Change Your Story, Change Your Life
Linda George, Contributor
Waking Times
Stuart Wilde said:
“Once you accept life without struggling against it, you can see that everything serves you in one way or another. A lousy meal helps you appreciate and remember a good meal.
A defeat strengthens you for the next victory. If you try not to quantify and judge things and accept them as part of your overall experience, you become mature. All of a sudden that power that should have been yours from the beginning is returned to you as a calm individuality – a creative stillness that allows you to BE. Acceptance unshackles you from the restraints that you’ve created for yourself, and it allows you to explore inside your own individuality.”
What would it mean, how would it change things, if, this year – a new one just begun – you, me, anyone listening could take this advice? Acceptance without struggle. And awareness that everything happening that we don’t like is actually serving us in some way. It is all in how we choose to use our thoughts. And the life we are creating is made from our thoughts.
Our thoughts seemingly arise out of nowhere, capture our attention, torment us for a while if they are at the negative end of the continuum (and with the brain’s natural bias toward the negative, they often are) and then, eventually, leave us alone. It feels we are at their mercy. The wisdom and spiritual traditions tell us we need to let go of the egoic mind (the mind that generates thoughts) and find the calm stillness of the Higher Self behind it. Herein lies the answer to our distress. It is said the mind makes a wonderful master but a very poor servant. For most of us, our minds, the monkey mind (or the lower mind in the theosophical tradition) is our master. My proposition is this: can we decide, right now, to turn this around and make 2018 the year of change of mind? From master to servant the mind’s status can be changed. What would it take?
Acceptance – according to Stuart Wilde and others. Acceptance is allowing life to unfold without imposing the ego’s preferences upon it. Michael Singer wrote the story of his life on this path, entitled, “The Surrender Experiment”. His realization that the monkey mind with its never-ending chatter was just, well, weird. And why was it so? What was that about? He set to find out and embarked on a spiritual journey that took him to a place of ongoing, every day, every moment surrender. What occurred was remarkable. When, through his practice, he learnt to drop his busy thinking mind, with its constant commentary, its negativity and unending worrying – he discovered that life took care of him! He didn’t have to try to control it anymore. And, miraculously (to us, who live in the world we think of as reality) everything worked out for his highest good. Ultimately. In fact, what we perceive of as incredible and miraculous is simply the outworking of the higher intelligence – Source, the God Force, the All. Call it what you will. The intelligence that underpins this life of ours knows what is right for us. We don’t. We have so little control in truth. And how desperately we cling to the idea that we have to control things, in order for everything to be okay. The opposite, it seems is true. It is when we let go and get out of the way, that life is able to unfold most perfectly for us.
“Love nothing but that which comes to you
Woven in the pattern of your destiny.
For what could more aptly fit your needs?” ~Marcus Aurelius
I want to go a little deeper here. So, we stop trying to control, we let go, we accept whatever occurs. We learn to say yes, instead of no, to whatever life presents us with. Big stuff. Probably not going to happen overnight. Surrender is going to be a practice requiring some dedication and self-discipline. Meditation is key because it is at a fundamental level training in mindfulness. Or rather, mindlessness. We must observe the nature of the mind, to understand it – then we let it go. Meditation offers us this opportunity. Gradually, over time and with regular practice, we learn to still the busy chattering mind with its parade of meaningless thoughts. We find a quiet heart. But when we arise from our meditation cushion, there are still many hours of consciousness remaining in the day. Our habit has been to let the mind wander when our attention is not required on a particular task. Even when it is, we find our minds occupied with extraneous thought. It is so hard to get away from our own minds! There is so little peace. Feelings arise and immediately our thoughts respond to the feeling state. They feed each other. Before we know it we are occupied in a lengthy conversation with ourselves. More often than not the same little voice, the ego’s voice, is giving us reasons to feel less about ourselves. The same voice judges and criticises others. One moment we are feeling less than others, the next, we are feeling superior. All at the whim of an evidently unstable and unreliable aspect of our psyches. What a futile waste of energy.
