Sah D’Simone is a spiritual guide, meditation teacher, international transformational speaker, best-selling author, and creator of The Sah Method. Catch him on Wanderlust TV, presenting a series of classes based on the principles in his book, Spiritually Sassy.
Why do we allow our minds to play painful episodes of our past over and over again? Reliving the memories of our mistakes and missteps on repeat is like flogging yourself over and over. It’s a form of torture, my love! And the perpetrator is your inner critic – that voice inside that wants you to believe you’ll never be enough.
Honestly, we only have to review our past mistakes a few times to learn the lessons necessary to change and create the determination to move on. But your inner critic isn’t reasonable like that. It doesn’t let go so quickly.
Want to turn down the volume on your inner critic and gain clarity over its voice? Be of service, honey.
Let me tell you a story.
Years ago, I was in a very deep, dark depression. I was walking on the beach, mired in my misery and lost in my head. Suddenly, out of nowhere, I heard my heart whisper, “go be of service.” It was a rare moment of clarity in my internal chaos, so it really grabbed my attention in a way that I could not shake off.
I drove by a park and saw a large group of unhoused people there. I approached them, asking if they had access to food. They said, “a couple of times of week we do, but most of the time we rely on the community for help.”
I knew what I had to do. I went to the market and made 25 sandwiches, and packed them up, each with a little note. I delivered them at the park, engaged with the people there, and had another glimpse of clarity.
While I was with them delivering food, and listening to their stories, my inner critic was silent. I had a newfound inner stability. It was a tremendous relief and a glimmer of hope.
So I made it a weekly habit. I made do with what I had available, led by my intention to transform myself by supporting others in their transformation. By offering food, a smile, an ear, and bearing witness to the marginalized people who desperately needed someone to see them and validate their humanity, my heart opened and my inner critic quieted. This was a tremendously powerful catalyst for the next step of my own awakening.
When your inner critic is in charge, you become stagnant, even paralyzed. It can be hard to function, much less transform, when you’re hooked into that voice inside your head.
Being of service is the secret sauce that makes your spiritual experience delicious!
Being of service takes yourself out of stagnation and into action. It moves you from self-loathing to self-love.
Out of your head and into your heart. From the you of yesterday to the you of tomorrow.
My love, I am Inviting you to be of service and find small ways to help your community, friends, and family. This is the moment. Your moment of clarity in a world of chaos, your nudge in the direction of transformation.
Being of service opens you up to be a leader, a megaboss, to be of support to people everywhere. It allows you to expand your field of love and compassion, not just to the dear ones, the kind people… but to the strangers, the unkind, those we cannot understand, those who trouble us, who have a different background or culture, who look or live or love differently than we do. In other words, the people that need it most but receive it least.
The Bodhisattva Prayer
In 2019 I had the chance to study with Jetsunma Tenzin Palmo, a living saint and Buddhist nun, who offered me the chance to take the Bodhisattva Vow, which is a commitment to be of service to people everywhere with no exception. It is a recognition that everybody’s suffering is your own. That you can only be completely free until you help others be completely free. It’s an aspiration to hold space for all people everywhere.
Accepting this calling toward and impact of service is a fundamental element in spiritual transformation. It’s another rung on the ladder toward self-realization.
To get you started on your own path to service, I want to share with you an excerpt from the Bodhisattva Prayer, which was written by Shantideva, a Buddhist sage from 700 A.D. It is a prayer for humanity, and the Dalai Lama’s daily prayer.
Let this prayer anchor you in the intention of being of service. Memorize it and repeat it frequently until it becomes ceaseless in you, awakening your heart, opening your mind to the possibility for yourself and others to change. Let it be the antidote to painful memories, and it will bring you back into your natural essence. Allow this prayer to silence that inner critic and propel you into a practice of action through service.
“May I be a guard for those who need protection
A guide for those on the path
A boat, a raft, a bridge for those who wish to cross the flood
May I be a lamp in the darkness
A resting place for the weary
A healing medicine for all who are sick
A vase of plenty, a tree of miracles
And for the boundless multitudes of living beings
May I bring sustenance and awakening
Enduring like the earth and sky
Until all beings are freed from sorrow
And all are awakened.”
You can find a longer version of this prayer available as a meditation here.
We need you, honey. More than ever, the world needs you to step up and be of service. To offer support and be a witness to the humanity of others everywhere. To shine your loving light into the darkest corners of the world and let your compassion heal everyone you touch. In doing so, you’ll not only quiet your inner critic and step into the next stage of your own awakening, you’ll inspire others to do the same.
Now, wouldn’t that be lovely?
Go get em, Tiger.
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Sah D’Simone is a spiritual guide, meditation teacher, international transformational speaker, best-selling author, and creator of The Sah Method, who has dedicated his life to helping others to live in alignment and achieve their highest potential. He is pioneering a Spiritually Sassy, heart-based healing movement rooted in science-backed, tried-and-true techniques, in which joy and authenticity illuminate the path to enlightenment.
His infectious enthusiasm for healing is grounded in a masterful and revolutionary synthesis of ancient Tantric Buddhism, modern contemplative psychotherapy, meditation, breathwork, and integrative nutrition… all delivered in his own radiant, approachable, and playful style.