by Ada Porat | May 14, 2024 | Conscious living, Empowering changes, Joy, Life transitions, Spirituality
Photo Credit: Maria Cappelli, Unsplash
At any time, you are free to leave this experience called suffering. You already have a Get Out Of Jail pass.
The key that unlocks the door to freedom is found by learning how to surrender to Source. And true surrender means you let go: you release all your limiting beliefs, judgments and ideas about who you think you are. And then, you release your attachment to those limitations so you can move beyond them.
Surrender is often misinterpreted as weakness, capitulation or quitting – but it comes from inner strength, knowing you are more than the limitations you face. You can move through any stuck, painful or limiting feeling by dropping into a state of pure surrender.
At any given moment in time, you are either choosing the path of ego or the path of surrender. When you choose surrender, you open the doorway to a deep connective experience within your being. You are finding alignment to Source. This is the way of flow, a profound state of being that is always available, yet requires the release of resistance and attachment.
When you surrender, you’re set free to enter a profound state of inner peace where you can fully experience the essence of Divinity at your core. You’re able to align with and act from this Source of wisdom within.
Yes! Surrender allows you to relax about everything. It allows you to remember that everything you seek, is somehow already, always deep within you. Truth is within, peace is within, and so are the solutions you seek.
Maintaining this state of true alignment takes vigilance. Whenever you notice the mind latching on to some thought, just let it go. Thinking is simply what the mind does, and it has no power over your inner peace unless you allow yourself to engage with it. Instead, visualize your consciousness as the expansive sky, and let the temporary clouds of thought and worry simply move through your field, dissipating as they go. You are not your thoughts; you are that which is aware of them. As you learn to make this important distinction, it becomes easier to flow with the Source of all possibilities instead of getting stuck in ego thoughts.
Surrendering attachment to the relentless mental chatter offers incredible inner freedom. Imagine not having to worry endlessly about what might happen, what could unfold, or how things could go wrong. Think how free you would be if you did not feel the need to control everything in your life! Imagine even letting go of the endless craving thoughts of “If only…” or “If I could just…” These mindless thought loops serve no purpose other than serving the ego.
Instead of feeding the ego’s need for self-importance, you can choose to simply surrender everything to Source. Let the Creator energy handle the details for you. Accept that this very moment of life, no matter how good or how bad, is exactly as it is meant to be.
When you drop your attachments, resistance and beliefs about how things “should” be, and simply accept what is, you find inner peace. Instead of spending your energy in futile mental chatter to fight what shows up in your life, you can ask more helpful questions: “How could this be helpful to my journey as a soul,” or “What do I need to learn from this?”
That will turbocharge your journey of personal growth! And it is a simple process everyone can master.
Have you been conditioned to think it takes years of struggle, emotional pain and personal suffering to break free? That, too, is a limiting belief. It will be as difficult and take as long as you believe it to! What if your life is meant to be much easier and simpler than you’ve made it out to be? You can change any negative or limiting attitude around completely in a few minutes by deeply surrendering.
As the Sedona Method teaches: Embrace that which you resist, and surrender that to which you cling. It really is that simple, and yet it requires a heart-based desire for freedom, not simply wishful thinking. Surrender to Source that to which you cling: all limitation, victim consciousness, resentment, judgment, ego justification, and doubt; then simply ask for Higher truth to be revealed so you can align with that.
When your heart’s desire is to be aligned with Source, you will be guided from within by the highest intelligence, love and power. The more you become aware of and align to this benevolent Source, the more it will reveal to you the divine Presence inherent in all of life and guide you to greater inner freedom. What joy! What peace! Regardless of outer circumstances!
Every time you surrender to Source a little more, you create space for more Presence in your life. That Presence is joyful, peaceful, abundant and harmonious. You can breathe it in and relax. As twelve-step groups put it: “Let go and let God.” You can relax into the assurance that whatever it is you are seeking, is already, always within you. The Presence of Source is always here, and letting go of old conditioning allows you to experience that loving Presence more fully.
Fighting and warring are limiting concepts of duality consciousness. You never have to fight your way through life. The opportunity is always here for you to surrender to Source and flow with unfolding potentialities around you. You can give up the inner battle of resistance and surrender your problems or hardened positions to Source. Remember, these situations are really opportunities in disguise, inviting you to let your ego dissolve into the Presence of Source.
There’s no rule that says you must continue suffering, holding onto the same old issues another day. Right now, there’s a new awareness arising inside you. It is the awareness of a higher Presence, and it becomes even more powerful when you surrender to its loving embrace!
You can explore a different kind of life beyond the endless conditions of “have to,” “need to,” and “should” that you’ve been drowning in. Truth is, you are an infinite ocean of consciousness, an immortal soul who knows no boundary or limitation. Surrender to that higher understanding so you can enjoy the journey home to Oneness.
