A Story About The Lotus Flower.
A Transpersonal Hypnotherapists version.
Here is my take on the connection between mental health and spiritual growth.
We are all like the lotus flower. The lotus is beautiful and unique, however, this flower’s life is not as beautiful or elegant as you might imagine. All parts of its journey in life are not so Instagram worthy, as our modern social culture would consider, and yet it is the symbol of purity and so much beauty.
*Photo kindly given by photographer and friend Rui Vasco.Mental health and spiritual growth
In this story about the Lotus flower, allow me to explain why I believe your mental wellbeing and spiritual growth are connected and both so important.
The lotus is one of the most special and beautiful flowers, unlike any other created by Mother earth. The start, or birth, of this flower’s life is not as beautiful or elegant as you might imagine.
It is born at the bottom of the pond or a lake where the water is fairly still at the surface and below it is dark, dirty and muddy.
Despite these conditions, the tender lotus flower stem and pod pushes through many obstacles and challenges alone in the darkness. Slowly, the stem continues to grow, pushing the pod towards the light above at the surface of the water, until finally freeing itself from the harsh life conditions below.
It is then that the lotus slowly, one by one, opens each beautiful petal, blossoming in the sun, contributing to the worldly beauty surrounding it. It is such a site to see a lotus flower bloom.
- In Buddhism and many other cultures, the lotus is an inspiration and a symbol of purity and spirituality. Because, much like the journey of our soul that needs to heal, from the darkness to find its light, raising above it all, with deep self-knowledge, inner wisdom, and enlightenment.
You don’t need to be Buddhist to understand that we are all like the lotus flower. Many of us live in that murky water, and haven’t made it to the surface where we can blossom. Many of us are still closed up; we are just like the pods, ready and eager to feel the sunshine of life on our skin. But we need to make this journey, and this journey is the responsibility of each one of us.
- No matter which stage of life you are on, I’m sure you can relate to this lotus and see yourself in some part of this story. The conditions that produce a beautiful life are not always ideal, but that never stops the lotus from rising through adversity, opening its petals, and blossoming in the sun.
The light is the consciousness. The awakening is the knowledge of yourself. The learning to deal with your emotions, seeing and accepting everything you are, the light and dark, the good the bad, what you gave and what you took, everything you went through, or are going through, all without judgement. And understanding that all extremes are a part of one energy that is us in our evolution.
With this self-knowledge we are able to find peace and compassion for ourselves and for others. We can better manage what is good for us and what is not. And without all these experiences that we live in our existence, uniquely to each of us, and without the understanding of them, there would be no evolution, neither spiritual nor of our mental health.
"Sometimes to find the light, we've to touch the darkness" - Galadriel in Rings of power.
So, you see why I believe mental health and spiritual growth are connected. Each soul, each living being on earth, is here to unfold itself, to express itself and to learn more about what it is to be human and spirit at the same time. Each soul evolves according to its own path of development. And all we have to do is respect this, to take a step backwards in the judgement and to concentrate entirely on yourself, on your own light.
Spirituality is not about a war between light and dark. It is about finding a level of awareness that goes beyond good and bad, a place from which you can understand and accept all things. “The kingdom of God is within.” Everything you need is on the inside. Peace, joy and tranquility are yours when you truly realize who you are: a divine being in physical expression.
- We live in very rough and dirty environments, actually our whole social system likes to label and categorize what is good and bad, what is acceptable and what is not with fewer hits and more misses that create deep wounds and take us astray from our path, our sunlight, our center.
- However, despite being born into dark, murky conditions (and conditioning), where hope for such beautiful life seems dubious, the lotus grows, rising above adversity and so can each of us.
Ironically, this same dirty water washes it clean as it surfaces. As the lotus opens each petal to the air, not a stain or spot of mud remains externally. The inner lotus, too, has never seen a drop of mud or dirty water. It is pure, and bright, and beautiful.
“The lotus is the most beautiful flower, whose petals open one by one. But it will only grow in the mud. In order to grow and gain wisdom, first you must have the mud — the obstacles of life and its suffering. … The mud speaks of the common ground that humans share, no matter what our stations in life. … Whether we have it all or we have nothing, we are all faced with the same obstacles: sadness, loss, illness, dying and death. If we are to strive as human beings to gain more wisdom, more kindness and more compassion, we must have the intention to grow as a lotus and open each petal one by one. ”
Image. Heal was created when I started my own journey of awakening, of mental wellbeing and spiritual growth, to overcome those murky waters, learning to reach my inner and innate knowledge that is veiled. I seek to reach the “state of the lotus”, that is pure, awakened, happy, loving, compassionate, open and free.
With Love,
