APATHOE

UNIVERSAL LAW: It really is what it is!

Universal Laws are unchanging, constant principles and without them we could not exist. We are governed by the Universal Laws. All of us; people, animals, plants, and even atoms are bound by Universal Law, as well. Every single living thing known to humankind, is so governed. The principles of Universal Law allow life to function, by working in unison like the gears in a clock, creating the perfect environment.

Being a part of the unique system of the universe means:

• We follow the Universal Laws whether we mean to or not. All things follow the Universal Laws. Period. No exceptions. It is not a choice; it is an absolute.
• We are bound by the Universal Laws means we can use these laws to our advantage. As we are bound to the natural laws of the universe, there is nothing negative or positive about our existence. We just are.
• Our awareness of Universal Law does not affect the existence of the laws. However, our awareness can change our quality of life.

As we go through our day tending to ordinary tasks, we have many thoughts; all of which control what we say, as well as our actions, reactions, overall behavior and all of our choices. Our thoughts dictate our conscious choices throughout every day.
As you begin to understand that there is no such thing as the world being against you; you’ll realize the enemy is not the universe itself, but rather it is your own world and life views, combined with how you treat of others and yourself that determine the result of your thoughts.
While Universal Laws are constant and ever-functioning, your awareness of their existence will enrich your life. Increasing your personal knowledge of the natural laws of the universe will enhance your life journey and help you raise you own level of consciousness as well as increase your contribution to the spiritual transformation of humankind.
We live in a world that teaches us to seek and do. We are taught from childhood on that we can be whoever we want to be and do whatever we set our minds to. Our parents, teachers, relatives and friends impress upon us that whatever we decide upon is, exactly that will happen.
Universal Laws seem mystical, or unknowable. It takes effort to think about what you want in life. You must decide who you are and who do you want to be. Deciding and becoming who you want to become is completely attainable due to the Universal Laws that govern us all. There’s no ‘secret’ to uncover, but perhaps because it is not well known, the idea of Universal Laws is foreign and sometimes hard to grasp. The difficulties of the Universal Laws lie in the fact that the universe is not chaotic. Hard times and bad experiences often feel random and as though the world is abusing us simply because we exist. However, according to Universal Law, those negative things happen for a reason and it stems from our own state of being.
The fact is that we are not outsiders in the universe, trudging along to find a place we can be comfortable with. Rather, we are part of a harmonizing pattern of natural laws that guide us through life. People who do not see or understand Universal Law can only view the tangible world as it is and not as it can be.
Universal Laws reach out beyond what is physical and also govern the spiritual. Conscious thought is the real means to your goals. Those who do not understand Universal Law, lose out. They will work hard their whole lives because of their lack of knowledge about the natural laws of the universe. The after effect of their hard work will seem random, but it is their effort without conscious thought to achievement in life, that makes everything so difficult.
Your choice to learn about and gain understanding of Universal Law is your conscious decision to attain who you want to be and what you want. Knowing that there is harmony in the world and that the universe is not governed by chaos, you can decide your own state of being at any time. This simple action of thought opens up your possibilities as a human in the grand plan of human existence.
Choosing your state of being is as simple as deciding to believe in Universal Law and exercise conscious thought toward your positive intentions.
The beauty of Universal Law is that it is simplistic. The truth is that we are exactly who we chose to be, and our lives will be what they are because we “think” it so.

UNIVERSAL LAW: Cause and Effect

The Universal Law of Cause and Effect is the reason the universe gives us back a good dose of whatever we dish out. Simply put, whatever we do will come back to us. Many spiritual and religious traditions teach and apply this wisdom and reflect this belief. The most well-known are the Christian versions; “You reap what you sow” and "You will get back what you give, tenfold [good or bad]". The Hindu word for this is “Karma”. Having this belief or a similar version is a common thread weaving together most faiths.
It seems to me to be a pretty old truth that explains an awful lot, when you stop and consider it for a moment. Essentially, the belief is that if your actions are positive you will put forth powerful positive energies and those energies will return to you in the form of rewards. On the other hand, if you are negative, the returning energies to you will come in the form of consequences. Pretty simple, actually. “What goes around, comes around”. True thing!

