Losing Interest in Life’s Activities
Question:
Dear Ariel,
As I progress down the spiritual path, it seems that I’m beginning to lose interest in activities I used to be passionate about. It feels almost as if I’m losing interest in things that used to be very important to me. Is this normal? Is anything wrong?
Thanks,
I.
My response:
Hey I,
Don’t worry. This is very normal, a natural part of spiritual growth in fact. There’s nothing wrong with letting go of activities you used to be very interested in as your level of consciousness continues to increase.
It may seem, at least on the surface, that something of value is being lost. What used to be a source of excitement and joy is no longer providing much of value.
What happens is as the ego progressively weakens, it grows less and less attached to external circumstances. As you begin to realize that nothing outside of you will make you happy and that true happiness is only available within, the things you used to be attached to with naturally be let go of on their own.
This is a natural and healthy process. It’s like you’re “growing out of” your old conditioning.
From the external perspective, it often seems like the spiritual aspirant is withdrawing from the world, but that’s not truly what’s happening.
True renunciation is not about going off to meditate on a mountain and escaping the world.
(It can certainly be a very helpful process, however.)
Rather, renunciation is about letting go of all desires and attachments. Renunciation is always in the mind. It’s about turning inward instead of constantly being focused outward.
Eventually this path leads one to totally accepting any and all circumstances. Now, this doesn’t necessarily mean that a person sits back and does nothing, Instead, the choice is made from a place of complete freedom where no matter what happens, the person is already happy and completely fulfilled. From this state, one is truly free to enjoy themselves into the activity and invest their heart and soul fully, without the constant fear of what might happen should they fail.
You can’t struggle your way to joy.
You can only joy your way to joy.
This process of gradually losing interest in the things of this world is a very natural occurrence. It’s part of letting go and going with the flow. Eventually one becomes fully “in this world, but not of it.” At this state, there are no attachments any which way and there is finally a realized state of total freedom and liberation.
At this state of enlightened consciousness, One is free to be or do anything without suffering. This is liberation.
Thanks for your question.
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6 Responses to “Losing Interest in Life’s Activities”
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Hey Ariel,
Yeah man, I’ve been experiencing the same type of letting go. It’s like all the activities that were driven by the ego fall away. All thats left are the activites that come from our true essence; those that we love and that enliven us.
What many people fear when the notion of ‘letting go’ comes up is that they will no longer take any action, when a more accurate way to describe it would be that they simply dont take any action that is going to drain them….which is actually a very more fulfilling way to live.
The way you describe it here is a very straight forward and easy to understand so thanks man
Ryans last blog post..How to Let Go of Any Stressful Thought by Asking These 4 Questions
Ariel Bravy Reply:
September 3rd, 2008 at 11:52 pm
Hey Ryan,
“a more accurate way to describe it would be that they simply dont take any action that is going to drain them”
That’s a great way of looking at it!
Yes, the feeling you describe can be very confusing. Also there is the danger to completely let go of the world we where in before any glimpses of Awakening.
I had several discussions about my drive and spirituality to get clearer about this topic myself.
I heart a podcast from Bill Harris where he said he should have cared about losing his job, when he came in contact with The Now. That is how he sees it now.
Also Adyashanti gave the advise to go along with the live we had before Awakening, just to not fall so much down, that the survival instinct is triggered, which is not really helpful then
Myrko @ AwakeBloggers last blog post..What is The Present Moment?
Ariel Bravy Reply:
September 5th, 2008 at 12:44 am
You’re right Myrko, it can certainly be helpful to “act” like things matter and to play around with life, but to make sure that the sense of attachment never creeps back in.
There does seem to be a need for balance between total disassociation from the world and pretending to be an individual. There’s stories of some enlightened people who so completely let go of the need for survival of the body that they’d just lay around and let bugs crawl all over them.
So yes, balance is key.
This continues to be an interesting thing to me now. I haven’t settled on a new way of being yet. It’s a work in progress! I keep integrating new ways of responding to things. At first, I was worried that I wouldn’t be compassionate enough in my responses to people because everything seemed soooo trivial and I didn’t feel the need to say or do anything. I felt the longing to “go home”!
Not that I withdrew completely. I only said or did what seemed to be required in the moment and I let go and let the cirumstances direct me in that regard. I was worried that I would go as far as to withdraw too much for a while though. Then I just surrendered and trusted that whatever I was drawn to do, or not drawn to do, was the right path (which my friend reminded me of!). That seemed to help immensely and that’s how I’ve continued to go about this living business!
I do have to remind myself now and again also, that everything is as it must be. Because lately I’ve been a little bit caught up in wanting to avoid negativity altoghether, but mostly in terms of my office environment. I can face whatever arises anywhere else, but I feel like I had strived to be in a positive work environment because I know that’s where I spend most of my life, and now there’s a negative influence there and I just want it not to be there! But I do realize that it’s presence is helping me to face further resistance within and release it.
I have been crying a lot lately, like I did before my first awakening experience, and I feel like I’m saying goodbye to everything I’ve been familiar with, the whole illusion. I’m okay with the crying. I’m okay with letting it all dissolve. I’m okay with the dissolution of “me”, even if that is at a physical level.
I had the experience last night of not identifying with form in the mirror. I viewed this form as a product of creation (a beautiful creature) and I cried with compassion for the suffering that it seemingly needlessly put itself through in the illusion before awakening. It was like there was the form, the ego mourning itself, and the silent Self at a distance witnessing both.
Afterwards, I looked at my shadow and felt that I had just viewed my body in the same way. I knew that it moved when “I” moved, but it wasn’t me. Synchronistically, I watched a video on your site today that quoted “this universe is a shadow”!
Love and Joy to you for being on my path!
Ariel Bravy Reply:
February 17th, 2009 at 11:30 pm
Your words deeply resonate with me, Julie. Thank you.