All Suffering Is Self-Created

We all know what suffering is. It can span the spectrum from mild anxiety and stress to extreme terror or grave depression. It is true that all human beings experience setbacks, disappointments and tragedies in life. No one is exempt from tasting all the flavors of this world.

Yet there are some people who are resiliant and overcome their hardships whereas others seem to be stuck in their misery and victimhood. Some people are able to attract good jobs, beautiful homes, kind friends, and maintain a healthy body where others accrue more debt, keep getting in trouble with the law, remain stuck in a rut, or live with chronic illness. There must be a reason why some people are able to transcend their suffering while others perpetuate it. What is the cause of all this?

It is widely known in Western psychology as well as in Eastern spirituality that the suffering we experience is because we believe our thoughts. It is our thought and belief of a person or situation that causes our pain and suffering; not the actual experience or person. This may sound like a radical notion but it is the foundation towards self-realization and personal empowerment.

Generally, mental and emotional healing come through greater self-awareness and understanding. In Western psychology the aim is to generate increased levels of self-awareness while learning coping mechanisms in order to reframe our past and current life circumstances. In coaching we uncover hidden limitations to an individual’s state of awareness and set actionable goals towards living a more fulfilling and satisfying life. In spiritual self realization we take responsibility for everything that has ever happened to us and use it as a catalyst towards discovering our true nature.   

Breaking The Unconscious Programming Of The Past

Many people grew up in chaotic, distressful and negative family environments and have lots of emotional wounds from their early life experiences. These life situations have left their mark on people and color their world in the way they percieve life. In many ways these individual’s unconsciously attract the same negative people, places, and things that they were once subjected to simply because they are unaware. These people are innocently unconscious and ignorant to their own programming and lack the self-awareness and clarity to seek an alternate way of living consciously in the world. Whether it is through counseling, therapy, coaching, or spiritual practice, there are proven ways in which an individual can break free from these repetitive karmic cycles.

In both Western psychology and Eastern spirituality, we can easily see how our external lives serve as a mirror to what is happening in our inner world. Thus, if one wants to know the inner nature of their mind all they need do is take an honest look at the life they are currently living. The players and characters in your world are mirrors of you. The circumstances we find ourselves in show us our current level of consciousness. The environment we live in illustrates our thoughts and emotions.

We alone determine how much or how little we get by what we feel we deserve. We are truly the creators of our own subjective reality and thus all of our happiness or suffering is completely self-created.      

This turning point in life is often the beginning of personal growth and possibly the spiritual path; one in which a human being no longer seeks external validation or approval from others but understands that lasting happiness and peace can only be found from within. There are no more victims and there are no more perpetrators. Only life circumstances by which we do our best with what we have. As we go within and acquire greater self-awareness and clarity of perception we see very clearly how the circumstances in our lives occur at the perfect time and place to offer help, assistance, guidance, lessons, alarms, and wake-up calls. If you are here reading this then perhaps you are ready to take responsibility for your thoughts and programming and consciously choose a more enhanced way of perceiviing and living life.

“All experiences facilitate the expansion of consciousness. There are no exceptions.” – Liz hancock

Learning To Accept The Present Moment As It Is

Life presents many situations for us to experience. Some of these are very challenging and extremely difficult. As we commit to greater self-awareness with Spiritual Life Coaching we know that accepting what is happening is the only way forward. We cannot change another person nor can we change what has happened to us and so we must let go of our expectations and allow the present moment to be what it is.

If you would like guidance and tools to help you navigate life’s ups and downs with grace and ease please click the button below to set up a discovery call. I look forward to working with you!

Does It Help To Analyze Our Past?

The Western view of mental health puts great emphasis on our past with Sigmund Freud popularizing psychoanalysis and our psychosexual developmental stages.

However, Freud’s views run in direct contrast to the Eastern view of mental health when viewed through the lens of the Yogic sciences and philosophy. In fact, the two couldn’t be further apart. 

We are all familiar with the more Westernized traditional forms of therapy where one goes to a professional to help dissect the past hoping to find a seed experience that might be shrouded in trauma which helps to explain or at least point to present day subconscious tendencies, poor coping skills, and maladaptive behavior.

People are often in therapy for years on end, endlessly digging, analyzing, and putting what they think are the missing puzzle pieces of their broken psyche back together again. 

But the ancient science of Yoga doesn’t place any emphasis on the mind or any of its disturbances. In fact, focusing on the mind and past experiences is of no interest at all to this path of enlightenment and higher awareness.

Yoga instead focuses on the present moment.

But how does one stay focused, present, alert, and aware of what is happening when we have obvious mental hang ups, negative thought patterns, and unbridled emotions that keep us from staying cool, calm, and collected?

Wouldn’t analyzing our past help us to stay aware of the present moment?

Don’t we need to look to our past to know who we are now?

The above questions come from an erroneous assumption. The assumption being that we are our personality or our ego.

But if we are not our personality, then what are we?

Ah, now we are getting somewhere! This is where the path of Western psychoanalysis has an obvious dead end.

No, we don’t need to endlessly analyze and pick through our past traumas and suffering in order to fix ourselves because fixing the ‘person’ is not the point. 

Our suffering, in any and all cases, is due to our deep identification with our personhood, our personality, our character, our ego, our likes and dislikes, all of which of course, include our past and projected future. 

The crux of the issue is what we identify as or what we think of as “us” or “me”.

Western psychology has not evolved past the notion of the egoic state of consciousness because those that are analyzing and digging through the past are themselves deeply identified with their own personality and egoic structure. It is like the blind leading the blind.

To truly move beyond all your self-imposed suffering one must create a distance from what you call as ‘you’ and start identifying with your greater ‘Self’, as your true and ultimate nature.

This is not the same as simply exchanging one belief system for another.

To be clear, a belief is defined as an acceptance that a statement is true or that something exists; trust, faith, or confidence in someone or something.

In contrast, knowledge is defined as facts, information, and skills acquired by a person through experience or education.

The reason Yoga is considered a science is because it has a systematic process that can be replicated over and over again through experiential validation. It is not a belief system and doesn’t require one to believe anything.

All that is required is to follow the process and realize the results.

All those that follow the path of yoga have realized that their true reality can be summed up in one Sanskrit word: Satchitananda or existence, consciousness, and bliss.

How would you like to let go of the past? No longer suffer? Remain present and aware to every moment and not miss the glory and miracle of being alive?

How would you like to be soaked in bliss every moment? 

This is not only possible but assessible for everyone right now.

We are not our past. We are not our personalities. We are not our likes/dislikes or even our family bonds and connections. 

We are existence, consciousness, and bliss. This is our true nature.

Do you believe this? Or, do you know this?

If one truly wants to discover who and what they truly are, then looking behind you will never free you.

The past is dead.

What is alive is this present moment; this NOW.

Yoga is defined as ‘union’ and describes the union of individual consciousness to universal consciousness.

If you feel the calling to connect with your true nature; your true Self, and would like a mentor and guide to help you navigate this process then please contact me and schedule your 1:1 Spiritual Consultation call with me today. 

Live A More Enlightened Life!

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Elizabeth Hancock CPC, CSC - Spiritual Teacher & Empowerment Coach

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