What is Grace?

Grace is a simple and beautiful word that tends to lighten our mood and inspire us. Regardless of our spiritual or religious background, grace evokes a felt sense of something subtle, but substantial, that has been with us all along in the background of our awareness, arising more explicitly in our life’s transition points. Often, we feel mysteriously transformed, touched by grace, but what exactly is grace? Why is it so important on your spiritual path?

Grace is the direct experience of Divine presence coming alive from within you. When this occurs, you feel connected to the Source of real love, clarity, peace, strength, and joy. You recognize that these qualities are inherently part of who you really are and that they are ultimately independent of external circumstances. Reconnecting with your own essential nature brings you back into the flow and provides the inner resources from which to respond to life’s opportunities and challenges with love, wisdom, and equanimity.

Grace is nondenominational—not owned by any religion or philosophy—but rather the felt experience of the Sacred, and is so much more than a lofty state that fills your heart with gratitude. Surprisingly, grace is the practical key to gaining traction on your spiritual path and finding true fulfillment. The Hindu sage Ramana Maharshi said, “Grace is always present”; it is more available than you might think to help you end unnecessary struggle, transform your suffering into wisdom, liberate your talents and gifts, and support you in embodying your highest potential in this world. Most importantly, grace is available to help you become a more mature and noble human being in these times of tremendous change and uncertainty across the globe. The purpose of all my offerings is to help you gain greater access to grace and the beautiful possibilities it can bring to your life and, through you, to bring more grace into our world.

The world’s great mystical traditions agree that grace comes alive through surrender. However, surrender is commonly misunderstood as trying to annihilate your ego (with
its limiting patterns and tendencies). This misunderstanding often leads to a rather macho tendency to aggress on ourselves in the name of spirituality. Given that our ego patterns represent not only our ignorance but also our suffering, trying to beat ourselves into spiritual shape only makes letting go harder—which is not the compassionate response we, or our world, needs. Authentic surrender happens more effectively through a practice that I call Ego Relaxation, which is a feminine approach to walking a spiritual path by learning to be present and undefended with all parts of your experience. Ego Relaxation is how you gain deeper access to the luminous qualities of your essential nature.

In my lifelong spiritual journey, which has included extensive study of the world’s wisdom traditions, deep psychological excavation, dedicated meditation, prayer, and inquiry, I have found Ego Relaxation to be the most powerful, and yet most compassionate, method for liberating obstacles and coming to abide ever more substantially in essence. Most importantly, it supports me to greet each moment of daily life with grace and to respond from an inner platform of unity rather than react from a state of separation, and it can for you, too.