Procrastination Explained: Spiritual Lessons on Overcoming Inaction

Do you find yourself putting off tasks, big or small? Discover the spiritual reasons behind procrastination and how to overcome this barrier to action.

In "Procrastination Explained: Spiritual Lessons on Overcoming Inaction," we delve into why procrastination is more than just a sign of laziness. It's a complex emotional and spiritual response that signals deeper issues within our psyche. 

This episode explores how fear, ego, and spiritual misalignment contribute to procrastination. Learn how various spiritual teachings view procrastination, and how it can actually be a message from your higher self, urging you to realign with your true purpose. 

We also discuss the concept of divine timing and provide practical spiritual practices to help you break the cycle of procrastination. Whether you're delaying small daily tasks or life-changing decisions, this video offers insights and tools to help you move forward with clarity and purpose.

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#Spirituality #Procrastination #SelfHelp #PersonalDevelopment #Mindfulness #SpiritualAwakening

Transcript

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Have you ever found yourself staring at a task, knowing it could change your whole life and you still felt paralyzed to start? And sometimes it doesn't have to be this huge thing. It can be small things that we need to get done. I want you to know that procrastination isn't just a barrier, but it's a deeply spiritual signal, urging you to confront the fears that hold you back from your true potential. Today, we're going to explore the spiritual roots of procrastination. I'm also going to share some practical tips that can completely change your life and put you on a path towards being your highest self. We've been dealing with this since we were kids right? There was that homework that we had to do, or maybe a school project that we knew that we had to finish, but we just didn't do it. Or maybe we waited until the last minute and did it the night before. Maybe it's a project at work that you need to get done something big in your life defining like quitting to your job to do something that you love, or asking someone out who you’re attracted to. It could be anything. It's a cycle that we repeat. I've gotten way better at not procrastinating as I proceed down my spiritual path. But even as I'm sitting here talking to you right now, there are these things floating around in my mind that I know I need to do, and I just haven't done them. I find that it goes in cycles. The Hindus talk of some sorrow and samsara is this cycle that we repeat, and our biggest samsara is our birth, life, death and then our rebirth, that reincarnation. And this happens as we live all these lives, our past lives, our present lives, our future lives. But there are these smaller samsara that we live every day, these cycles that we repeat in our daily lives. And the whole idea of this big reincarnation cycle is to eventually spiritually grow. And we get to this point where we achieve enlightenment And fully become one with the universe. Our cycles of procrastination aren't any different, and they're also meant to be broken out of to free yourself. Let's look at what exactly procrastination is from different perspectives. Psychologically, we may define procrastination as irrationally postponing task or decisions, even though we know there's going to be negative consequences. Stress and anxiety often play an important role where procrastination is linked to anxiety fear of failure, or perfectionism, and it's also a coping mechanism to deal with stress and emotional discomfort. And immediate gratification promotes procrastination. Our mind has this preference for immediate gratification. We choose this short term pleasure or relief over the long term benefits. We know, you know, objectively, yes, this thing that we're going to do is going to help me in the long run, but you don't do it because you revert back to what's easy or what is comfortable. And that last one is, is habit forming. And it can become a real major derailment in your quest for peace. From a spiritual perspective, procrastination can be a sign of misalignment. It could be a message from your higher self that there's disorder between your actions and your true purpose or spiritual path, and It serves as an opportunity for deep self-reflection. Take this as a chance to examine your underlying fears or this resistance that you might have to your spiritual journey. Sometimes procrastination can be interpreted as a lesson in divine timing. Maybe it suggests that a delay is necessary for proper alignment with universal plans. This is where you have to use some awareness and trust your intuition so that you can tell whether you're procrastinating due to avoidance, or maybe there's this reason that it's happening and this delay is occurring to keep you safe or to help you out. And maybe you can lean into that. But I say that embracing that delay is going to be a whole lot less common than just accepting the fact that you're probably avoiding something, but you can use your intuition to figure out which of those it is. We make content to create conversations with people just like you. If what we're creating makes sense, please