Day 5 ~ Rising Above Your Old Conditioning ~ Getting Unstuck : Creating a Limit

We have been discussing “stuckness” as a mental state, but there is always a mind body connection. You can have the best intentions, but if your brain is conditioned to react in some way, then you cant achieve that intention without awareness to change your brains automatic reaction. It’s the same as ordering dessert at a restaurant when you are already full. You do this because that is what you are accustomed to do. When you dine out you have dessert after a meal. However, a small voice inside of you may say “Why al I doing this?” Afterwards you may say to yourself that wasn’t really me. It is accurate that it wasn’t your true self, but it was your brain. An old unwanted response has set itself in your brain and a default response is running the show. This awareness will be the beginning to take back control.

All creativity starts and stops in the brain. Old conditions can control your brain, but self awareness is always an option. Our minds want to believe that change will happen to us, but everything that happens to you also happened for you. It is about shifting the way you feel your own essence and rising above conditioning.

“We first make our habits, and then our habits make us.”– John Dryden

Message of the Day

In today’s meditation, we learn that our old conditioning isn’t just mental, its also physical and shows itself as unconscious brain responses. If we let our conditioned brains be in charge, we remain stuck in old, predictable patterns. We become biological robots. To break free of this habitual behaviour we need to cultivate self-awareness. In meditation we recognise our true self to be ever-present awareness, and in this self-knowing, we become free from the conditioned responses of our minds and bodies.

Today’s Centering Thought

I am in charge of my brain, not the other way around.

Our Sanskrit Mantra

“Aleem Namah’ ~ I am Nature’s creativity and intelligence

Here is the link to our daily meditation:

Journal Questions

Old conditioning leads to automatic, robotic behaviour. List 3 things you do or 3 ways you respond without thinking, such as defending yourself if you feel attacked, eating even when you don’t feel hungry, or feeling shy around strangers
Think about the next time any of these conditioned responses will come up, and ask yourself in that scenario, “Why am I doing this?” Do I really want to?, Will it make me feel better?, Reflect in your journal on how different it makes you feel to become aware in this way rather than acting robotically.
Thinking about one undesirable habit or behaviour, write about how you are now going to approach it with more awareness. Eg the next time you reach for a snack, you can stop, check in with your body, and ask yourself if you are reaching for the snack out of physical hunger or perhaps another reason – like boredom, anxiousness, or stress. Remind yourself of how much better if feels to act with awareness rather than being ruled by your old conditioning.

NOTE: You’re in charge of your brain and not the other way around. We can train our consciousness to create and make choices from a place of freedom and all possibilities.