“How deserving do I feel?”
Do I know what my personal values and attitudes are?
Do I feel deserving of a good life?
I know intellectually that I deserve the best but, do I believe this when I'm living my life? Do I sometimes have negative thoughts? Do I react to the thought triggers from the past that want to play themselves out? (In Sanskrit we call this process Samskara.) It’s tricky but what we have to do is change the thought patterns that are not good for us.
When I don’t feel that “I” deserve the best, it’s most likely the chatterbox in the head, the Egoic mind that is giving the wrong information. If the chatter in mind is thinking negatively then we need to change them. We can become so familiar with these thoughts that we start to believe them and act on them.
The good news is that the negative thoughts can all be reversed. With our daily meditation practise the ego mind becomes less of a chatterbox because the nervous system begins to normalize itself and we throw off the negative thoughts through stress release. Our deserving power becomes stronger and we begin to trust and love ourselves for who we really are deep inside.
The following piece was written by Jeff Kober in his thought for the day on "Inner Voices May 28th".
Deepak Chopra gives a great explanation about Samskara’s.
When they tried to understand how the mind traps itself, the ancient Indian sages devised the key concept of samskara (from two Sanskrit word roots that mean "to flow together"). A samskara is a groove in the mind that makes thoughts flow in the same direction. Buddhist psychology makes sophisticated use of the concept by speaking of samskaras as imprints in the mind that have a life of their own. Your personal samskaras, built up from memories of the past, force you to react in the same limited way over and over, robbing you of free choice (i.e., choosing as if for the first time). - from The Book of Secrets.
Jeff Kober writes -
Negative thoughts, negative behaviours, negative self-talk--all are the product of the stresses that we have stored throughout the course of our lifetime. The samskaras. They are grooves of feelings, thinking and choices, ruts that can be difficult to climb out of. Meditation daily melts away these stresses and the ruts become progressively less deep until finally, they are no longer there at all. But even then, the old habits of thought can still be there. We must, in fact, teach ourselves new habits. Embrace new thoughts. Thoughts of why it's okay to let go of the old, let go of blame of self and others, and why it's okay to love--ourselves and others.
Words from our beloved Guru Deva, Swami Brahmananda Saraswati
You deserve the best.
Never feel unworthy or
not justified in having the best.
I tell you, this is your heritage;
but, you have to accept it.
You have to expect it;
you have to claim it.
To do so is not demanding too much.
Swami Brahmananda Saraswati is the teacher we honour as the representative of the Holy Tradition, that lineage of men and women who have carried the wisdom of the Vedas down through the ages, and to us. It is from this holy man, whom we know as Guru Deva, that we have this meditation we practice.
Lastly a quote from Louise Hay- “Learn to love yourself and trust the Divine intelligence within you. The Universe will bring you what you need if you simply allow it.”
