Browsed by
Tag: emotional healing

Dealing with Hurtful People

Dealing with Hurtful People

We live in a community. Sooner or later, someone will hurt us.

Whenever I talk about acceptance and surrender, one question that inevitably comes up  is ‘so then how do I deal with this person who is hurting me, do i just stop reacting? Won’t they hurt me more if I stop giving it back? Won’t their egos get bigger?’

It is a relevant question, and one of the hardest life lessons to learn is effectively dealing with those who are hurting us.

It is about you, not them

The first, hardest thing to embrace is that whatever problem it is, it isn’t about that other person. No matter how vindictive, how sick, idiotic or sadistic they have been, it is your own negativity they are reflecting back to you. The whole world is your mirror, and every person reflects back an aspect of you. Some reflect back the nice sides, some the unpleasant. But it is all just you.

Now, one thing to watch out for here, is the tendency to be harsh on yourself. When this realization strikes deeply, one tends to take all the hatred they’ve been directing towards others and turn it inwards. This isn’t going to help. Skip it.

Don’t give your power away

Whenever you insist that someone else needs to change for you to be happy, you are giving your power away. Essentially, you are saying that you refuse to be happy until this person you hate, changes. Does that look like a sensible quest to you?

Let go of Right vs Wrong

It is when we are stuck with ‘I am right and this person is wrong. Look at how ridiculous his/ her actions are’ when it is the hardest to heal. If you are going around seeking confirmation from people that this person IS horrible, you will lose out on the opportunity to transcend the mess and be happy.

It doesn’t matter how many people agree that the person who is bothering you is being ridiculous and needs to change. If you give your power away, then they are in charge and you are hostage.

So, then what next?

No matter what the situation, a problem arises only when we are unable to handle the way this person is making us feel. Once we understand this, we can focus on resolving our emotions, instead of asking the other person to change.

Does that mean I shouldn’t react?

When we react to situations, we are letting our emotions control us. When we respond to a situation, we are letting our wisdom guide us, and doing whatever makes sense. Both the reaction and response might be the same action sometimes.

If someone is hitting you, for example, it may be sensible to fight back, kick and slap. If you do this as a reaction, then your mind will cloud up, prevent you from thinking clearly, and also create emotional trauma for both of you. If you respond, you will be more stable and calm.

Resolving emotions and learning to respond

You will only start to heal the situation, when you take complete ownership for the mess. This is rarely easy, because it is much more convenient for the ego to put the blame on the other person.

 Sit with your feelings. If you wish to resolve the issues, spend some time everyday, sitting with how this person makes you feel. Close your eyes, and visualize the person/ situation and allow yourself feel whatever comes up. Avoid blaming or trying to come up with an explanation. Just feel.

Then do it with them. Once you have some practice with surrendering to your pain, you can do it when you are with the person too. Remind yourself that this is not them but their pain acting through them. And allow yourself to feel everything you feel in that moment.

Bear in mind. Surrendering to your feelings does not mean that you scream and shout as you please. Screaming and shouting are reactions that come up when you are trying to avoid your feelings. When you focus on feeling, you may not say much and if you do, it will be effective.

Transcending Tough Times

Transcending Tough Times

When life burns you down, it is only so you can rise from the ashes and fly.

The last two weeks seem to have been difficult for many. This is not surprising, considering that Mercury has been retrograde since Jan 21. Mercury going retrograde can wreak quite a bit of havoc. For starters, it changes one’s perspective on things. One suddenly becomes aware of things that weren’t noticed before, and decisions are questioned. As if that wasn’t enough, Mercury rules communication – so this can mean that communications aren’t effective, and no one is really ‘hearing’ what the other is saying – it is all getting misinterpreted. Put the two together – a shifted perspective and an incapacity to really listen – can be quite a disaster, right?

There could be other factors, of course – I am not an astrologer, and this is just my novice understanding of it. But it seems quite relevant when I look around me.

