The Light Within

I started a new job working with people that has brought me back to my element, doing what I love to do by reconnecting with people in a loving way. I am sharing about certain experiences that helped me get to a better place in my life, especially in regard to my relationships with other people. I allow myself new experiences and better relationships by not being stuck in the expectations of the old.

For awhile after facing many hardships in certain relationships, I realized I was still living in a place of fear and resentment that was driving my expectations and experiences. Even though the difficult events were over, I was still stuck in a certain mindset that was recreating the type of relationships and experiences I had fought to leave. I started to pay attention to my thoughts and perceptions, so that whenever I started to expect past experiences to happen again or a repeat of a bad relationship with someone, I could shift myself mentally and emotionally to a place where I could receive a new type of relationship that is loving or peaceful. Most importantly, I left behind judgements and opinions from the past, including those from others that no longer agreed with me, and created my own experiences along with better relationships by believing in myself, my own truth and power within.

I previously wrote about the importance of forgiving ourselves and others. We came into this life together to have specific experiences with one another in order to learn and to grow. Everything that happens, happens for a reason that is for us, not against us. It comes from a place of unconditional love. We can see this as God giving us experiences to help us grow out of His love for us, just as a parent would do for a child. We can bring this learning and compassion into our life by changing our perspective and our awareness to incorporate this understanding into our experiences and by looking the “bigger picture” of life. This being done, we can come to a place where we don’t need to personalize everything. This perspective and way of life can change the whole dynamic of how and what we experience, especially our relationships.

When we get stuck in a difficult or negative place in our lives we can free ourselves by opening our minds and our hearts, starting by bringing this compassionate awareness into our perspectives. In life we learn to adapt ourselves to certain roles that we play out for one another, but we are much more than these roles and need not over-identify ourselves with them. We do not need to base our self-perceptions (how we see ourselves) and sense of self by these roles. We need not identify others by the roles they play in our experiences, nor let our judgements and opinions define them, because these too are only based upon our personal limited perceptions. To do so is to confine ourselves by our constructed identity and to limit our capabilities, especially the capability to love and appreciate ourselves and one another. We can connect to our true selves by awareness of the light within, our inner being, which we can feel when we relax and meditate. We can connect and open our heart chakra to feel this inner love and compassion. More importantly, we can remember that what we see from one another is only a small outward expression of the inner truth. Similarly, what we each experience within is a often different reality than what others can see. As we keep this in our thoughts, we can release ourselves from past judgements and limited or superficial perceptions of who we really are, and give each other the love and respect we deserve.

When we free each other by letting go of our old limited ideas and judgments, we can also free each other by forgiveness. We do not need to hold people hostage to certain judgments we made or by holding onto resentments from the past, it only limits us from having a better experience and relationship with one another. Letting these go can pave the way for people to play a different role in our lives. We can liberate ourselves by opening our minds in this way, and opening our hearts to form connections with each other that are beyond superficial attachments.

Just because we may have seen a certain part of someone or a specific role they played in our past, it is one small part of their total being and not the truth of who they really are within. Certain aspects or behaviors may materialize from people at certain times, and often what we see is parts of ourselves coming to our awareness. The more we realize these reflections of our own self, the more we can learn about ourselves and grow, and the more we grow (as well as learn to accept and love ourselves) the more opportunities arise to form better relationships with one another that connect on a deeper level. As we reconcile all parts of ourselves, we begin to share and bring out other parts of one another that are aligned with our true selves and nature, or our inner truth of positivity and love. In this context, we can move beyond superficiality to the true light within.  When we learn to see everyone as the same light in which we are just reflections of one another, we let go of the need to personalize or blame or compare. We can live on a different spiritual level of oneness and compassion.

