Working to be more inwardly observant of myself has brought about invaluable changes in all areas of my life. However, just recently, I feel stuck in a comfort zone where I don't want to do the work of seeing more of myself. How do I get going again?
This may help: Once you have become as inwardly quiet as possible, ask sincerely for God to show you exactly what you need to see about yourself. When you make this wish, make it fully. Work as best you can to be conscious of what it is like to remain you. This kind of honest inner seeing not only creates true incentive for self-change, but provides the new ground you need in yourself to continue your growth. The untold great spiritual secret concerning self-transformation is that we grow in proportion to our awareness of what we can no longer be.
Is there a way to wake up to what I need to do next in order to make spiritual progress rather than to merely react in disgust at my own lack of direction?
We cannot help but increase our inner efforts as it becomes clear to us that our spiritual sleep is driving us nowhere -- that is to say except deeper into dependency with unseen, downward-sliding parts of ourselves. No man or woman will consciously let themselves degenerate. Stay aware of the nature whose tendency it is to always take the easy way through life, and your wish to rise above it will increase incrementally. The wish will do the rest.
It seems that the more aware I become and the more I am able to see, my thoughts increase in number and speed. Some days I am so weary that it feels like I need a holiday from awareness. Is it possible to overdo it?
Ask yourself: Does the sunlight need a break from the nighttime, or do these two powers naturally rotate with no conflict? Anything that tries to tell you that you need a break from being aware belongs to the self that would rather sleep through life than live.
Each morning I have asked for something new and true to be shown to me. I have been surprised by what has been given to me. Some of it, for the moment, has been painful. At other times, it has been joyful. It is always surprising. The upshot of it is, "Why, of course. How could I have not seen it before?"
One of the most exciting aspects of real self-work is that as we become new, so do our moments. Our awakened nature never experiences repetition, which means every moment has a new taste to it. Even our so-called bad moments are new, because they bring with them new lessons to learn about ourselves. With persistence on your part, it will be a new world that will wake you up every morning. I promise that these words are not an affirmation, but a fact of the higher life that awaits all who will ask for it.