Life's Greatest Adventure!
| | | | | | Hi Friend,
One thing I've noticed is that for a large part of my life I have mostly been driven by a desire to change or improve myself. The more I observe my own motives, drives and habitual patterns, the more aware I am of the underlying assumption that there's something wrong with me that needs to be improved or changed somehow.
This idea that we need to change is pervasive in our society. You can't watch TV or read a magazine without coming away with a vague notion that something about you is not quite right and if you buy something, eat something, drink something, change something, your life will suddenly be better than you could ever possibly imagine!
Even if we are not consciously thinking that we need to change, we can still experience an underlying sense that there is something wrong, or that we are not enough. We might even approach the idea of acceptance as just coming to terms with the fact that we are somehow 'wrong' or inadequate. So we approach it with resignation, yet we still believe the underlying assupmtion that there's something wrong with us in the first place.
As I'm meditating or doing yoga practice there is a constant tyrant at the back of my mind: "I'm not doing it right", "I'm not doing enough", and "I can't do this". Normally we believe these ideas without question, but as we go deeper on our journey we begin to question if they are true. (This is the idea behind Byron Katies work, outlined in her excellent book "Loving What Is") As we go deeper we not only detach from the ideas, so we are no longer affected by them, but we may even begin noticing how they got there in the first place. The pervasiveness of thoughts and feelings, and how we buy into them. It is another level of learning to watch the mechanism of conditioning, from within!
It isn't always possible to see how we became conditioned, because the process happens largely in our subconscious mind. In this brilliant lecture, Professor Lorimer Moseley from the University of South Australia demonstrates how we can become conditioned to experience pain, even where the external stimulus may be much smaller than we would expect. "Pain. Is It All Just In Your Mind?" is 48 minutes long and well worth watching. Look out for the optical illusion with the grey squares. Even when you know they are the same color, you will see them as different!
So if most of our conditioning, including the idea that we are somehow inadequate, has been largely beyond our conscious control, we can stop beating ourselves up over it. For me that takes the pressure off! I feel so much better knowing I can just relax, observe, and begin to understand how it all works, from the inside. Maybe we are OK just as we are. Maybe we always were... and in that knowing, maybe we are changed.
"The curious paradox is that when I accept myself, just as I am, then I can change"
- Carl Rogers
See you next time, and in the meantime...
happy exploring!
Best Wishes,
Ruth
| | | | | | | To support you on your journey...
| | | | | | | "One of the best actions we can take,with courage,
is to relax."
- anon
This simple, easy, and effective relaxation technique takes 10-20 minutes each day and really works.
A vacation only lasts a couple of weeks but once you have this technique, you've got it for life...
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| | Soul Path Coach and Soul Astrologer Ruth Hadikin, specializes in supporting you on your own greatest adventure: as you find and express your purpose, passion, and unique Soul Path through self-exploration.
Website: Http://RuthHadikin.com
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