Self-Preservation in Spirituality

2 June 2025

It interests me to study the search terms that bring people to my site. Although it might make sense to assume the search terms are all spiritual and esoteric, that isn’t the case. Over the past week, there have been over half a dozen searches for “self-preservation” that brought traffic to my website.

Out of curiosity, I opened the blog page on my site and typed self-preservation into the search bar. Lo and behold, back in 2021, I wrote a post about that topic. It approaches self-preservation from the human perspective. This post approaches it from the spiritual perspective.

“Self-Preservation in Spirituality” is an original blog post by Ellen M. Gregg, published on 2 June 2025 on ellenmgregg.com.

A disturbing undercurrent

I haven’t observed any discussions about self-preservation in spirituality on social media. And although it’s true I’m not currently on any major social media outlet, I’ve been there and done that enough to have some context for this.

I have observed numerous discussions about self-care and self-worth, and yet when it comes to spirituality, there’s a disturbing undercurrent that reminds me of a rip tide. That undercurrent involves the availability of spiritual practitioners to offer their services without a fair energy exchange (a FEE).

Many people believe that those of us who have awakened to our spiritual nature and utilize the abilities that come with it, both personally and professionally, are meant to be like a public water source: freely available.

The abilities we nurture and exercise are deemed by some to be “gifts from God” and therefore must be used by us in service to others anytime, anywhere, free of charge. There’s no consideration of the fact that we have bills to pay, just like they do.

Just because we can doesn’t mean we’re supposed to

By the logic of anyone who might believe that spiritual practitioners are intended to offer their services without charging a fee, our availability must be absolute. Undernourished, unrested, and otherwise overwhelmed? Not their problem.

The last statement in that paragraph is critical because it isn’t their problem. It’s our problem, which is where spiritual self-preservation comes in.

If we allow ourselves to fall into the trap of the belief that tells us that because we can, we must, no matter our level of stability or restfulness, that’s our choice. Spirit wouldn’t demand that of us. Spirit would more likely advise us to take a look around and ensure we have the necessary resources first.

How can we help others if we can’t help ourselves? How can we offer energy, even as a conduit, if we’re exhausted? There is an energetic toll for the work we do (thank you, 5:11), and if we aren’t properly caring for ourselves, we can’t pay the toll… or we pay it and suffer the deficit, which is challenging to recover from.

Reminders

Here’s a friendly reminder: “No” is a complete sentence. Here’s another: To serve spiritually, we must be in a state of cocreation between our human selves and our spiritual selves. That means taking into account the limits of our human bodies even as we engage with the limitlessness of our spirits.

And one more thing: If you harbor a belief that tells you that you’ll be deemed a failure by spirit if you don’t fulfill every request made of your spiritual abilities, kick that belief to the curb. It’s untrue and does a great disservice to all those who are here to serve in this capacity.

Thanks for reading.