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I AM
SURE IT IS SAFE TO SAY THAT WE HAVE EACH HAD TIMES IN OUR LIVES
when we had hopes, anticipation, expectations, and events where we desired
a certain outcome. I am sure it is equally safe to say that when any
of them did not turn out the way we had wished, we felt some measure
of pain, disappointment, anger, sadness, or turmoil. Can you relate?
The purpose of this article is to change that. Just as alchemy can turn
base metal into gold, you will soon learn how to turn your suffering
into golden freedom from inner anguish.
Our human minds, thoughts, and beliefs have been conditioned for eons
to believe that some future event will bring us happiness. As a result,
we are constantly seeking. We are projecting our vibrant and passionately
alive state on the condition that once we have whatever event, person,
material thing, title, award, or circumstance, we will THEN have happiness.
Our ego tricks us into believing that we are not sufficient at the present
moment. No, we don’t have such and such yet; but once we do THEN we
can be happy. Does any of this sound familiar? In any area? In any way?
When whatever we receive is not to our liking, we feel resistance. It
is the resistance to our deep belief that our current state of being
is not good enough which has us hinging our happiness on something we
think we need to acquire in order to feel happier. It is seeking in
the future.
Please let me know when you arrive at your future, I would like to meet
you! Shall I check back with you in ten minutes? Will you be there then?
I didn’t think so. Where will you be? In the moment. Please do tell
me when you will ever NOT be IN the moment; I would like to meet you
too!
THIS moment is an extraordinarily powerful and positive place to be.
The alchemy occurs when we fully accept this moment, what we have, and
the situation at hand exactly as IT IS NOW, rather than resist it. Perhaps
this moment may not be your preference. That is awareness! Perhaps you
would prefer this moment to look different, but it does not. It is what
it is, and there is a reason for it to be so.
Why? I’ll tell you.
Every event in our life is brought to us in order to help us grow from
within to BE the highest and best version of ourselves we can ever hope
to create. In order to evolve internally, in love, compassion, confidence,
inner strength, gentleness, and belief in ourselves, there must be an
external catalyst for our growth. That catalyst is the circumstance
we RESIST, or try to GET in order to believe we are, in fact, valued,
loved, lovable, whole and complete as we are NOW.
Does this mean we stop doing? No. It means we start BEING, rather than
seeking or resisting and avoiding. If you find that you are catapulted into the throws emotional turmoil,
then you are NOT doing one thing: ACCEPTING.
Accepting does not mean allowing yourself to be abused, or the abuser.
The acceptance I am speaking of is stepping back for one enormous moment,
and WATCHING your emotional reaction to any situation where you feel
resistance. Once you stop, and look at yourself as if you were on a
movie screen and say: “Look at how I am reacting. Look at what I’m feeling
because of this situation," the moment you can catch yourself and “become
the watcher” (as Eckhart Tolle states) you immediately disengage yourself
from the emotional drama of the situation. Then, you can ACCEPT it just
for what it is. As soon as you accept it, alchemy occurs; you are no
longer in pain. Your suffering has been transformed into freedom from
suffering. You can then look at the situation with some measure of objectivity,
and if you can’t laugh at it, you can at least come to peace with it.
Going back to an analogy to nature, suppose you have a small rose bush
in your garden. You WANT it to bloom, and give you one hundred perfect
roses. It blooms, and gives you two instead. Do you stomp, scream, and
rip the rose bush out of the ground by its roots? No. You ACCEPT that
this is what you received. Perhaps it wasn’t yet ready this season to
bloom, as you WANT it to. Perhaps it will never bloom. It has NOTHING
to do with YOU!
It is the same with people. The way they are, is simply the way they
are. Circumstances are the way they are. It is in THIS moment that you
can make a decision based on awareness, stemming from acceptance, as
to a course of action or inaction that will serve your best interest.
You cannot make a beneficial decision based on awareness when you are
caught in the drama of resisting what is, now. However, once you ACCEPT
what is, now, you are then free to face whatever it is you are seeking,
or avoiding. Then you will find that you are evolving, rather than creating
a Movie-of-the-week miniseries out of your emotional turmoil.
Your turmoil exists solely in your invested interest in keeping the
status quo, (if you are resisting) or in changing the status quo – if
you are seeking.
Your personal alchemy is the golden moment of acceptance, which will
transform your suffering into freedom from its tyranny forever.
Illustration:
Avenescent
© Barbara
Rose 2002
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