It seems to me, that for a lot of people, old structures and conditioning are falling away. Now if you have been meditating for a while, this might be bearable, but for those who dwell in the mind, this could really feel like your whole world is falling apart. A shift of perspective might help, but more than anything else, to be able to transcend the panic and the chaos would be deeply healing.

Come Back to the Heart

The mind creates all these structures to create an identity to play with. You think you are a ‘good’ person. Now you have to believe all good things about yourself, and reject all bad ideas about yourself, because they don’t fit in with your identity. You might be hurting people, destroying lives, but you will not notice it, because you would rather believe that you are a ‘good’ person. When you come face to face with these aspects some day, your whole ‘world’ will seemingly shatter, because the identity you spent decades creating, you now realise was all just a lie.

But this is how it is. You are none of these things – good, bad, intelligent, intuitive, happy-go-lucky, vindictive, weak, strong…. and so on. Everything changes. Everyone changes. So do you. You are a different person every moment, and it is hard to define you. But that is not what the mind thinks. The mind likes certainty. It likes to play with labels.

It is the mind that is influenced by the planets, Not the heart. If you come back to the heart and rest in it, there will be greater peace. I don’t say there will be any less chaos. It is just that you won’t be running helter skelter, lost in your insanity.

For more on resting in the heart, read this one –

Don’t Create Another Structure

When you are falling apart, it is important to just fall apart. If you create another structure to replace the old, then the whole cycle will have to repeat again. What do I mean by that?

Now assume that a person has a tendency to be a workaholic – he tends to identify with his work, he is good at it. Suddenly the planets collide and that identity is questioned. He makes a few blunders at work, loses the respect of his colleagues, and loses respect for himself even, who knows? That’s an old structure falling apart. He could meditate on the pain this brings, on the uncertainty it throws him into, and let it all fall away. When he gets back on his feet, he will work far better, with much less ego and a deeper understanding of himself and life.

BUT. If he instead, allows the mind to try taking him out of his mess, he will just create new structures. Maybe he will change his field of work, believing that this field isn’t good for him anymore. Or maybe he will develop a new hobby and identify with that. ‘Oh I don’t like work so much, I am a great photographer and/ or I love traveling’. Or maybe he will fight and struggle, trying to reclaim a lost identity, going from therapist to therapist to bring back the ‘old days’. Irrespective, he’s started another cycle which will take a few years to ripen, mature and fall apart again.

This is just an example, your story is different.

Meditation is Very Important

Any spiritual sadhana is critical during this phase. As I just mentioned, the mind can take you on a mad, delirious trip when structures are falling away. To be able to step back and witness all of this without getting pulled into the drama is so, so important. It is also essential that one does this practice for the sake of practice, and not as a desperate attempt to find a solution – that will only amplify the problem.

If you have a daily practice – Reiki, yoga, or something else, do that. Spending some time along with that, meditating deeply for 21 minutes or more, will be very beneficial. These times are a gift – they offer you an opportunity to break the shackles of the mind and be free to see life for what it is. Do you really want to let this go?

Healing Intense Emotions

Healing Intense Emotions

The last few years have been interesting. Whether this is due to the 2012 effect, the alignment of planets, the effect of media and electronics or none of it, many people observe that life has gotten faster, harder and emotions seem more out of control. The individual as well as collective mind seems to be undergoing an upheaval.

What’s going on?
From my perspective, it looks like a mass cleansing. It appears as if years of bottled up and suppressed emotions are being brought to the surface. While this is a nice thing in the long term, in the short term it can create a lot of disturbance.

What can we do?
As a soul, we take physical form to experiment and experience. But when we forget this fact, the incidents in life go from being an ‘interesting experience’ to a burden and a curse. As long as we resist the present moment, no matter how illogical and fearsome it may be, we create more hindrance than what is already present.

We start by telling ourselves that it is natural to go through whatever we are going through. Just like the more one struggles in water, the faster one drowns, the more one resists in life, the faster they reach a nervous breakdown.

