Adaptability

By Jim Koury, Seeker of Inspirational Forces
© 2014 James R. Koury.  All Rights Reserved.

As a new born child we enter the world with a clean slate.  We are not wired to believe one way or another.  We have no preconceived notions about life or those people around us and are often times adaptable to any situation that may arise.

It does not take long for our parents, siblings and peers to begin to plant ideas in our heads to try to sway us, both intentionally and unintentionally, toward their point of view on a particular topic, person, or group of people.  It is because of this natural desire to adapt to situations impacting us that we are somewhat vulnerable and open to both good and bad influences shaping our world view and how we will treat others that are different from us.

Due to our varying personality traits some of us will be more accepting and embrace concepts and ideas that may not necessarily be those we were brought up with as a child.  Alternatively, there are those people that have become entrenched in a worldview that is an excessive adaption to the belief of the opinions of others.

Great movements in our history that rallied the populace around the common good and beneficially impacted great numbers of people are the result of the actions of someone that can adapt to and be more accepting of others and their differences.  The ability to adapt to other ways of looking at situations and solutions to a challenge creates a better environment for positive change to evolve forward.  Not being open-minded impedes that change and often times is dominated by an outlook that pays heed and preference to a particular interest group.

The same two approaches also impact our spiritual adaptability.  Those people who are more adaptable and accepting of others beliefs will have a much healthier spiritual worldview dominated by a philosophy of bettering the common good.  Alternatively, many spiritual worldviews can be very rigid and non accepting of the differences in others and how they see the world.  They are much less open to alternative approaches that focus on the common good and yet embrace those that will benefit a particular interest group or ideology.

We have the ability to choose which outlook is to be nurtured and developed over time that will intimately shape our spiritual worldview.  The speed by which that happens and which alternative is chosen is determined by the power of external forces and other individuals around us that may be influencing us. 

We are all inherent spiritual beings that possess the potential to discover what lays deep inside all of us; our higher selves.   That journey to unearth our higher selves can only commence when we allow our destinies to find us and we are fully adaptable to whatever may be presented to us.  The spark that ignites our evolution forward toward what our higher selves has planned for us can only happen by being open to personal change and by embracing our destinies fully and without question despite any trepidations we may have about our personal futures.

Don’t delay in embracing your adaptability!  Your higher self is waiting for you to unleash its power to transform you into the person you were destined to be. 

Agents of Clarity

By Jim Koury, Seeker of Inspirational Forces
© 2014 James R. Koury.  All Rights Reserved.

We are all born into this world with a roadmap of our existence and evolution through life buried inside.  It is buried inside ourselves because it is the safest place to store such valuable information since it is the last place we look for the answers to all our existential questions.

Until we are ready to breach that sacredly placed seal guarding this internal roadmap we are simply agents of our non-awakened state. Our consciousness has not yet begun to be the engine that propels us forward to the point where we begin to question who we are and why we are here.

Once this happens there is no turning back.  It is like a genie that has been encapsulated inside their bottle awaiting the time when someone removes the seal of their prison and allows them to escape from their captivity.  Once free the genie will not voluntarily return to their solitary state guarded by the protective seal retaining them within.

When we begin our journeys of awakened consciousness people are placed in our paths who are meant to guide us and help us along on our path of life to discover our true purpose.  They are agents of clarity.  Such agents offer us advice and see a perspective we cannot see of a situation since they have a key to enter the sphere of consciousness that many are not privy to.

Who are these agents of clarity?  In my case it has been spiritual individuals who were presented to me in somewhat dire times when I needed help getting beyond myself and my ego based state of consciousness.

My first exposure to a spiritualist was back in my late 20’s when I was living in the Capital District.  I was involved in a business opportunity with some folks whose mother had psychic abilities.  I remember being at her house once and she sat me down and looked very seriously into my eyes and stated, “The hand of God is on you.”

Of course I thought she was crazy and buried what she said inside.  However, she got me thinking about things a bit and from that point on I always wanted to sit with her and discuss my future.  I was always afraid to do so since I feared she would tell me things I didn’t want to hear.

My second instance was during a time of deeply intense self-doubt driven by fear and worry.  I was in a very dark place mentally but never showed that outwardly – or at least I didn’t think I did.  I was in a period of very stressful financial challenges  and some other things that just wreaked havoc on my ability to make fully informed decisions.

