When the mind takes in impressions from the environment, it does not discriminate or filter. The five senses of touch, smell, hearing, sight and taste takes in these impressions from the five sense organs eyes, nose, ears, mouth and skin. These impressions are processed in the body and mind. For example, the taste of a certain food is digested in the mind as tasty or the view of the ocean taken in by the eyes digested in the mind and stored as beautiful. These perceptions are stored for future use by the mental body. Positive experiences that we have creates positive impressions and negative experiences have the opposite effect. Our ego personality is formed by the way we live an interact with the world based on these impressions. It is like a mask that we wear to make communications with others.
The problem lies in the fact that our ego likes it when we are liked by others. We want to be accepted by others, praised by other that we will change our original personality and preferences to suit the social norms. In school, we learn our teacher’s preferences or what the majority of the class agrees upon without questioning, at home we are taught to be a certain way and people who we interact with adds a bit to our personality. Little do we know that it is alright to like something else or be different. Life becomes a constant appeal to society to like us as the self confidence plummets while we are knee deep in the addiction to please others. During teenage years, we have internal conflicts, fight against society and against our family while trying to figure out who we really are. Irony is that its been so long that you forgot who you really are because you chose to go with the crowd.
The ego known as Ahamkara in Ayurveda, plays a big role in the physical existence. When we are born, we have the veil of amnesia where we forget why we came here, what we came here to do, where we came from and what our true power is. The society is shaped in a way to control and keep the true power of humans from emerging. So without exercising intuition, navigating through life becomes difficult and confusing. We have angels and guides to show us the way but if we are not attuned, we can’t hear or see the signs that are given. Then we seek approval from others or by learning from social norms. we label, categorize and name everything because just like we created a certain ID of our own, we like to identify rest of the world with labels too. Then we strive to live up to the ideals of what is socially acceptable instead of what we really want.
When your desires and goals align with that of the higher self, joy and happiness is replaced by feelings like anxiety, doubt and fear. When those goals are in conflict with what your ego self desires, that’s when the mind begins to have blocks and emotional problems. These imbalances eventually will be escalated if not healed on a timely manner. The underlying issue is that we incarnate with goals and lessons to learn, when we stray from those we are internally conflicted at a soul level that reflects to the physical body and the mental body. This leads to being unhappy with the choices we make in life and continuing to make the wrong choices, leading to suffering.
When we make the decision to heal from the emotional wounds, the path to integrate with the true self becomes clear. Getting rid of the old ways of thinking, old self destructive patterns and old habits takes bit of work but when you decide to love yourself, the task becomes easier. The foundation is to begin with positive affirmations that puts positive vocabulary in your speech and thinking. Just the decision to heal from the past and asking for help from angels and guides sets the journey in motion.
The goal in life according to Samkhya philosophy is to thrive towards a Sattvic mindset. That is cultivating a harmonious lifestyle that allows the mind to be in peace, think positive thoughts and heal from the old wounds. By eating a vegetarian diet, meditations, listening to beautiful music, yoga, pranayama, quiet time and removing aggravating factors out of life such as watching violent shows, judging others or eating the wrong diet, we can walk towards mental liberation. The intention is to shift your lifestyle to create space to allow for the feeling of freedom from all that weighs us down to go away so we can rise above it.
Spiritual alignment enables us to manifest our desires when we are in alignment with the spirit. By learning that we all have the spark of Source God within us, we can open up to the universal oneness. Everything is around us is energy. We have come to this reality to experience, grow and learn in order for our soul to evolve. We are not here to suffer but to create new realities, change what we don’t like about the current realities and to live in joy. To get out of the victim mentality is to embrace the power that was always within.