Remain committed to the goals you have set for the New Year. Day by day restate them silently so that they become embedded in your psyche, so that they become a part of you. Changing yourself and your life is really just a matter of substituting one habitual behavior for another. You already know how capable you are of habitual behavior so switching to something new is not a problem. Keep your heart attuned to this new plan for change too, along with your mental prowess, for ultimately it is the prowess of the heart that will determine the final outcome of your endeavors. If your heart is in alignment with your resolve then all will be well.
Karma is destiny, the inevitable effect of a previous cause. That which goes up must come down. And, according to Newton’s Third Law, the force with which it lands will cause a reaction of equal force. This repetitive back-and-forth volleying generates a groundhog day habit of karmic stuckness.
We must circumambulate our habitual beingness until we accrue the consciousness to clearly see our individual core karmic leitmotif. Once filled with awareness of our karmic duty we are then freed to exercise our will to address our oppositions and eventually shift our lives in an equal and reconciled new direction. This is using karma for better.
Esther Harding states:
“The marvel is that there is not a perpetual state of war within the psyche, for each of these elements is endowed with energy and so cannot die. Fortunately for our sanity, many of these irreconcilable elements lie deep within the unconscious, locked in primordial sleep; those which may have stirred are shut away in separate compartments. But as life progresses and an increase of consciousness is achieved, the inner conflicts awaken, and the problem of reconciling the oppositions they reveal has to be undertaken as a serious and urgent task.” –M.E. Harding, Psychic Energy
Cherokee guide Joyce Sequichie Hifler, in A Cherokee Feast of Days, speaks to the karma of a pond turning over. It’s nature’s way of cleaning house. The stagnant energy settled at the bottom of the pond activates, mixes with other strata of water, and rises to the surface. And yes, the whole pond of human affairs needs to turn over at times. This is the cosmic karma of now.
Judge Hatch, a Master teacher in the astral realm, hovered over the battlefields of Earth throughout WW1, channeling his observations and guidance for humanity to his scribe Elsa Barker, in War Letters. His intent was to empower humanity to advance beyond the perennial karma of war. His empowering technology is available to every human being to reconcile with both the warring factions within the self, as well as in the world. Here’s a method to transform hate, the mother of all wars:
“…Has anyone injured you in the struggle of life?—for life is a kind of war. Go out in thought to those whose desires have clashed with your desires, those who have hurt you or hated you. Go to them one by one—not several at a time in this exercise, and one by one try to understand them. See yourself with their eyes, feel toward yourself with their hearts. If they still hate you, you may hate yourself at first in sympathy with them. But remaining there in sympathy with them, you will gradually feel their hard thoughts of you change, gradually begin to be friends with yourself through them.” –Elsa Barker, War Letters From The Living Dead Man.
Judge Hatch emphasizes that this exercise is not a subconscious abuse of black magic to control another because its objective is consonant with the intent of the High Self, one of unselfish union and positive evolution. Carolyn Elliot describes similar exercises of appreciation for the warring factions within the self in her book, Existential Kink.
From the perspective of every individual human as a single cell in the wholeness of everything, every effort—even that of a single person—will impact the state of balance in the overall whole. Furthermore, every individual, however disagreeable, is a permanent member of the whole, for energy cannot die.
What is changeable is the balance between the parts within the whole. We all, as individuals, are subject to the karma of our attitudes, decisions, and actions. The human race, as a whole, is subject to its karma as well. The artistry of being human is our ability to sculpt our beingness with attitudes, decisions, and behaviors that advance our karma for better.
As Judge Hatch describes, the practice of deeply appreciating the perspective of one’s enemy, especially feeling their hatred toward oneself, mitigates the intensity of one’s own anger, harmonizing an opposition within the self and impacting positively one’s outer relationship with the hated other.
Perhaps this technology can be simply summarized in the words of an earlier Master, “love thy enemy.” That’s how to advance the self and use one’s karma for better.
A sting can cause a trigger; gathering pollen is a habit! – Photo by Jan Ketchel
“That really triggered me!” Here, a sore spot, a vulnerability has been touched by someone’s comment, setting off this emotionally explosive reaction. Typically, the wounded party expects that others should know and respect this sensitivity and refrain from going near it. One often feels entitled to an apology.