subscribe to the channel and share it with a friend. Procrastination isn't always laziness. It's frequently mislabeled as laziness, but laziness is an unwillingness to act. Whereas procrastination means you actively delay decision despite a desire to complete it. Procrastination is not about poor time management, it's really about managing your emotions. The primary driver is often to avoid stress or negative feelings that are associated with the task, rather than the actual task itself. So there are these things around it that are bothering you. Not exactly. Just finishing that thing. And I have to point out here that procrastination often occurs because we have to do something that we don't want to do. And that sounds simple, but is an indication that you aren't living your higher purpose, and your higher purpose is your dharma. Is this thing unique to you? And it might change as you progress through life, but it's what you're here in the universe to be and to do. And if you don't know what your higher purpose is, do some soul searching and discover what it is. And if you know what that higher purpose is, ask yourself, how can I live in my dharma? Each day when you're in your dharma, you're much less likely to procrastinate because you're going to love what you're doing. But continuing the idea of procrastination not being laziness. Many people delay because they fear the outcome of a task. It's not just the fear of failure. It's actually often people have a fear of success. Or maybe it's a simple fear of change. People don't like change. They shy away from it. And you don't have to be perfect. Perfectionism freezes us. It contributes to procrastination. It's part of it. It stops us from doing something because we want everything to get just right before we do it. We want to make it perfect, but perfect exist inside of you as that divine universal thing. But perfect doesn't really exist in the real world that you're walking through every single day. So ask yourself if you can accept this and use it to let go and move forward in a more peaceful and calm way. Knowing that you don't have to be perfect. Sometimes you're just overwhelmed. You can't wrap your head around the scope or significance of the task at hand, and the emotional response to feeling overwhelmed is to avoid. And the common response by the mind is to do something you're used to doing or like to do when you're avoiding. But the magic here is that stuff is rarely as overwhelming as you think it is. It's usually just this mirage or hologram that you can walk right through. It's not real. What you can ask yourself is, how do I look at this from a completely different perspective, or even small shifts in perspective give you a really different view on things. Just think about moving with the universe and changing a little bit, and it completely changes the way that you see things. Fear shows itself to you in different parts of your life. You may have a fear of failure. Maybe you're procrastinating because you feel the repercussions of failing, and that can be this primal emotion that freezes you. Because we're programed to be afraid of that. But I'd ask you two questions here. Do you usually fail once you stop procrastinating and do the thing? And I think the answer you'll tell yourself is that no, you don't fail. You usually succeed in getting it done. The second question is, if you failed, was it as bad as you thought it was going to be? And the answer to that is almost always no. Things are rarely as bad as we think they're going to be, and your spiritual path comes into play here. Fear often comes from holding on too tightly to something you maybe you're holding on too tightly to that place in life where you're at right now, where a relationship, a job. But spirituality is about letting go. You have to surrender to the universe. Stop being attached to outcomes, stop being attached to getting to that goal over there. You can still have goals, but you should look at how you enjoy the journey on the path to the goal. When you're enjoying the journey, you're going to delay and procrastinate way less because you're appreciating the steps that you're taking along the way. fear used to keep us alive. Your mind and your ego channel fear to your awareness because they don't want you to die. And that's still really important. It's why you look both ways before crossing the street. But we're much safer now than we were for thousands of years, so most of the fear that's coming from you now in your mind is all this noise. It's not real and it's noise that you have to learn to filter. But before you can learn to filter it, you have to maintain awareness that all this is happening. And that's a big reason that people meditate. It creates this awareness of what's actually happening in and around us. Your comfort zone isn't where you want to be. It's warm. It's inviting. It's something that you're familiar with. it's something you crave because it's safe. But we were just discussing things about fear, stepping away from that fear. But even if you're comfortable here, you might not be happy here or joyful. So where do you want to be? What if you looked at your higher purpose and knew what your dharma was, and what you wanted to do with your life? You step out of your comfort zone and you start to see the