What went wrong in our upbringing? As an infant or young child we already knew, instinctively & intuitively, how to connect to our higher Self. We didn’t really have to think about it, or plan it. We didn’t have to understand or learn this; we just took it for granted. It required no real effort and no prior instruction was required. We just did it!
As a child we felt this inner-connection while absorbed in simple play: While we explored new things that were fun & brought joy. We readily entered and embraced this new realm. We were often ‘fully Present’ or ‘In the Moment’. We were absorbed in ‘The Now’ of the moment at those times. Time itself meant very little to us!
In our formal education and schooling, we were then taught ‘all that’ was just child's play. It was ‘frowned on’ and said to be ‘a waste of time’. So, we learnt to hide our so called ‘daydreaming’. This was actually inner contemplation and spontaneous meditation. We were actively discouraged or even punished for doing that!
Slowly we began to regard it as childish behaviour.
So, we forgot how to make this inner-connection. Instead, we were taught to value our thought-based mind and our logic. We were encouraged to compete with others using those same learnt skills. All this has led to more separateness & disconnection from our inner self and also from others around us.
Comparing our-self to others, became a major part of our lives. We engaged in competition & rivalry both on and off the sports field. This generated more negative emotions such as anger, jealousy & hatred.
What are the consequences of our childhood conditioning?
We were set up by our upbringing to practice a lifetime of dominating & self-serving behaviour. This encouraged primitive, tribal or group loyalties. All this was supported by a culture of materialism and perceived lack or scarcity.
What now is the result of all this? It’s an inner sense of dissatisfaction or deep discontent. We can’t quite identify or label or this. However we feel something essential is missing in our lives! This is primarily because we have ignored and bypassed the greater part of our true nature - our inner Self. Life just doesn’t feel right or complete. Somehow we feel unhappy, empty or unfulfilled. Something is missing, but we can't quite identify what that is.
If we just want to carry on as before, then we need to suppress this ongoing frustration and distress.
We might try various compensatory aids and pleasurable behaviours even to the point of compulsion or addiction. These only provide us with temporary relief and open us up to the risk of physical dependence or addiction.
Our wake-up call! Our inner distress or ‘dis-ease’ promotes subtle functional disorders and finally leads to overt clinical disease. Often we undergo some form of crisis in our lives! This is a further wake-up call which we can still misunderstand. We have usually become so set in our ways and our though based paradigm. We feel there must be an external aid or some ready solution? Rarely do we recognize and address the true nature of the problem - the suppression and denial of our true nature.
This situation becomes our wake up call. It’s our ‘SOS emergency call’ for help. The answer can only be found by searching and exploring deep within. This discussion continues in the SOS eBook blog.