But what if I can’t?
Most of us know about the acceptance already, don’t we? So what do we do when we’re stuck with a head overflowing with emotions?

Start with this:

Breathe into your pain

If the emotions are particularly intense, then breathe quickly and forcefully for about 10 seconds, before settling into a gentle but deep breathing for 3 minutes.

Feel the emotions
When the emotions are at a manageable level, allow them to surface, and feel whatever else comes up. It helps to spend some time sitting in front of a blank wall as it allows the projections to become easier.

It is a natural response for many of us to try avoiding what we are feeling, by watching TV, surfing the internet or using some other form of activity. While this might help temporarily, it only suppresses the emotions for some time, before they come up and bother you again. If we can sit and allow ourselves to surrender to these feelings, then they will eventually pass, leaving our system clean.

Note that feeling and expressing aren’t the same thing. When you are truly immersed in feeling, you don’t have any energy left to express. It is only when you are trying to avoid the feeling, that the energy you are trying to suppress comes out as an explosive emotional outburst.

Accept it
Feelings come and go. But our conditioning causes us to judge our feelings, due to which we try suppressing them. For instance, if a mother is very angry with her child, she feels like a bad mother and tries to suppress it. This causes her frustration and even more self-directed anger, which eventually comes out on the child. Often this just becomes a pattern, as the anger she takes out on the child causes more guilt and anger.

Acceptance creates a huge space for problem solving. When in resistance, we are stuck with a thought that the only way to be happy is to make this problem go away. Acceptance opens things up and allows us to say ‘Ok, so this is where I am now. How do I make the best of this situation?’ So instead of agonizing over what you cannot do, you are focused on what you can.

No More Problems

No More Problems

Anything that doesn’t kill you, only makes you stronger

My young, gifted magician friend once made the mistake of levitating in front of a bunch of kids, and life was never the same again. All the children in the apartment now believed that he could fly, and he was plagued by these kids everytime they spotted him, whether he was returning from college or out for a run. It was quite frustrating to be surrounded by a bunch of kids, pulling and twisting his arms, trying to bully him into levitating once again for them. He didn’t want to hurt them, while they had no qualms about hurting him.

I ran into him once, while he was in the midst of another of these torturous moments. He looked at me, hoping I would help somehow, but all I did was tell him to relax. “Stop resisting, let them do whatever they want”. “What!?” “Yup”. And so he let go, and within just 2 or 3 seconds, the boys ran off as if nothing had happened. It was… magic. And he was shocked at how unbelievably easy it was.

This is exactly how it is with problems. I’ve always said that problems are like quicksand, and the more you resist, the deeper you sink, but nothing could have presented this idea more lucidly than this incident. Problems exist, problems are inevitable, but what is unnecessary is the hoopla that surrounds it.

A client mentioned to me yesterday that he believed being spiritual was about feeling peace, and that meditation was about not having any thoughts. Yes, being spiritual is about having no problems in life at all – because there ARE no problems. Spiritual is an outlook – every difficulty is a challenge that enables your growth, keeps you alive. It is about being at peace with your challenges, not making a problem out of every difficulty. And meditation is about being in peace with, and being aware of your thoughts.

Again, the basic step to proceed any further would be observation and deep listening to oneself – for one cannot change an aspect of oneself unless it is first identified. Please read this article on Deep Listening, if you haven’t already done so.

Here are the common behaviors I’ve observed in myself and others, that may tend to compound an already existing problem.

Why Me?
Often the first reaction to problems that test our capabilities, is ‘why is this happening to me?’. Most of us have been brought up on a staple dose of fairy tales which taught us that good things happen to good people and bad things happen to bad people. Not only is this untrue, but it is a belief system that brings us considerable pain in the long run. Things just happen. The mind tries to make sense of it, tries to rationalize it and fit it into a pattern so that it can ‘protect’ itself the next time, but this is just the obsession of a confused mind, nothing else.