UNIVERSAL LAW: Reincarnation and Karma

Until you have resolved your Karma and fulfilled your Dharma you will continue to reincarnate into sequential lifetimes that you will live out on earth.
Example: If you physically hit a person (or people) in a past life or in your current life, Karma will cause a person to come forth in your life that will hit you so that you will understand the suffering you have inflicted on others you have physically abused, by experiencing it yourself.
This experience is intended for you to gain knowledge so that you will put forth positive energy coming from a position of peace and love in the future (soul evolution) and to restore balance and Harmony to the universe by giving you back the negative energy you put forth.
All acts of intention create Karma. Actions are thoughts, emotions, words and deeds. Your motive or desire is the intention that causes you to take a particular action. In order for any soul to grow (or progress) all disharmonious acts must be balanced at some time in the future. You may balance your acts that are not Harmonious in this lifetime or in a future lifetime. However, all of your acts must be restored to Harmony in the future. You are at choice as to when that happens.

UNIVERSAL LAW: Reflection

The Universal Law of Reflection assures you that the positive and negative characteristics you respond to in others, you actually possess yourself or believe you possess.

• Your attraction to characteristics (traits) in others, you also possess.
• Your dislike of characteristics you recognize in others you, too, possess.
• You easily recognize other’s faults because you have the same faults or fear that you do or will at some time in the future.

UNIVERSAL LAW: Attraction

We attract what we are and all that we ponder.
When you are negative, you draw negativity to you like a magnet. When you send out negative energy you experience negativity.
When you come from a position of love, you draw love to you like a magnet. When you send out positive energy you experience positive energy in return.
You are capable of attracting to you only those qualities you possess. So, if you want peace and harmony in your life, you must become peaceful and harmonious.
Controlling your emotions is a big part of the Law of Attraction. Knowing how you can prevent the negativity of the world from taking over your experiences puts you in the position of power rather than making you the victim. Whatever you desire is in your reach as long as you do not limit yourself with your own consciousness.
Whether you desire an object, relationship, or career, you must think about it. This might sound ridiculous to mention, but your thought's intentions are just as important as the actual conscious thought of an object. You can think of something; a new red sports car, for instance, or you can think of your desires (the new red sports car) with the intention of attaining it. The latter is the start to attaining it. When you start thinking about why you want something and your honest intention of having it, you have begun. If your purpose for wanting something is focused on the highest use of the item and therefore in the realm of goodness (dharma) then your thoughts are not just intentional, but pure, as well.
Now that you have thought of the intention of having whatever you desire and wanting it for a higher purpose, you must imagine it as a realistic truth. Imagine yourself with the item, person, or career you want as a real possibility rather than a pipedream, or a wish. For instance: Imagine yourself driving the new red sports car. Imagine how it feels and smells and how smooth the ride is and how comfortable the seats are. Imagine yourself taking it in for servicing, having it washed and waxed, and making the payment. Now add the higher purpose to your thoughts. Imagine using it to pick up your grandma in it and take her to the dentist. Imagine driving to the art school and take those sculpture classes you’ve been thinking about. Imagine driving it to the nursing home to visit the elderly that have no visitors and to the homeless shelter to help serve lunch to the homeless. Think about all the good you could do with the car.
When you imagine yourself with the item, person, or career, you should act as though you have already attained it. Leave a spot for that desire in your life. Talk and think that you already possess your desire. Attainability is a state of being and the beginning of the seed that will grow and eventually attract your desire. Be in the state of mind that allows attainability. Don’t just think of it; own it! Get up and close your garage door because your new red sports car is in it so you shouldn’t leave it open anymore, make room in your budget for the payment by foregoing that Saturday spending spree each week, call your Dad and tell him about the car and ask his opinion about insurance carriers then go buy a new red sweater that matches your new car. Think about the car as though you already own it and act accordingly.
Detach yourself from the process. This might seem like a reversal, but when you are already in the state of being in which you have your desire (Owning it), detaching yourself from the process means letting the universe give you what you want. This means letting the universe do the work for you. Do not dwell on HOW you will get the new red sports car. Prepare your life and your mindset and the people in your life for your new car. Act as though you own it. Do not PONDER the HOW. Let the Universe send it to you because you create ownership of it and it therefore belongs to you. Don’t think of the car unless it is in terms of owning it and how you will use it for the higher good. Your positive energy attracts only positive energy.
Remember, you are not helpless in the universe, but rather, Universal Laws give you the power to control your own life.

