09/09/2026
Inward Balance - Today's Pause
YOUR AWAKENING ISN’T MY ASSIGNMENT
No offenses are intentionally being made here, and none have landed either. That's the cool thing about living.
I'd like to address something in the form of a few questions and observations, with hopes we can have some intellectual exchanges for the greater good.
The title of this essay may sound a bit harsh, but it keeps coming up across these platforms we are all tuned into.....
This question has kinda been simmering:
What happens when a personal awakening has loudly turned into personal authority over everyone else?
If we as a community can understand a few of the same things that are rooted in free-wiil, like: faith, spirituality, healing, awakening, recovery, grief, growth – shouldn't we then regard these attributes as deeply individual roads and paths that we are each traveling?
Is that common sense, or a basic understanding of the human experience?
This is a legit ask, and not a passive aggressive comment.
I think people can have profound experiences with religion, prayer, meditation, sobriety, therapy, yoga, career, nature, education, stillness, sound, or something entirely different.
These experiences can be completely real, sacred and life-changing without becoming a prescription for everybody else.
Isn't that fair to say?
Ya found it. Foster it. Live it. Live it, for you.
Following God and Jesus – beautiful.
Practicing Hinduism, Islam, Judaism, Catholicism, Mormonism or another spiritual and religious traditions – beautiful.
Breathing Spirit in the mountains, beside the water, in meditation, in music, in silence and stillness – beautiful.
Agnostic, Philosophical and Mindfulness is a practice to withhold judgments until verifiable proof - beautiful.
There's lotsa beauty in this world, but when someone is claiming "this changed my life and it will change yours." Those comments become judgy preachings like:: "if you aren't doing this too, you must be asleep or disconnected, unhealed, or a snowflake," - well then clearly, something has shifted in remembering WE ALL have that wonderful gift called, free-will.
Those comments don't really scream spiritual awakening anymore - but rather viewed and received as spiritual superiority with a hint of too much spiritual ego.
Is that fair to say?
There is a difference between inviting people to bear witness and instructing people to mirror me, mirror me, mirror me.....
Inspiring is beautiful - shaming is hurtful.
As a collective, we don't have to diminish another person's path to demonstrate the beauty of our own, do we?
I think social media has blurred that line.
Being given a platform doesn't make us an authority over another person's spiritual journey or their lifestyle.
Share what awakened YOU. Share what healed YOU. Share what brought YOU closer to God, Spirit, Source, Life & Light in this big beautiful world.....
Revelations belong to each one of us, individually, and maybe one of the greatest signs of genuine spiritual growth is humility.
Yes, the profound truth of humility is understanding that there is still so much we don't know, and allowing another human being the sacred space to find their own way, just as you are finding yours.
I've had to learn this several times over, and am still a student of the line: "Live your beliefs more loudly than you announce them,"
Perhaps the greatest evidence of what we believe isn't how loudly we proclaim it – but how gently we live it.
Maybe.
If you wanna share your thoughts, I bet we could all benefit from several points of view.....
-slj
❤🌻❤
Art by: Think Care Believe
"Prayer of Gentle Mercies"
Please follow my page: Inward Balance - McCall Idaho
