It pays to Resist the Resistance - 5th conversation

Whether we were blessed with an easy childhood, one throughout which we felt strengthened by the protective and nurturing love of our parents - or not - it is our emotional state that has created our needs as much as our fears and our anxiety for as long as we can remember. They are the ones that herald each new day. Even before breakfast, our psyche, therefore our body, is weighed down by the accumulated emotional burden of that infinite, invasive, toxic, dark vibration curled up in our solar plexus or stomach.

However recent or distant, the emotions of these thoughts, like wild, noxious weeds, have grown their roots across the crags of our neural web and, stealthily, they made themselves at home – and there they have stayed. Just like weeds that are among the most serious threats to a natural environment, the hormones triggered by our weed-thoughts have shaped aspects of our personality and clogged up aspects of our system in such a way as to keep us in an oddly addictive state of anxiety known to lead to personal setbacks and serious illnesses

There comes a time when, as young adults, if not earlier, resulting from any number of fears, something akin an Auto-Replay button is unwittingly activated in our brain. This functions serves to replay mashed up, obscure versions of our most insecure, fearful memories - as well as the memories of moments in which we found ourselves guilty of being less than our better selves. These jumping sparks of fear, guilt, insecurity are laced with cortisol, knows as the stress hormone, among other brain chemicals.

Short of undergoing a brain transplant, which is always best avoided, of course – the surest way to disable this Auto-Replay is to recognise the repetitive process for what it is.

At some point in time, like the mahout riding atop an elephant left free for too long to roam according to its whim, we must decide to re-establish our authority over our beast/brain. “Stop!” we tell it. “No more running wild. I’m here and I’m in charge! Now, sit and calm yourself.”

Then … what?

The no-brainer answers to Then … what? or How to? are ubiquitous these days and go along these lines: breathe to calm your nervous system; make time for guided meditations; learn to love yourself; generate little acts of kindness as often as you can; get inspired by positive affirmations.

To this, I would add that all of the above should be aimed at enabling us to ACTIVELY find ways to accept What-Is worrying us, scaring us, blocking us, stressing us. The sooner we make peace with it, the better.

To help that process along, it does help to BE grateful for ‘all’ that is well, smooth, pleasant in our life.

If nothing immediately comes to mind… let’s dig deeper and consider how much worse it could quickly become if X, Y or Z happened to us or to a loved one. So for now at least, let’s be grateful for the fact that none of these add-ons dramas are not playing our in our life at the moment.

And finally, let’s agree to never-ever feel sorry for ourselves because, as the cliché says, What doesn’t break us, makes us [emotionally] stronger – here and now, yes – and it re-calibrates our karmic balance sheet.

No doubt, it all amounts to sound advice but, because ‘weed-thoughts’, the ones that stay on the Auto Replay loop though they only live in our brain, are very real to us and because they have been stuck in that Auto-Replay mode for some 10, 20, 40 or 60 years … it will take more than the occasional spray of weed killer to wither them dry.

A little heads up: should you come across anyone who tells you “It doesn’t have to be hard”, click out because there is NO easy, pleasant way to address/redress/alter our brain patterns a.k.a. our psyche a.k.a. our Modus Operandi a.k.a. our concept of adult free will.

After all, these notions, fears and insecurities have all been firmly planted in our head for quite some years and our brain is very much attached to the way it have been thinking. In fact, it is absolutely lovin’ it - which is why it will resist the resistance in its own recalcitrant way.

Similarly, for what it's worth, we can 'blame' our brain for the difficulty we have in maintaining a weight loss program long enough to actually lose real weight and then stabilize our new weight by engaging in regular exercise while also staying on a healthy food regimen - permanently.

There is no fun in that either for our brain and it is very-very hard to make 'her' change her mind :-(

Bottom line: It will take more than bouts of ‘crisis spirituality’, prayer binges or Band-Aid-styled self-help to destroy these weed-thoughts and heal the damage. It will be hard. It will be messy and it will appear to complicate ‘things’, but only for … a while.

Still, having said that, the first step of that proverbial ten-thousand mile journey could, conceivably, start right here.

Right ... here!

How To Resist the Resistance wired in our head?

OK, so finally, YOU are in charge of your brain. Your task is to signal that clearly to your brain!!!

Once you get the hang of it, I urge you to create your own visuals and narration, but for now, let’s return to the imagery of poisonous weed-thoughts to help you get started.

Rest your hand over the areas where that noxious weed-thought has established herself.

