How do we break the negative cycles and patterns we find replaying in our lives?
The first step is identifying them. We all have them, it’s just a matter of whether we’re able to see them or not. In my experience, they are most easily identified through repeating emotional states. These signs can be subtle and almost imperceptible, but they are always there. It’s about tuning into our bodies enough to her what they are telling us - that twinge in the gut, that heaviness in the back of the throat. Have you ever gotten that strange, ominous, “I’ve been here before” feeling? That’s your body telling you something.
The next step is deciphering them. What do the patterns say about our lives? Are they interfering with our growth and our peace? What truths do they reveal? These aren’t questions that can be answered easily. The process of deciphering takes action (or, as always like to say, non-action). Meditation and contemplation are the key tools in the process of understanding what is needed to move forward and break the Wheel of Dharma.
The final step is sacrifice. Breaking old habits and patterns comes at a cost - this is an unavoidable fact. The comfort, ease and familiarity we experience from negative feedback loops are often extremely difficult to let go of. Sometimes, they feel impossible to break. As an addict in recovery, this makes sense to me - it’s no different than letting go of an addictive substance. The initial sobriety can be extremely painful, as the body has grown accustomed to years of ritual poisoning. But after awhile, the feelings of withdrawal subside and become relegated to past experience. It’s the natural progression of habit-breaking, and it’s no walk in the park.
Identify - Decipher - Sacrifice. This is the formula to let go of the cyclical traumas that haunt us. It’s not a quick process, and it’s not a comfortable process, but it’s a process that definitively works. Today I’ll leave you with a question:
What are the negative cycles and patterns in your life? Are you ready to break them?