Spiritual Amnesia – It’ll Bite Us Every Time!

Flossing my teeth is something I often forget to do. It seems when I remember, ‘Gee, I must floss,’ it’s often been a fortnight since I did. The dental technician at the dental practice I attend twice yearly has been quite forthright in lauding the benefits of flossing, especially to prevent gingivitis.

It seems I’m a bit of a slow learner. But, there’s a truth here for everyone—most people it seems struggle to implement new habits. And this can be due mostly to a sort of spiritual amnesia.

Take your fitness, for instance. How many aber-cisers have there been on the market over the years—selling by the millions—and only used for a week or two and then they find their quiet way eventually to the shed, attic or basement. We don’t take kindly to instituting good habits. It doesn’t come naturally.

And this is because we’re basically forgetful. We get inspired to change; we engage in it for a week or two with full intensity... we think we’re there; ‘FINALLY,’ we say. But it’s at this point that we then seem to drop our guards somehow.

The focus slips from the conscious radar and eventually into oblivion, when most of all we wanted (needed) to create the conscious habit at the subconscious level.

Giving up smoking and junk food to diet is the same thing. We forget why we’re doing it. Sure, we can remember at the conscious mind level why we’re doing these things but the emergent heart power, the power of drive for change, evaporates over time if we don’t carefully maintain it.

And we can carefully maintain our heart purpose to do these things by putting routines in that will assist us to remember and not forget. It’s vital that this positive power is tapped into. If we relinquish this vital power we’re apt to stumble and fall. It’s happened to me seemingly thousands of times!

Groundhog Day, reminiscent of the 1993 movie, is a horrible experience. When we finally remember what we were doing the change for, when it’s too late, when we’ve fallen off the wagon so-to-speak, we’re at that demoralising square one yet again. It’s maddening.

Retaining the power over our own lives (and habits) is dependent on the ability to remember; to recall the purpose in what we’re doing, and to do this at a truly heart, visceral, i.e. spiritual level.

Spirituality, hence, is the key to life change and growth.