By Wes Annac, Culture of Awareness
What’s the biggest obstacle to fulfillment in your life? The answer, to put it simply, is you.
We constantly resist the feeling that everything is okay as it is, and the irony is that we strive for what we already have yet resist because we think we should strive for it.
In doing so, we create the very negativity that holds us back while manifesting circumstances in life that seem to justify our pessimistic outlook.
Negative circumstances are the result of an excessively negative mindset. Once you become aware of this, you can create circumstances that result from peace of mind and contentment with the present moment.
Are You a Victim?
If you try your best yet continue to struggle, you may feel as if you’re a victim of circumstance. Most people prefer to think this way, because it releases them from the responsibility to steer their lives in a positive direction.
Even if you can’t control what happens to you, it makes a difference to know you can control your response to it.
It’s difficult to deal with the world every day with a smile on your face while trying to remember that you’re here to make a difference, and the ‘victim’ mindset comes with a sense of freedom from the weight of responsibility for your life.
Don’t get me wrong; terrible things happen to innocent people every day and this makes it easier to believe you’re a victim of a cold world. However, is it not more empowering to realize you have a say in what happens in your life? In what you do and don’t let in?
Even if you can’t control what happens to you, it makes a difference to know you can control your response to it.
“Open Your Eyes, and Look Within”
Some readers may have already started to drown me out, because the idea that they’re responsible for managing depression or tolerating its causes doesn’t sit well. Rather than thinking about what they could do to get out of this state of mind, some prefer to assume it’s inevitable or undefeatable. It’s not.
“Open your eyes, and look within. Are you satisfied with the life you’re living?” –
Instead of looking outside of yourself for the source of your problems, look within. Explore your frustration. Write about it if you have to, and try to understand it because it won’t go away if you suppress it.
Don’t stay down in that pit you made for yourself. Emerge triumphantly by releasing any pain or toxic emotions you carry, and remember to express what you feel instead of burying it deep down.
Expression beats suppression, and in order to be open to a higher consciousness or anything that might make you feel better, you have to evict all the accumulated junk that distorts the spiritual senses.
Opening the Mind & Returning to Love
You don’t have to be a spiritual seeker to be on a quest for fulfillment, and in any case, it can be found by opening and exploring your mind. It also helps to return to love, and by that I mean returning to an understanding of what love really is.
Love is imperative when it comes to creative and spiritual evolution, and without it, everything becomes noticeably grimmer.
Love is a powerful creative force that lives deep within and can be harnessed through an open mind and heart.
If you don’t know how to open the mind or heart (or you don’t know what that even means), I highly recommend meditation and spiritual literature.
I discovered the power of an open mind and heart through spiritual literature, creative work and meditation. While not everyone’s path is the same, I think these things would help a lot of spiritual seekers who are confused about what they should do next.
Meditation and creative work have done more for me than spiritual literature, but I still recommend the latter because it can make you aware of concepts you can expand on during meditation. Thankfully, all of these things can make you aware of love.
Love is imperative when it comes to creative and spiritual evolution, and without it, everything becomes noticeably grimmer.
Your outlook turns sour the moment you step out of the heart space, but fortunately, you can reenter it at any time. All it takes is the clarity of mind (and spirit) to realize when you’ve strayed from it and the willingness to return to it.
Do We Have Our Heads in the Clouds?
Most people don’t realize our way of life is based on experiences, not beliefs.
Those who know nothing about the heart space or have never felt its power would probably consider these writings to be nonsensical ramblings that are impossible for the common person to relate to. In a sense, they’re right.
It’s almost impossible to become aware of something you’ve never heard of or believe is fiction, and until the rest of the world can feel what spiritual seekers have felt for centuries, we’ll continue to sound crazy.
Most people don’t realize our way of life is based on experiences, not beliefs. Until they somehow become open to these things we’ve been given a taste of, they’ll have no way to relate to it and they’ll continue to think it isn’t real.
Our Job
Our job isn’t to convince anyone our way of life is genuine. Our job is to use this way of life to come closer with the love, happiness and fulfillment that live within. Sadly, too many of us have built our life around our spirituality only to find that we’re still unhappy.
We feel on a deeper level that something is missing, and when life adds to the weight we feel, we come dangerously close to hitting rock bottom. Don’t be afraid to fall as far down as you need to right now. Just remember to climb back up and do your best not to fall again.
We have to go through the dark night of the soul before we can truly heal, and the first step to healing is to acknowledge what rages within so it can no longer keep you from the life you’re destined to create.