Tag: College Spirituality

Away from home for the very first time this year, has been an experience. It has been a time of a lot of change, and people trying to change me.  For this year, is the first time I have had the following told to me:

I can’t do this.

I don’t deserve to be here.

I shouldn’t have even thought that I ever had a chance.

Before this year, I had never faced so much difficulty from the world on the physical, mental, social, emotional or spiritual level.

I’ve learned that when it comes to really being out on your own, you don’t have all the answers. You don’t always know what the best choice is. You don’t even have the slightest idea of how you are going to survive this, if you survive at all. And you can’t listen to everyone else.

For the first time, I have lived with uncertainty. That accumulated into insecurity. That accumulated into anxiety. That accumulated into the worst of them all: fear.

At first, I tried looking for security in other people. I’ve looked for support in others to prop me up, to get through these times. But, at the end of the day, there’s only one person that’s going to get you through it all:

YOU.

When I realized this, I knew that if I was going go on this journey, I was going to have to do it on my own two feet. I had to support myself. I had to look to myself in times of trouble.

I had to believe in myself.

With no doubt. With no disbelief. I had to devote myself to knowing that I CAN DO THIS. I had to fully recognize that I TRUST MYSELF to be able to get through anything that came my way. And, if all these things are coming from the universal plane and entering my physical plane, then I realized I also had to START BELIEVING IN THE UNIVERSE.

For belief in yourself is just an extension of belief in the universe.

We all know and have been told that things happen for a reason. But do we really believe it? For a very, very, very long time, I thought I understood this. But when I saw what happens when you don’t, I’ve realized just how very important this statement is. Even if it seems like whatever obstacles you are facing will set you back, they were sent directly to you to send you directly forward. Once I saw that EVERYTHING THAT ENTERS MY LIFE IS HERE TO PROGRESS MY ONENESS AND AWARENESS, life changed.

With only the greatest trust in the universe, I have become more spiritually aware than I ever have before. As hard, as challenging, and as difficult as this has been, I am grateful that this has, by its own means, brought me closer to Being than anything else could ever have. I now understand so much more about the human experience: love, loss, pain, grief, fear, sorrow, and determination.

So yes, this year, I’ve stumbled. I’ve tripped.

But I’ve gotten right back up.  And I keep going on.

With love for the universe, and love for myself, I now understand far more about the wonderful experience and incredible journey called life. We, in the grandest of sense, are here to experience it all, even if it hurts more than can be handled, even if it’s harder than deemed possible. But when we experience it, we become more connected to ourselves and to each other on levels we can’t even fathom.

Once we recognize this, we start to see the greatness in ourselves. And once we see that, we are the miracles that we wish for. For belief, at the end of the day, is what separates a good life from a full life.

As long as you have your belief in whatever you are passionate about, in whatever you know to be, and in the very essence of you, you have what it takes. Now go out there and show it.

(Lauren Rourk is a Feature Editor at The Global Conversation and attends Purdue University in West Lafayette, IN. She can be contacted at Lauren@TheGlobalConversation.com)

In life, we grow. We grow to learn things about the world, about each other, and about ourselves. Sometimes, most of the time, we don’t like to learn these things. But, for seeing them as what they were, what they are, and what they can be is what makes all the difference.

*Note: I know that everything is comparative in experience. I know that what may seem challenging now will be looked back on as the easiest thing I’ve ever had to get through in my life. But….I know that I’m not the only one going through this. I’m certainly not the first one to go through it. And I’m definitely not the last one.*

So what I have grown through in the past few months…

I’ve started that “all-too-real” reality of growing up. Through it all, I’ve begun to see people worked, hard and tirelessly, beyond their limits. People, who were kids, get beaten down by a system that doesn’t care and won’t care. And as a result of this system, I see people losing themselves. I see them being told to believe that they can’t be their greatest version of themselves, that because they have failed they don’t deserve to be the grandest vision of themselves.

And why? Because it’s not enough. And it will never be enough. No matter how much time, how much effort, how much energy we put into what we are doing. When we are feeding a system, we are NOT creating anything, we are NOT exerting our divine godness and goddessness into the core of our actions.

And so, many enter the survival stage. Because all their time and energy is consumed into this seemingly endless stream of work, many just go for maintaining what is. Their dreams seem too grand, too great for them to ever even dream of achieving. Like a candle being snuffed out, these dreams get suffocated by the darkness of inadequacy. Looking only forward to the next submission, they lose sight of the big picture, the great design, the grand illusion.

We lose sight of the universe within us, and the potential for us to be everything in that universe.

When focused in soo small, we lose ourselves to our physical form – the form bounded by the laws of time, space, pain, and fear. The physical body and the physical mind are linked in the fear of inadequacy, failure, and disappointment. Limited by the hours of the clock and the length of the path, our physical bodies can only do so much. And so, we feel as though we can only do so much.

But….we can be more. Because, we are way, way more than this form.

We are gods. We are infinite beings. We are pure light itself.

