The big topic in metaphysics lately is the concept of ‘Living in the Present’ as beautifully described in Eckhart Tolle’s book The Power of Now. This simple, yet powerful, idea has changed many lives. Many of us (and I include myself) spent most of our lives living out of past hurts, and fretting about a future that might be, but never was. By living in the past, or focusing on the future, we waste precious energy and fail to find the beauty of each moment of the now. J. Krishnamurti in Freedom from the Known clearly expressed this concept in this lovely passage:
You cannot live without dying. You cannot live if you do not die psychologically every minute. This is not an intellectual paradox. To live completely, wholly, every day as if it were a new loveliness, there must be dying to everything of yesterday, otherwise you live mechanically, and a mechanical mind can never know what love is or what freedom is.
Although a wonderful philosophy, many people ask is: “How can I let go of the ingrained and inherited family patterns that permeate my life on a daily basis?” The influence of our families is subtle and pervasive. Those subconscious messages of lack, worthlessness and illness tend to cling to our lives even when we mentally recognize the inherent falsity of the message. We want to live in the now, we just need the tools to release the hold the past retains on our spirit.
I knew my chronic illness and migraines were a family pattern of escape from too much stress, but I lacked the ability to change those messages until I found a way to release the energy of the past from my body, emotions, mind and spirit. Until I cleared my energy fields, these old thoughts continued to impinge on everything I did since the underlying messages didn’t change.
I found out we need to identify the negative ideas that impact our lives then we can internally alter the dialogue. Once we heal those harmful concepts, change can occur. My healing method for eliminating these patterns is Ancestral Lineage Clearing as discussed on this site.
I often have clients come to a session with multiple issues in their lives. Their finances are a disaster, their relationship is in tatters (if one exists), their career is unsatisfying and their health is suffering. So, we begin by finding the most prevalent harmful family pattern.
I always have clients identify their primary emotional challenge. What is interfering in their life the most? What is most troubling? If we can pinpoint whether career dissatisfaction is causing the disruption in the relationship, the stress creating the dis-ease and the lack of being adequately compensated for work, then we have a place to start the healing. If the lack of love, respect and trust is causing the conflict in the rest of the client’s life, then this is the first issue to address.
Frequently, I find that once the primary emotional strain is addressed, the secondary issues, even though seemingly major, can be readily resolved.
None of us wants to face the painful messages we received from our family and loved ones, because we believe they may be right. We are told our families love us. So they should know more about life than we do. Right? Not necessarily.
Our parents, grandparents and older ancestors did not live in today’s world. Their reality was different. We have much more information about our world, psychology, health, relationships, child rearing and abuse than they did. They may not have known how to alter the harmful family patterns they endured.
We have been trained and conditioned to avoid pain and hurt. This training was necessary when we are running away from lions to physical safety. It doesn’t work in our modern world. Avoidance merely permits the pain to continue. Although confrontation takes courage and commitment, facing our deepest fears and hurts frees us. It frees us from past constraints and allows us to move into the future based on present reality.
I truly believe we create our reality each moment by how we perceive and react to the world around us. If we see the beauty and trust in ourselves and others, everyone responds with beauty and trust in any situation. If we see love, love will see us and flow into our lives.
I used to fear the future. I had all these scary visions of terrible events happening. None of these fears is or was based in reality but I wasted a lot energy worrying about the unknown.
Now, I open and close my day with gratitude for all the gifts in my life. I acknowledge that life is good and will get better as I become clearer about my desires. I have a deep knowing that fears are illusory. Each moment is precious if I only take the time to feel it and know the beauty of it. I have let go of the constraints of the past and I let the future unfold as I envision it.
Do I ignore events like the Boston Marathon bombing? No. I feel sad and regret the lack of love that permits such injuries and hurts to occur. War, pain, abuse, illness, tragedy and untimely death merely inform me that I need to love more to create a more loving and caring world. If we all love enough, love will be enough for all. The place to begin is our family–whether it is our family of origin, our family of partnership and children, or our family of friends and supporters.
Many Blessing for Health, Happiness and Joy,
Ariann