How will you know when you’re truly free from the tyranny of your ego-controlled mind? Everything you take on will feel as light as a feather. Every challenging situation or person will offer you an exciting opportunity to become a more loving, compassionate and enlightened being. You will no longer nurse your grudges or seek ego justification from outside sources. Each time you are challenged, you’ll further open the doorway of your heart to love, inner peace, abundance and freedom.
The moment you surrender to the benevolent Source of all life, you’ll experience a lighter state of consciousness. The invitation is open right now, in this and each present moment. You can be liberated from the painful dramas of the mind to experience joy and healing. You can choose freedom!
Your life is a sacred gift, offering you the opportunity to awaken, grow and transform into an ever-truer reflection of Source. The potential already exists within you: choose freedom through surrender and you will find the answers to all life’s gnarly problems. The power is within you, so you can choose inner freedom now!
©Copyright Ada Porat. This article may be freely distributed in whole or in part, provided there is no charge for it and this notice is attached. For more information, visit https://AdaPorat.com
by Ada Porat | Feb 19, 2024 | Cope with change, Decision-making, Empowering changes, Joy, Self-awareness, Spirituality
Photo Credit: Karsten Winegeart, Unsplash
Personal freedom is essential for optimal living. And yet, as we look around us in the world these days, freedom is a lonely goddess.
The more we speak of the need and desire for freedom, the more it seems to dissipate all round. Freedom of speech, freedom of choice, freedom over our health and bodies… more and more, these freedoms are curtailed by a small minority “for your own good.”
Really?
When did we mysteriously lose the ability to research, learn, discern and choose according to the innate Wisdom that guides each one of us? How could the agenda of a few possibly serve the needs of a multitude of individual human beings?
I believe it’s time to take back our Divinely given right to choose.
It’s time to restore our freedom. By reclaiming our freedom as individuals, we can help restore sanity to our world. We shall find freedom in our world to the extent that we restore freedom inside ourselves and in our lives.
Where in your life do you need freedom? Is it freedom from debt that you crave? Or freedom from a job that keeps you just above being broke? Or freedom from dysfunctional relationships that poison your emotional well-being?
Freedom is a beautiful thing, and it is available to each one of us. However, the path to freedom runs counter to our survival impulses. We do not find freedom by capitulating or by escaping reality – we find it by facing the ways in which each of us has given our precious personal power away.
To the extent that you’re willing to face the external promise of external power, security, and support enough to abandon your personal power, choice and autonomy, you’ll reclaim your Divinely endowed freedom as a soul. The more you’re willing to intentionally face the ways in which you settled for empty promises of externally granted freedom, the more you’re able to reclaim your personal power, choice and freedom.
True freedom starts with each one of us as individuals. What is weighing down your consciousness and disempowering you? Go there and do what you need to clean it out. Start taking back your freedom!
You are the one who gave away your power to choose, and so you are the one who can set yourself free.
Imagine what your life could look like if you took your power back! Who would you become? What would you create as your living legacy? How would you feel about the future if you could intentionally create space for something new to show up?
The journey to personal freedom is a heroic one that each one of us needs to undertake if we choose to live meaningfully.
It is a magical journey that offers a sense of wonder and sheer joy, of falling in love with life. Magic happens when we let our guard down and start to live from the inside out, instead of trying to appease external dictates.
The path of freedom invites us to open to new experiences, living with a vulnerability that is free from fear. No matter what else is happening in our lives, we have an open invitation to fall in love with life.
Where many are discouraged by the divisiveness and polarized perspectives in the world around us, I see opportunities for humanity to rise to the challenges of this time.
It is time to adapt to uncertainty and subjective realities by improving our ability to listen deeply to our inner guidance as well as the voices of others. Freedom requires us to respect the subjective experiences and viewpoints of others instead of trying to make them wrong. Above all, we need to fully accept the sovereignty of ourselves and others to choose our individual paths.
I believe that humanity can release the childish egoic desire to win at all costs, and that we can adapt to living in harmony with the uncertainty and entanglement that undergirds the quantum paradigm.
We have great opportunities to reclaim our freedom and empowerment as individuals, and to help restore the collective. We’re invited to honor just how connected we are with one another and with all life. We are free to relax into the diversity of an abundant universe, and to experience a state of continuous flow and quantum coherence.
When we no longer give away our freedoms for a false sense of certainty, we’ll enjoy an ever-deepening trust in the perfect unfoldment of Nature, the Cosmos, and unconditional Divine love.
Freedom of choice allows us to tap into the abundance of a Universe that far exceeds anything we’ve known so far. It all starts by taking back our freedom as individuals, and letting the energy ripple out from there to transform our world!
