I have just finished the Pransky & Associates Professional training and feel filled up with beautiful feelings. I am struck by how profound and transformative the experience was. It is so freeing to see even more clearly that humans have no issues to resolve.
In a spiritual understanding of the human experience, the innate wisdom and intelligence behind life is always there to inform and guide us. We all have access to this source, and we have everything we need inside of ourselves to navigate our life circumstances. The qualities of our true self, including wisdom, humor, love, compassion, and empathy exist independent of our circumstances, and they are there for us in a responsive way to support us with navigating life and thriving. From this perspective, problems or issues don’t exist. They are simply symptoms of where we have a misunderstanding about how life works. The opportunity is to look in the direction of truth and wake up more fully to our spiritual nature so we can see the illusory nature of the problem that is made of thought.
As George Pransky said in the training, “When we create an insoluble problem in our mind, there is nothing for the intelligence behind life to do. It just waits twiddling it’s thumbs.” There is less room in our consciousness for fresh thought when we are wedded to a dilemma of our creation. However, when we wake up to the fact that we have constructed the problem, we set ourselves free. This opens us up to the wisdom that is greater than our personal thinking and allows it to guide us to clarity.
When it does not feel that way. When we feel stuck or feel we have a real problem, this indicates that we have used our free will and the innate gift of thought to innocently construct a problem in our mind. It might look real and feel real, but the problem is always a creation and not the actual situation or circumstances we find ourselves in.
I see this over and over again in my own life. When my mind is free, I get ideas that support me with navigating my particular circumstances or help me to bring my ideas to life. When I lose perspective, my mind closes, and I see problems rather than possibilities. If I try to solve these problems, it is very frustrating because it is impossible to solve problems because they don’t really exist.
Someone could say to me, “Rohini, this is easy for you to say. You don’t have any real problems in your life.” I have two responses to this. One is, even though this may be true, if I am in a low mood, I am quite capable for seeing plenty of problems that look and feel real in my life or about myself. I can see my low mood as a problem. Other peoples low moods as problems. Dips in cash flow in my business as a problem, or lack of energy as a problem. None of these are real problems, but that doesn’t stop them from feeling real until I wake up to the fact I am creating a problem out of my experience through judging “what is” as wrong, bad, or not good enough.
My second response is that I know and work with people who are navigating very challenging life circumstances. Their life situation whether it is illness, lack of money, a difficult relationship, physical pain, or something other difficulty, is still not the problem. I have seen people navigate incredibly challenging circumstances and not see them as a problem even in extreme situations such as rape, murder and loss of a child. And I have also seen people who feel they have huge problems when the circumstances look on the surface as far less serious.
The problems we experience in our lives are the result of what we tell ourselves about our circumstances, and what we tell ourselves is based on what we see. If we see a situation as hopeless and impossible, we will lose hope and not feel connected with the wisdom of our true nature. Our judgment creates the feeling of separation from our true nature, our innate wellbeing and peace of mind. The experience of separation is not due to the difficulty of the circumstance, it is the result of the judgment. And this is not our fault. We all do the best we can with the understanding that we have. No one is out there, myself included, intentionally manufacturing problems for themselves. However, it is helpful to understand that the way to navigate what feels problematic in our lives is to not look in the direction of the problem/illusion, and instead to look in the direction of truth and spiritual understanding. This helps us to wake up from the illusion we are creating, so we can find ourselves on solid ground.
One of the most dramatic examples of this that I experienced occurred when the US Border Patrol detained me overnight in their detention facility because of a visa error. I was told I was being detained and deported. The customs official was extremely stern and made it sound like I was never going to be allowed back into the country again even though they had let my husband Angus through and that is where I was living and working. I was extremely upset and felt the situation was unjust since I had a valid visa. I was also frightened because they would not let me call Angus to let him know what was going on. I experienced a dark night of sobbing. However, at some point in my desperation, I let go and my ego surrendered. I stopped focusing on what I saw as the problem and instead asked God for support. In this act, I was filled with serenity. Nothing had changed on the outside. I was still being deported with no certainty if I could return, but inwardly I felt calm and a knowing that all is well. I went from extreme emotional distress and not being able to sleep, to peacefully falling into a deep, restful sleep with nothing on my mind for the rest of the night.
Things did work out for me according to my preferences in this situation. I was not deported and US Customs acknowledged they made a mistake and let me into the U.S. However, my peace of mind happened long before I knew these results.
It happened when I stopped drilling into the details of my problem and upsetting myself. When I looked in the direction of my true nature, I recognized I could handle whatever occurred. I experienced the safety and security within that was beyond the uncertainty of my circumstances. As my mind opened to a broader understanding, the situation went from being an insoluble problem that felt like the end of the world, to something I would be able to figure out. My perspective changed and my judgments automatically released. I was able to do what made sense and experienced a profound sense of wellbeing in the process.
There is nothing the intelligence behind life can’t navigate, and when in our humanness we see our circumstances or our state of mind as an insoluble dilemma, it is helpful to know that our freedom comes from looking in the direction of what is true rather than paying attention to the story we have innocently created. We are infinite potential. That is our true nature, and we are never separate from it even when it feels like we are. We have everything we need to navigate life.
Peace of mind, creativity, compassion, joy, the qualities of the Authentic Self are available independent of what is going on in your life because that is simply who you are. You cannot lose yourself. You can only get caught up in your stories of limitation from time to time. However, even your stories are no match for the Authentic Self, especially when you are willing to look in that direction.
Rohini Ross is passionate about helping people wake up to their true nature. She is a psychotherapist, a transformative coach, and author of Marriage (The Soul-Centered Series Book 1). She has an international coaching practice helping individuals, couples, and professionals embrace all of who they are so they can experience greater levels of wellbeing, resiliency, and success. You can follow Rohini on Facebook, Twitter, and Instagram, watch her Vlogs with her husband, Angus Ross, and subscribe to her weekly blog on her website, www.rohiniross.com.