The Accomplice

Hiding deep in the background of our lives there is an intriguing force exerting a very powerful influence on us. 

Like an emotional parasite, it attaches itself to a difficult moment of challenge, intensifying an issue and adding layers of complication to it.
 

You may wonder where this mysterious
intensity comes from...and what gives it its potency and punch?


Here's what's fascinating about this situation...


The answer to the mystery 
is the fact that WE ourselves are THE ACCOMPLICE,  the energy attaching itself to our problems and making them MORE painful and MORE difficult to resolve...and we are doing this by refusing to stay 100% focused on the present moment.


This present moment has two primary levels...what is happening and how it feels to us.  

One...two.  Simple enough.  But somehow we manage to take the simple purity of that moment and cover it with levels which go beyond the primary experience.*
 

The third level we engage in is composed of the MENTAL CONVERSATION we are directing to ourselves about what is happening...

for example, 

"Oh, no, here comes my problem again.  I can't get away from it."
         or
"I keep making the same mistakes."
        or
"Something is really wrong with me.  It feels like I'm falling apart."


This mental commentary is then followed by the next level in which we EMOTIONALLY  BERATE  OURSELVES  for thinking these thoughts.


We may even add more levels to the experience as we write our "stories" about what is happening to us and our reactions to those "stories".

And, at the end of the cycle is MORE PAIN.* 

And is this last level of pain one we have brought on ourselves?



It seems as if the conversation we are having with ourselves about the pain or distress or problem and our reaction to it is evoking anxiety, stress and judgment and this emotional reaction is CONTRACTING the cells of our body, further intensifying our pain, compromising the healing process and causing ourselves considerable suffering.


Releasing these added levels of intensity and returning  to levels one and two  (the simple purity of what has happened and how it feels to us) will relieve much suffering .

But to do this we need to be consciously aware of the  process we are engaging in...and not indulge in judging ourselves when we do discover it.*
 
Eckhart Tolle says:
"The primary cause of unhappiness is never the situation but your thoughts about it.  Be aware of the thoughts you are thinking."
 

Why do anxiety, stress or negativity arise?

 Because we turned away from the present moment and missed what  Tolle calls
 "the deeper perfection that is inherent in life itself"....the perfection exquisitely designed to assist us in completing the goals of our life journey and provide opportunities for the healing of our soul.


Instead of being a perpetrator of our own suffering, let's consider becoming a SPIRITUAL Accomplice  to the work of the Divine Universe by honoring the unfolding of life in all of its perfection and embracing the lessons it is so carefully delivering to us.

                                                                               Marie Helena


*Special acknowledgment to Ken Porter for his thoughts on the possible complex levels of our 
  experience of physical and emotional pain and his suggestion on how to deal with this awareness. 


   image from duckmanpettho.com.