I’ve been thinking, and talking, a lot lately about the causes of personal and collective suffering. It is clear we have complicated our lives so much that taking the time to simply be with and consciously work with that which triggers stress, anxiety, depression and a basic discomfort in daily life can seem overwhelming and impossible. We are being conditioned to believe that taking medications to relieve the symptoms is the best strategy, often to the exclusion of taking the necessary time to do the very rich and deep work that is essential to pop through the veil of suffering and see the symptoms for what they are—an overlay to an underlying radical distortion in our perceptions, initially developed in childhood, not our fault, and not who we actually are.
There is a profoundly vast world living inside of us and informing our daily lives, some of it informing us in positive productive ways and some of it in unconscious destructive patterning. When we begin to consciously access this world, aspects can be terrifying on our first encounter, as the surreal dreamscape of our imaginations can show us imagery of those parts living in the shadows of our being as the stuff of nightmares. But, there is an inner wisdom council at the ready to help us heal in this very realm, and there are beautiful inner landscapes we can access to take us to higher ground and heal our wounding through compassion, insight and clarity. I know this territory as metaphor, and its aim is to show us where we unknowingly imprisoned ourselves in distorted perception a long time ago, based on a limited maturity, and certainly based on often unaware and misguided conditioning from our parents and others who also struggled with their own demons. I have seen my own “little girl” in some inner environments that left her feeling deeply alone and scared, and through the work I’ve watched her blossom into the strong, wise and purposeful being she was meant to be, my steady ally in life.
I call it a beautiful inner world because once we become adept at this territory, and as we work with it over and over again, the potential—no, the likelihood—is that we will expand into the realization that we are all brilliant beings with the creative capacity to both compartmentalize experiences in order to protect ourselves, and the inner resources to reframe and heal that which created our suffering in the first place. I am in absolute awe of the human capacity to heal. And I feel deep sadness that most have not been taught how to access this capacity and utilize it to heal their wounds and thrive in this world. Instead, when the suffering has long been anchored in their psychology, cemented through repetition over decades, they see no option but to take medication to alleviate the psychological avalanche that lands upon them. We have been told that said medications are the way out of this inner hell. And I believe that they can certainly take the edge off of a mind out of control and unable to process. I also believe that were we to be guided in the exploration of the inner realms that are absolutely connected with the Divine, the Infinite, God, Universal Healing and Abundance, Clarity, Wisdom, Peace, and Joy, we would see with new eyes, feel with new hearts, find courage heretofore not experienced, and set ourselves free. We would stop identifying so heavily with the little selves that have self-created separateness, isolation, and the personalization of human material that all beings must navigate at some level, and embody a larger vision of ourselves as “spiritual beings having a human experience,” fully alive in all of it.
When we understand this freedom, we become unwilling to indulge in the repetitive destructive self-talk that identifies us as a victim, because we know we always have a more life-affirming and productive choice, that we are much much more than that. Like a tree in a northern forest, thriving despite being whipped by winds, weighed down by heavy snowfall, soaked by gusty rains, all the while soaking up the sun and anchoring deep roots in the ground, we too can thrive by not defaulting our attention to the harsh weather of our circumstances. We can embrace the whole rich experience and soak up and root ourselves in the gratitude and creative potential of this miraculous life. It is not a selfish act to prioritize our awakening into higher self-awareness and consciousness, nor is it a selfless act to put this aside over and over again in order to stay busy doing things for others and neglecting our inner well-being. We must put the oxygen mask on first before placing it on the child, otherwise we are all in danger. Isn’t that what they say? We must heal ourselves first, re-parent ourselves skillfully, otherwise our relationships are in danger. The way we deal with the issue IS the issue, every time. The great news is that once we become masters of navigating our own inner territory and understand its healing potential, once we have a direct experience of our real selves, we fall in love with that and with life in ways previously unimagined, because we understand that this is the truth of all of us, not just some of us. As we become better at this journey, we begin to trust it and our own ability to heal anything that comes our way. We become truly responsible humans. It gets more interesting, more fun and less heavy. Once we get a taste of our own purity, perfection, and unified awareness, we cannot help but know this about others, and want it for them.
There are many ways to get there. Please, get there. Find a trusted practitioner to guide you on that journey. It is the most important thing we can do in this world to make it a better place for all. A person at peace is a world at peace.
Namaste, Melanie
If you'd like some guidance, please feel free to contact me at melanie@innertegrity.com