\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/marnix.nl\/homepage\/welkom\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/marnix.nl\/homepage\/welkom\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/marnix.nl\/homepage\/welkom\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=31775"}],"version-history":[{"count":2,"href":"https:\/\/marnix.nl\/homepage\/welkom\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/31775\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":31778,"href":"https:\/\/marnix.nl\/homepage\/welkom\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/31775\/revisions\/31778"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/marnix.nl\/homepage\/welkom\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/31776"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/marnix.nl\/homepage\/welkom\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=31775"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/marnix.nl\/homepage\/welkom\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=31775"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/marnix.nl\/homepage\/welkom\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=31775"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}