The Quick Guide to Escaping Suffering

If you were absolutely honest with yourself, your entire search for a more spiritual existence is driven by the desire to escape suffering. There will come a point in your journey where everything you have read suddenly sinks in and  you will know that suffering is nothing more than an unconscious attachment to a specific outcome. We spend our lives fighting the universe, trying to force the outcome we want. And we suffer when things don’t go our way. You will need to hear this many times on your journey so hear it is again, stop focusing on the outcome. Focus on this moment! Focus on the one thing you can control, the way you are feeling!

If I had to put it into 5 easy steps:

1)      What was the outcome you so wanted ? Get that clear in your mind

2)      How did you expect to feel when you got ‘there ‘ ?

3)      Visualise yourself in that expected outcome and start feeling the moment

4)      In this moment actively and consciously OWN your feelings. Start to do, say and think whatever you need for you to be able to maintain those feeling

5)      Stop obsessing about your outcome, refocus and obsess on the feeling that outcome was going to bring you

So, next time you find yourself stuck in a state of suffering make a stand to own your life. Ask yourself what it was you were hoping for. Get conscious about how you wanted this to turn out.  And then, when you have that outcome clear in your mind, take a new step, ask yourself the big question, “How did I want to feel ? “

Now, take those feelings and bring them into this moment, right here and now! Visualise yourself with the outcome you wanted until it is so clear that you are living those feelings. You can stop there if you want or you can take it that step further and make a conscious decision to create those feelings regardless of the outcome.

Make a list of things you can start doing, stop thinking, start thinking, start saying that will allow that feeling to exist right here and now. And instead of obsessing about that outcome, start obsessing about how you want to feel.

Remember, claiming yourself and mastering your life is a new way of being that uses a whole new set of skills and skills take time to learn. They also take practice. There is also now time like now to start practicing! Why choose a life of suffering when you could choose a life of freedom and mastery ?

Using Resistance to Create True Acceptance !

Perhaps you are one of those lucky few who never learnt resistance. Regrettably, this is not one of my natural habits. Resistance is the enemy in a spiritually advanced soul – the way is flow, acceptance, trust! Then again, it all depends on how you understand those words. What is acceptance ? What is resistance ? What is true ? I started to ask myself what is, ‘is’ ? and aside from being entertained by the pure Zen of the sentence, started to uncover a whole layer of unreal that I had never seen before. Instead of stamping out my natural resistance I am celebrating it.

I have spent my life resisting! My earliest memories have been of me resisting, I refused to accept my Dad’s definition of who I was and what I could do, I refused to accept my schools rules and labels. I rebelled when everyone around me told me that I could not dive deep, and I have a world record as a result. Most of my suffering and struggle comes from my inherent resistance and I have always thought that what I was resisting was what is – a futile task – only what is the true is ? How much of what I think ‘is’, is nothing more than some-one else’s reality being forced onto me ? When I started to ask that question and start to see what really is...I was astounded to realise that my resistance was not to what is, but to what other people insisted was true.

So now I am celebrating my resistance because it is my spirit pointing the way to what really is. Next time I feel the urge to rebel I will know it is because someone is trying to warp what is to suit their own agenda. Resist what is false and search for what really is! Never accept some-one else’s view on the so-called truth because no-one (including you and me) can see the truth clearly, we always see it through our lives, our baggage and our own stories. In the spirit of all good blog articles here are my three stops and starts to step into your power using your own resistance

-          You live and create what you believe to be true - so make sure that vision is of your own making

-          Keep asking what really is ! This is the only way you will  uncover inherited limits & beliefs and it is these more than anything else that are stopping you from using your power to create.

-          Trust your instincts & trust your resistance! The trick is not in resisting ‘resisting’ but using it

-          You can’t resist what is, but there lies the dilemma, you first need to see that clearly.

At the edge of this realisation is another that I will be exploring by living over the next few weeks, that resistance is not about creating a fight or drama, that you can flow and resist at the same time. But that is another blog and right now I am merely revelling in a new aspect of my power, searching for what really ‘is’ through my innate resistance to what is not.