Chasing the solution
Once we have acknowledged a problem, there is a strong tendency to ‘fix it’. So keen are we, that we run from pillar to post, seeking a solution, often not staying long enough anywhere to really be helped. Very often we then get addicted to the chase itself, forgetting altogether that the whole purpose was to solve the problem.

It is important to accept the problem first and relax in it. If we are trying to escape the present, the future isn’t really going to get any better.

If you find yourself lost in the chase for a solution, give yourself a small time frame in which you promise yourself not to chase anything. During this time, give your complete attention to understanding the problem from all aspects, and accept the situation as it is.

How do you accept the situation? Meditate – observe your thoughts, and don’t be alarmed at your own thoughts. Accept them as the natural thoughts of any person in your position. Consider the worst case scenarios, and be mentally prepared to face them. You are strong enough, and you’ll sail through this too.

Believing its going to last forever
Nothing new here, most of us know already the phrase ‘this too shall pass’, but it becomes very hard to imagine that these bad times will clear the way for good times in the future, when you’re in the heat of the moment. It is ok if the understanding is superficial, but it still helps to be able to remind oneself of the nasty as well as the good times in the past which passed away. Nothing lasts forever.

Allowing others to convince you that you can’t handle it
Sympathy is a killer. While it feels great to have someone patronizing come and sympathize with the mess you are in, they are indirectly telling you they have no faith in your abilities to tackle the situation. And like it or not, you’re going to start believing this too. Surround yourself with people who have faith that this is not a big deal for you – not the kind that expect you to tackle the problems in the particular way, or those who feel sorry for you. If you crave the company of such people, that’s also alright, but just be aware of it and observe how you feel when you are around them.

Lastly, if the problem brings up strong emotions, then it could even be a projection of our own mind. Dealing with intense emotions, followed by creating a healing space for oneself can be quite helpful.

Really Letting Go

Really Letting Go

When I first learned Reiki, every thing was about problem solving. We’d request Reiki to help us make everything go our way – get well soon, get that score/ promotion/ job we wanted, let that nasty person stay away, or even something as simple as being able to eat gulab jamuns soon. But problems are a part of life. Get rid of one, and another takes it’s place. A desire for a problem-free life is a futile dream. We realised that life wasn’t about making things go your way, it was about learning to accept things as they are. So then we’d request Reiki to help us accept the situation as it was. It seemed we’d made great progress!

We know that happiness starts to seep in when we remain in the present moment. Chasing anything – money, power, fame, stability, a state of oneness in relationships, better marks, an award, give us temporary pleasure during the chase when we imagine our besotted future, and another few moments if we achieve it. Then we’re faced with the void again, and we need to chase something soon before we go insane. The only way to be free from this loop is to accept the present as it is.

This is where the catch comes in. While accepting things as they are is a beautiful endeavor, most of us forget that the desire to accept things as they are often comes from a desire to be at peace. Which is a sign that you are NOT accepting your present emotions as they are. So there is a big difference between really embracing things as they were, and the desire to accept things – because the latter is again a chase, and not in the present moment at all.

When a friend told me recently that he had been focused on being a better human being ever since he was little, I asked him why. Startled, he realised that the only reason he wanted to be better was because he didn’t accept himself for who he really was. We’re going to get better anyway, whether we like it or not. There may be short stints where we go crazy and appear like we’re regressing, but that is all part of the growth, and will happen even if we make growth the agenda of our lives. It is natural to grow. But if that drive – to be a better human being is replaced by a deep acceptance of ourselves with all our flaws, it will allow us to really experience peace, and to really love ourselves and others.

So love and peace are not a chase, they are in this moment, right now. All we need to do is completely relax into the present moment, no matter how uncomfortable it seems. Kind of like when we’re learning to swim for the first time, and the water terrifies us, and then we realise that we can trust the water, and slowly start to loosen up. We can trust life, we can slowly start to loosen up, slowly start to embrace what is, all the flaws included. Right Now.

