Ignoring Openings

I am hitting walls. Things don’t feel right. What’s going on? 

Openings Are Invitations 

An answer is usually expected when we receive an invitation and a choice is upon us. That’s true with Openings as well – they show up and invite us in. Although sometimes our intentions attract Openings to us, we do not control their nature or the timing of when they appear. They  come on their own and they ask for our response. When we see an Opening before us, best we pay attention and figure out what we will do – enter or choose not to enter.

Openings are essential elements of our life journeys. They are made just for us and the choice of whether to enter them is ours alone. They move us forward by offering opportunities to grow and learn. They come in various forms – an insight, a dramatic change, a person we meet, an expansion or contraction in our life or a new opportunity. An Opening can be related to mind, body, emotions or spirit.

Openings are real and we are pretending if we convince ourselves that they are not there. Why would we convince ourselves that an Opening that has come to us is not there? We may have some fear of the Opening. We may not want to go where it is inviting us. We may not feel up to moving forward. We may be discouraged by life and not have faith in the Opening. We may want to stay where we are, because it feels safer.

Turning Away

Many of us have turned away from Openings that have come to us. The point here is for us to realize that turning away, abdicating our choice and acting as if the Opening is not there, does not serve us in any way. In fact, it harms us and slows down our journey significantly. Openings appear so that we can address them. We have the freedom to choose and do not have to say yes to them. We just need to acknowledge them.

Avoiding Openings stalls our journey and, in time, sends us backwards. Openings are part of the rhythm of our lives. When we disrupt that rhythm, our lives get out of sync and we can lose our way. Life is meant to be dynamic, not static. When life is stalled, it gets backed up, becomes unfulfilling and we lose our vitality. Our minds, emotions and physical bodies respond in negative ways, if we turn away and ignore multiple Openings, staying in place.

It is the movement involved in addressing Openings that matters. Being in movement serves us. Even when we say no to an Opening we are in movement. That no is a choice and moves our life in a certain direction. Ignoring Openings keeps us stagnant. There’s not much movement involved. Our inaction compounds itself and impacts our lives in negative ways. There is little stimulation and we are restless without knowing why.

A Tangled Web

Ignoring too many Openings is a tangled web that we ourselves weave. It gets complicated and complex and, many times, we don’t know we are weaving it. Ignoring Openings can be rooted in our deep subconscious. We may truly not see an Opening because we have developed protective mechanisms that we think are keeping us safe but, are sabotaging our growth and our happiness.

By ignoring Openings, we are “falling asleep” in a way. We are asleep to our responsibility to see our lives as they are and deal with any part of our lives that is not working for us. We are denying ourselves opportunities to grow, learn and live in joy and, instead, are staying where we are long after it is useful to us. This creates negative thoughts and emotions and can affect our physical health.

When we ignore Openings we are standing in our own way. Ignoring Openings is not a natural state and doing so has consequences. Life begins not to work. We experience frustration and cannot find our way out. We disconnect from those around us, either by our own negativity or by seeing them as the source of our dissatisfaction. We begin to see our lives in a narrow and limiting way. We may even deny that we have choice in our lives to enter Openings and feel trapped.