Human beings crave experiences that take us beyond our everyday routines. If we want more out of life, we will want to look at patterns that are holding us back right now. We need to go beyond the ordinary from time to time and get caught up in something that feels bigger than we are. Getting beyond our sense of individual isolation that feeds our souls.
Sex does it for a number of us, and that’s what most people associate with the word passion. Some of us find passion in work; some of us find it in involvement with something bigger than ourselves. Some of us get to a transcendent place when we are dancing the night away – connecting with the beat, with others, losing our sense of ourselves as separated from the environment around us. What are you passionate about?
My friend Jim says he never feels more alive than when he is out on the dance floor – shirt off, sweaty, glowing, his body feeling alive and juicy. Spiritual experiences are often felt in the body as a subtle connection between the physical self and the emotional self. It can feel hard to explain to others; we may even feel a little embarrassed trying to describe what we are feeling. Modern English doesn’t have good words to describe these experiences. Probably the best word is transcendence – a sense of moving beyond our isolated selves and into deeper connection with our entire self, other people or the world around us. We feel moved to a higher level. It’s hard to explain, but we know it when we get there.
So you’ve danced yourself stupid and you’re feeling blissed out. What happens when you leave the party? If everyday life is just a spacer between times when you can hit the dance floor, take a look at your spiritual life. Jim learned that he couldn’t order up transcendent experiences like he would order up a pizza. He found himself feeling depressed on occasion.