Let’s face it, fixing things makes us feel good. In effect, New Year’s resolutions are an attempt to feel better by fixing something – usually personal habits and behaviours.
For some time now, I have been observing my life as a game. My game plan is to fix myself with help from my Inner Guru, and then as I gain momentum, teach others to fix themselves by assisting them to find their own personal Inner Guru.
How do I access and utilize my Inner Guru? I create space within so there is a “place” for my Inner Guru to emerge. I spend time every day sitting without distractions. I let my thoughts flow without censorship or judgement from the position of an observer. Doing so allows me to experience “a-ha!-moments” found within my observations (quite obvious from the observer perspective). Other names for those “A-ha! moments” are Eureka! Hallelujah! Epiphany! In this way, I fix myself simply through awareness.
Once I became adept with this process, my Inner Guru just started to jump into my awareness as I go about my daily life experience. Since life is a great big social experiment, why not rely on these “a-ha! moments” while you discern what you want out of life, and then plot your course to get there. Only one small step at a time needs to be figured out in any detail.
Along with noticing thoughts, become more aware of body sensations. Refrain from telling yourself a story about these sensations. Resist the urge to remember how and when any unpleasant physical/emotional feelings began, or what they mean. Resist the urge to self-diagnose or see bodily sensations as a problem, no matter how intense the sensation may be. Just feel your feelings while you try to relax. Focus on your breathing. Thank your body for the healing, and your Inner Guru for the message. Keep breathing.
The process of healing the body and emotions can be a painful, undesirable experience, but only in the light of presence, can we understand this process and the messages contained within the experience. The injury only hurts at the moment it occurs, while the illness may not hurt at all until you are faced with the healing. All sensations that occur after the initial injury are the result of your body and mind repairing itself.
For example, when we first get a cold or flu, we are not aware of our illness and this is when we are most contagious. The symptoms occur as the body defends and repairs itself. The runny nose, the sore throat, swollen glands and headache are all the symptoms of healing, and this is why by the time the symptoms emerge, you are usually no longer contagious.
Healing hurts! The symptoms are the healing. So if we go to see the doctor for a prescription to alleviate the symptoms, we inadvertently stop or slow down our own healing. Now of course, if I broke my arm, I would go to see the doctor and probably take something so I could deal with the pain initially, but you get my point. The doctor may reset the bones and put on a cast, but the pain from the injury is created by my body healing itself.
I find the same is true for my emotions. It is the “A-ha!s” that cure us, and “A-ha! moments” do not come from thoughts. They come from calm observation of the self, and from feeling the feelings, and then breathing through them during quiet periods of self-contemplation.
In the past, every time I felt emotional pain, I ran for the closest distraction. At times, this included inadvertently inflicting physical suffering upon myself, in order to not feel my feelings, and to distract myself from the message. I was ignoring my Inner Guru and the wealth of awareness and learning these experiences offered me.
For some of us, over-eating serves this purpose. Over-eating can cause oneself enough physical discomfort to create a distraction from undesirable feelings. As a harm reduction strategy, I do not limit my food intake, but limit instead the range of foods I allow myself to eat. If I am going to over-eat, then I may as well build up my health and detoxify in the process. As we eat, we can feel our feelings and sort ourselves out. I call this my “have my cake and eat it to” approach to expanding awareness within imperfection.
As mentioned earlier, “A-ha! moments” do not come from thoughts. If we could figure it all out with thoughts and self-soothing stories, we would not continue to suffer. Through self-contemplation, I found that most of my personal baggage was the result of all of the “loose ends” I had accumulated in the past. I had the habit of leaving a lot of business unfinished.
I also use self-reflective times for problem-solving by looking at matters from a new, impartial viewpoint. My awareness expands with every “a-ha! moment”. This is how our higher selves, or Inner Guru, heals us. But if we do not take the courage to feel our feelings and look at things which may make us feel uncomfortable, our “A-ha!s” are stunted and may rarely occur.
This is part of the Ascension process. We clarify and evolve over and over again, earning for ourselves better health and happier lives. Even if we do not get to the state of totally curing ourselves, and find ourselves dying physically, the social experiment continues and we continue to face more “A-ha! moments” of expanding awareness and consciousness.
Let’s face it, fixing things makes us feel good. Perhaps our New Year’s resolutions could be to spend time each day in quiet self-contemplation making space for our own Inner Guru and healing.