Feeling Appreciated

Feeling Appreciated

I found this article somewhere, and loved it, just reproducing it over here for anyone who needs to read this 🙂

By Dr. Margaret Paul

Do you frequently feel that you do so much for others, yet end up feeling unappreciated by others?

Have you ever hear yourself say, or said to yourself, “No one appreciates me.”

I used to say this to myself all the time. I was constantly giving myself up to please others, and then ended up feeling completely unappreciated and resentful – until I learned how to take loving care of myself and appreciate myself.

I encountered this recently with Jayden, a young man who consulted with me after his girlfriend left him and he got fired from his job as a construction worker. An alcoholic who had stopped drinking last year, he was back to drinking.

“I gave so much to my girlfriend and worked so hard at the job. I don’t understand this. No one ever appreciates me,” he said with a resentful whine in his voice. Jayden was obviously feeling like a victim of his girlfriend and his boss.

“Are you saying that your girlfriend and your boss never offered you praise or compliments?”

“Well, yes they did, but I still feel unappreci! ated, because she left and he fired me.”

“Were you able to take in their praise and compliments?”

“What do you mean?”

“Jayden, did their praise and compliments make you feel good inside, or did you just slough them off?”

“I mostly sloughed them off because I didn’t think they meant it, and I was right. If they would have meant it, she wouldn’t have left and he wouldn’t have fired me.”

“Is it possible that they fired you because of your attitude? You seem very angry and you are acting like a victim – as if they are responsible for your feelings instead of you taking responsibility. Do you ever appreciate yourself?”

Silence.

“Jayden, do you ever appreciate yourself?”

“No. I don’t like myself.”

“So you try to please everyone to get them to approve of you, but when they do you don’t believe them because you don’t think you are good enough. Then you feel angry and resentful because you don’t feel appreciated. It’s m! y guess that your girlfriend left and your boss fired you because of y our anger and resentment. Your closed, blaming, angry energy is tough to be around. Until you are willing to learn how to take loving care of yourself and value yourself, you will likely continue to have these problems. Are you willing to learn to do this?”

Jayden indicated that he was. Here is what I suggested he practice:

“Start paying attention to your feelings, and whenever you feel angry or resentful, notice what you are telling yourself and how you are treating yourself that is causing these feelings. I know you believe these feelings are being caused by others, but this is not true. They are being caused by your own self-abandonment: giving yourself up to please others; judging yourself; turning to alcohol to numb your feelings rather than taking responsibility for them; and blaming others for your feelings.

“Imagine that you have an older, wiser self whom you can turn to for the truth. We have all been programmed with hundreds of false beliefs ab! out ourselves, others and the world, and these lies cause us much pain. When you become aware of one of these lies, such as ‘I’m not good enough’, or ‘No one ever appreciates me,’ imagine your older wiser self and ask ‘What is the truth?’ and ‘What is the loving action toward myself?’ As you learn to appreciate yourself and treat yourself better, you will find your anger going away.

“Are you willing to start to practice this?”

“Yes, I am.”

Jayden did practice and within a few months, he and his girlfriend re-united. She was able to tell him how much she loves him and how heartbroken she felt whenever he blamed her for his feelings. By learning to take responsibility for his own feelings and appreciate himself, he was surprised to discover that he now felt appreciated by her.

Healing Yourself

Healing Yourself

healing

All roads lead to Rome. Anyone looking for God, eventually realises that there is nothing to search for, and that everything is inside.

Healing, too. One may take help from others, but eventually only one person can heal you – you.

My previous article on Healing Space was just a starter – I was exploring something new, I’m still learning. And as I learn, I realise – the most profound healing space one can provide is for oneself. As for others, a deep silence is the best thing you can offer them to assist their healing; the rest happens automatically.

So what is this healing space? In my current understanding, it is merely a complete acceptance of one’s current state. We are so conditioned by our past lives, parents and the society that we have to live by stereotypes. Among the people I meet, I see this at its worst – people trying to live upto the stereotypes of what they believe are spiritual people.

