Now a days everyone has something to sell, some product, some technique, some affirmation or some visualization. There are so many self help-guru’s out there pitching one thing or another it’s hard to keep track of them all.

As a seeker myself I have bought into the self-help craze only to be left feeling frustrated and un-transformed. I have pretty much tried everything from reading all the books, courses, healing seminars, etc. you name I probably tried it. I used to consider myself a profession seeker. I was searching for relief from my suffering and looking for ways to change my life permanently with to no avail. I would try one thing for a short amount of time without yielding any results then I would move onto the next thing and the next. It would seem as if things would shift in me but like only for only for a short amount of time and then I would be back to my old patterns which would create more guilt and shame on top of the original conflict in which I was trying to heal.

I have tried many things and nothing seems to have long lasting effects in my life except for this.

Understanding my karma and how it was formulated.

Karma is such a loaded word these days with so many definitions and interpretations left up to the individual. Paramahamsa Nithyananda defines karma as this “Karma is the hangover of the past which becomes mental patterns—which repeats itself—which keeps us in self struggling patterns.” He has coined the term SDHD otherwise known as self-doubt, self-hatred, and self-denial, the root cause to all our sufferings in life.

 By understanding the proper definition of karma we can learn how to change it right in this very moment. Most of us unfortunately, without this knowledge are living our lives with unconscious ‘default patterns’. The true definition of insanity is keep doing things the same way and expecting different results. Unconscious default patterns are like when we want to eat healthy and go to the gym but we continue to keep on eating junk food and not working out.

Our intention is there to do the right thing but it’s as if we are being taken over by some powerful force and we keep diverting back to our old patterns and habits. We start self-sabotaging ourselves. This creates a load on our system and we start to loose confidence in ourselves.

We all have individual vasanas (unconscious thought patterns) or samskaras which define the quality of our life or lack of it. When we are unaware of our vasanas it’s like the past is hanging over us destroying our future, this is why no amount of positive thinking will work. These vasanas are so powerful that they sit in our inner space like a virus contaminating all positive possibility. The best way I like to describe them is like weeds in our garden. Once we get to the root cause of our suffering it’s like pulling the weeds out of our garden so it can blossom with beautiful flowers.

The past, our karma is constantly holding us back from reaching our peak potential and probobiltiy in life. For instance, let’s say we want to achieve wealth, health or good relationships—the reason we are not is because of the karmic thought patterns we are carrying about achieving these. We may not think we are worthy of having these things or it is too difficult. If we really look in with deep awareness we will often see there is a pay off for not reaching our maximum potential e.g., with obtaining wealth it requires a high responsibility and so does health. It means we need to change how we think and how we do things on a daily basis.

Most of us on some level have SDHD (self -doubt, self-hatred and self-denial) otherwise we would all be living our peak potential. This SDHD are those not so positive things we say about ourselves, I am not good enough, competent enough, brave enough, etc.) We all know that voice. That voice is the voice of our karmic patterns. Only when we change how we perceive the way we feel about ourself does our life change.

This is why most of us are constantly undergoing an identity crisis.

 We don’t know who we really are.

When we don’t know who we are—we are living under the default consequences of SDHD. These thought patterns are so powerful that they get programmed into our bio-energy and dictate our entire life thus creating a life that is un-fulfilling and filed with suffering and pain. When we have SDHD nothing will work for us. Only when we get to the root of the karmic pattern can implementing any positive lifestyle changes have a lasting effect on our systems.

Re-writing our future is possible and the good news it’s not that hard. All we need to do is change our thinking, our perspective. It’s a conscious decision that we want to change our lives the actions are secondary. This is the secret behind “The Secret” just decide that you want to change and re-write your future.

When we stop struggling we create the space for transformation and the life we want. It’s the power of intention which gives us the energy to make lasting changes.

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Editor: Bryonie Wise

Photo: Flickr