See yourself grabbing that thought - the one that has become the unwanted but faithful companion of your quiet moments - of your sleepless moments, too.

Uproot the thought and its noxious energy from the invasive, toxic, dark vibration lodged exactly where you feel it the moment you are no longer concentrating on the task at hand – the moment you are no longer lost ‘in work’ or in ‘play mode’.

Visualise your self tearing that noxious weed-thought off its bedding.

Feel the resistance.

Appreciate the moment for what it truly signifies.

Feel it as real.

Concentrate on your breath – nice and slow through the nose - again and again.

Hold that weed-thought at arm’s length.

Observe carefully the mess of its twisted and tangled, dusty roots.

See it as real.

Move your physical arm forcefully to actually toss that poisonous weed, roots and all, into the nearest bin or, better yet, over the fence, over the roof … or overboard.

Watch it go!

Wow!’ you tell yourself proudly. ‘That was one BIG, nasty, ugly weed-thought. Now it’s gone-gone gone! Wooohoo!’

Feel the energy of the release release. If you don’t quite yet feel it, Practice DOES make Perfect.

Keep breathing inside this moment - nice and slow through the nose.

AND now ... in the spot freshly vacated by that gone-weed ... plant a lovely, little seedling that you know will grow strong and flower for you.

Why not also plant one in your physical garden?

You don’t have to rush off anywhere.

Stay quiet a minute longer. Celebrate the release within the privacy of your own mind.

To seal the deal, tell your brain very clearly that this old THOUGHT has become persona non-grata. Full stop.

Spend the next moment on your balcony, in your garden or patio, in a nearby park or on a beach.

Oh, and feel free to pull out with conviction ANY real weed, anywhere - anytime you spot one. Bring each uprooted weed back to your personal ‘That was one BIG, nasty, ugly weed-thought. Now it’s gone-gone gone! wooohoo!' moment.

Uproot it - Breathe - Grin - Rethink Thinking

To really get into it, you might need to repeat the visualisation a few times – right in that moment. And, obviously, whether it is this visualisation or one of your own creation, the process of ‘uprooting’ is repeated with much conviction each time you become aware of that weed-thought, that invasive, toxic, dark vibration, once again curled up in your solar plexus or stomach.

Warning: remember that your garden is still infested with a colony of invisible, poisonous, weed-thought seedlings - so remain vigilant. Be ready to act in the nano second YOU become AWARE that … it’s baaaack!

Don’t analyse this – just do it.

Yes, OK, I hear you say, but how to resist, really?

All I can say is that it is important to NEVER underestimate the relentless ego-shrinking, single-minded focus, dedication, the devotion, even, that are required to succeed in rewiring or brain – in rethinking our thinking – in changing our mind, literally.

Best way to achieve a serious, lasting energy shift is to move your energy away from your self - from mind over matters - to connect with a greater consciousness.

For me, that greater consciousness is Soul - but for you, it might be a god, the Divine, the Force or the Cosmos or your Angel guide - or the quantum field.

In short the glaring answer to How-To is that the uprooting of weed thoughts demands a persistence that most of us cannot sustain over time because of the very nature of the brain. It does not commit 100% because there are no feel-good moments, no rewards inherent to the process – at least not immediately – not the way it likes it.

Basically, this endeavour is definitely not recommended for the faint-hearted but, it is healthy to accept that, yes, definitely … our weed-thoughts have been allowed to proliferate like invasive fungi and parasites that affect our gardens and our fields.

Good news is: the moment is always right to begin the process of eradication.

Don’t get tangled up in specifics. Keep it general.

You aspire a Peace of the Mind?

Or you want Well-Being?

You need Contentment?

OK … make one of these words your focal thought.

FEEL the corresponding emotions.

v

Aspiring to any of these states of being presumes good health, enough wealth to feel safe and be comfortable and also enough love to feel loved – each in the dosage that you genuinely need – not an ounce more.

Attempting to address each element individually and over-indulging in specific details muddles things up.

v

You, yes, you – along with the rest of us – have no understanding of what kind of inner and physical combination would, in fact, bring you sustainable Contentment, Happiness, Joie de Vivre and so on.

We only know what our eyes and our mind would, for a while, find attractive and stimulating according to the very out-dated constructs still operating within our brain – in our thoughts.

The moment calls for direct action: uproot that weed-thought by voicing out loud - or silently - your active rejection of it: You’re gone! No more! I’ve moved on! I let go of what no longer serves me! Then, begin breathing with intent, nice and slow through the nose - and again for at least 30 seconds, if not a whole minute.