A trigger is anything that can cause one to remember and feel an unprocessed emotionally charged experience. If someone tries to forget being attacked by a dog, the mere mention of its name can arouse anger and terror. Inwardly, the experience of being bitten has been pushed out of consciousness, protecting one from the discomfort of the reactivated memory.
The psyche envelops overwhelming experiences with strong defenses to keep the dreaded event far away from consciousness. Traumatic events may be so far removed from consciousness as to render one amnesic of their existence, even for decades.
Though the need for distance from a disturbing event may be necessary to function, it comes at the price of wholeness. The psyche must employ a good amount of energy to contain the disowned, unwanted or unknown parts of its experience. Furthermore, relaxed functioning may be compromised, as vigilance may be needed to avoid encounters with triggers associated with the split-off experience.
Ultimately, all events of a lifetime must be reconciled. A shamanic recapitulation, in this life, emotionally neutralizes all experience, rendering the psyche fully cohesive and able to be open to life without concern for triggers.
The life review referenced in near-death experiences, or reported by spirits in the afterlife, is required before one can advance into new life. Problems we haven’t resolved will preoccupy our lives, regardless of what subtle plane we may transition to. Recapitulation in this life both frees one for fulfillment in this life but also advances one in preparation for new life in the afterlife.
Habits are automatic beliefs, programs or pre-programmed behaviors that lie dormant in the subconscious mind. Programs are connected to genetic coding, as well as instinctive and archetypal imperatives that are specific to the nuances of the human species.
When a need or suggestion is encountered, the subconscious automatically activates the relevant program to address the situation. Thus, if one is attacked the subconscious will automatically activate fight, flight or freeze in response to the event. These reactions are not reactions to triggers, they are purely instinctive reactions to an existential threat. An instinctive habit is objective, a trigger is subjective.
The subconscious is also filled with habits that are derived from one’s subjective experience in this life. Thus, a person who has been bitten by a dog may consciously choose to always avoid dogs. This intentional behavior becomes a suggestion to the subconscious mind that molds it into an automatic, unconscious habit.
Thus, for instance, our bitten subject may unconsciously find themselves only walking certain routes that are known to be dog free. Now, if, while calmly walking one of these routes, a bark is heard, the subject may be triggered into emotional distress via encounter with the unreconciled memory of the original bite.
While triggers require a successful recapitulation if they are to be neutralized, habits, to change, require new suggestions to the subconscious mind. Thus, if one’s habit is a belief that one is unable to dance, one must first eliminate the conscious restating of this long-held belief. The subconscious will only manifest the suggestions one states.
To change a habit we must routinely state the new instruction to the subconscious mind: “I am able to dance.” This is not a discussion with the conscious mind. No reasoning or processing is required. What is required is the statement of intended fact to the subconscious, without any discussion.
To avoid conflicting suggestions to the subconscious, which virtually nullifies the formation of new habits, it is critical that one have complete faith in one’s suggestion. If one can embrace the belief that anything is possible then one can mobilize the requisite intensity of suggestion most likely to influence the subconscious.
One is often tested by the subconscious by the activation of old programs, despite one’s new intent. Old habits will reassert themselves until the new habit is established. Be calm, patient and persevering until the subconscious automatically prompts the newly established program. Simply repeat the new intent with calm assurance that it will manifest.
Trigger and habit are frequently intertwined. A new habit will be blocked from formation if a defensive habit must be retained to protect one from a potential trigger. Triggers, which represent split off experiences, must be neutralized through recapitulation before a habit, used to keep triggers at bay, can be effectively replaced.
Though both habits and triggers may be permanently altered, their pathways to change are distinctly different. Triggers must be processed at a conscious level to be neutralized; habits require rote repetition of new marching orders to the subconscious to result in a changed habit.
When triggers and habits are intertwined it is necessary to first reconcile the triggered event to effectively free the subconscious to take in the instructions for the desired change of habit. Change itself is always possible. Remember, anything is possible!
