The Gift of Learning

So Personal Growth and Spiritual Development is messy!

I do not know how many times on my path and journey I have felt like the proverbial snow globe – all shaken up, unsettled and unnerved.

A word, discombobulation comes to my mind, front and center to describe there feelings. Until I embarked upon my own introspective Soul Search, it had no relevance for me. It wasn’t until I understood the deep meaning of this in the context of choosing to learn, to grow and to realize my deep inner knowing and that this was and is a prerequisite for me to access my inner and intuitive knowing as I experienced and get to experience more of the me and the potential of me that my God has created me to be.

We have been hoodwinked to follow the structures, the rules laid out for us from the time we entered into kinder garden. We were taught. In examining the Gift of LEARNING, in my frame of reference there is an important contrast between training and learning. In my view training / teaching is something that someone does to and or for you such as a teacher and skills trainer. Just because training or teaching has taken place, does not mean to say that learning has. I can hear the critics of conventional education damning this statement as heresy and I may be black and white, for effect.

Learning, I have come to discover, is an internal process and in particular is something that transforms and gives us access to that inner knowing, to our heart center and our intuition. For decades, these have been bandied about as so called soft skills. Believe me there is nothing soft about that inner discombobulation when going through a cycle of unlearning old paradigms that I have held about myself. In fact those cycles have probably the most difficult challenges that I have experienced and anyone who labels this as ‘soft’ clearly has not ventured too deeply into doing ‘the work’.

Learning is magical. If we have forgotten this, simply watch children learn as they immerse themselves in their natural curiosity and wonder in the world around them. We get annoyed at their insistence of always wanting to know why; we shut them down due to the pressures we are under where we don’t have time to enter into the magic of learning in their enchanting, imaginative and wonder-filled space of Be-I-Ng fully engaged and in the present. And then, that innate capacity for learning from experience is dulled, our inner light turned low and sometimes almost off, as we are taught to conform to the views that others, society have in store for us.

We are taught not to rock the boat, to conform, to follow and pursue the careers that are very often that which, with all the love in their hearts, others seek out for you. We pursue lives of being taught what to think. There is very little latitude for the wonder of learning how to think and to embrace all of learning with the wide-eyed wonder and curiosity of a child. For most of us, we have shut down our capacity to learn.

In all my years of working in adult learning, my least favorite forms of educating adults was in the area of skills development. Don’t get me wrong, knowing how to code; to serve others, to create spreadsheets and balance books; to administer first aid as are all of the other so called hard skills necessary I do however believe that we have missed the boat In harnessing learning, our own and from others, as a means for that inner transformation that allows us to access our truth. That magic that comes from learning from discovering, from being brave enough to make mistakes and to reflect upon them to see what worked, what didn’t and what we can change in Be-Coming an expanded version of ourselves.

Our society and the world is so programmed around accolades, perfectionism that seem to be the main measure of success – are they really?

Does not the way we show up as an authentic, caring, compassionate human Be-I-Ng who embraces who they are as a gift of service to the world, who allows themselves to risk, to ‘fail’ matter more?

I have come to know that there is no such thing as failure, only learning – and to learn I need to be prepared to get into the messy; to become the shaken snow globe, to experience the discombobulation – because that is when I know for sure that the learning is happening, and that the growth and expansion is taking place. How can I expect to access more of my hidden depths without releasing myself from all that held me captive from truly Be-I-Ng and living my Truth?  

And… as the snowflakes settle in the snow globe, I wait, I reflect, I open my heart to experience the fullness of who I Am in all my glory and all my mess. I look for the b-lessons and I stand back in wonder and gratitude at those who have been ‘teachers’ – those who have presented me with situations, circumstances and relationships that have all served me as I have peeled away the veils and shrouds behind which the real me has hidden in the mistaken illusion of needing to feel safe and secure.

Today I know without question that the only way to feel safe and secure is in my inner knowing and in my Truth – Our Truth truly does set us free. That Truth can only be accessed by embracing the Gift of Learning who I truly Am. Maybe, just maybe as you too peel away the veils of the illusions that surround you and keep you from your real Truth, as you learn to embrace the beautiful Soul you are on every level of expression, as you learn to Be from your heart center, your will come to that place of inner knowing that learning allows for you to set yourself free.