Then one night while in the Gay.com chat rooms, a dude from Albany IM’d me and we started chatting. He told me he sensed within himself that he should reach out to me to say hi and had some inkling that there were issues adversely impacting me that I might need help with.

He ultimately put me in contact with an amazing spiritually based woman who I shall be forever indebted.  She made me aware of aspects of myself that forever changed me and how I viewed the world.  She began to help me shape and mold my true world view as per that hidden deep inside on the roadmap of our lives.  She took the protective seal off and ignited my drive toward self-excellence and to seek answers about me inside myself, where they have always been.

I am currently entrusting my spiritual path to yet another remarkable person that has helped me make more recent life’s decisions.  She has also given me the encouragement to trust my intuition much more and to listen to my gut, as that is where universal power resides and provides its input on important decisions that need to be made.

My path has also crossed with a few other agents of clarity that impacted the way I view the world around me.  They provided their unique, keen insight into who I am and why I do some of the things I do.  Their ability to access spiritual records has provided focus which I did not have before and have given me a better understanding of my personality and what makes me tick.

All of these people have made me realize that the feelings we have in our gut are real and should be listened to.  Sometimes we ignore our gut feelings only to realize later that we should have paid more attention to them.  It is when we begin to rely on our instincts and our gut feelings unconditionally and without question that a whole new dimension is added to our consciousness because we trusted ourselves fully and completely.

Consequences of Self-Revelation

By Jim Koury, Seeker of Inspirational Forces
© 2014 James R. Koury.  All Rights Reserved.

Change and evolution is difficult and challenges us to make decisions about ourselves that we know must be made but are afraid to make; decisions that will allow us to venture forth into uncharted territory that has no path to choose from.  It is a journey that is destined and meant for each of us.

Life is a series of choices.  The choices we make bring us to where we are in life, good or bad.  The final journey to join with our higher selves is one that does require a choice.  What is different is that the only other choice is simply “no.”  Some choices lead us in a new, maybe undesired direction away from our ultimate existence.  Choosing not to venture forth in this instance will not sway the journey’s end at one's ultimate state.  It will simply defer it to a later date.

Self-revelation is necessary to get us to make decisions to move forward toward reunification with our higher selves.  We go through many periods of self-revelation in our life’s journey.  They are the periods where we begin to take the next flight of stairs up to the next threshold, trepidatiously placing our feet on that first step.  On our journeys we must willingly and unabashedly share the experiences learned despite consequences of self-revelation beyond the confines of one's own mind.

What are the “consequences of self-revelation?”  They are the end results that are achieved due to a transition through a period of self-revelation.  It is that which we must share with others in order to assist them in their life’s journeys.

In our journeys to the end result of ultimate existence as shaped by our higher selves, the path may have been riddled with some actions that could, if revealed, be very embarrassing, and/or create a sense of shame and regret within ourselves.  These are our “I should not have done that” or the “if only I could go back in time and do something differently” times of our life. We all have them and we must embrace the consequences of verbalizing these moments and share them regardless.

Hiding the adverse realities of our past only create conflict within us.  They serve no purpose to be harbored deep inside us.  They must be freed along with the good realities that shaped our existence to help others.  Not doing so could result in anguishing self-torment and in the worst case lead to a self-inflicted death.

One of my periods of anguishing torment was my time in my dark closet.  I never would want to re-enter such a repressive and negative existence.  One moment in particular during my days in the closet almost led me to that fatal decision to end it all and put my Earthly journey to rest.  I was at a point where I thought I just did not have the strength to continue and overcome the challenge creating the feelings of hopelessness and despair.

In the end, after wandering for a long time after that particular instance, perseverance and an invisible guiding hand led me through the darkness.  I came to the realization that I needed to take the action I knew I had to take to escape the abysmal place I was in and came out and began to shape a brave new world focused on the real me and not the me others thought that I should be.

What is your brave new world?  Are you willing to endure moments of intense and often agonizing moments of self-revelation that could have potentially dire effects to get to your brave new world?  Make the decision to not fear the consequences of self-revelation.  The power to make this decision is within us all.  Don’t give your power away.  Use it to your benefit and rise above your current level of consciousness and enter the light of your brave new world that has been molded and shaped by your higher self.

