There is a huge difference between a “recklessly” free mind and an aligned mind – the former is basically a state of carelessness that arises from being imbalanced in joy orientation at the cost of ignoring the inner wisdom, the latter is a state of balance where your being is free of negativity/resistance but also rooted in wisdom. It’s also possible to “force” a state of a pretentious balance through disciplining the mind, which is not really a natural balance and is more of a suppressed existence. Disciplining the mind has been the approach used all along, not only in mainstream society by also in many traditions of spirituality, to attain a sense of control – I would call this the “struggle based” living, where you are constantly at war with your mind trying to keep it on a leash, and the relationship is one of hatred and force. To live from a place of alignment, where your mind is in sync with your life-stream’s natural movement, is a new way of living that’s available to anyone who’s tired of living from a place of struggle.
There is a discipline, and responsibility, inherent to life – you can see this discipline operating in the way the cosmos operates in a sync every day. Life is not chaotic, if it were the planets would be flying off their orbits every now and then, colliding into each other. Certain events can take place which look chaotic externally (some of which may be required for a greater balance) but you will see a harmony coming in soon enough as life keeps doing the balancing act. Life’s intelligence is far more than a mind can grasp, but if you observe life closely enough you will see that there is a harmony to it, you will see that when you are allowing of this intelligence to operate in your life, well-being is always dominant. An aligned mind is simply a mind that’s allowing of a connection with life’s intelligence (more specifically the intelligence of the life-stream focused on this body, which inherently is connected to the totality). Such a mind does not require a forced discipline, rather a natural discipline, responsibility and inspiration starts playing out in it. Its expression is far more intelligent, creative and “wholistic” than the expression a mind forced into discipline.
Being relaxed opens you up to your life’s intelligence
When you have no idea that you are essentially the one life-energy, and that this body is just one expression of this life coming from its intent to experience through this physical form in a unique way, it’s natural to live from a place of fear-based force because you have a feeling that you only have yourself to depend on – that’s a part of unconscious living where you don’t know about your real truth, about your true identity as being life itself, your whole identity is just based on your ideas about yourself as this “person”. When you realize that who you are is in fact the wholeness of life, there is a shift in the perception of your mind and your sense of “isolation” dissipates into a sense of connection, with your sense of being one with life. Also, when you understand the science of creation, and thus understand that your life-stream is always moving in the direction of bringing forth the solutions and well-being, you start letting go of your struggle and become more relaxed so that you are receptive to your life’s inspiration. (You can get some more insights in this post – Every problem manifests a solution)
Of course, the bottom-line of all this is “just be relaxed” and be receptive your inner inspiration, but there is a lot of understanding that most minds require before they are ready to relax their struggle. The moment you relax, your body/mind becomes open to receiving life’s intelligence, the moment you become contracted on fears you essentially become resistant to receiving this guidance, and you also become resistant to allowing the energy movement instigated by your life-stream to bring forth the manifestation of a wholistic solution. The mind, being a survival machine, will reactively start worrying as soon as it perceives a problem, and if you are living in an unconscious manner you will get anchored to your mind’s worries and thus become contracted on the negativity of it, disconnecting from your life stream’s intelligence – this is a highly unwise state to be in, and the actions that come from this place are laced with fear/negativity thus attracting realities of a similar vibration, creating a cycle of negativity.
The ability to stay in a relaxed state of being, even when the mind starts reacting to a situation from a place of fear, comes as you keep developing a stronger connection with your space of being. And the more you grow in your space of being, the more you release the momentum of your mind, and thus it becomes more and more easier to not react to the mind’s negativity, or get influenced by it. When your mind’s momentum is high, and you have not inner stability in your space of being, it’s easy to get pulled in by its negativity, and live from a place of reaction thus never breaking out of the negative cycle. Struggle can only attract more struggle, and it becomes an endless cycle to the point where you even feel addicted to struggle. A conscious choice to no longer get dragged into the mind’s fear-based movement, and to stay relaxed enough to sense your inner guidance, or inspiration, is what brings an end to the unconscious negative cycle, and moves you towards aligned living.