When we live with stereotypes in mind, we have a set of qualities and behaviours we expect from ourselves and people of a certain category. For example, ‘I am an honest person’, ‘I am intelligent’, ‘Spiritual people are not interested in material things’, ‘Rich people live in big houses and buy expensive things’. We classify ourselves too, and when we violate those stereotypes, there can be one of two reactions – either panic, or denial. Both are not very conducive to healing, and both lead to another problem – difficulty in loving oneself. So as you can imagine, it leads to a downward spiral, as a lack of love toward oneself further leads to panic and denial, and make more mistakes.

Let go of stereotypes. Its all ok. It is ok to be a ‘bad’ person. No matter what you do, you are still lovable. We’re taught from childhood consciously and subconsciously that actions make a person worthy of being loved. This belief prevents us from loving our dear ones as well as ourselves completely – because we perceive actions and intentions as good or bad, and judge a person from our very limited perspective. As Mahatma Gandhi used to say, ‘hate the sin, not the sinner’.

So how do we begin healing ourselves? Obviously observeration is a pre-requisite. The simplest thing is to observe ourselves when we make judgments about others. Negative judgments are always nothing but a reflection of something inside us. When we feel negatively about a person, we can try putting ourselves in their position, and ask ourselves if we would still love ourselves if we were that person. It is a good idea to write down our feelings at this point, and take it deeper from there, asking again and again what is the feeling beneath the feeling we have just identified.

The next step would be to watch out for any sudden reaction. The moment we find ourselves resisting something, arguing too hard, or trying not to think of something, we know we’ve hit pay dirt. No matter how uneasy it makes us feel, it is wonderful if we can take a deep look at what we are trying to avoid. We start with acceptance of the action or feeling, that it is perfectly ok to have done something or felt a particular way. Then we explore that emotion deeper, and start toying with it. What are we really feeling? What is the feeling beneath this feeling? Does this feeling invoke any memories? Meditate on it. Irrespective of how far we get, our work is to merely observe. There is no good or bad and we do not make judgments about what comes up.

Obviously, one gets much better with practice, and once we’re good at helping ourselves, helping others do the same becomes markedly easier.

Healing Space

Healing Space

I attended a wonderful workshop with the author of ‘Relationship as a Spiritual Pathway’ with Jacqueline M Longstaff this week, and I’d like to share some of the wisdom I gained over there. I am not done reading the book yet, so there may be more later. She spoke of a lot of things, but as the title suggests, I’m going to be writing about one aspect of the workshop – the healing space.

The workshop was about how to use relationships as a ladder for spiritual growth. When two people come together in a relationship they might open up, letting their vulnerabilities show and creating potential for deep healing. After the initial ‘honeymoon’ phase is over, cleansing begins, and both people can help each other heal and become more complete beings. Commitment in such a relationship is very important since once the healing begins, a lot of things come up and if the partner was to walk away at this point it would leave the other quite devastated.

While Jacqueline spoke of the healing space with respect to a relationship, I’d like to discuss it from an individual point of view, as most people I interact with haven’t yet found a partner who can help them heal and become whole. A healing relationship doesn’t have to imply one only with a partner, therapist or guru. Before we seek all these, we need a healing relationship with ourselves.

Working from the heart was one of the first things we were taught in the workshop and I found this to be tremendously healing. She would just play some heart music and ask us to meditate on the heart, breathing from the heart (to elaborate, imagine a nose IN your heart, breathing, and then do away with the nose). Click here to listen to what she played. Infact, I suggest that you stop right now, listen to this song as you breathe from the heart and then continue reading.

When in a relationship, before discussing anything important, it is essential to spend some time breathing from the heart, and then speaking from the heart to the other person. This completely changes the energies of the discussion and makes both people more receptive to each other. When we open up to each other, suppressed emotions come up, and may result in the person experiencing cleansing symptoms, such as anger, depression, erratic behaviour, etc. We have to learn to accept each other’s emotional patterns, but never make the mistake of thinking of them as real. Remind yourself that these are merely passing phases in a healing journey.