You can practice breathing on your own or you can practice Nadi Sodhana, the simple but effective alternate nostril yoga breathing. You can also begin by practicing Davidji’s 16 second breathing technique. Davidji is an internationally recognized stress-management expert ^[1]

Personally, I have a phobic resistance of ‘spiritual’ men with flowing white hair and beards - even worse when they also happen to wear robes - as much elements of disguise as priestly robes, kaftans and black hats.

However, over the past few months, I have come to appreciate Davidji’s perfect meditation voice, much of his wisdom and his stress release techniques.

A Vedic Master who lives in what he calls The Sweet Spot of the Universe, Carlsbad, California, Davidji does wear his white hair long but his beard is trimmed – and he doesn’t wear robes, at least not online :-)

Equally, I enjoy the wisdom embedded in Sadhguru’s newsletters, his meditations and breathing techniques also available online.

Sadhguru is an Indian Yogi and mystic of renown from Tamil Nadu - and, yes, he does sport the traditional flowing beard and long hair topped by a turban.

I admit he does look rather majestic in his layered and flowing robes but, in my mind, his projects and methods are enhanced by the fact that, Isha, the amazing foundation he has created, is strictly not-for-profit.

You can also involve yourself with Anodea Judith’s gentle and highly sensible chakra boosting poses.

To this very shortlist of three, I am confident to add Gregg Braden and Dr. Joe Dispenza for somewhat different discourses that, not surprisingly for me, also fit like a sheath over Moriya's teachings.

As an aside, motivated mostly through her own intimate connection with Soul, self-taught in the understanding of sacred texts topped up by the seminal thinking of spiritual philosophers published in Hebrew and in English up to the late '80s, before their understandings of spiritual philosophy became duplicated, interpreted and adulterated by the next wave, I can safely say that Moriya was only familiar with the writings of one person on my shortlist.

Though she was not particularly interested in chakras as such, Moriya's learning curiosity was all-encompassing and she did purchase Anodea Judith’s Wheels of Life, first published in 1987.

From Jerusalem where she lived, Moriya sent me that book, 519 pages of it, among a hundred other books she had hand-picked off her bookshelves.

1. https://davidji.com/change-life-16-seconds-free-video-series/

I, a self-published nobody with no affiliations to anyone published online or offline, will just add this: Of course, there are thousands of persons who teach yoga online and other thousands who philosophize but, personally, online as offline, when it comes to Mind/Body/Soul, I prefer to go along with persons whose credibility and knowledge have been established over decades and whose spiritual wisdom matches that of Moriya, the person who has, single-handedly, taught me the entire content of what I have written about in the past ten years.

Interestingly, specific words inherent to the language of Soul are not found in the language of neuroscience and vice versa yet, the similarities in intent and method would fit snuggly inside the overlapping section of a Venn diagram.

“C.C., Keep in mind that you can only think about what is already saved inside your brain. You can only behave in the way your mind, your ego, makes you behave,” Moriya would often remind me. “That frozen state is why things remain so mechanical and repetitive, no matter how hard you try for changes.”

Then, she would add, “As long as your karmic heart-debt remains unpaid, you'll just be repeating the same patterns from the low end of Ego. No matter how you try to rearrange things by travelling here and there or by getting a new friend, a new car and a new job, you will follow the same routes you have already followed all of your adult life.

“Though on the surface it will look like you have rearranged aspects of your life differently, underneath, it will remain same-same in all the main emotional and physical aspects.

“YOUR task is to evolve by starving the old thoughts patterns and planting in new ones, so you can move in a new direction altogether, from the inside/out. Move your thinking higher up, away from the body. All the way up to a real connection between you and Soul. And you will achieve that, not through reading, prayers and mantras or good intentions of the sort you always have, but through rethinking how you think which will transform why you act and HOW you act. That will happen to you only through constant commitment. Kadima, C.C., don't be lazy!”

Having said that, as much as I enjoy these five wise persons' online presence and have read their most recent books, I do not feel the impulse to register for any of their retreats or workshops.

Nothing personal – it’s just that I am also as phobic of ‘ashram’- styled gatherings, as I am of any ‘religious’ gatherings.

Also, I am aware that the 'merchandise/marketing industry' focused on the business of modernising traditional aspects of genuine spirituality is as cunning an industry as any other juggernaut industry.

Whenever money is involved, there never is total transparency.