Debut of Eyes Wide Open

By Jim Koury, Seeker of Inspirational Forces
© 2014 James R. Koury.  All Rights Reserved.

As I begin to write the introduction to my newest endeavor and future syndicated column entitled, “Eyes Wide Open,” I am also reflecting upon the spiritual journey I have been traversing and which has brought me to this point in my life.  This is a journey which I have never really spoken of publicly but I have hinted to it numerous times on my Facebook wall and other social media.

For a number of months now I have had the compulsion to publicly indulge you with my innermost spiritual thoughts and have been mulling this column idea around in my head and how I wanted to approach it.  I have appeared to have arrived at that point with the guiding hands of the inspirational forces of the universe and the soul which resides with me. 

My soul is the very essence of who I am.  It is the power, the furnace and the mass of divine energy that drives me to do what I do, what I say and all that I am on my deepest, most intricate level.  Over the course of many years the soul force within me has been directing me toward the pinnacle point in the evolution that we all are allowed to experience if we choose to.  It is the ultimate transformation of our past selves into the person that we have strived to become.  I believe I am on the verge of finally being able to grab on to the highest point of the mountain and have begun to pull myself up to the top and view what my life will be like from that point on.

Unfortunately many do not choose to leave their earthly bounds and forge ahead into the uncharted territory of their soul.  We are given an innate ability to trek forward into this new plane of existence but humans are equipped with cognitive thought and we make decisions in our lives that we feel are the best ones or ones that are easier to endure than igniting a fire of change beneath us to get us to move from our comfort zone and out of the box we put ourselves into.

The universe has given us all the power to charge forward above the intentional blocks that are put in front of us to test us, to make us stronger beings.  It is how we deal with the challenges in life that determine whether we can get beyond each wall and learn valuable lessons from the obstacle.  It is these life lessons that will energize us to move forward and overcome the next challenge that will shape our character and worldview.

It is when this energy becomes self-perpetuating without cognitive effort on our part to induce it forward that we get to the point where we cannot look back to the past and have it shape our worldview.  Nor are we able to return to the person we were in the past, no matter how hard we try.  The energy of change catapults us forward on a path toward becoming who we are meant to be shaped by inspirational forces of the universe that have now been unearthed, uncorked from our self-imposed banishment.

My journey began many years ago as a child being reared in an institutional church that was guided by man-made dogma and rules that restrict individuality and pursuit of opportunities for change outside of the designated paths laid out for us by a religious hierarchy; a hierarchy that is resistant to change that challenges its worldview.  I was part of this organized experience for many years and I clung to it as truth until I began to evolve as a gay male coming out of his closet.  That story out of my closet has been quite well documented.  However, the accompanying spiritual journey that began at the same point as that when I came out of my closet was not divulged as openly or at all for that matter.

It is the purpose of “Eyes Wide Open” to document that journey and to assist those that may be experiencing the same inspirational forces that emanate from within us that have been  impacting my life to move forward as well.  “Eyes Wide Open” will attempt to enlighten others about the amazing experiences and the many possibilities that await them resulting from their evolution of their internal essence from what they were into who they are supposed to be.

I am very excited to embark upon this journey with you and look forward to sharing my innermost thoughts that have up until now been locked inside for my own use.  However, we must learn how to use the divine energy within us all for ourselves before we can help others in their journeys of enlightenment and awareness.  “Eyes Wide Open” will be a more in depth chronicling of who I was, the events and the people that influenced my path forward and led me to the point where I am at today to feel free enough to share my experiences openly and freely.

When we begin our paths of enlightenment we discover an uncanny thing.  Our eyes are more wide open to the possibilities of change.  We begin to seek out avenues upon which to traverse to learn more about ourselves and the inspirational forces that guide us.  We cannot learn about ourselves and who we really are if our eyes are tightly shut because past worldviews have been entrenched and forced upon us that prevent us from seeing what we need to see.  It is at that point where we begin to see through the veneer of false truth that we begin to open our eyes wider and let the light of change shine upon us and enter our awareness.

Even when we get to the pinnacle of achieving the highest evolution of who we are supposed to be with eyes wide open, there are new things to learn in this new capacity of awareness that we will have obtained.  We will always need to learn new lessons until such time our bodies grow old and we die and cross back over to the spiritual realm from whence we came to either return again in a new human manifestation or remain in energetic spiritual form.