Awareness and ego
Let me share with you the practical process that allows us ‘to be‘ in the present and to experience the internal peace that arises as a result.
This story always starts with our ‘egos’- a biological imperative for a mechanistic fear driven reaction to survival, which as in the fairy tales, has the majority of humanity enthralled under a frozen spell from which it is all but impossible to wake up from, until the magic kiss from our hero wakes up the princess and warmth seeps back into the Kingdom.
This Ego, based in the three lower chakras, has, via a combination of:
1) Repetitive physical actions – these can lull us to sleep. especially if our emotions and feelings are quiet.
2) Suppressed emotions which every now and then ‘blow our top’
3) Mental rigidity of thought deliberately built into our psyche in the early years of our development, have us trapped, arrogance condescension and we are hardly aware of it.
The problem is compounded by the food, drink and pharmaceuticals that we ingest, it’s a bit like having a top of the range ‘Ferrari vehicle’ yet with cheap tyres, unsuitable lubricants, and fed the wrong fuel for the engine. Then we wonder why the engine gunges up after driving it for short periods and we never quite get the speeds and manoeuvrability that the odd pristine Ferrari we see down the road seems to muster.
The soul
Most people these days have a woolly conception of life after death. They pay lip service to survival beyond the demise of the human vehicle, they claim to have a soul, that will either go to heaven, hell, or reincarnation into another body.
If we have a soul what is it doing whilst we are alive? Who is in charge of our experiences in life? Is this soul a passive observer? If I have a soul who or what am I? If I have a soul and my vehicle for experience has a clogged engine, repetitive mental software designed to keep me running around in a loop and unsuitable tyres to navigate the terrain. What is this soul going to experience let alone choose in life?
Do you start to get a sense of our dilemma? What is the point of a soul incarnating into a body that runs around in auto pilot with no off switch? How is that soul to ever consciously experience life? This is the tragedy for most of humanity not just at this present moment but for the past 3.5 million years.
The cards as it were have been dealt, and the game is rigged. There is a way out, there is a possibility for our egos to relinquish control and allow our souls to consciously experience life, and it will take effort, for we need to clean up the vehicle, ( eat proper food and nutrients – to start unclogging ourselves), exercise, become self observant as to how we truly are trapped in our repetitive emotions, how our thought patterns (belief systems) are ‘controlling and limiting our emotional expression as well as access to our subconscious creativity.
OK enough of the philosophising. let’s get practical! (don’t delude yourself, it is going to take time and effort)
The body
Step 1. We need to inhabit our bodies. So many people are in physical pain and discomfort – as re result of conflict between their emotions and opposing mental rigidity (indoctrination) that rather than be in the physical pain their center of consciousness/ focus is in their heads.
To be in our bodies is to be present, to experience the passing of time- it is a prelude to choice and free will.
We tend to run away from and fear physical pain, big mistake. We need to experience our physical pain fully whether it is the result of accidental damage or muscular tension from emotional suppression, our focusing on pain alerts our nervous system to relax the forgotten muscles and or to heal that damaged part of our bodies.
There is a meditation exercise that will help to gain body awareness and relax tensions I also have this in .MP3 to listen to
The body is only as good as what we put into it – stop eating poisons, do physical exercise to reconnect with your body and maintain flexibility in your fascia. Martial arts, crossfit, yoga take your pick.
The Emotions
Emotions! we are like broken records. We continue to replay the same emotion (s) that we are stuck in, be they anger, grief, sadness, envy, hate, fear etc., These tend to get triggered (not exclusively) with reasonable regularity the week preceding the full moon. Not just in us but others, generating a cascade of negativity.
We need help with this, for stuck emotions will be related to past traumas in our lives. Stuck emotions can only be cleared by a combination of re experiencing the emotion, locating the center of its manifestation in our bodies and letting go of our victim status that justifies our reactivity.
To experience the emotion without connecting it to where it is blocked in our bodies simply re-traumatises us.
We can also help ourselves somewhat to speed up the process have a look and explore this section and the exercises within it
The Mind
The problem with our minds are manifold. At its simplest when enthralled to our minds we don’t experience the world first hand.
The words in our heads can act as an insidious filter between us and our experience of the world around us, subtly distorting it.
Because we are ‘in our heads’ rather than our bodies, we ‘don’t truly experience our existence , for our experience of life is only real when ‘we inhabit’ our bodies. many people do extreme sports to -come alive-.
We need to be aware of and separate our sense of self from the words narrating life in our heads.– WE are not our thoughts- that narration apart from being automatic and at times headache inducing. is designed to keep us asleep as to the wonder of who we truly are.
Here is one definition of madness, the repetitive record player in our heads drowning out all the other signals that come from our emotions and body.
Each part of our ego – the physical, emotional and mental constituent, needs to be observed dispassionately, and the appropriate remedy sought . We need help, the cards are stacked against us.
When ever you experience yourself as justified in your resentment , rage, sadness, when ever you think yourself entitled over others, condescending because of your acquired knowledge, or perhaps you know what is best for others? Your ego is in charge and your soul asleep. Our souls awaken when we connect with forgiveness, appreciation, joy
Making room for our soul to get behind the driving seat
Eventually, our cleaned up Ferrari will be worthy of its name, the auto pilot key will no longer be stuck and the driver -our soul can come in and take it for a spin, and what a joy to drive such a vehicle!
So what is it like to have our soul in charge? What is it like for our ego to become a servant to our master -our soul?
Our thoughts are quiet, When thoughts speak in our head we don’t automatically identify with the words.
Our center of consciousness is in our bodies but not quite, for the soul does not limit itself to our bodies, rather it stretches its tentacles to the encompassing environment, and we kinaesthetically sense the physical environment surrounding us.
That sensation stretches to people around us and we find ourselves, in synchronicity with their mental and emotional states, we can literally experience as though we were them.
Whereas, when lost in our egos ‘we’ are all that exists, and experience ourselves alone and separate from all.
When our soul is awake to itself in our bodies our ‘awareness’ of self and others is dispassionate, we are one with our environment which acquires depth, substance solidity.
Our centre of consciousness is now an emanation from our 4th chakra, the heart area from which various feelings will spontaneously emanate, a quiet joy and good humour being the most prevalent ones.
Does the above mean that we no longer experience emotions? Not at all, emotions are part of our servant the ego. It provides a valuable job of keeping our body safe and healthy, emotions are an alarm bell which we heed.
The difference is that we experience the emotion as it flows through us. we don’t hang on to them, for hanging on to the emotions is in part what has kept us traumatised, and may even have made us ill in the past
If you go to the Fourth chakra and subsequent pages I provide many exercises to help you deal with trauma that holds us back
This little blog is already too long just one final parting word. Change nothing about habits and behaviour, rather observe everything about yourself. The part of us that seeks change is an aspect of our ego, your self observations will in their own right become catalyst for change.
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