Have you ever (when in a safe context and space) laughed through pain, or through a painful story when working through your own challenging experience or when helping someone else work though a painful story of their own?
I am not referring to those who laugh in situations that they find awkward out of discomfort either, but instead, I am referring to the genuine full-belly laugh that comes from a place of truly understanding the hilarity and absurdity of a situation, event, or experience? If you have, then you would have touched upon some very important truths about life, the nature of our minds, and the insanity of our collective experience.
Congratulations! You are one step closer to getting a grip on this whole insane situation.
“Often times we avoid challenges, discomfort, and certain experiences in life because we are afraid of the pain that they will bring. But if we look at our difficult conversations, experiences, and encounters as powerful opportunities for us to grow and express our greatest selves in any given moment, we can transform any seemly painful or catastrophic experiences into opportunities to truly shine our light, become expert alchemists, and to be our best and most powerful selves in the world.”
Week 4 Reflections
*Please be sure to note that the use of the term karma here, and in all of my work, is in the literal, and neutral, translation of the word as actions that have a cause and effect in the world. Please further note that I do not refer to karma in the context of it’s place in ideological beliefs in supernatural curses, past lives, or future existences (in the same way that I do not believe in the existence of literal Gods and Goddesses), since this phenomena has never been proven.
If past lives are ever referenced in the context of my work (which it rarely ever is), it is only to serve as a metaphor for the different stages and transformations that we experience throughout the one life that we have. All actions have an effect, this is clear, but once our life has ended, there is no evidence to prove that we come back in any other form. In fact, I feel that it is imperative that we honor this truth, and one life that we have within us, in order to value it to the fullest of our abilities so that we can make the most out of it and never rely on the illusion of a past or future existence to excuse any behaviors of the past, present, or future (either on a personal or historical scale).
There is only one life for each of us, and victims of crimes such as slavery, the holocaust, rape, abuse of any kind, and other atrocities never did anything in a past life to deserve their fate in their present one other than exist in a world in which they were the unfortunate recipients of other people’s bad actions (or karma) guided by ignorance or hatred. This is important to always emphasize because this word is often overly misused and is an area of yogic philosophy that I feel is often shrouded in mythology and false ideology.
