When I meditated this morning I heard humanity whisper. I heard cries and concerns and demands for happiness. I heard a slightly accusatory impatience. Why hasn’t it happened yet, why haven’t I achieved this or that. Why don’t I have what I want?  Why did this happen to me? I want this! I need this! I desire this now! I want everything to be different. I want it to be what the way I want it.

I twirled around there for a while experiencing it fully, noticing how it had operated since time immemorial, how it had operated in my own life and in others’.

Then I saw how extremely brief a lifespan is. I saw it wasted on so many unnecessary things and misunderstandings, when there is only one thing that matters.

LOVE of course – which we already have! We were born with it. It’s always with us. Nothing else matters. Nothing.

Feel it in your heart.

I let go, went deeper and started to feel embraced by the sweetest love, the deepest love and my heart cracked open a little bit and I rested there.

I felt like we were all little children busy with securing pleasure and eliminating discomfort. It’s nothing wrong with that but I also saw our extreme lack of perspective, our clinging to things and people. I saw our desire for appearing successful and happy, even to the cost of BEING successful and happy. And I felt love. I was engulfed in love. Love ran in my veins.

My heart grew and softened. 

I saw our anger at the world for not being the way we want. I saw our anger at ourselves for not being the way we want.

I saw it because for a moment I wasn’t in it. I was out of it. Out of the world and out of myself. Yet completely in it all.

In that sphere there were no questions at all. Only rest and stillness. There was no need to solve any problems because there were no problems. Everything was just the way it should . Even though I personally wished for at least some things to be different :-) everything was still just as it should.

Here is a brief translation of what was largely a wordless experience:

(Try to read each line three times slowly and notice how you feel!)

Nothing needs to be different.
There is no need to fix anything.
There is no need to prove anything
There is no need to control anything or anyone
I am complete the way I am
I don’t need approval or validation
I am completely free
Nothing sets me apart
We are one
I am infinitely loved

What did you feel? (Feel free to share it in the comments below or privately here)

I am falling deeper and deeper in love! May I never stop falling! I’m inviting you to fall with me.

Daily life is full of demands. Things we have to do. And then there are the shoulds on top of that. You know, all the things you think you have to do, think, feel, accomplish in order to be a successful human being.

Sometimes people look up from the pile of shoulds and ask themselves why?

Why do I have to be good looking, thin, wealthy, active, successful, social etc?

Sometimes these questions lead to real change and you start making new priorities. That’s great!

But the funny thing is that very often those shoulds don’t go away. They just take on another form. Sometimes it gets even worse than it was before.

Before, you knew you weren’t perfect but now that you have turned your life around you think you must be perfect. After all you made lots of great changes and now you have to show people that you are not the same anymore.

But sometimes the alternative support you may have found isn’t as solid as it looks. The other day I read a spiritual leader that said: “Your life should be blissful and sparkling. It should not just be okay.”

I made me angry. It’s probably meant to encourage people to look within but most people will only hear that they are expected to be blissful.

From there it’s easy to start thinking:  “Am I blissful enough? Is my life really sparkling? Gosh, what if my life is just okay? I should…”

Here we go again.

I don’t have anything against a sparkling, blissful life. It sure sounds wonderful. But I also don’t have any thing against an okay life. What’s wrong with that? The demand that life has to be extraordinary is not helping anyone be happy. Human life will ALWAYS consist of ups and downs. When there are no more ups and downs you have to check –because you might be dead.

Here are a few example of shoulds that spiritual people put on themselves:

I should be blissful. I should only feel happy feelings. I should never be angry. I should shine from within. I should always be forgiving. I should be a good example. I should be a vegetarian. I should not drink alcohol. I should only eat very healthy food. I should do yoga or some other spiritual exercise. I should at least be thin and look like I do yoga. I should meditate every day. I should be enlightened. I should be good at being spiritual. I should be more spiritual than my neighbor.

The saddest part is when people feel they can live up to all of that and they start to pretend! Then everything is lost. It’s better to be an honest failure than a fake success.

But speaking in terms of failure and success is really old world. Don’t bring it with you into the new!

Seriously, people. Just be. Don’t fall for the spiritual shoulds. Be as you ARE! You are absolutely wonderful the way you are, warts and all. Don’t try to be perfect. Just try to be the way you are. Just try.

You are human and you are amazing.