You know
For a lot of people (myself included)
I think that getting better goes against our spirituality
And when I say spirituality, i mean anything from your literal religion to simply the programmed mental guidelines and chatter that run through your head (even through your subconscious)
You see, a lot of us were taught one way or another that life is about struggle
That life consists of a daily trod through the muck and mire of human weaknesses and difficulties
If you grew up in a more religious context, you might have heard a lot of talk about "sin"
How all of our faults and problems and innate badness present an ever present problem to fight against
You know what I find particularly problematic about that way of seeing things?
It's that it creates a mental framework for life where a person can only be doing it right, can only be true to their beliefs, if they are perpetually struggling with a problem
And not just any problem
Specifically there must be an ongoing struggle with the problem of themself
Their human weakness
Their psychological issues
Their sin
If you have been trained that this is the standard of excellence
Then you know what simply doesn't fit in the picture?
Getting better.
Yes change, transformation, improvement, overcoming - all of these things have no place in the struggler's handbook for daily living
Because they take away the one thing that is required to do life right:
Struggle.
So what ends up happening is that the very problems that we lament end up being our most prized possessions
And our daily habit of hating them, and resisting them and whining about them is like a spiritual practice
So if you haven't been able to kick a habit that you've been struggling with
It might be time to ask what purpose it is serving for you on a subconscious level
Your depression, your anxiety, your alcoholism, your over-eating, your rage, etc.
Maybe they make you feel like you are fulfilling your purpose or living the way you are supposed to on a deep level.
And then once you really see that
Maybe it's time to disregard your poor little mind that has been programmed to chase its tail in circles
Creating a problem and then desperately trying to "fix" it in the form of hatred and resistance
I don't know about you, but my mind would have me wallowing in fruitless struggle until my very last breath
But that isn't what I'm here for
And it's not what you are here for either
Maybe its time for a new spirituality
Photo by Jared Rice on Unsplash