Similar to this point, our interactions with each other exaggerate certain aspects of self, but this only aids in gaining the awareness of these parts of ourselves that allows them to grow or mature, and allows the necessary experiences to happen in order to expand ourselves. One spiritual leader Panache Desai often says that what we see in one another is only ourselves in another timeliness, in other words it’s us in a different point in our lives, or point in an experience we all may have that we can relate to with compassion. In addition, we receive what we put out, and we can learn about our own expression and how we treat or act towards others by how we are treated in return. Sometimes we focus too much on certain parts of ourselves and others that’s a just small piece of who we truly are, instead of looking at the whole person or the bigger picture. Sometimes those parts we focus upon may be something that bothers us. Instead of being bothered or feeling badly, we can see it as an indication of something that wants out awareness, perhaps something from the past that needs healing or reconciling. I can shift my focus to the whole person, or even to the parts of them that are positive and loving, and let these aspects grow in my awareness to shape my perspective of this person. As I shift my perspective of them, I begin interacting with this particular person, thus changing the dynamic of the relationship. In turn, we begin to see each other in a new light that opens us up to love and compassion.

In the same way, we can change our self-perception to embody more compassion for our own selves as well. When we start to focus in on our “negative” aspects and memories of “mistakes,” remind yourself that this is only one small experience and not the truth of your being. We are infinite divine beings, the totality of our true selves is so much more than our past roles or experiences. When looking at one single aspect of ourselves, we can bring in negative judgment when seeing it in one context, but when we bring it into a new context it can change the whole dynamic to become something positive. When looking at the whole person and its place within the totality of our being, we can learn its purpose by seeing how it truly works in our being, and the part it plays. Nothing is complete and the full truth cannot be revealed until we look at something in its whole, or entirety, and the whole is greater than the sum of its parts. We can apply this to many things, including the roles (or parts we play) in an experience (the play of life). When we begin to look at the meaning and loving intent that our experiences do for us, and how they bring growth and learning, we can begin to judge one another by this overall truth rather than the individual roles they played. We no longer need to confine ourselves to false or incomplete beliefs or perceptions, I can move my focus to the light and truth within each of us in order to manifest a new type of reality with better relationships with others, and with myself.

Recently, I moved myself from a constant battle of self-perfection by bringing acceptance and compassion to myself. I realized I do not need to fight or try to get rid of parts of myself or things I do, instead I could change the way I see them. I can look back to understand where they came from (their origin) and have compassion for myself and my past. These parts were the ones that needed the most compassion, rather than fighting or putting down. Really they are experiences that we all likely share… and I can shift my mind to the parts of myself that bring positivity, those parts that I like and that feel good to me, mentally and emotionally. Practice shifting of our perspective to positivity, by awareness of our thoughts and beliefs in ourselves, and reconnecting with those experiences and parts of our lives that bring in love, pride, confidence, and emphasize the light within. We can change what we see in ourselves and then bring this out into the world, which in turn changes what we do and how we respond to life.

We can often get stuck in a state of mind, or way of living that is more mental than emotional, that can limit us from experiencing the best version of ourselves and the world. We can open our minds to beautiful realizations and a new reality by moving beyond our pre-conceived ideas and beliefs, perspectives, and ways of thinking, and using our heart and emotional body to experience life and connect with each other. Thus far, we only experienced a small part of what is true about people and the world, and even ourselves, but there is a bigger picture and greater truth to everything and everyone that we have not yet opened our minds or our lives to. What we learned so far in life, and what we were taught, are small pieces of a greater truth, we are free to perceive and experience in new ways that are true to ourselves. We can expand our mind to see in new ways and move from the mental and intellectual realm to experiencing other parts of our being and the universe. We can begin by learning what it feels like to connect to the deeper parts of ourselves, to our intuitive and emotional inner being, where this is a vast inner experience that is beyond words. We can meditate and relax and focus on the light within, and the more we connect in our daily life and interaction with others, the more we can form deeper connections with one another, based upon the unconditional love throughout the universe that we all share. This can be experienced even more as we recognize that this same light is within every single being. We can move to creating such deeper, compassionate connections when we move beyond the limitations of our minds.

