Flowing With Change – Jonathan Hoffman, Licensed Spiritual Practitioner
This video features the Sunday “talk” only. Watch the full service on our Facebook page.
DESCRIPTION
How accepting of change are you? Impermanence is natural and change is inevitable, yet we often resist, creating unnecessary suffering. But what if we learned to flow with it instead? By trusting life’s unfolding, we cultivate growth, resilience, and peace. Join me this Sunday to explore how accepting and integrating change can lead to greater freedom and new possibilities.
SUMMARY
- Hoffman shares how the unexpected closing of his former spiritual community, Bodhi Spiritual Center, led him to find comfort and wisdom in the book “Stillness Speaks” by Eckhart Tolle.
- He discusses the principles of accepting impermanence and change, and how resisting small changes can hinder our ability to navigate major life transitions with ease.
- Hoffman invites the community to be present with their emotions and feelings around change, rather than ignoring or suppressing them.
- He emphasizes the importance of connecting to the “changeless aspect of spirit” that is the eternal, divine presence within each person.
- Hoffman leads the community through a guided meditation and prayer, affirming the truth of God’s unchanging love and the opportunities for growth within life’s transitions.
TRANSCRIPTION
This transcription was auto-generated, please excuse typos, errors and omissions
Jonathan Hoffman, LSP (00:00):
Can we give it up for Paige and Josh one more time? That was amazing. Amazing. Thank you so much. Beautiful. I know that was a big song and it was beautiful. You have the voice of an angel, Paige, so good morning, Cityside. Morning. Welcome everyone. Welcome to our online community. Glad that you are here. I just wanted to say welcome to anyone that’s new and I’m going to start with just a little story this morning. It was five years ago this March. Oh, and I forgot to add, my name is Jonathan Hoffman. My pronouns are he him, and I’m one of your licensed spiritual practitioners. And today is Practitioner Sunday, which means it’s the fifth Sunday of the month. And therefore I have the wonderful opportunity to speak with you today. So very grateful for Cityside for this opportunity. Thank you for being here. Back to this story, five years ago, this past March, I experienced a moment that sent me into a whirlwind of emotions. There was sadness and grief, anger and frustration, uncertainty, fear, you name it.
(01:20):
And I know many of you in in this community felt it too. And you might be thinking it was Covid and the lockdown because that was five years ago as well, but that was not it. What I’m speaking of is the day I got a phone call that my beloved spiritual community, Bodhi Spiritual Center, was closing. That the organization was out of money and blah, blah, blah, and search story here, but basically that the tax ID number was being dissolved and it was over. So that was an organization I had spent a decade in. It shaped me. It was my spiritual family, my community. It had introduced me to a new set of beliefs, a new set of friends, a new way of being, new perspectives. And suddenly it was all gone. Just like that change had come. It was a bit uninvited, unwelcomed, and I didn’t care for it much.
(02:24):
So I wonder if anyone else can relate to that. But it was during this time that I discovered this book, stillness Speaks, and I’m a huge fan of this book of wisdom. It’s a simple, yet profound book. And it spoke to me in a way that brought comfort. It helped me to gently loosen my grip on the way I thought things should be. And it reminded me to surrender and to trust, because in reality, I didn’t know why this was happening. I didn’t know the grand scheme of things. And the truth is, none of us really do. None of us really know why the circumstances of our lives unfold the way they do. That’s just life. So from today’s reading, I just want to revisit. I’ve got the first slide.
(03:27):
There are situations where all answers and explanations fail. Life does not make sense anymore. When you fully accept that you don’t know, you give up, struggling to find answers with a limited thinking mind. And that is when a greater intelligence can operate through you. Sometimes surrender means giving up, trying to understand and becoming comfortable with not knowing. So let me ask you, how many of you are good with not knowing? Alright, that’s great. And another way, how good are you to adjusting and flowing with all the changes of life? Yeah, yeah. Do the best you can. Exactly, exactly. So just for fun, let me run through some common everyday situations and just think about how you might typically respond. Your phone updates overnight and now the layout is different.