Now look at the same concept from the point of view of being alone. In these rapidly changing times, most people on earth are experiencing intense healing and growth, and are lost in the search of someone else to provide us that healing space, that love and energy that we need to heal and get back up. To allow someone else to heal, we need to respect their needs, love them deeply and be willing to hold them through the difficult time. To allow ourselves to heal, we need to respect our own needs, love ourselves deeply, and be willing to accept every bit of the misery we put ourselves through, on this healing journey.

This is difficult when you’re feeling weak and broken yes, but only when you are not centered in the heart. If we only spend some time everyday breathing from the heart and letting ourselves just be, we would find this journey getting easier by leaps and bounds. Contrary to normal circumstances where most people are busy exhausting themselves by resisting their emotions and situations, this gives us space to heal and allows us to nurture ourselves. It also creates a deep acceptance of our own situation and reduces dependency on loved ones for emotional support.

It is natural if you feel your understanding is incomplete when you read this the first time. I suggest practicing breathing in the heart and observing your thoughts and feelings for a week to integrate the idea of a healing space into your life.

I found music very useful in this journey and here are a few more tracks that you could play when you’re breathing in through your heart.
Ek Omkar – Snatam Kaur
Long Time Sun – Snatam Kaur
The Flame of Transmutation and Freedom – Erik Berglund

Undoing the Damage in You

Undoing the Damage in You

Are you ready to heal now?

If we analyse a person part by part, separating the good and the bad aspects of that person, we will find some very strong links to childhood. I shall neglect the ‘good’ aspects, because they don’t need any changing.

I believe that a man is always is own worst enemy. Next, come parents.

By using the term enemy, I do not imply that one should stay away from his parents. Indeed, that wouldn’t make any difference at all. By ‘enemy’, I imply self-destructive attitudes, which is why a man is his worst enemy – most damage done to a person is by himself. Now when I say next come parents, it is because whatever damage the parents do to the child, he continues to do it to himself for the rest of his life.

Parents try to do the best job they can, but they are only humans. We all make mistakes and so do parents. They go wrong somewhere, and inflict some kind of pain on us, or some kind of complexes or fears, usually unintentionally. This suffering becomes part of our personality and we subconsciously want to keep suffering in that particular fashion because it makes us feel ‘at home’.

Take, for example, a girl whose parents always told her that she is useless. Although consciously she hates being told that, and is constantly looking for approval, you will find that her best friends and her partner will eventually tell her the same thing – that she is useless. She has grown up with the belief that she is useless, and she continues to live among people who reinforce that belief.

That girl isn’t just an example. That girl, or boy, is you. Whatever damage your parents did to you, you continue to do to yourself today. If you ever find yourself telling anyone ‘Don’t behave like my mom’, or ‘Don’t behave like my dad’, you’ll know what patterns you are following. If your loved ones hurt you in the same way that your parents did, you have some thinking to do. If you suffer the same kinds of problems that your parents suffered, you have some thinking to do. You need to grow out of your childhood.

To start growing out of our childhood, we must first let go of it. And also, learn to forgive our parents. No matter what they did, they were trying to do their best. And in the process, you got hurt a bit, but you can choose to treat yourself differently today. You can choose to love yourself more than your parents did. Remember the things that hurt you in childhood, and forgive yourself, and your parents for it. Let go. It always takes some time and effort, but it is worth it.

The next time you find yourself suffering, look back and see if it happened to you in childhood too, especially if it has happened to you more than once. And then remember the instances when it happened as a child and remember how it felt. And then forgive everyone involved and reverse the programming. If you were told that you will never succeed, then tell yourself that you will succeed even though you messed up then.

Our self-esteem issues, along with relationship problems, are all rooted in our childhood. Unravel it, study it, resolve it, and you will find that you’ve moved ahead greatly. If something, anything, is significantly lacking in your life, that will also take you back to your childhood. We often say that the past is history. It is, I think, high time we actually let it be nothing more than just that. Free yourself from the bonds of the past, be a new person today!

