Why “Guilty Pleasures” are sometimes a sign of Path!
Last Update: January 11, 2015 at 11:22 am
I have to admit, I had a guilty pleasure. I say had because I felt guilty about it in the past, and guilty, because I often felt pretty bad about giving in to the thing I was doing. Back then, I had just left my now ex-husband, I had housework to do, a career to get going and kids who needed my attention. I was studying at the time to be a Mind Clearer–a Spiritual version of a counselor–and was trying to promote MC to have participants to practice on, and also was doing advertising for Spiritual coaching. I had a business plan I needed to write, a vision to put into place. But the business part of the model for me was hard, I always seemed to fall short and I kept finding more Stuart Wilde books, which I would gulp down guiltily whenever I had a free moment.
Sometimes I’d even go sit in a coffee shop with their luxurious stuffed chairs, and really have some glorious me time, as I read books on what fascinated me most.
I was, I admit, a Spiritual Teachings junkie.
It seems funny to me now, to admit I had a “problem” with how many books I was reading. I spent a lot of my free time glued to my books instead of, “doing what I was supposed to be doing”, ie the business part of Life. Sadly enough, the business part of writing copy and putting it out there was so hard for me, I often sat there at the computer, playing a game of Solitaire (because at least I was on the computer), spending hours trying to force myself to bite the bullet and do business copy. I did read some–thus the source of my guilt and pleasure–but I tried to “keep it down” as if I was doing something bad, and kept trying to force the writing for my business.
The funny thing is, the actions I loved so much–reading Stuart Wilde, David Deida, the Dalai Lama or whoever else I came across that fascinated me, or youtubing the you know what out of Stuie–were the very actions that have made me that much greater at my business. Yet since it felt so absolutely incredible (I would grin like a cat at Stuie’s Teachings), since I derived so much sheer and awe inspiring pleasure from various Spiritual works, I felt guilty for “indulging” when I “should be doing other things”. I had a problem, and I had to learn. And what I had to learn was very different than what I thought my lesson was. It wasn’t that I had to stop indulging in my “guilty pleasures” of my favorite Enlightenment books! It was that I was cutting off the source that would support me in taking me to the top of my game. That’s right. I limited my own reading because it felt so good, I failed to realize that what I actually was doing was studying!
Interestingly enough, this can often happen with people who are “right on their Path” but since it feels so good, they honestly think that there must be something wrong. I’ve met budding chef’s who feel guilty for reading the next cookbook, writer’s who feel bad for honing their gifts on fantasy short stories on blogs, or golfer pro’s who spend a little “too much time on the links”. It is that sometimes, “what feels so good must be bad” idea that goes on in peoples heads, or the idea that it is impossible to enjoy so much what we are destined to do with our Life. We think Life must be hard, or that we need to “balance Life out” from what gives us pleasure, to do the other things we “have to get going on”. Of course it is True that we have other things in Life that we need to do too. My little Angels with all their cuteness and glory, obviously needed to be fed, and though it is always true that the more I keep studying, the better I will be, the business aspect still needed to be handled too.
Still, there is a great deal to be said for “indulging” in our “guilty pleasures” when they are things that support our Path in Life. In different cases, even when we feel like we are “not doing what we should be doing” by reading or playing in what we consider to be our pleasure zone, the end results such as in the above cases of my reading Spiritual books, the chef reading a cook book and so forth, are the very factors that can drive us to the top of our field. More knowledge equals more expert and creates a better result. Thus, by “giving in” we can end up being better than we ever thought we could be. As for getting the “business end of it done”? Having more knowledge makes us a better person to “give a great opportunity to”, and can inspire us to get our other work done. A business plan is easier to do when we believe in our Self to get our word out there, than if we are petrified of failing due to a belief that “we don’t know enough to be good at the job”. Funnily enough, gaining the knowledge by “indulging”, which really at the end of the day is actually studying what our career is or will be, will give us the knowledge we are “seeking”, that we fear we “are lacking in”. “Indulging” therefore, will make us better than we ever could have been before.
Life is interesting in terms of what’s good for us, when we stop to look at such things from a different point of view. Many people who are exceptionally interested in their Path simply feel bad for not moving on, yet don’t move on because they fear the way forward will be hard or they’ll be rejected. This point of view, actually ends up creating obstacles by having one not move on, even as one fears they won’t be able to move on by having obstacles in their way later. What they fear, they create in a different form, all because their Path and way forward, just feels so incredibly great, people feel guilty or as if “it must somehow not be real”. What is often “so incredible” to us, is simply a point of view, it means so much to us, because, well, it has a lot of meaning to us. Why do we care so much? Sometimes because it’s our career path even though we have yet to realize it, other times because it will support our emotional health and well being, which can enrich our Life tenfold.
One of the best success secrets to Life is doing what you Love, and the rest will follow.
Enjoy, enjoy, enjoy!
Love Elle
Alternate Thursdays at 11AM PST – ENLIGHTENMENT IN THE CITY WITH Elle Tara – OPEN LINES TODAY – CALL IN FOR GUIDANCE & INTUITIVE COUNSELLING (646) 595 4274 – Elle Tara is a public speaker and a spiritual teacher with many intense formal and “off the beaten path” trainings under her belt. As an enlightenment columnist for over two years, she used humorous life lessons to connect and bring laughter to her readers. Strong yet soft, compassionate with a heart, she lives the consciousness of being feminine with strength. Elle tells it like it is and will dive into the truth about what people don’t like to talk about in the enlightenment realms.