Tag: Seek your inner truth

Acceptance

by Karen Lang, posted in Letting Go of Anxiety, Letting go of stress, Making a difference, Understanding and Listening to ourselves

“I follow four dictates: face it, accept it, deal with it, then let it go.” ~Sheng Yen

I try to follow the dictates above as I find this process helps me work through the many challenges in my life.  The one I struggle with the most is “Acceptance.”

When I cannot accept myself or the problem that is challenging me, then the next steps of dealing with it and letting it go can not happen.

Accepting and not interfering with the natural essence of nature, you will find it heals itself.  It’s the same with us. When we allow ourself to be, to accept this moment or challenge no matter how hard it seems, we can begin to heal.

We all seem to be happy to identify our thoughts and what the problem is, but rarely do we want to identify or accept what the event reveals about us.  Whenever I was confronted with a challenge in my life, I began to notice that feelings of frustration and anger came to the surface and I wanted to give up immediately.

These are the feelings that we need to face and acknowledge in ourselves because these are what are limiting us from moving forward and discovering our true potential.

When I started to see a pattern, I began to question why I wanted to give up when I felt challenged.  I realised it was fear.  Fear of being vulnerable and exposed and fear of not being good enough.  It takes time to understand ourselves and sometimes we need guidance from others too, so be patient.

Once I accepted this and started to work at changing the limiting beliefs I had about myself, I was able to move forward and change.

Resisting the pain and not facing who we are in the pain, only prolongs our healing.

Become aware of the feelings that surface when life challenges you, because when you identify these patterns and face them, you can begin to practice letting them go.

We all have parts of ourself that we don’t like or don’t want to see and yet, facing those parts of self through meditation, counselling and stillness, you will begin to understand how to work with them rather than against them.

“The greatest challenge in your life is discovering who you are, the second greatest is accepting what you find.” – author unknown

The Death of our Ego

by Karen Lang, posted in Healing Grief

“The ego is the false self-born out of fear and defensiveness.” – John O’Donohue

Ego is the unobserved mind that runs your life when you are not present or conscious of your thoughts and actions. – The Power of Now – Eckhart Tolle

Ego is born from our deep inner fears or lack of self and as we are surrounded by many others who have similar ego based fears like, control, power, greed, and defense we begin to create drama and problems in our life.

The emotions that stoke our need for power are much stronger than we care to admit.  Our ego’s blind us to the truth as we pick and choose facts that support the story we have created in our mind and ignore and minimize those that don’t.

Power struggles, emotional and physical violence all stem from EGO.   So we need to ask ourselves “What have I attached my ego to?”  Is it the intellect identity?  or the victim identity?  Is it the Drama?  or the Social Status and Wealth identity? or martyr or illness identity?  There are so many emotional areas that our ego can attach to and once we understand which one we are, only then can we learn to let go of it and change the illusion of self.

When you reconnect with your true spirit and are no longer run by your ego mind, you will stop creating drama’s and suffering in your life.

“Enlightenment is ego’s ultimate disappointment.”  – Chogyam Trungpa

Once you have identified you have an ego, you will start to see how powerful it is in your mind.  Even if you live alone your ego can still create drama, feeling sorry for yourself, feeling guilty or anxious or angry at others, that too is drama.  Your ego feeds off drama, so when I ask you to let it go, I am asking you to let go of  an identity that you have always felt comfortable with, and this creates a great deal of resistance and fear.

The ego is born at a young age and not because we have consciously adopted a certain identity but rather we have connected to one that helps us adapt and receive what we need in the environment we grew up in.

We cling to our carefully planned explanations we have told ourselves and others about why our lives have unfolded as they have, not realising that even when they appear empowering, they are hindering our growth.

When I was young, I found that when I got sick, I got a lot of attention from my parents and this became part of my identity in the family.

Over the years we attach ourselves to a story that we are convinced is our truth.  Think about who you are in your own family and what role you were given in that environment.  You will begin to see the truth and start to understand the illusion we have all created.

“The ego relies on the familiar. It is reluctant to experience the unknown, which is they very essence of life.”  – Deepak Chopra

What if I told you “You will no longer have suffering in your life?”  What if I told you “You will no longer have drama or illness in your life?”  Would you be happy?  Most people would say yes, but if I took it away from you……what you would feel would be a sense of loss and a death to your identity.

When you live in complete acceptance of what is, that is the end of all drama in your life, then nobody can even have an argument with you.  When there is no ego to feed and you are conscious of all your thoughts and words, you will learn to feel peace and acceptance in your life, no matter what is happening around you.

Learn to accept that we all have an ego and begin to understand what identity you have attached to it.   Step into the unknown and out of the illusion by letting go of this story you have told yourself.

Allow stillness and mediation and yoga to help you through this healing.

Know that most of us will spend a life time trying to let go of our ego’s but never give up trying to find your true self and purpose in life.

“The most common ego identifications have to do with possessions, the work you do, social status and recognition, knowledge and education, physical appearance, special abilities, relationships, person and family history, belief systems, and often nationalistic, racial, religious, and other collective identifications. None of these is you.” – Eckhart Tolle