Trusting Open Doors

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This is the Daily Om for the weekend.

Walking Through
When Doors Open

When a door opens, walk through it. Trust that the door has opened for a reason and you have been guided to it. Sometimes we have a tendency to overanalyze or agonize over the decision, but it is quicker to simply go through the door and discover what's there as that's the only way to know. Even if it doesn't seem right at first, opening this door may lead to another door that will take us where we need to go.

Doors open when the time is right for us to enter a new space, metaphorically speaking, and we can have faith that walking through is the right thing to do. Sometimes we linger in the threshold because we are afraid of leaving our old life for a life we know nothing about. We may have voices inside of our heads that try to hold us back or people in our lives saying discouraging things. These voices, internal and external, are known as threshold spirits, and they express all the fears and doubts that arise at the beginning of a new life. Nevertheless, none of these voices can hold us back, and they will fall silent as soon as we cross the threshold.

There are many doors that open in the course of our lives, leading us into new relationships, jobs, friendships, and creative inspirations. Our lives up to this point are the result of all the doors we have walked through, and our continued growth depends on our willingness to keep moving into new spaces. Every time we walk through an open door, we create a sense memory that encourages us to move into the new fearlessly. When we enter the new space, we almost always feel a thrill and a new feeling of confidence, in ourselves and in the universe. We have stepped across the threshold into a new life.

I think this is useful advice. But the authors do not spend enough time with what they call the "threshold spirits." It's these voices in our heads that keep us in bad jobs or in unhealthy relationships. And if it were easy to simply ignore them and do what we know is best, there'd be a lot more happy people in the world.

We need to respect those voices, and learn to work with them. Threshold spirits are nothing more than subpersonalities, but they can block growth, inhibit our choices, and close open doors. Until we learn to work with them through meditation, therapy, or some other technique (and there are many), these interior voices can keep us stuck in places we'd rather not be.

Tags: Daily Om, Open Doors, Threshold Spirits, Subpersonalities, Buddhism, psychology