Stepping back, looking at the grand canvas of the universe, is what transcends us from the physical form to the spiritual form. We are the artists, we are the architects, we are the designers of WHAT, and HOW we experience life itself. Life transforms itself into so much we only can do. If we remember Who We Truly Are, then we are awakened out of the haze of quiet desperation felt by so many around us.

The nature of what we experience will NOT change. But, Who We Are experiencing it and How We Are experiencing it will. When seen in such a greater perspective, we remove our dis-ease : our worries, our anxieties, our fears. The journey is challenging – but it doesn’t need to be a struggle. Stepping back and stepping out of consument opens ourselves to greater success. This success could be in school, in relationships, in meditation, or whatever you may be aspiring or pursuing.  Remember: no picture is small enough to not include your dream.

Inevitably, we will all grow as the days, months, and years roll past. But, the choice of growing down into the depths of our fears or growing up into the light of Oneness remains entirely up to us. We can join the masses in the continual cycle of work, fear, worry, work. Or, we can remember our higher selves, our deeper selves, to remind us of how life can be enjoyed instead overstressed.  By becoming Who We Truly Are, there is no such thing as deserving or adequacy. There is life as a creative force, and as the creative dream.  Step forward, and step up to your freedom from your mental suffocations. The time is now, the life is now, the choice is NOW.

(Lauren Rourk is a Feature Editor at The Global Conversation and attends Purdue University in West Lafayette, IN. She can be contacted at Lauren@TheGlobalConversation.com) 

Your Name Will Be Forgotten, But your life will never be.

Your Trophy Will Rust, But your esteem will remain completely stainless.

Your Resume Will Yellow, But your growth will go far beyond the page.

Your Job Will Be Cut, But your worth will forever increase in value.

Your Bank Account Will Empty, But your abundance will still flow from you.

Your House Will Crumble, But your heart will ever welcome friends and strangers alike.

Your Lover Will Leave, But your soul mates will resonate your love forever.

Your Body Will Decay, But your youth will spring ever ahead.

Your Brain Will Slow, But your mind will ceaselessly sharpen with wit.

Your Hands Will Wrinkle, But your touch will be felt through the generations.

Your Career  Here Will End, But your journey of the spirit will begin anew every day.

Your Worldly State Will Be Forgotten, But your being will always be remembered.

Your life makes the difference, Now and Always.

Happy Holidays!

(Lauren Rourk is a Feature Editor at The Global Conversation and attends Purdue University in West Lafayette, IN. She can be contacted at Lauren@TheGlobalConversation.com)

The first of December. ‘Tis the season for college and high school realizing that they might just survive first semester. As this is truly a great accomplishment, I congratulate all of you for bringing more light and awareness into the world.  

But, with the end of the term, and the beginning of another, it’s time for a moment of reflection. To see where you are at, and where you desire to be.  

So now, looking back at your first semester, think to yourself:

“Do I like what I see in my life???”

If the answer is NO, then be comforted by one thought alone:

You, right now, completely have the ability to change that answer to a YES.   

On some level, whether it be the conscious, sub-conscious, or unconscious, you have manifested everything that has come into your life. Your friends, your ‘enemies’; everything has come directly to you from your highest intentions of who you are. Whatever you are “seeing” in your life right now, is something that you have chosen. Since this is a choice, you possess the ability to change your choices, and change your reality. Impossible? Not with the Law of Attraction.

In the New Age Movement, the Law of Attraction is a very simple statement with an incredibly powerful message: like energies attract like energies. Proven scientifically through the incredible capacity of the brain’s neurological systems, it has been found that energies surrounding thoughts, emotions, and actions can mirror and intensify itself over time.  If you devote enough energy on a certain topic, object, or state of mind, it will be created in your direct reality.

In the most causal sense, the Law of Attraction is putting a mirror of yourself to the world. If you are sending out negative energy into the world, then that is exactly what you will receive back.

So…what is manifested inwardly is also manifested outwardly. If you don’t like what you see on the outside, start to look at inwards at what YOU are sending out to the world. If you demonstrate hate-driven or fear-driven thoughts and behavior, then you are going to attract even more hate-driven and fear-driven behavior into your life.

As the Law of Attraction does not only apply to thoughts, but also to people, the same message still applies: positive thoughts bring positive people. For whatever type of people you wish to bring into your life, you must BE that person internally. If you desire to attract ambitious and motivated people in your life, you must first BE that ambitious and motivated person. If you desire to attract easy-going and fun-loving people in your life, you must first BE that easy-going and fun-loving person. Because once you feel it, everyone else will too. Simple as that.  

With the end of the first semester and the beginning of second semester, we will all soon be getting new schedules and new perspectives. If you do want to see “something new” and “something better”, then, with the Law of Attraction, you CAN choose to make it happen. To attract that state, be IN that state. People WILL notice that energy, and they WILL be attracted to you. If you like your life, others will too. And then the whole world is just that much better next semester.

(Lauren Rourk is a Feature Editor at The Global Conversation and attends Purdue University in West Lafayette, IN. She can be contacted at Lauren@TheGlobalConversation.com)