Dealing with Anger

Dealing with Anger

Is your anger burning setting your life on fire?

Heaven and hell aren’t places
That we go occupy after death
It is in every moment of our day
We live them in every breath

Hell has its gates open wide
For those weary, lost travellers
It soon becomes home for those
Living out their anger, hate and fears

Heaven isn’t too hard to achieve
But its gates aren’t open either
The gates are closed, locked
To be opened by someone who bothers

The lock is nothing but anger
The fury which builds in a heart
The emotion which keeps you in hell
The emotion which tears you apart

When things don’t go your way
When everything is just so wrong
Let your heart be free of anger
And you’ll be in heaven before long

Everytime you’re angry, think again
And let forgiveness take its place
Think of joy, think of love
And let the feelings show on your face

It isn’t so difficult
And smiles are never too far
When love is all that fills your heart
You’ll find Heaven’s doors opened ajar

Anger is one of the most damaging of all emotions, capable of undoing years of hard work, and breaking precious hearts in a matter of moments. Capable of wreaking havoc with the body of the angry. But it still rules the minds of so many. Why?

A closer analysis of anger subconsciously gives people a sense of control and gets things done their way. Eventually, it becomes a way of life, and when their anger starts hurting loved ones, they find themselves unable to change.

The Damage to Health
Getting angry is quite like drinking too much alcohol. You’re completely out of control and it feels good, because sometimes people get tired of controlling themselves. It also sends the adrenal glands into an overdrive, flooding the body with stress hormones like adrenaline and cortisone.

Adrenaline increases the heartbeat and breathing rates, elevates blood pressure and raises metabolic rates. It prepares the body for a fight or flight response, shuts down the digestive system (which is why, anger during or immediately after meals is the most damaging) and prepares muscles for physical exertion.

Cortisone increases blood pressure, mobilizes fat and glucose, subdues allergic reactions, reduces inflammation and can decrease the number of some white blood cells that are involved in dealing with invading particles or bacteria. Consequently, increased cortisone levels over a prolonged period of time lowers the efficiency of the immune system and makes a person potentially more susceptible to infections and even to cancer.

What not to do
While we know that outbursts of anger are damaging, suppressing anger is also equally damaging, and its effects show up in the long run. Anger should neither be released in an outburst, nor suppressed. It should be managed.

Managing Anger
Getting rid of anger is not an easy job, and not a quick one. It takes time, patience and determination. One needs to take it one step at a time, one outburst at a time. If you could get someone to record an outburst, you would realise how frivolous and ridiculous you are when you get angry. You say things that you don’t mean, and probably don’t remember after you have cooled down. But your loved ones do.

Walk Away
When you get angry, just walk away. Take a walk, go for a run, or physically exert yourself until you are calm.

Write A Letter
When you’re angry, there are a million things you want to tell the person in front of you. Instead of screaming it in their face, write it all down in a letter, but do not give it to them until you are calm. Once calm, you’ll probably want to burn the letter.

Analyse
Ask yourself why you are angry. And whom you are angry with. Is it really worth fighting with someone you love? Or is it really worth risking your job?

The Long Term Solutions
Meditate
Meditation helps you keep your mind in control. It also makes you more relaxed, and thereby less prone to getting angry.

Replay
Whenever you have had an outburst or have controlled your anger, replay the events of the day in your mind. Analyse and ask yourself what you could/ should have done, and how you behaved. Resolve to do better next time.

Deal with It
If you were angry for a valid reason, deal with the situation. Once you have calmed down, let the other person know the reason for your anger and how you would like things to be. Clarify, discuss, and reach a conclusion. Always let the other person know that you were angry and what made you angry.

Finally
An angry outburst is not justified irrespective of the reason for the anger. It might be something trivial and silly, or something grave and important, but an outburst is not the way to handle it. First calm down, and then deal with the situation with proper thinking and planning. This will get you the most effective results. The key phrase here is Respond, not React