PREMASUDHA

The Compassionate Shaman

Founder of The Compassionate Way and The Transcendent Body Approach

 The Answers are Inside. Here is How to Get There

 We hear that the answers are inside us

It is true. They really are.

As Muktananda, an Indian sage and founder of Siddha Yoga, said: “The answer is You.”

 It is.

Alas, trouble comes when we don't know how to go inside. We might not know how to build a relationship with our inner Self because we’ve always functioned from the outside in.  This means trying to solve our difficulties through other people and the outside world. The idea of tapping into our own inner wisdom might make our head spin.

Here’s the thing. When it stops working to stay on the outside of ourselves, we'll become deeply motivated to approach life from the inside. Misfortunes such as being fired, getting divorced, or experiencing ill health can shake us awake.

The arrival of trouble means life is asking us to wake up to the existence of our eternal Essence.

As Amma, the Indian Hugging Saint says: “When you're a zero, you're a hero.”

Yes, it does take courage to grow, to become more. But when our outside world falls apart and we’re thrown back on ourselves, it is an invitation to start building a relationship with ourselves, with our true Nature.  If we turn inside, we might discover that the secret to a meaningful life - the answer to an emptiness we might have always felt underneath – emerges from that Inner Self.

Even if we have always run from it before.  

In my 30’s, my life fell apart and I woke up enough to dare to look inside. Gradually it became clear to me, that I had been basically spraying weed killer on my inner garden and Self by all my self-criticism and self-hatred. So I stopped doing that. Or at least, I began to observe myself - my thoughts, emotions and actions - as I went through my day. I saw in stark relief, how I slashed away at myself with self-hatred and overly self-critical patterns.

This self-witnessing was often depressing. I gave these self-attacking complexes over to the Creator a lot because the patterns felt so entrenched.

But indeed, gradually these patterns became smaller, the more I stopped believing their reductive, self-dismissive content.

And over time I learned to become more and more loving with myself. As I did that, my life opened up; became a lot gentler; and more fulfilling.

It takes time and it takes a courage to change patterns when we've spent many years of believing life is this way or that we're a certain way. But it can be done. It's really worth it to learn to become gentle and forgiving of yourself; to be able to put your arms around yourself as you are; and to know that you are entitled to be here.  

You are as valuable as anybody else.

That's what Buddha said - that you deserve the love of God as much as anybody else in the world and it's really true. You deserve love and it's coming to you. Eternal unconditional love is always there for you. If you dare to open up your mind and your heart, you will feel it.

Really, it’s a choice. I know you will feel how loved you are by the Universe if you really want to.

Just be patient. It takes time.

Bless your hearts.