Spirituality, Therapy, and the Good Life

In “Good News for Bad Days,” Father Paul Keenan writes that when we feel stuck in our lives, empty, trapped on a path without heart, it is our shackled soul crying out to us to free it, and identifies the following as symptoms of the soul’s wounds.

Fatigue – a weariness that isn’t assuaged by sleep and whispers to us that our energy is being taken in a wrong direction.

Anger – we are frequently frustrated, all too often irritable and resentful, bent by the weight of the monkey on our backs.

Restlessness – haunted by a need to change, to do something different, to move, but without a clear sense of what and how and where.

Fear – we live in an almost constant state of free floating anxiety, afraid to lose what we’re not even sure that we want, afraid to fail, afraid to succeed.

Boredom – life offers little joy. We find ourselves going through the motions, our senses of awe and wonder dulled almost beyond recognition.

Depression – We are depleted, defeated, dejected, adrift…

Denial – We don’t want to face what we don’t understand, what threatens us, what beckons us, and so we tell ourselves that this is just a passing phase, things will get better when…..

Keenan asserts that when we make the choice to acknowledge and open to the call of our souls, we awaken to possibilities. Keenan writes, “Rather than being occasions of panic and discouragement, our points of being stuck are what we bring to the table of life….The experience of being stuck gives us the opportunity to pause, to reflect, and to map the journey we have been undertaking…We can take the opportunity to ask ourselves what limits we want to surpass, what new directions we want to pursue. It can be a call to adventure, to new horizons and new life…”

I am reminded here of the Celtic Code of Living which states, “Your life is a gift and a pilgrimage; see every day, every event, every moment, and every act as a renewable point in time offering you a new beginning.” Even our stuck places can serve as sign posts that guide us on our way.