No matter how it may feel, no moment is the same as any other. Things are always changing around us. Some changes we like, some we don’t notice, and some we don’t like at all.

Of course we’re open to the changes we like. Who isn’t open to a pleasant surprise! But when we don’t notice what’s happening around us, or we outright reject it, it’s because we’re not open to the new experiences and opportunities the moment is bringing us. Which means we’re missing out on a major portion of our life and its ceaseless gifts.

There are endless areas in which we may be closed or open, but the one of greatest importance is whether we are open to learning about ourselves. Are we willing to see the truth of ourselves, of how we meet life and how that may be affecting what we experience? Are we willing to take chances in new situations that could reveal us to ourselves?

So often we resist the moments that show us parts of ourselves we’d rather not see. But each revelation is a gift of grace. Life is trying to get through to us. To show us how we misperceive people and events and suffer for it. The message that calls to us from time immemorial urges us to start opening ourselves to the forces that are here to change us.

Let us see what some of these voices of wisdom tell us:

Ageless Wisdom on the Transformational Power of Being Open to Life

Why do you stay in prison when the door is so wide open? — Jalal al-Din Rumi (1207 – 1273)

It is always with us, but there must be an opening of the heart to it, and though it is always there, yet it is only felt and found by those who are attentive to it, depend upon, and humbly wait for it. — William Law (1686 – 1761)

Be neither the slave of your impulses and sensations of the moment, nor of an abstract and general plan; be open to what life brings from within and without, and welcome the unforeseen, and give to your life unity, and bring the unforeseen within the lines of your plan. Let what is natural in you raise itself to the level of the spiritual, and let the spiritual become once more natural. Thus will your development be harmonious. — Henri Amiel (1821-1881)

Why do I strive, why do I toil in this narrow, confined frame, when life, all life with all its joys, is open to me? — Leo Tolstoy (1828 – 1910)

Make your ego porous. Will is of little importance, complaining is nothing, fame is nothing. Openness, patience, receptivity, solitude is everything. — Rainer Maria Rilke (1875 – 1926)

Here Is Help to Become More Open to Life’s Moment-to-Moment Gifts

Here are additional inspiring words from OneJourney founder Guy Finley on the importance of being open:

The unseen seed of every success – of every great work of art, and every light that has ever helped illuminate the human journey – began with someone being open to a new possibility in life and saying “Yes” to it… regardless of personal cost. — Guy Finley (1949 – )

Deep down most of us suspect we should be more open to life, but why is it so difficult to do it when the challenge comes?

One of the main reasons we’re not open to new moments is that our mind immediately analyzes a situation based on our past and tells us why we need to resist it and protect ourselves from it. It doesn’t even occur to us that we cannot know what will happen. And by rejecting the moment before giving it a chance to show us anything, we interfere with the lesson that might change us. In this way we close ourselves off from the transformed life we say we want.

Here is a helpful article by Guy that provides new tools to start the process of opening up. It’s title is Welcome the Light of Truth into Your Inner Home:

Click Here to Read the Article >>

Take a few minutes to read the article. It could help you realize a fresh new start. May we all be more open to life and willing to learn from whatever it brings.

Best Wishes,

Dr. Ellen Dickstein
The OneJourney Project

PS: You are invited to join Guy Finley’s FREE talks on these life-transforming ideas. All his talks are livestreamed and archived! For details visit guyfinley.org/peace

PPS: On Guy Finley’s Life of Learning website (www.guyfinley.org) you can find more information and inner-life exercises that can help you change your relationship with life. Please take advantage of this wonderful resource.