You may have heard people/yogis/ gurus saying that to advance on the spiritual path, you may have to turn inwards. But what does it mean to turn inwards?
In storytelling, a character of the movie/web series or even music videos (with a storyline) goes through a conflict. That conflict could be anything from world catastrophe to losing his loved one; in fact, anything under the sun that pushes the character out of his comfort zone and forces him to venture out into the world unknown of his reasoning.
As the character ventures out, he runs into difficulties and setbacks. These complications not just drive him through a physical change e.g. in karate kid, but also an internal journey where he has to renounce his old skin like a snake and develop a new one and oftenest, these changes are irreversible. The character formerly in the film may occur weak, coward, or may even feel rejected by his friends, parents, or social group. However, by the end of the film, the character is courageous, confident, and has worked out all issues with family, society, or social groups. Either way, he seems complete and maybe is far spiritual than ever. In short, he has not just treaded his path on a physical level but likewise on an internal level too.
You could be that hero, just turn inwards!
Whenever we face an obstacle in our everyday living, like the character of the film, we too are forced out of our comfort zone. As much as we don’t like it, trust me, that probably is the first thing we want. We dread change; we prefer to be in the state we are in. This doesn’t mean that we wouldn’t have a desire for a bigger car or 7 figure paycheck. We would, it’s just to reach that state we may require treading a dreadful path that wouldn’t just change us physically but also internally. And this would also be a perfect way to turn inwards.
Turning inwards is an expression to know thyself. You can only know yourself when you understand your core beliefs, values that are pillars to your ego.
When you reason with your beliefs, you break them down into bread crumbs that won’t be strong enough to be re-digested by your mind. Hence, leading to the collapsing of the egoistic pillars.
Turning inwards contributes to self-growth. When you turn inwards, you see your thoughts, emotions, beliefs, values from a third-person viewpoint. To provide a storytelling perspective, you can see yourself as a hero in your own life’s movie, but not in his/her shoes per se, but as an audience. This encourages you to look at your story from a third-person perspective.
This wouldn’t just make your life simple, but also balanced and purposeful.
So whenever you face an obstacle, take a back seat and watch your own heroic movie as an audience. This is also the core idea behind Your Story Project.
Photo by Jake Hills on Unsplash