Forced discipline is an unconscious way of living
A fear-based force by itself is an attribute that can only be present in an unconscious mind, which is unaware of its connection with the wholeness/intelligence of life. An aligned mind works from “inspired force”, that doesn’t feel like struggle but feels like passion, creative focus and natural preference. Unconscious existence has been the norm, for the majority, all along for all these years of human existence, but the present age has a stronger possibility of a transition towards conscious existence, or aligned living, mostly because a lot of humans (their brains) have evolved enough to be more aware and sensitive, thus allowing for the possibility of being receptive to the perspective of aligned living. Since we are at this “transition” phase, it can be a tough for the mind because it’s pulled between it old fears, and its encultured conditioning of struggle-based living, and the possibility of living an aligned life – transition is always a challenging phase because you have to make a conscious choice, which can require a lot of courage, towards letting go of an old way of living.
If you find yourself struggling to fit in with the unconscious mindset of your surroundings, it’s an indication that your brain is evolved in its awareness and is no longer able to identify with the unconscious mode of living. You may feel like an “outsider”, or feel confused about why you are not able to just go along in a way that your friends, or relatives, or colleagues, seem to going about – in that you find it very difficult to just accept the unconscious way of leading life in a daze of conditioned living, like robots following a set programming. It can cause you to feel lonely, especially if you have no assurance that you need to follow your own guidance and that you can let go of this struggled based living. However, as you start letting go of the actions, or realities, that no longer feel congruent with your being, you automatically start attracting realities that are compatible with you, you start attracting a circle of people/relationships that are also “conscious”, those that you can relate to, and those who can relate to you – it just happens naturally, you don’t have to go about searching for compatible people, you just need to align with yourself and the rest is taken care by the movement of your life-force.
Making a choice to align
The only deal is to counter the fears of your mind which has a lot of “old conditioning”, or encultured thought patterns, which severely doubt the practicality of aligned living. However, when your consciousness is high, it becomes more and more difficult to just live out a life of forced discipline, and the pull towards living your natural expression becomes very strong. You can still keep working through force, and follow the fears of your mind, but it becomes a mighty struggle to live this way, because you are no longer “unconscious”. You may look at the unconscious people around you and wonder why you can’t be like them, but the deal is that you can’t anymore because your brain is more conscious (part of evolution) – it’s much easier if you can let go of your force/struggle, and start becoming open to your natural expression, which can well be the opposite of your external conditioning. All you need to do is align with ease, let go of struggle, become “allowing” in your being, and start following your joy/inspiration, irrespective of what your situation is currently and you will become open to aligning with your life-stream.
It’s a choice only you can make, it’s not a technique, it’s more of an attitude, a way of living. You can read and understand all this, but ultimately unless you make this choice, and have the courage to let go of following your mind’s fear-based movement created by old-patterns of conditioning, nothing really changes much. Of course, it also happens that at some point we just reach a “dead end” where we no longer have the energy to struggle and there is a natural letting go, in this case there is no conscious courage but just an exhaustion that results when you hit a threshold of struggle based living, and it’s possible that as soon as you regain your energy you go back to living from struggle. Only a conscious letting go of the mind’s negativity can ensure a permanent shift because now you’ve clearly see through the dysfunction of living from a place of fear-based movement.
I don`t have the courage. I am clinging to the past-my mind is clinging to the past. I live a narrow life, Iknow this, but cannot change, because I am so fearful. Sometimes I feel about 5 years old, and I`m 40. A few years ago after a huge trauma- which is what opened this path to me- I referred myself to a shrink, because I thought I was going mad(terrifying) he said not(!) Rest assured I am quite sane. There are dark places in the mind, which I suppose a lot of people never experience- and having experienced them, or having experienced the universal sub-conscious- or whatever – well you`d think I`d progress. But no, I am too fearful, too unconscious, and tired and weary.
There you go. But I`m drawn to your writings, I can recognise truth when I see it, even if I am unable to let go. Tired, cross, stressed and anxious.