(04:33):
Yeah, exactly. I appreciate that. I appreciate the response. That’s exactly it. A traffic jam forces you to take a longer route home. Your grocery store rearranges the aisles, and now it’s a little bit different. Your plans get canceled last minute. That’s one. Or even when an ingredient is changed in your favorite salad at Sweet Green, true story. But these can be irritating, right? Right. And I know I can often resist even the smallest of ingredient changes, but if the small changes rattle us, imagine the bigger stuff. Yes, imagine how unprepared we may be for the major shifts that life brings. But if we want to navigate the big transitions with more ease and grace, we must learn to navigate the small ones with awareness, with a sense of awareness. And yet many of us resist the very changes required to create the lives that we truly desire. What if our discomfort with the small stuff is actually keeping us from stepping into that something greater? In this book, Eckhart gives us some principles for change. And I have second slide. Yes, principles for Okay. So he reminds us that impermanence is natural, impermanence is natural. Everything changes. By recognizing this, we can free ourselves from loss, from the fear of loss, the illusion of control. There’s a lot of illusions going around these days, but we cannot control external circumstances, but we control how we respond.
(06:28):
Ego and resistance, the ego clings to form and structure, but by letting go, we can become more fluid, more adaptable, and then surrendering to the present moment. Instead of resisting change holding tightly, we can open ourselves up vulnerably to life’s unfolding. So the antidote for suffering is really deep presence. And what I mean by presence is fully accepting what is rather than wishing it were different. The more we accept what is, the more we find peace. Resisting change leads to suffering and struggle. But while embracing change allows for peace. But here’s the paradox. We want transformation. We desire growth. We long for a better future. But real change requires us to think, act and be different, to do things differently. That’s the definition of change. The word different is in every definition, but that can be uncomfortable. So whether you’re dealing with a loss of a beloved organization, the loss of a loved one, the end of a relationship, even a career shift, the ability to adapt and change comes from our willingness to be present with our emotions right here in the case of loss, we need time and space to grieve.
(08:07):
When unexpected change disrupts our lives, we must allow ourselves to process it, to feel the emotion in our bodies, to acknowledge its impact and to allow it to move through us. Ignoring or skipping over feelings only prolongs our suffering. And this is a common practice in the world today to push down, to ignore, to look the other way, to numb out, to distract ourselves. So much, anything that we can do to keep from feeling the pain. But today the invitation is to accept the change to the best of our abilities. When the little changes happen, instead of resisting, what if we just allowed them? What if we flowed with them? If we loosen our grip and look for new possibilities within the change, maybe there are opportunities to see things differently, to grow in ways that were never expected. And when the big changes come, the losses, the endings, the shifts must be willing to process them, to grieve and to sit with the discomfort, to feel it.
(09:25):
In our bodies, our emotional and physical reactions are often tied to past pain. So please be aware and be proactive with that healing. And this is a healing journey. Some of the tools to journal, to cry it out, to talk to someone that understands to seek spiritual support, talk to a spiritual practitioner. Resilience isn’t something we magically have. It’s something we cultivate through our willingness to engage with life’s changes fully and present in our bodies. When something happens, acknowledge that it changed your life, that you’re feeling a certain way, be aware of those feelings, speak about them, talk to your friends and not to wallow, but just to acknowledge to get it out there. It’s not to be pushed down.
(10:24):
To accept change from a mature state of being is to recognize that change is the only constant in life. That’s what is. Imper is natural. Learning to flow with the ups and downs allows us to create necessary changes with greater ease, with greater grace. And here’s the most encouraging thing of all. There is stillness in the midst of change, while change is constant. In this external 3D world of form, there is something within us that does not change. And the science of mind, earnest Holmes, speaks to this divine changeless presence. And I love that word changeless. Everything out here is changing, but there is a change, less aspect, right where you stand. In the next slide I’ve got from the science of mind, God is all there is, but one power, intelligence and consciousness in the universe. But one presence, this one presence cannot change. There is nothing for it to change into, but itself it is changeless.
(11:41):
And it is my life. It is in me now. Love that last part. So as human beings, we all navigate change. That’s life. But as spiritual beings, we root ourselves in the eternal nature of God and the changeless nature of our inner source of oneness and connection. The more we connect with this divine presence, right where we stand, the more wisdom and peace we find amongst life’s transitions. And this brings me back to Bodhi and trusting in God and not understanding why everything happens. So with time and with perspective, I can see there were lessons for me to learn in that experience and that closure, I can see my part and how I didn’t always find my voice or speak my truth because of fear. And I can own that now. And that’s a powerful lesson to receive. And I’m grateful for it. It took some time, but again, with time and perspective and in truth, it ultimately led me here to cityside, Cityside, spiritual community, this community here and now, a community rooted in the present with a strong foundation, solid leadership, and a shared commitment to co-creating with the community and mutual respect and trust.
