Removing Your Inner Thorn
The spiritual journey is one of constant transformation. In order to grow, you must give up the struggle to remain the same and learn to embrace change at all times. One of the most important areas requiring change is how we solve our personal problems. We normally attempt to solve our inner disturbances by protecting ourselves. Real transformation begins when you embrace your problems as agents for growth.
Your inner thorns are simply blocked energies from the past, they can be released. The problem is, you either completely avoid situations that would cause them to release, or you push them back down to protect yourself.
Ever since you were a child, you’ve had energies going on inside. Realise you are in there and you have a sensitive person in there with you. Simply watch that sensitive part of you feel disturbance. Observe it feeling jealousy, need, fear. These feelings are part of the nature of a human being. You will see they are not you, they are just something you’re feeling. If you maintain your centre, you can learn to appreciate even the difficult experiences.
Stealing Freedom for your Soul
The prerequisite to true freedom is to decide that you do not want to suffer anymore. You must decide that you want to enjoy your life and that there is no reason for stress, inner pain, or fear. Every day we bear a burden that we should not be bearing. We fear that we are not good enough or that we will fail. We experience anxiety and insecurity. As we try to have open and loving relationships and to succeed, there is an inner weight that we carry. This weight is the fear of experiencing pain. Every day we are either feeling it or protecting ourselves from feeling it.
You only notice that you are suffering when it gets worse than usual.
To end suffering, you must realise that the root problem is that you don’t feel whole and complete within yourself. If you don’t identify the root properly, you will always look for something or somebody to ‘fix’ you. Trying to find the ‘perfect’ person to make you happy, just means you have involved that person in your problems. This is why people have so many problems with relationships.
You can put an end to being a slave to your psyche. You can live your life without getting uptight and worrying about everything. You can live life, instead of fearing or fighting it. Everything will be okay as soon as you are okay with everything.
Pain, the Price of Freedom
The psyche is built upon avoiding pain, and as a result, it has pain as its foundation. To understand this, notice that if the feeling of rejection is a major problem for you, you will fear experiences that cause rejection. That fear will become part of your psyche. If you are doing something to avoid pain, then pain is running your life. All your thoughts and feelings will be affected by your fears.
The heart is where pain comes from. Every time you do something to avoid the pain, that something becomes a link that holds the potential for the pain you are avoiding. This is why simple, everyday interactions can affect you so much. If the core pain was not the motivation behind proving yourself, what people say, would not affect you.
What would life be like if it wasn’t run by that pain? You would be free. To live at this level of freedom, you must learn not to be afraid of inner pain and disturbance. If you want to be free, simply view inner pain as a temporary shift in your energy flow. You cannot spend your life avoiding things that aren’t actually happening, or everything will become negative. The passing inner pain will only touch you if you touch it.
Pain is the price of freedom. The moment you are willing to pay that price, you will no longer be afraid. The moment you are no longer afraid of the pain, you will be able to face all of life’s situations without fear. When you are comfortable with pain passing through you, you will be free.
The Path of Unconditional Happiness
Do you want to be happy, or do you not want to be happy? It’s really as simple as that. Once you make the choice, your path through life becomes totally clear. Most people don’t give themselves that choice because they think it isn’t under their control. If you keep it simple, no matter what the conditions of your life, you will see that it really is under your control.
Do you want to be happy? If the answer is really yes, then say it without qualifying it. After all, what the question really means is ‘Do you want to be happy from this point forward for the rest of your life, regardless of what happens.’
Most times one wants to qualify ‘happiness’. As long as nothing bad happens. Any condition you create will limit your happiness. You have to give an unconditional answer. If you decide you are going to be happy for the rest of your life, you will not only be happy, you will become enlightened. You have to mean it regardless of what happens.
The purpose of your life is to enjoy and learn from your experiences. You get to choose whether or not you want to enjoy the experience of life. Events don’t determine whether or not you will be happy – you determine whether or not you are going to be happy. It is your choice. If you can be happy to be alive, happy to be living this life and not be afraid to die, your heart will be so open and your Spirit will be so free.
The key to staying happy is really very simple. Begin by understanding your inner energies. When you are happy, your heart feels open and the energy rushes up inside. When you aren’t happy, your heart feels closed and no energy rushes in. So, to stay happy, just don’t close your heart. No matter what happens, don’t close. If you learn to stay open at all times, great things will happen to you. You simply have to learn not to close.
You remain open by simply letting go and releasing the tendency to close. Just relax your heart when it starts to tighten. The greatest gift one can give to the Creator, is to be pleased with His creation. Be happy with your life, with who you are. If you want to be close to your Creator, learn to be joyful.
Source: The Untethered Soul – Michael A Singer