©Copyright Ada Porat. This article may be freely distributed in whole or in part, provided there is no charge for it and this notice is attached. For more information, visit https://AdaPorat.com
by Ada Porat | Feb 24, 2021 | Conscious living, Cope with change, Happiness, Joy, Life skills, Peace, Personal growth, Spirituality
The Four Noble Truths represent the Buddha’s fundamental teaching that liberates humans from suffering. These four truths can be summarized as follows:
- Life Inherently Contains Suffering And Struggle
Life involves struggle, frustration and suffering in both obvious and subtle forms. Even when things appear peaceful externally, we do not experience permanent satisfaction in anything but may feel an undercurrent of internal anxiety and uncertainty. This is the inherent problem of existence.
- Craving Is The Cause Of Suffering
The cause of suffering is craving that stems from ignorance. We suffer because we tend to blame our difficulties on things outside ourselves. We resist the truth that life is impermanent and change is constant – instead, we grow frustrated when the world doesn’t behave the way we think it should and life doesn’t conform to our expectations. We try to push away some things while grasping for others. This process of attachment and resistance stems from our desire for life to be different than it is and causes suffering.
- Suffering Stops When Craving Ends
Since we are ultimately the ones that cause our own suffering by perpetuating the cycle of craving and resistance, we also have the power to end our suffering. Even when life is unpredictable and impermanent, we can change the way we respond to it. By awakening to the true nature of our timeless souls, we can end the chase after external satisfaction and permanence, and so end the suffering. In the awakened mind, it is not the suffering that ceases, but the craving.
- There’s A Path Out Of Suffering
By embracing the path of right living, we can awaken to our Higher nature. This path involves ethical living, developing wisdom and discernment, and adhering to a personal practice that supports our emerging consciousness. This personal journey of awakening frees us from suffering and ultimately leads to enlightenment.
Most of us struggle with the practical application of these Four Noble Truths. Our human tendency is to avoid all pain and suffering, which only perpetuates our struggle.
Instead, I suggest that we look at the Four Noble Truths as recommendations for right living; guidelines to help us navigate life’s challenges more effectively. By presenting the Four Noble Truths as practical guidelines for living, they become powerful tools to guide our responses to life.
I propose using the acronym AREA to remember the structure of the Four Noble Truths in practical ways: Accept Life As Is, Release Reactivity, End Grasping, and Act Appropriately.
When we respond to these Four Noble Truths in appropriate ways, they will indeed expand our inner area of spaciousness and peace, and ultimately expand the area or scope of our True nature.
- Accept Life As Is
When we allow conscious awareness to infuse everything we do, we become more tolerant. We no longer interpret everything that does not go our way as a personalized attack on our ego selves; instead, we recognize it for simply being a part of life. When we experience a setback, we can see it as an opportunity for learning and growth; not as something unfair to be judged or avoided.
The Course in Miracles teaches that it is the meaning or interpretation we give to things, that makes them appear as good or bad; in truth, it simply is a part of life. Embracing the very impermanence of life can foster in us a deeper appreciation for the fleeting and precious nature of each moment.
- Release Reactivity
Human neurobiology makes it virtually impossible for us to constantly maintain a state of inner equilibrium without spiritual awareness. Our senses are continuously providing feedback through physical symptoms, emotions, thoughts and feelings. Equilibrium requires us to be with reactivity in a different way: learning how to respond instead of to react. We stop the cycle of reactivity by understanding that sensory feedback loops are valuable messages to respond to; not interference to react to, judge, resist or avoid.
When we experience physical symptoms or pain, our innate reactivity may prompt us to either resist the symptoms with medication or to grasp for some miracle cure outside of ourselves. Instead, perhaps it would be more meaningful to first dialogue with the symptoms for a deepened understanding of what they’re trying to tell us; and once we understand the deeper message, we’ll be able to respond appropriately so the messenger can be released. This process of responding instead of reacting allows us to create more inner space for growth in consciousness.
- End Grasping
It is essential to learn how to respond to life’s difficulties with an open mind, free from the conditioned behaviors of judgment, fear or craving. This inner attitude of non-attachment frees us from the endless cycles of attachment and aversion to offer us genuine freedom and inner peace instead. The Sedona Method puts it this way: “Embrace that which you resist, and surrender that to which you cling.”
Relinquishing our positionalities rewards us with freedom from craving. Positionalities are in truth nothing other than learned behaviors and limiting beliefs, so relinquishing them truly opens up space for us to thrive.
- Act Appropriately
In shamanic traditions, appropriate action is referred to as “right living.” Appropriate action requires conscious awareness of our inner motives, beliefs and reactions. It nurtures the development of the observer/witness, or our Soul self. It is in aligning with this Higher aspect of being, that we are transformed to live from our full potential.
