Getting Real about the Fruits of Spiritual Practice

And then, a shining being of light appeared before me. My chakras whirred at 100mph. The world disappeared. All dissolved in bliss. . . NOT!

What do the fruits of consistent spiritual practice really feel like for most of us most of the time? Here are how some Jaya Kula students are experiencing themselves and the world as a result of their sadhana.

1. 1. I’m steadier and calmer now that I sit every day at the same time.
   2. I feel more continuity with life and more interest in what that is like rather than what is happening in my small mind.
   3. I’m more open and able to receive people better, especially at work with employees
   4. The panic/tightness felt during pranayama has diminished.
   5. Lower blood pressure
   6. I feel how I am participating in a real conversation with wisdom.
   7. I realize that my small self is not in charge.
   8. I see how I am being given everything I need to wake up, just the way a seed is given water and nutrients and sun.
   9. I’m grateful for the greater sense of freedom I feel, and the expanded sense of possibility.
   10. I’m more curious about what else is going on here.
   11. I don’t feel so squinched inside my concepts and emotions.
   12. Sometimes, to my total surprise, I even want to be playful. What next??
   13. I feel more at home with my own karma and able to work with it.
   14. More able to roll with the unfolding. Less astonishment at “fate.”
   15. Finally starting to pare away accumulation and acquire less, resulting from seeing my home everywhere (don’t need to bring physical stuff into my home to feel secure).
   16. Less defensive, taking things less personally. Life’s “sting” isn’t so sharp; and even the sharpness is somewhat more enjoyable or digestible.
   17. Less anger
   18. Less impulsive (or better equipped to deal with my impulsiveness)
   19. Learning to surrender ~ be more in tune with nature
   20. Less judgmental (woo hoo!)
   21. Better able to see my karmas ~ more clarity
   22. Feeling more held/more nourished
   23. Eating disorders are falling away
   24. I am grateful for the discipline and consistency that daily practice has brought to my life.
   25. I am grateful for my ability to step out of my reactivity a little quicker in situations with others and relax.
   26. I am grateful for my increased ability to feel rather than think my way through every moment of life.
   27. I can feel cause and effect more in my body.
   28. I’m less reactive and sometimes more able to take responsibility for myself.
   29. I feel more relaxed and spacious.
   30. I have more access to experience outside of concept mind.
   31. I can sometimes have genuinely pleasant, open conversations with my mother.
   32. I am grateful for being able to see, love, connect and care about others more—for being less narcissistic.
   33. I am grateful for having a feeling of finding my home/purpose.
   34. I am grateful for a community that is moving, together, in the same direction.
   35. My brain is getting rewired: I am not at the mercy of automatic behaviors as much.
   36. I am listening better, and not barging in.
   37. Much more ready to let people be as they are while appreciating them.
   38. I am certain folks in my circles are grateful!
   39. When I know I should let go of something, sometimes I actually can.
   40. Helps me to grow when I don’t like what is happening.
   41. I feel my relationships softening and getting easier, enjoying people more.
   42. I feel more comfortable being myself and being honest about what that is.
   43. I am less wrapped up in my reactions to things.
   44. I feel lighter.
   45. Softens my tendency to worry what other people think about me.
   46. More capacity to ‘shut up’ and NOT speak – the capacity to pause.
   47. A greater capacity to host other people in a relaxed way (at least more relaxed than before).
   48. Increased attentiveness to my real condition or what’s really going on.
   49. A little softening.
   50. Slowing down the reactivity and being able to slide out of it a bit more gracefully, at least some of the time.
   51. Remembering connection to big self a bit more often, a bit easier.