(13:16):
And I’m not just saying that that is my experience here at Cityside, and I hope it’s your experience too. So as bodie’s impact didn’t just disappear, the seeds it planted continue to grow. And not just here at Cityside, but in Chicago, across the country. And I trust even across the world, and I trust those seeds are still unfolding today in ways I don’t fully understand. And that’s okay. So today the invitation is to embrace change, to flow with it, to trust in it. And the most important thing to remember that beneath all the shifts of life, all the changes, there’s something changeless, eternal and steady within you, right where you stand, accept that, trust that, and move forward in peace, power, and possibility when the changes of life come knocking at your door.
(14:21):
So I want to lead us into a little practice. But to start, I’d like to ask the practitioners and ministers in the room to please stand. And this is just to hold space for the community during this practice. Thank you. So I invite everyone, just take a moment right here, right now, and just turn within, close your eyes if that’s comfortable, and find that still small place inside where it’s safe for you to be with your feelings and your emotions, where every single aspect of yourself is accepted and held in arms of love as if you were a child.
(15:07):
I invite you to bring to mind any area of your life where change may be occurring, where change is knocking on the door where things may not make sense or where the path forward may not be clear. Somewhere where you could use a little more peace sink into those places where there may be resistance to change, whether on a large scale or on a small scale, where are you resisting or constricting or fearing any change in your life? And as you gain awareness of any resistance where the change is, I just invite you to settle a little bit deeper into your body. Take a few deep breaths, calm your system. Be gentle with yourself.
(16:10):
The invitation now is to accept that you may not know the bigger picture of why change is unfolding in your life and let that be okay. Can you loosen the grip on how you think things should be in order to allow more peace and new possibilities instead of resisting the change? Can you trust life’s unfolding? Can you flow with the change behind the fear? And restriction is the changeless aspect of spirit. And I invite spirit to remind us here and now the eternal nature of God and the changeless nature of our connection to oneness, right Where we stand, right where we are, we connect with this eternal divine presence right here and now. And I affirm greater peace, greater awareness, and greater wisdom in all of life’s transitions.
(17:16):
And I’m just moving into prayer, just recognizing right here and right now, that there is one power, one presence in the universe. I recognize this presence as God, but I know it goes by many names. I recognize this presence as love, joy, peace, power, wholeness, abundance and freedom. This is the truth of God, and this is the truth of me. I am with God. I am one with all that there is. I know that each and every person here present in this room and watching online or listening later is one with the one that the truth of our beings is rooted in grounded in love, joy, peace, power, wholeness, abundance and freedom. This is our shared truth, all that God is, we are.
(18:20):
So it is from this place of oneness and connection and sourcing that I just speak a blessing over each and every person here just affirming that you have been brought here to this time, to this space, on point and on purpose, that all things are working together for good in your life. I affirm that in the midst of change in our awareness, that there are opportunities to see things differently and to grow in ways we never expected. To release the grasp of how I think it should be to allow for something greater to be make known. I know that peace comes from our willingness to be present with our emotions, with our feelings, with what is, and that we have the ability to adapt and change to create the life that we truly desire. I affirm the changeless aspects of God right here and now for me.
(19:31):
For you, right where we stand, right where we sit. So I just affirm that this idea of change and flowing with the change, that it’s loosened, its grip, and there is now space and there’s flow to come in, to gain that awareness, to call a friend, to ask for help, to speak the prayer and to affirm that life is unfolding for us. May not understand every detail, but that it’s all for us. That God is in control and I have nothing to fear. Life is flowing and that I am flowing with it, with ease and with grace. And I affirm that for each and every person, there’s just an opening at the heart to allow life, to allow what is, to accept that, and to flow with the changes of life. I’m just grateful to affirm this truth. I’m grateful for a spiritual community that reminds me of truth, that is able to just hold each other’s hands as we lock along this journey.
(20:48):
We call life that’s so filled with change and impregnation. But I’m just grateful that we can trust and know that all is well, that God is here where we stand and opening up to grow in ways that were never expected. So beauty, joy, peace. This is what is possible. This is the truth of our beings. So I’m just grateful to affirm this prayer of and for this community right here, right now, grateful for the fulfillment of this prayer. And I’m just energetically releasing it, letting it go, letting it go into the law. The law that only and always says yes, yes, yes, my child. It is done unto you as you believe. But I affirm that here and now, today, together, that we believe. So I energetically just release it. I let it go. And together we say, and so it is.
(21:54):
Thank you. Thank you, Jonathan.