universe for what it is. Part of your comfort zone has been constructed not by you, but by society and community. All this stuff that your parents or teachers, your friends and coworkers have told you and you've just accepted it as the way. Now, out of this comfort zone, you can look around and see all this amazing stuff around you, and you start to see yourself, not the self in the mirror, but the self with a capital “S” that’s divine inside of you, the universe or the Hindu Brahman or Christ consciousness or nature. It's called many names. When you start to see things your way, you start to embrace the things that you're doing. Because increasingly, the things that you will be doing are the things that you need and that you're so needs. You'll be living your true path. Breaking out of procrastination is breaking free of this resistance to spiritual growth. That's what it's about, right? Moving down the path, growing as a person, growing as this universal being. I've had many conversations with people about how they break free of their comfort zone. It's something we've discussed in the online spiritual community that sponsors this channel multiple times. Check out Kishar.org and become a member. There's a link in the description. moving on. In this discussion, let's look at the motion of the universe. Let's look at the fact that you've gotten out of your comfort zone. Now consider how you might embrace this change. Change is the movement of the universe. So when you embrace change, you're moving with the rhythm of the universe. And Buddhist thought procrastination can be seen as this manifestation of aversion. It's one of the three poisons, and mindfulness practice helps recognize and address the underlying emotions that are causing your procrastination. If you're truly aligned in mind, body, and soul, your procrastination or delay is going to fade. We've talked about the mind. We've talked about the soul. But what about the body? You probably won't get where you need or want to be without this part. So how are you taking care of yourself? Your fitness, your nutrition, your overall health and well-being? these things are being done in alignment with how you think and how you walk your spiritual path. Think of it as building a foundation, and your body is the foundation of how you move through the real world. It doesn't define you, but it's this amazing vehicle. So if you build a solid sleep routine and eat right and move each day and you have a grasp on your finances and relationships, you're going to have so much more time and space to be spiritual, and you're going to have more time to use your mind the best way that you can. Suddenly, you're living in the present moment instead of worrying about tomorrow or yesterday, and you can move past the block. Procrastination keeps you from doing the things that you want to do. So right now, today, what are you putting off? What's something that you should be doing and why aren't you doing it? Hit me up with those answers in the comments and let's have a conversation about it. It's also interesting to think about how you stopped procrastinating and what's worked for you, because it also keeps you from doing the things that you need to do. It's like you're getting in your own way, and that sounds simple, but getting through our self or past our self is often the toughest challenge in life. And usually in this situation, it means you're facing yourself. And when you have to confront things that you've been avoiding for a long time, that's difficult. This is stuff that goes way beyond procrastination. These are things that you've potentially avoided for years. For some people, it's even decades. And I can tell you from personal experience, it's worth it. It's not comfortable at first, it's hard, but that goes back to what we talked about moving out of our comfort zone. Take meditation as an example. This is something that would greatly help you in overcoming procrastination, and also moving in alignment of your mind, body, and soul. When you first start meditating. It might be uncomfortable. For me, it wasn't something that just happened that I did it and in one day, life was suddenly just this amazing thing. I had to sit quietly with myself and become at peace. There was all this noise in my head, and I had to learn to come back to center and refocus. I got distracted by all these things in the room around me, and all these things were telling me to stop meditating. But I didn't stop. I kept going, and all I can say is that you have to decide to have the resolve to press through and find your way, find your path through, through yourself. And there's this idea that if you have this thing is bothering you or worrying you ask yourself, is this something that I could get done right now? And if so, do that thing. Do. Your future self a solid. You can live in the present moment today and do yourself a your future self, a solid that's still living in the present moment, And if it's not something that you can do today, learn to let that thing go for another day or until a solution to it presents itself. And you would all probably appreciate the idea of just starting taking that leap or taking the first step of that long journey. So please check out this video on starting. And until next time, I wish you peace on your journey.