The Secrets of Stepping Over Stumbling Blocks

We all want to be happy, fulfilled, joyous and free of inner and external barriers to our good. So if we know that this fulfillment is our birthright, how do we step over the stumbling blocks that appear on our path, or better yet, how do we eliminate them?

First of all, what is a stumbling block? We often think that a stumbling block is some barrier to our happiness, success, or fulfillment that miraculously presents itself from outside of us. We believe that we have to overcome this stumbling block in order to reach our goal.

We often have an idea of what the goal looks like and stumble along the way, and we are uncertain as to whether we reach the goal as it appears in our mind. For example, a friend was buying a house and at the 11th hour, while on his way to the closing, found out that some of the paperwork wasn’t in place. Another person may have a fixed idea of what their relationship should look like, then the relationship takes a turn that the person doesn’t want, desire or expect. A third person may have an idea of what family should be. She feels betrayed by her family when they don’t show up for her in the ways that she has shown up for them, when they don’t do what she expects of them, and when she finds it hard to find, or even define her own fulfillment because she has been so focused on the needs of others. Another person may subconsciously be afraid of their success or fulfillment because it will make them different, take them out of the “mainstream” of thought where pain and suffering are the norm and create situations of frustration to keep them stuck. These are all examples of stumbling blocks.

A stumbling block doesn’t begin in the current situation. It has its roots buried deep in your subconscious mind. A stumbling block is based on a lifescript (or set of lifescripts) that you learned early on. Your perception then became skewed to believe this lifescript and you observed it over and over in your situations and were continually drawn to it. For example, the child that learned that she was unimportant and wouldn’t be listened to, heard, seen or valued, didn’t just create the situation in the moment when she kept saying something in a meeting and no on listened until someone else brought up the same idea. It didn’t begin when that someone else got the promotion that you deserved. That stumbling block was created long ago. The person who believed that he had to betray himself in order to get love as a child didn’t create the lifescript that he would be betrayed when he found himself betrayed in love, business or family matters. This person created this lifescript as a child, and the stumbling block of a bad love affair, a business deal gone bad, or the betrayal of a friend showed up as a result of this deep lifescript that is at the root of his consciousness.

Therefore, to identify what is at the root of your stumbling block, you most go to the source of your lifescript. Doing anything else is like trying to remove a tree by cutting off its leaves one at a time—it may eventually work, but it is not efficient. To quote an old scripture, “Everything is permissible, but not everything is constructive.”

You go to the source or the root by sitting down in prayer, meditation and emotional release, which is the trifecta of healing any situation. You pray that your mind be opened to the truth. You pray to realize your intention, to find and eliminate the internal life-script that has been created. You pray for a breakthrough in your thinking, your actions and your world so that you can have the peace, joy and fulfillment that you desire. You then fall into meditation, where you have access to your subconscious mind and memories buried deeply within your subconscious mind. Here you have not only memories but also emotions stored. These emotions have fueled what you have created in your outer world because your outer world has only been a reflection of your inner emotional consciousness in order that you might see your inner consciousness and change it when it no longer serves you. You release any old emotions that come up that block your ability to perceive love’s presence in the sacred space that you created. You then ask to know the truth, and the Divine wisdom that you desire will pour into you; the Divine energy of healing will envelope you; and the Divine grace that you have called upon becomes a palpable energy of love that emanates from you, creating a shift in your outer world as a result of a shift in your inner consciousness. This is how the sacred trifecta of prayer, mediation and emotional release can heal you at the deepest level.

You may work with this process on your own if you are comfortable, or you may choose to work with someone to support you as you learn a new spiritual discipline that will improve your life dramatically.

One of the secrets of stepping over stumbling blocks is to sit down in prayer and arise in grace. When you sit down in prayer, you invoke the power, wisdom, and transforming grace of God, so that when you arise, your vibrational rate is lifted, your emotions are lifted, and your circumstances have been barraged with a new energy of love, wisdom and truth that brings about a transformation. This is known as divine alchemy.

You may have to work with this process repeatedly, and a simple and effective way to do so is to do your ABP’s. I learned this technique when I learned how to sell technology services for a major corporation. Then we called it the ABC’s (always be closing) which meant to always ask the client for agreement on your points to get the client in the habit of saying the small “yes” along the way to the big “yes” you wanted, which was a sale. In a spiritual context the ABP’s mean Always Be Praying. At the first sign of stress, a small, silent prayer keeps you in contact with the divine alchemy of transformation that will bring peace, wisdom and insight that will support you in any situation.

The formula for a prayer for transformation is as follows:

1. God (great spirit, universe, higher power, or any other way that you choose to access the divine) I give your light permission to shine into my mind, my heart and my affairs.

2. I am your beloved, worthy and innocent child aligned with your light and the attributes that you are, so I accept you healing grace that is now and always has been available to me.

3. Until today I have believed the following erroneous life-script (state the erroneous life script). I am willing to release this belief and the pain and suffering that it causes. I pray for a miracle in my mind, my body, my heart, my soul and my affairs that your energy of grace would shift my inner consciousness and thus my outer world.

4. Thank you God for in your realm it is already done, and I accept this shift on the earth plane in physical manifestation.

If all else fails, the 23rd Psalms, which is a powerful prayer for transformation. The imagery of the Lord as shepherd, is simply a divine invocation of inner peace (green pastures and still waters), where you are protected and comforted in the presence of circumstances that you don’t desire (the valley of the shadow of death, in the presence of your enemies). You release your fear in the face of these stumbling blocks by affirming the presence of God in your experience and you then are restored to a place of peace. You forgive others, and forgive yourself for your past (yet there is nothing to forgive, because all did the best that they could with what they knew at the time). You have then reached a level of internal peace, and thus dwell in the house of the Lord. The house of the lord is not a physical house, but is an inner place of peace, prosperity and joy where your mind can dwell regardless of your outer world. In this place there are no stumbling blocks because you have used divine alchemy, which has turned your stumbling blocks into stepping-stones. You have sat down in grace, grasped your innocence, prayed for transformation, and you are moved effortlessly along your path.