Stretching Your Spiritual Muscles - September 26

What happens when you’re invited to step into your spiritual growth? In today’s 5 Minutes in Nature, Liz reflects on the inevitable discomfort that arises as she develops spiritually in the world. She’s reminded of the soreness that follows a workout at the gym—an ache that signals growth. In the same way, Liz realises that exercising her spiritual “muscles” for the first time will bring discomfort, just like the physical strain after a gym session.

Transcript

Hello and welcome to five minutes in nature with me Liz Scott and well I'm not in nature today you can probably hear it I'm actually inside looking out onto nature or at least onto my back garden there is a thick mist that has descended and with it rain and wind and dampness and I'm watching the rain drip off my roof into puddles on the paving slabs and I will be going out very soon I don't mind walking in the rain it's just that it's really hard to record in these sorts of conditions outside so today I'm recording inside bracing myself for a wet walk and today's reflection is all about stepping into spiritual growth it's something I've been reflecting on recently I just wanted to share it in today's conversation so what do I mean by stepping into spiritual growth if you've been following me for a little while you'll know that for the past two years I feel like I've been on a personal and spiritual journey I've been looking inwards I went on a pilgrimage I've been closing one of my businesses and reflecting on how and what I want to be doing in the world and in recent weeks and months I've felt this surge of new fresh creative energy emerge and there's a sense although I don't know what it looks like yet I'm getting a sense that something is forming within me that is being created that spiritually and psychologically I'm going to be stepping into as I move forward in my life don't know what it is exactly but I kind of feel the sort of gentle excitement of something arising within me and with spiritual growth because it will involve growth if I'm stepping into something fresh and new there is likely to be challenge and discomfort because I guess what I realize is that there is no real growth and learning without an element of discomfort take it physically you can see this really clearly I went to the gym recently it's the first time I've been in years and years and I wanted to work out my upper body so my legs are strong and my lungs are good my heart is good but I am an older woman and it's really important when you get older to increase bone density and you can do that through exercise I wanted to spend a bit of time building up my upper body and I've just started the gym not my favorite activity I much prefer to walk but it's important and I realize I've got to do it and when I came back from the gym and for the last couple of days I have felt a bit of achiness in my muscles and when I was at the gym I realized I was being asked to use muscles that I just haven't used in ages so these were muscles that just habitually I wouldn't use from day to day and I know I've used them because now as I stand here looking out on that misty murky day I can feel aches in my shoulders and my upper arms aches that I haven't felt for years and in the same way that I feel physical discomfort when I'm challenged to use muscles that I haven't used for a while so I know that moving forward I will inevitably experience discomfort and challenge as I step into new spaces and explore new spaces particularly if they are nudges from my intuition so nudges to engage or be in the world or to share in the world in a way that maybe is different than I'm used to and one of the things I also learned from going to the gym is that whilst I was asked by the gym instructor who took the class whilst I'm going to be asked to do things which are a bit unusual for me to do and I was you know doing things I wouldn't normally do I'm all that's happening is I am engaging muscles that are already there it's something I'm able to do it's not beyond my capabilities it's things I'm being asked to do physically which I have absolute capacity to do it's just that I have habitually not done it for some time and in the same way I kind of get this sense as I step into this new phase for me of spiritual growth of engagement in the world I will be asked to use spiritual muscles that I just don't habitually use and invariably with that will come some discomfort so today's reflection is just a realization that as I step into spiritual growth there is likely to be a bit of discomfort in the same way as when I go to the gym I feel a little bit of achiness in my muscles and a little bit of physical discomfort