The more we fine-tune our responses to life appropriately reflect our Higher nature, the more inner freedom, peace and joy we experience. This is the core of all personal growth. Creating a path of appropriate action nourishes us at all levels and honors our true purpose in life – the embodiment of our Higher nature.
Using AREA can serve as a practical reminder to keep us aligned with the Four Noble Truths. The result is more inner peace, harmony and joy.
About the author
©Copyright Ada Porat. For more information, visit https://adaporat.com. This article may be freely distributed in whole or in part, provided there is no charge for it and this notice is attached.
by Ada Porat | Dec 30, 2019 | Conscious living, Gratitude, Happiness, Joy, Mindfulness, Personal growth, Spirituality
At times, it can feel as if the demands of physical life keep us so busy struggling to survive that there is no time for the mystic pursuits of spirituality. And yet, there is a way to live as a mystic in the mainstream of life, dancing gracefully between these seemingly opposite worlds.
We are not just physical bodies rushing through life; we are timeless spiritual beings experiencing life in the physical realm. And to thrive, we need to learn how to operate in both worlds: the world of the unseen Presence and the world of manifest physicality. We need to learn how to coexist in the realm of the timeless Now as well as the realm of linear time. Together, these realms offer us boundless gifts and opportunities for personal growth.
Shamans refer to this interface between realms as walking between the worlds: learning to live in both the realms of the timeless invisible and the manifest world. Walking between the world implies action, for it is not an abstract intellectual process. We come to understand life by experimenting and experiencing, not just by passive intellectual pursuit.
How do we become better at this process of living as mystics in the mainstream of life? Here are three guidelines to consider:
- Review and integrate the learning from your experiences so far.
Making peace with the past is important because it can empower and orient us in the present. A periodic review of our path offers the chance to release what is no longer appropriate in order to make space for the values and actions that can empower our future.
This process requires us to be ruthlessly honest and vigilant with ourselves. Where have we excelled? Where can we improve?
One of the subtle pitfalls on the spiritual journey that requires vigilance to purge from our lives is entitlement. You know, that sense of false righteousness that demands that Spirit bestows on us the things we desire, because we think we deserve them. We don’t even need to be followers of the prosperity gospel to fall for this trap, because it appeals to the ego in all of us.
Entitlement is an egoic illusion! Life gives us what we need, not necessarily what we want.
Spirit knows exactly what we need for our learning and growth. Entitlement, on the other hand, operates from the false premise that we know better than Spirit what we need and that we cannot trust in the loving care of a benevolent Creator. It is driven by fear and arrogance instead of trust and faith.
Because entitlement is driven by ego, it insatiable and cannot lead to long-term happiness. The key to happiness is not entitlement, but gratitude.
We are not our neighbors; therefore, the things they need for their growth are not the same as what we need. To fully trust, we need to let go of what we want, and to instead learn to embrace what we are given with gratitude.
2. Clarify and prioritize what is most important to your life right now.
Your unique life, in this very moment, is all you have. What is it you desire to accomplish with this precious gift? What is the legacy you wish to leave behind after you have passed from here?
So often, I hear people saying that they want to have more joy and happiness in their lives. They think that once they have more joy, they will be more grateful.
In reality, it works the other way around. The root of joy is gratitude: It is not joy that makes us grateful; it is gratitude that makes us joyful!
We have thousands of opportunities every day to be grateful: enjoying good weather, having a good night’s rest, being able to walk and talk and express ourselves, having a functional body, having enough food to eat… night and day, life rains down gifts on us without us even asking. Had we been more fully aware of this, we’d be overwhelmed by gratitude!
Instead, we often shuffle through life in a daze until we are jerked back to reality by the loss of things we’d taken for granted. A power failure can make us aware of what a gift electricity is; a sprained ankle lets us appreciate the freedom of walking; an illness renews our appreciation for health; a sleepless night brings appreciation for the gift of sleep.
Instead of noticing the gifts of life only when suddenly deprived of them, we can bring awareness to these things and cultivate an attitude of gratitude instead.
3. Identify what is yearning to emerge in your life and take appropriate action.
When we fully live from the present moment, where we are aware of our place in both the seen and unseen realms, miracles can start to happen.
The soul’s yearning for more can be heard whenever we turn inward to listen.
We can let this yearning find expression in our lives by looking for what is meaningful, what we need to actualize our potential.
We can support the unfoldment of our potential by leaning into life and becoming an active participant in the process.
Along the way, we can cultivate an attitude of gratitude to keep our hearts open and to avoid the pernicious trap of entitlement.
We can remember that we are on this journey to experiment, experience and become – not to win or lose!
And we can muster the courage to follow our passion, knowing that through the failures, setbacks and challenges of the journey, we are evolving into our full potential.
About the Author
©Copyright Ada Porat. For more information, visit https://adaporat.com. This article may be freely distributed in whole or in part, provided there is no charge for it and this notice is attached.
