I had never heard the term “spiritual shortcut,” until a few years ago.

Also known as “spiritual bypassing,” it just means taking spiritual action without taking any physical action.

At first this didn’t make sense to me, because wasn’t it the spiritual action that made us more spiritual?

But imagine that you wanted to plan a birthday party for someone you loved. And so you briefly visualize this party in your imagination:

Would you serve food, or just snacks?
Would the balloons and streamers be blue or purple?
Would the birthday cake be red velvet or vanilla?
Would you invite just family, or friends too?
Would it be in the afternoon, or evening?

Imagine that you visualized this party with total clarity to the point where you felt happy and excited just thinking about it.

What would you do next? Create a vision board? Carry a crystal? Say an affirmation about how it was the best birthday party that ever happened on this planet, ever?

Maybe you would (I’d carry the crystal, for sure LOL). But would you stop there? Chances are you’d make a list of things that you needed to purchase, and you’d do some shopping. You’d make a list of attendees, pick a date, and send out invitations. And there’s probably even more to do. 

So this is why I believe that spiritual shortcuts can keep us stuck.

First off, you are already a spiritual being. In fact, on a soul level you are already in a state of perfect awareness and have the awareness of your perfect wholeness.

But your soul created this human life for a new experience; it’s really kind of a game – to call forth your divinity through your humanity, and all the things you can do in this life.

Now when you create the image of your “birthday party” in your imagination, you’ve made a blueprint. But without your participation in your physical life, that birthday party will stay in your imagination.

It’s your physical actions; your choices, responses, and the way you participate with life that anchors your happy outcome into your life. Once it’s anchored in, its manifestation in your life becomes highly probable.

So, as you’ve made all those plans for this birthday party, and purchased food, decorations, and sent out the invitations; all of that physical preparation (activity) made way for your happy outcome to become a physical event in your life.

Yes, our spiritual life matters. But it’s our physical life (and all our activity) that opens the way for our spiritual self to express into our physical world. ??And to be of service; to be the heart and hands of God in this world, it’s not enough to sit home on our comfy meditation pillow and send out good vibes (though do that too). We have to be participating with Life, and interacting with the world. ??

Pierre Teilhard de Chardin said: ?You are not a human being in search of a spiritual experience. You are a spiritual being immersed in a human experience.

Because that’s how our soul gets to have all the new experiences IT desires.