The first time I went to a chiropractor they told me the misalignments in my spine were called subluxations. Whenever what I think, say, feel, and do are in alignment, I am at peace. I have dubbed the term “spiritual subluxations” when any of those are out of whack. These can take many forms: anything from feeling jealousy, speaking dishonestly, being judgmental, and failing to keep a commitment to over-spending, over-eating, or over-sleeping. The list is never ending.
When a subluxation happens in my back, I can go to the chiropractor, and they realign everything almost instantly. Spiritual ones aren’t that simple. It first takes awareness that something is going on. Through acceptance, I can then take action to make the necessary changes to get back to my peaceful place.
My most recent experience with a subluxation was powerful, and the results were so obvious that a blind man could see them. I’m not sure when things started falling out of alignment, but there were indications that they had. The most obvious was my feelings of jealousy towards people that I had not felt that towards previously. The next was that I wanted to cry but wouldn’t allow myself to. Anyone that knows me knows how emotional I am and that crying is a natural reaction for me. Not allowing myself to do so was a red flag. There were a few other things, but mainly I had an underlying anger and sadness from when I woke in the morning until the time I fell asleep at night. The final and scariest moment was when, for a split second, I considered driving into a wall on my way home one evening.
I spent quite a bit of time pondering and reflecting on what brought this on. An upcoming blog will share that part of my journey. In the meantime, I realized the darkness was preventing any light from coming through. I was so shut down that there was no way for me to receive any of the good things that the universe wanted to send my way. Because of my years in recovery, I knew if I kept working on me, things would eventually change. Feelings aren’t fact and will change…that is something I have been told for years and thankfully never forgotten.
My daily gratitude list helped me keep my head above ground long enough for a ray of sun to eventually shine through in a small way. One of the lines in the Serenity Prayer says “grant me the serenity to accept the things I cannot change.” It is one thing to say those words and quite another for me to want to do that with every cell in my body. It didn’t happen overnight, but something amazing happened when I finally embraced acceptance. One of the biggest causes of my spiritual subluxations began resolving itself. It was as if truly letting go made room for things to change. One of the remaining misalignments is actually helping me re-evaluate and re-define certain parts of my life. This is ongoing, and I have no doubt that more will be revealed with time. How amazing is that!
The spiritual subluxations could have been used as excuses to spiral out of control. Instead, they became reasons to look at the underlying issues and find a new level of freedom as I peeled back yet another layer of the onion. My journey with this isn’t over, and that is okay. Instead of days of sadness, there are just moments. As I am guided through the lessons that I am learning, my self-awareness and trust that this is exactly where I am supposed to be at this time are growing exponentially.
Please share how you have identified and dealt with some of your spiritual subluxations.
Love this perspective, Karen!