Stella, sometimes we reach a point in our life where we are just exhausted of living from a place of struggle and thus there is a natural letting go, an exhausted surrender – which works just as fine. Also, by courage I don’t mean anything dramatic, but just an openness to trust life and let go of trying to force yourself into doing things that you don’t really like doing. Even if you don’t trust life, you can just let go of your struggle, and just align with doing things that you find any sense of joy, or relaxation, in and you will get aligned with your natural inspiration. If you say that you don’t find joy in anything, then for a while just focus on being relaxed, and stay in a place of ease, allowing the release of your mind’s momentum, until you can start sensing the aliveness of your life-energy which was blocked by the cloud of negativity in your mind. It helps greatly if you consciously stop defending your mind’s negativity, because negativity can easily become an identity that you start living with.
Beautiful! I love how your articles can be read again and again and still seem fresh every single time..
I totally agree
Sen-
What do you think is the underlying problem in a mind that is always looking for external stimulation of any kind, whiter it be cigarettes , coffee, alcohol, etc.. I know the problem is not the actual addiction to the substance but there is an underlying problem. I just don’t know what that is..
?
Abet, a mind which has a lot of resistance will try to find some temporary relief through distractions or addictions, that’s the only way it can keep going in the face of resistance. A permanent solution would be bring awareness to the negativity that’s causing the disconnection/resistance, and allow a release of it, which may entail a shift in reality – that’s what the process of alignment is all about. Of course, there is nothing wrong with entertainment or enjoying certain stimulants, as long as it’s not a means to suppress the inner imbalance.
Thank you .
A friend of mine told me she just stopped thinking about all the things she couldn’t change in her life. “I can’t do anything about it,” she said, “What good would it do to wear myself out in a couple of years with worrying and stressing out?” I believe she manages not to think. I, however, cannot accept that I should stop thinking about all the things I want to change in my life! I do want to be at peace, but it’s almost like saying “I’ll never be happy, so might as well stop thinking what can I do to be happy, whether it’s socialize more, meditate, get a different job, etc…”
It is practically impossible for me to completely turn my thoughts off.
Hi Sen, would you say that the minds negativity can come from not accepting and dealing with negative feelings surrounding certain life events ? Stella talks of trauma and clinging to the past which makes me think she has not allowed the painful feelings surrounding this trauma to surface, be felt and dealt with and then come to acceptance. I do know from personal experience that traumatic events change a persons life forever. However, I feel it is important to work through the grief of trauma to come to a point of acceptance where the person can then look back with sad but not painful memories. If the grief stays trapped the person may look back or carry with them panic and anxiety which can effect day to day living and physical and mental health. The process of coming to acceptance can be a traumatic and painful experience in itself but is essential for one’s life to progress to one of more fulfilment and contentment.
Justine, that’s right, the fear of allowing the past negativity to arise (and be released) is what keeps a lot of people stuck with their suppressed negative energy.
Dear Sen ji,
I cannot come up with words on how your help/guidance is changing my life. My words cannot do justice to the gratitude I feel, so I am not even going to try that.
All these posts/comments/nuggets are incredible and as I stated before, it is not possible for anyone to write with so much depth and wisdom if he/she is not already an enlightened person.
Thanks for alleviating mine and others sufferings.
Best Regards
I believe I ended up on this website for a reason.
Dear Sen, I would like your insight. Im currently a college student on the road to becoming a doctor. Due to the competitiveness of being accepted into a medical school I get worried about upcoming tests and grades even though i perform well. I know what i want to accomplish in life but i have found my self stuck in the same place for over a year. I believe i do have negative tendencies, but thats due to the fact i think of myself so highly and have high expectations and desire for amazing accomplishments, love, fun, and experiences. There more out there in life and i want to experience it all. I have read and believe in manifestation and attraction. What mental attitude and actions shall i display to get whatever i desire in life?
When you get too enamored by the promise of happiness from the experiences of future accomplishments, your whole focus is on the external thus disconnecting your from your inner space, or space of being – this imbalance leads to an frustrated experience of physical living, no matter what you end up accomplishing. What’s needed is to reach a state of balance between your desire for physical experience and your sense of inner wholeness – accomplishments, manifestations, physical expressions are sources of enjoyment, but they cannot serve the purpose of giving you a sense of wholeness, and if your whole identity is fixated on the external accomplishments you are bound to feel insecure all the time. You can read these posts for more insight
http://www.calmdownmind.com/a-state-of-balance/
http://www.calmdownmind.com/inner-wholeness/
http://www.calmdownmind.com/letting-go-of-the-mindset-of-struggle/