The Inside Story is about taking responsibility for creating our lives. Not just in general, but each and every moment of our lives by what we think, feel and do. There is just no getting around the fact that it is US who creates the life we have.
In Christianity, all can be given up to God in order to receive Grace and Salvation. In Buddhist philosophy, much emphasis is given to attachments causing suffering. Impermanence teaches that everything changes, especially our perspective as we grow, learn more and enjoy wider, deeper views of life. Eckhart Tolle loves to talk about the pain body or the desire nature causing all the fuss. No matter the philosophy, taking responsibility for oneself is key.
Obviously there is more to good health than avoiding germs and people who are sick. Most of us realize now that when we are in contact with someone who is ill, some will contact the disease and others won’t. It’s a matter of how strong our immune system is. What constitutes a strong immune system? Where is the weak link in our system?
We hear all the time that we inherit DNA and are pretty much a victim of the genes we received from our parents. That makes it easy to get out of taking responsibility for ourselves…. what we eat, how much exercise we get, what we think, believe, feel and what we are attached to.
There is more. There is always more! It’s even more than what we are feeling or thinking. It is more than being shaken up during spiritual transformations. It is even more than ’sacrificing ourselves for the good of the whole.’
Our health and well-being are more than all that. Yes, our past counts. Our childhood patterns, our eating habits, the amount of exercise we get, our ability to forgive, our releasing negative thoughts, our letting go of anger, fear, hostility…. yes, yes and yes!
Let’s go deeper. Let’s go to our resolve to be all we can be. How important are our habits, patterns, opinions and the way we live our life? How willing are we to let go of what obviously no longer serves us?
Here are some questions to consider. Have you ever had thoughts like “I LOVE my sweets and need them to sustain me emotionally, but the Candida that comes from the sugar just destroys my body.”
What do you do? Stop eating sugar and all fruit, cut down on how much you eat or just keep eating whatever your heart desires?
“I LOVE running/(insert any sport that is hard on the body), but the pounding on my joints is hurting my knees, hips and ankles.”
What choices do you make? Adjust or stay fixed? So often I hear:
“I love smoking pot, drinking coffee, or alcohol, and I need it to maintain a little semblance of sanity in this crazy world. It gives me comfort, grounds me and changes my attitude so I can cope.” or “My religious/spiritual belief is the Truth, with a capital “T” and that’s the end of the story.”
It’s pretty universal that as humans, we love our addictions. Yes, our addiction can be to a beloved belief system that served us well for a time. Eventually, it is just another attachment that has to go. Life is a process of continually seeing a new, perspective and the old ones must go.
What is needed is a little balance, some discipline, intention setting and belief that we are the ones creating our heaven or hell on Earth. Yes, discipline is required to train ourselves to let go and not attach ourselves to our beloved beliefs. They release or morph as we grow in consciousness.
These are choices for change that we all struggle with on a daily basis. It may be something as simple as not wanting to give up an old thought-form like, “my parents put the idea in my head that I wasn’t good enough so early in life, I have to spend the rest of my life resolving that and retraining myself.” or “My mental, emotional or physical abuse has damaged me for life and I will spend the rest of my days getting though or over it.” Choices.
How about considering this… Consider the possibility that we are already pure and that dropping the old ideas about who we are might allow a more refined state of awareness. Our identity no longer serves us continually and then we must drop it. This process goes on infinitely way beyond this planet and this lifetime.
Each moment we continually morph into the ‘new normal’ and are always changing, whether this disturbs our sense of security or not. It takes courage to drop the old thoughts, patterns and habitual ways of thinking, feeling and being in order to be are real, true selves. All the selves, physical, emotional, mental and spiritual eventually lose their distinctions and recognize that they are all one whole, total, synthesized All.
Dis-ease is resisting the flow. By putting a wall up around ourselves, we keep ourselves from the needed flexibility of dealing with all the changes constantly surrounding us. Insulation makes us right because there is no one there to disarm us. It doesn’t really matter how attached we are to what is. We need to GET OVER IT. When we change our mind and make a resolution to a new something, the process of healing begins.
It’s already changed. Holding, grasping, clinging to what is becomes the poison that takes us out of balance with ourselves. This resistance is the germ, the virus, the bacteria that puts our system into dis-ease and chaos.
Someday this will be more widely understood and accepted. It starts with each of us. Can we erase all we have been told by our society and embrace this concept? Consider it. Imagine doing an exercise each day or many times throughout the day to train the heart and the mind to be empty. Not void; empty.
This happens with meditation. We empty our selves to be filled with something greater, then empty again, until we know ourselves as that something greater. This is the process that goes on eternally – in the Eternal Now – in the Eternal Now. There is no division, no separate parts!
If we are creating our reality with every thought, every feeling, during every moment, what are you thinking right NOW?
As we let go, REALLY LET GO!!! we become less concerned with our self-made reality and free ourselves to help others. At some point our life is no longer about us. It’s about the other.
This is liberation. This is expanded awareness. It comes from the joy we feel with greater gratitude, embracing loving kindness and seeing the beauty all around. It comes with commitment and effort. This may bring initial disruption and even some pain, but eventually it brings more Joy, expanded Love and true Service.
Comments are appreciated!
www.body-magic.biz Support your friends, create your life, know yourself as part of the whole matrix of life and do it in humility.
The next post will go deeper into the humility piece.
