Life can be beyond what it is for you at this very moment. No matter what your present state of being is, whether it be sad or content, utterly miserable or utterly joyful, you have the power and capacity to raise yourself even higher. Don’t think for a second that your everyday level of contentment is your limit. There are higher and higher plateaus. But for many people they get locked into a certain mind set, a state of mind that doesn’t allow them to break free to higher states of happiness.
The mind is like a sponge: Somewhere in your history, in your childhood someone said something negative to you and it got stuck, absorbed deep into your consciousness and subconscious. In most people’s cases they had parents that, though meaning well, put certain fears into you. Phrases like “Look at you, you’re dressed horribly”, or the famous “What will other people think?” You may have unfortunately heard a lot worse. These phrases create a worry, and insecurity, a fear, within. We start doubting ourselves and questioning our self-worth.
For example, in grade 3 or 4 you may have joyfully been getting ready for school wearing clothes or styling your hair in a way that you thought would make you popular. Suddenly on your way out the front door your mother stops you and tells you abruptly that you need to change your clothes. All you wanted was to be accepted, by your mother, by your friends, by society. Suddenly a division arises within you. This scenario is a metaphor for millions of such occurrences that have gone on in your own life.
Either we comply or we rebel, but neither response is authentic. To comply is to try to fit into the mold that our parents, friends, religion or society has formed for us. To rebel to forcefully reject these molds and go to the other extreme. But neither is authentic to you. What comes from a relaxed state of being is what is authentic. Have you ever considered what would be authentic to you? Without any social pressure, how would you dress, how would you wear your hair, how would your personality be?
In the 60’s there was a great rebellion by the youth against the establishment. Men started to wear their hair long where in the years prior short hair was demanded to attend school or to get a job. That generation saw a sickness in the way society was controlled. They rebelled against formal attire and dresses in bright, colorful clothing. They rebelled against music and created new form with loud, distorted guitars, heavy drums, and controversial lyrics. They rebelled against the conditioned mind and started taking psychedelics like LSD to experience different levels of consciousness. Many rebelled against their country and war; some were shot, some were drafted, some fled the country, some went to India and discovered spirituality.
But all this rebellion is unnecessary because to rebel is to fight and to fight, even if it is not physical, is to be violent. We can be violent in our thought and violent in our words. We can be violent to ourselves. A rebellion is not necessary, but a revolution is: a revolution of consciousness. And a revolution of consciousness does not need to take place in India and does not need to happen in the future. It can happen this very moment.
The greatest revolution is of the inner kind, in which the revolution leads to the ultimate revelation: that within you, beneath this contrived outer appearance, is a being of immense beauty capable of miraculous depths of love.
You can do as much yoga as you physically can, you can meditate as much as you want, you can do as many good deeds as humanly possible, but until you truly and fully love, accept and forgive yourself this revolution will never occur.
Say the following to yourself a few times, meaningfully, gently, slowly, with your hands on your heart, and with a pause for reflection after each line.
I Love my Self
I Accept my Self
I Forgive my Self
I Trust my Self
I Believe in my Self
How does it feel to say these affirmations? Do they feel authentic? Do they feel awkward? Do some feel more true than others?
If just one of these elements is missing your happiness will be in shambles. If you do nothing else with your life, work towards the attainment of these things, to love yourself, fully…to accept yourself, fully…to forgive yourself, fully…Then you will trust yourself in any situation. And when you trust yourself you can believe in yourself. Finally when you believe in your Self you can just BE – authentically.
Sat Nam,
Johannes ~ Sevaji