Personal transformation and spirituality

by Cathy Love

Several times over the past few years I have been involved in Simplicity Circles. In this experience, people reflect on an incident in which they were totally happy. They are asked to remember all the details of this incident, including colours, smells, other people involved etc. In sharing these remembered events in small groups, it is experiences of nature, of friendship, of family or of solitude that most catch the imagination. No shopping centres, no pokie machines, no paying off credit cards! People were remembering times of profound happiness.

I run workshops in spirituality, where we explore ways through which we enrich our lives. There is emphasis both on coming to know oneself, and on giving to others. As with the Simplicity Circles, these discussions show over and again that it is nature, family, friends, gardening, solitude, books and creativity that enrich us. Again there is a profound absence of retail therapy.

To me, it’s all about trying to live with integrity. If I am in right relationship with myself, other people and my planet I am more able to live ethically and sustainably. Lao Tzu, in the Tao Te Ching said that "those who are content with contentment shall be content". I like that! I wish I were so content. It ties in with the whole idea of not striving for the sake of one’s ego. Right relationship is about not striving… unless it is the striving needed to achieve right relationship.

One of the rarest things in our culture seems to be simply doing nothing. All those voices, internal and external, tell us to keep producing, keep working, keep achieving. It is so exhausting. Why can’t we just give ourselves and each other permission to stop?

Only then can we get to know ourselves and find out where our deepest gladness is, and how it can mesh with the world’s greatest hunger.