There is much to be said about the egoic mind. But for now, let us focus on the task we have set ourselves: to make the mind our servant. OUR servant. Who is the our, of our? It is none other than our own Higher Self: the divine spark within us. The higher intelligence in real control of the complexities of this life, is alive in us. We have our portion. Drops of the same ocean.
So then, going deeper as promised. What happens when we step out of our own way and decide to 1) discipline our thinking mind, and 2) accept whatever is unfolding ?
Short answer: We change our vibration.
When we refuse to listen to the little voice we find space opens up within us. It is relief. Huge relief. Our hearts become quiet. There is peace and freedom from the tyranny of fear and anxiety that so often holds us hostage. And when we accept whatever is occurring, with grace instead of resentment or hostility, more space opens up within us. A softening occurs. Relief again. What we are doing with both is we have let go of our resistances. Thoughts of the small mind are a form of resistance. They are energetic units and take up space (ie block) our meridians. Of course we need certain thoughts (planning, learning, goal-setting) to give our lives structure so we are not throwing the baby out. We are simply reminding ourselves that the thinking mind was once viewed as another of the senses. In other words, it is a tool to help us negotiate life in this realm – but it is not, or ought not be, the dominator, the master controller. It is to be used (the servant). It is not there to use us, to run our lives into negativity with its never-ending prattle. Okay, so thoughts of a small nature are a form of resistance. Non-acceptance of what is, is also resistance. Acceptance dissolves resistance and frees up the flow of energy within. Letting go of the little voice does likewise.
The sum: as we dissolve resistance, allowing ourselves to simply be, free of thought, in the body, in the breath, in a quiet heart state of mind, our essential vibratory frequency shifts. As our vibratory frequency is heightened, our lives change.
For now, here is my New Year New Beginning message: Let’s change our story and change our lives.
Our story is the one the little voice keeps telling us. It is the product of years and years of conditioning, from our loved ones and our society. It is the product of a karmic legacy that was crystallised in events of early childhood. It is the product of our ego’s primary mission – to keep us alive in a physical body: hence the vast scope of fears and what if’s that adrenalize our bodies and brains, keeping us in a state of hyper-sensitivity to any real or imagined threat. In short, our story is the product of the dominance of our small self. I’ve had enough of it – and if you feel the same way, let’s do this. Let’s change our vibration – from fear to surrender and trust, and from resistance to acceptance. What have we got to lose? Just our small selves. And behind these small selves of ours is our Higher Self. The esoteric wisdom has been telling us this for eons. Sadly, the message has become more and more obscured in this most dense of material eras.
But every beginning is a new potential. I want to make this one, 2018 a higher one. As we shift our personal vibration to a higher frequency, we naturally raise the collective vibration. We are all part of the same ocean, all weavers of the same web.
If you are keen to embark on this journey with me – please write and share your experiences. We can all lift each other up and use this world-wide web for a higher purpose. Thank you in advance and blessings galore for the incredible journey of 2018. Oh, by the way, Saturn in Capricorn now is THE BEST TIME to make REAL our POSITIVE INTENTIONS. No more mucking around. Time to get real – ok? 2018, the year of the dog – steadfast, loyal, trusting, loving. We are. Ready.
Blessings, Love and a Quiet Heart to you…
About the Author
Linda George lives in New Zealand, where she is actively engaged in finding the balance between effort and ease in a chaotic world. She teaches yoga and shares her insights from four decades of involvement in the worlds of metaphysics, philosophy, astrology, alternative healing, comparative religions and yoga, through writing. Her book, Sun Signs & Soulmates, (Llewellyn USA) is available on Amazon. Her award-winning manuscript, Living in the Big Picture, is awaiting publication.
She may be contacted by email: Lindastrologer@gmail.com
Please visit her website: www.lindageorgeastrology.com and her blog: www.acosmicride@wordpress.com