Satisfaction and Other Traps

For much the same reason expectations are a problem, satisfaction can also be dangerous to growth and healing.

Speaking to one of my students yesterday about the ways messages from the spirit can be distorted after they are heard, we ended up talking about the ways people are satisfied with their own staleness and inertia. Even when spirit comes and gives a clear message, people will often end up distorting it through a handful of unfortunately consistent methods. Then, despite no positive result (because they aren’t doing what they were told to do), they will believe they have successfully understood the message, be satisfied with the interaction, and move past the message. If they’re getting a negative result, they must have misunderstood, but they are also satisfied not to revisit the message and learn from their misinterpretation. The interaction with the spirit is enough for some: divine attention is enough. It is enough to feel important, satisfying to be noticed.

The problem, when you look at it this way, is obvious. Satisfaction with merely being involved, satisfaction with attention, even satisfaction in general are all ways people can happily not progress. Satisfaction, fundamentally, is the acceptance that a situation is good enough, and good enough is a great reason to stop trying to do anything about the situation.

You can be satisfied without letting it lead to inertia, as long as you understand the dynamics, and as long as you are not satisfied with a negative result and merely the flattery you might feel when attention is paid to you by the spirit.

No feeling, even those we enjoy, lasts forever.