The Challenge

Trying to create a new reality all the while basing the need for change on insecurity.

Many people find the reality within which they live to be less than comfortable / safe / happy.

They look outside of the self, looking for ways to change that reality in various programs and workshops, many of which are available.

These methods may work for a few, for a little time but inevitably they are not sustainable. In a way, it is all about readiness, true readiness. Are you ready and able to move into a different reality? Often the answer is no.

Principally because if you were you would be living that reality already. But then, take another look. You are already living in your own creation. You have created the world you currently experience. How can this be you may say, I did not order chaos, poverty, ill health, emotional turmoil. Well if not you then who else?

You may blame others, the environment, your upbringing but ultimately you are the one who is responsible for the world that you live in.

The, often overlooked, misunderstood reason that life is not the dream that you wished for is, according to Carl Jung, our ‘shadow’. Those aspects of self that remain hidden in the subconscious. This is who is really running the show, driving the bus. We think we are able to make decisions, choose a life, if this were the case why choose chaos? Why life a life of conflict and suffering?

Before we can be free of these hidden patterns, this sub-conscious programming we must a) recognise its existence, b) develop a different way of relating to this ‘shadow’ and c) bring all of the aspects of the self that we were unaware of into the light of consciousness. Until we do that we will always be victims to our past, doomed to recreate old patterns over and over again. It is not about learning to deal with the past, it is about recognising it for what it is, memories to which we are still attached.

Imagine your computer. Many if not all functions remain hidden from you, running in the background, performing tasks and controlling the environment within which they operate. Your sub-conscious is like that. Programs running in the background, programs that you are not aware of. Many of these programs are healthy, keeping your systems running smoothly, but, imagine memories, stored in the program that are not designed to help but instead to sabotage.

No one surely would do this on purpose, yet we are doing it all of the time, remember though these patterns are buried deep in your subconscious, so deep you do not even know they exist. You might call the your personality, you might think this is who I am and just accept it. But, what if this is not who you are, what if this is just who you ‘think’ you are.

When we want to change some aspect of our lives, without realising that we created our current life, we look outside of the self for help, for guidance. We must assume that the person, or group, that we seek help from knows what they are doing, perhaps they have achieved for themselves that which we seek. Yet we are not all on the same path, not at the same place on our journey, where some might find change easy, others struggle, what may work for some may not work for you. So, you keep looking.

If your need or desire for change is because you are not content with what you have and you fail to recognise that what you have now is already a product of earlier desires (often sabotaged by the shadow aspects) then you are not going to be able to find that which you are looking for.

Most desire or need for change is driven by discontent with the present reality.

As we learn to accept and bring into the light of our consciousness the shadow aspects that need for change begins to fall away.

Remember, whatever it is that is manifesting for you right now is a combination of the accepted parts and the shadow parts of the self. It is the shadow parts that you find uncomfortable.

When those shadow parts are brought out into the open and accepted (slowly!) then they no longer play the same part in creating the world. You live in. Instead the conscious self begins to exert its power and create a world that is both comfortable and safe. The more the shadow is brought into the light the less sabotage, conflict creating energy you put into the manifestation of your world.

The less shadow one carries the less need there is for change, for change is happening as a result of who you are becoming, not something you wished for or hoped for but simply as an unfolding of who you are. As was your previous manifesting reality’s product of who you were, light and dark (shadow) sides.

Until this shadow can be recognised and brought into the light it will still control your reality. Change, while the shadow is still strong is an uphill battle, a constant struggle against the self. There is no winner in that race, just a race where the finish line continues to elude you.