#1. The power of grace.
I was very foolish when I was young because I thought I was smart.
I found out the hard way that humility was the path to wisdom. And that believing you know it all gives you a fixed and self-destructive mindset.
I also discovered many other things during these last 20 years. Things that I believe can save a lot of unpleasantness for someone like me in my 20s who doesn’t believe in spirituality.
That’s why I want to share with you three spiritual lessons I have learned in my forties but would have liked to have known in my twenties to save a lot of suffering.
Let’s start.
1. The power of grace
According to theology, grace can be defined as a gift or favor the universe/God gives you without you even deserve it.
In my case, it was the gift of the word.
A gift to which I did not give any importance in my 20s, and if I had done so, I would surely be infinitely more prosperous today.
You who read me, I am sure you have a gift or some opportunity that came into your life seemingly by chance. Don’t undervalue it. Honor it, and it will grow like an oak tree. And it will shade you when the sun shines.
In other words, please don’t take your gifts and opportunities for granted, and make the most of them.
We human beings are silly, and instead of taking advantage of our gifts, we do as we do with people: we only value them when we lose them, don’t do it.
2, The importance of the Holy Spirit
I don’t care if you believe in God, Buddha, or Allah or if you are an atheist. I only ask you to keep an open mind and read what I say.
The holy spirit is like a force that guides and purifies me; I know it may sound crazy. I was the biggest of the skeptical until I hit rock bottom at 33.
Since then, a process of emotional healing began that still lasts, a cleansing process in which I let myself be guided by a kind of instinct, or very subtle intuition, which Christians call the holy spirit.
The thing is that this intuition awakens your conscience, and you begin to see attitudes that before seemed playful in your life for what they are: destructive activities for you.
That energy is a guide that doesn’t want me to disrespect myself by doing things that not only hurt others but also hurt me: like envying or hating.
From my 33 to my 40s, I have let myself be guided by that energy, and thanks to it, I have managed to stop drinking, taking drugs, and smoking tobacco. And I have regained my self-esteem.
3. The importance of joy
In the Catholic and Christian traditions, we can define joy as happiness. For the new age philosophy, it would be something like mindfulness but not the practice itself, but living in the present and enjoying the pleasure of living in it.
Eckhart Tolle talks about it constantly in his book The Power of Now.
But why is joy so important, and why would I talk about it to my 20-year-old self?
I would talk about it because my 20-year-old self confused pleasure with happiness. And he was obsessed with hedonism: sex, good food, drinking too much, smoking, and making too much money.
And my 20-year-old self didn’t know that pleasure’s twin brother is pain.
The important thing is not how many sexual partners you have, how much sugar you can eat without going to the doctor, or how much money you have in your bank account.
The important thing is to be happy: joy.
And joy can only be obtained in the present, in the here and now, because if your mind travels to the past, it longs and therefore suffers, and if it travels to the future, it desires and thus anticipates, and if it does not get, it also suffers.
And this, which seems like a small thing, can have a cumulative effect that can f*ck up your life.
If you do not wake up with joy and happiness and enjoy the present every day, sooner or later, you fall into depression; I speak from experience. And then it won’t matter how much money you have; there won’t be enough sugar in the world behind which you can hide your malaise.
Therefore, you have to cultivate joy every day because you are dead in life without it.
A virtual hug
AG