Some important mental limitations I recently learned to move beyond are the intitial judgements about people, labeling their specific character, or persona, and assuming the “role” they will play, based on similarities with past experiences or relationships. We can move away from putting people into such categories based on assumptions that define our expectations of what we will experience with them, as these are largely constructed from past experiences.  Instead, we can see every encounter as an opportunity to form a new type of relationship with a new person, thus remaining open to receiving a completely new experience with them. We can try to expect one of positivity and love, recognizing this as the basic truth of the light within us, and of the universe wanting to support us. For example, at work, I began to recreate the same relationship with someone just because they resembled a particular person in my past, I received the relationship and corresponding experiences that I expected because I perceived them this way. It limited our interactions largely based on my fears of them playing a similar role to someone else I had known, and due my insecurities with myself from past experiences I still needed to work through. Therefore, none of what we experienced together was personal to either of us, and the relationship was limited and based upon constructions of the mind. Recognizing this now, I remember to keep my mind (and heart) open to each new person and everything that comes with them…I open myself to receive a whole new authentic experience with them. I can realize what parts of my mind and my past are playing into the dynamics of the current relationship, and then discover how I can change these. I can also learn to connect with this person from within, coming from my heart and light within rather than just the mind. We can remember that we are all one giant family, we are all from the same source, we embody the same light

In my new job, I could move beyond seeing people as clients or co-workers, instead see them as people and together we’re all having a human experience. Remember what is more important in life, our connections and how we treat one another, whether at work or in our personal lives. When we see the divine connection among us, we can experience the divine dynamics of the universe. We can see each other as another extension of ourselves, the same divine and loving light. Being fundamentally all the same light, we are just at different points in our existence… we all are sharing the same overall experiences in one universe. We can relate to one another knowing we have been there already and show compassion, and if not yet then someday we will be in their shoes too.

I keep this all in mind as I perform at work, I listen and believe in my own truth about the nature of life and people over the opinions of anyone else. In doing this, I open myself to amazing positive experiences with everyone, in which I can be confident, authentic, intuitive, and lovingly connected with people. I can be free and joyful, no matter what the situation. I always reconnect with, and focus upon, those parts of myself and people that I love the most… I have the power to keep myself in a positive place in a reality of my choosing by adhering to my beliefs, my inner truth and feelings of warmth and light no matter the circumstances. We can all relax into this feeling and reconnect within, whenever the outside world gets chaotic and whenever we need. I have the power to decide when I want a new experience that is going to be positive and loving, and that’s what I am going to receive and experience, starting from within. No one can bring me down except for myself and my own mind, so I don’t need to agree with anyone or anything that brings me down, I can respond to anything with compassion and only agree with that which lifts me higher. I have the power to create my own experience, and I choose that of compassion.

Sometimes reality shifting can help us in our relationships and at any point when interacting with others. I can improve my experience of a situation by shifting myself to a new state of being, both mentally and emotionally. In this technique, I can experience my state of being as if I am in a living visual perspective, of myself and of reality surrounding me, while simulateously feeling it in my whole being. With imaginative creativity, I can create my own ideal state and reality and bring it into my being in the present, incorporating everyone around me into this reality and way that I want to experience. With past wisdom, in which I have had many experiences throughout my life in which I was able to exist within seemingly infinite states of mind and emotion (which are equally true but just prevail at different times) I can now access them as I reconnect with the memory and bring any particulr state of being into my current moment. Its like seeing our life as a giant inventory of past experiences that each gave us a certain emotional and mental perception or state, as well as different types of relationships an interactions. When I recognize how they feel, as if energetic states of being, I can reconnect with any one of them and use them to help me at different times. Practicing this can help us manifest in the moment, and can help us bring wisdom from our past and compassion with others as we can relate to them better.

Similarly, when I start to feel insecure, I try to remember that I am only feeling or seeing one part of myself in this moment, one state of being out of the infinite that I am. I shift my perspective by leaving these thoughts of feelings, not fighting them but instead paying attention to those parts of my mind and body that feel strong, confident, loving, or whatever it is that I need. I reconnect with memories and times when I was this way, as this positive person in the past, knowing that this has been just as much part of my experience and who I am as any other. I move forward holding onto this, believing and knowing it is just as much part of myself and my reality in this moment. Wherever we shift our focus to, this can become our state of being. Likewise, when mentally going in a downward spiral, such as into fear or anxiety, we can shift our focus from our minds to our hearts, to reconnect to the emotional body and feel the power of the love within. Often so much of our experience comes from our mind. We can free ourselves to experience our whole being and live at our fullest potential by breaking out of our mental limitations, and more towards the emotional and compassionate parts of our being, thus opening our hearts to the light within.