When everything seems to be going wrong it can feel impossible to look on the bright side. You are not alone, and there is a reason you are feeling and experiencing hardship. Let's examine what this is and how you can feel more empowered, peaceful and joyful.
I existed in the world like it was hell and it was something that I had to get through to finally get to go back home. When I was a kid, I instinctively knew that there was another ‘place’ where beings reside outside of this dense space we call earth. Perhaps it was all the 'visitations' I couldn’t explain that made me miss home. Regardless I felt it.
I felt all of it. I felt fear, I felt pain, I felt absence, I felt the unpleasantness of the world and I didn’t want to be in a place where I had to feel this way.
We’ve come here with a mind and a coordinated body to experience the world as our Conscious Self. You are NOT the voice in your head, you are not even your body. You are the one who listens, who notices and who experiences the mind and the body.
There is a point and a purpose to these feelings and experiences as the egoic self. Because ultimately you get fed up feeling this way, you've just had enough. It can feel like a breakdown but this is necessary to breakthrough! If everything was just ok, maybe you would never decide to make important changes. Therefore, everything is truly working out for your highest good, everything is love. To know pain is to better know bliss. To know fear is to crack ourselves open to this Consciousness.
These emotions are a part of our ego, what fuels it and what ultimately sets us free.
You have come here to learn to finally create Heaven on Earth, "Earth as it is in Heaven." To realize your divinity and live as your Soulful Self on 'Earth,' just like you do in, 'Heaven.' You do this by coming online, awakening to your true Self which is Energy or Consciousness and it exists in the Eternal Now. That is your primary dharma or purpose.
So until you realize that the ego is not who you are, you are in the prison of your own personality. In this space, everything does feel hard, everything does feel like it is going wrong. Ultimately you are simply recreating the past over and over with learned behaviours and habits.
When you spend more time in the exact moment you are in, practicing acceptance or experiencing enjoyment, you are living as Consciousness. Consciousness feels love and knows that everything is unfolding for the highest good.
When you trip on a step, or drop a bag of flour on the flour and you feel frustrated, that is the ego, and that is OK! The first step is just being aware that the ego is present.
The other day, I opened a can of coconut milk and dumped it into my dinner pot of red lentil dahl. I spent time and energy filling the pot with healthy vegetables and spices, to realize the coconut milk was over two years old!
The second step was to become aware of the lesson, why was this happening? Until you face your lessons, they will keep showing up for you. I realized I needed to overcome my fear of getting sick and I needed to trust my gut. I instinctively knew it was OK, even though my mind (ego) said it definitely wasn't. I trusted my gut. I ate it. I am healthy! I could have thrown an hour's worth of work away, angry and hungry.
Consciousness was telling me that everything truly works out in my favour, even if it doesn’t seem like it.
The third step is letting yourself be with and in the uncomfortable situation. A lot of the time, we try to bury our experience, or numb ourselves with external stimuli (alcohol, drugs, food, tech etc). Who wants to feel that way?
What is worse, feeling it at the time and releasing it, or stuffing it down to keep reliving it over and over until you take the courage to face it?
A lot of the time when we don't know how to deal with a situation (especially as kids) we bury it so deep that it stays with us in our bodies. Please don't think that you have energy blocks or darkness within you, it just means that the energy isn't 'online' so to speak. This can lead to your body SHOWING you what you need to face in the form of dis-ease, simply so that you can start to make some positive changes.
The last step is giving yourself some grace. Even though you might be aware of your ego, you are not Buddha or Jesus, this sh!t takes time and effort;) When you react to something your spouse did, or keep overthinking something your co-worker said to you, your ego is triggered to defend itself. So technically it's not you and not your fault, so surrender and let it go.
Awareness of Ego.
Acknowledge the Lesson.
Acceptance of the Experience.
Acceptance of your Reaction.
Here are some practices I use to help me stay present with my experiences and to come 'online' to awaken to my Conscious Self:
1. Body Scan: Take It To Your Body.
You can practice this every morning or when you are feeling triggered. Start at your toes and start to scan your body towards your crown for the physical feelings (tingles, tightness, spaciousness, absence of feeling, heaviness, soreness etc.). The goal is to take yourself away from the emotions of sadness, anger, fear as they are in your head and therefore have a story attached to them. You will never be able to think your way out effectively as the egoic self. This is spending time in the past recreating over and over. Take it to the present moment within your body as the Conscious Self.
2. Drop in, Drop through: Anchoring Breath.
This practice allows the energy of Consciousness to anchor into your body.
Visualize a golden light above your head as you release your breath with a sigh.
Now, breathe in (5 seconds) that loving light through your crown, down the conduit of your spine passing your third eye (approximately between your brows), past your throat to rest at your heart centre.
As you hold your breath here at your heart (5 seconds), engage mula bandha at your root chakra at the base of your spine (pull your perineum up and in as if you were holding in the urge to pee).
Exhale (5 seconds) releasing mula bandha and visualizing the light travelling through the solar plexus (above your naval) past the sacral chakra (below your naval) and out through the base of your spine and feet to the ground beneath you.
Repeat 6 times.
3. Present Moment Awareness
A lot of the time, I find it helpful to focus my mind on a mantra or count my breaths. My favourite mantras are: "Just Be," and "I am." When I count my breaths, I breathe into my belly for the count of 5 and see how long I can make my exhales.
These practices naturally lead to more joy and peace because you are living in the sweet present moment where your Conscious Self lives! Which is of course source energy which is in and through all things.
When you are in this space, you are connected to your divinity and out of the prison of the personality (ego).
Start to notice how your outer world begins to reflect that peace and calm of your inner world. You are now living online as a creator of your experiences, as you are able to shift your perspective and reactions realizing everything is in your favour. Ironically, you are also making the world a better place by simply being you.
Much love as you journey towards your Conscious Self to live the life you intend for yourself - the life of your dreams.
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