UNIVERSAL LAW: Vibration

The Universe and everything in it function on the very same principle as energy. Albert Einstein discovered that “matter is energy”. This discovery forged the way to merge science and metaphysics. Scientists have since proven that energy cannot die. Not ever. Energy transforms (reincarnates). Energy can only go forward or backward. It does not have the ability to stand still or stay in one spot. The movement of energy results in transformation.
All human beings are energy. Human skin looks as though it is solid although it is actually trillions of molecules that are continually moving and orbiting each other at a very specific rate of vibration. This vibrational rate that your own molecules use to move is the exact physical-life rate of vibration that you have earned in the past. This rate is determined as a direct and calculated result of how harmoniously (or disharmoniously) you have lived. Your vibrational rate includes all of your past lives and your current life right up to this exact moment in time. Your vibrational rate is ever-changing with your negative and positive energy outputs.
When you are harmonious for an entire lifetime from birth until death, you attain the highest vibrational rate possible. This level would be that of Enlightenment. which is the consciousness level of Buddha, Krishna, and Jesus.

Understanding the Law of Vibration

The Law of Vibration is not nearly as well known as the Law of Attraction. The Law of Vibration is the reason the Law of Attraction can function. Simply put--in more familiar terms--The Law of Vibration is similar to an 'operating system' for the Law of Attraction; in the sense that Vibration is to Attraction what IOS is to the iPhone or Windows is to a PC...it is the operating system that allows it to function.
Without vibration, attraction could not happen. When you hear or read that ‘Like Attracts Like’, it is certainly true. And, at the very core of that statement is the fact that two like (similar) things actually attract because they are the same Vibration. This means that the two things are vibrating at exactly the same level and thus, attract each other. Everything attracts its own likeness. A blue Bic pen can only attract a blue Bic pen. A red BMW convertible can only attract a red BMW convertible. A negative can only attract a negative and a positive, a positive. If you have studied Quantum Physics, you already know that every single thing that exists in our universe is energy.
All things are made up of energy. All energy is made of atoms. Atoms are made of electrons. Electrons never stop moving. This movement creates the energy ’frequency’ that is the vibration. Therefore, EVERYTHING vibrates. Even YOU.
All things in the universe move and vibrate because they are energy. Everything you see around you, including YOU, all vibrate at one speed or another. Everything has a different vibrational speed, called a level. Your dining room table vibrates at a different speed than your car. Your car vibrates at a different speed than your shoes or your books, or rocks, or dirt, or trees, or buildings. Your arm has a different speed of vibration than your head or your kidneys.
Even your thoughts and feelings have their own vibrational speed. Each part of your body (inside and out) have different vibrations. Your level of consciousness also has a completely different speed of vibration.
Every single thing, with no exceptions, vibrates at a different speed. Vibrational speed is the same as energy frequency.
If you look at all things around you...everywhere you are and, have ever been...and, will ever go...THAT big picture, multiplied by all the people on earth...and multiplied by all the things on earth...makes up all the vibrating energy.
As such, you could reasonably agree that we are all living together in a gigantic ocean of energy. This ocean of energy is called the "Unified Field". All energy vibrates. All vibration is governed by The Universal Law of Vibration.
A desk may look solid and still, but within the desk are millions and millions of subatomic particles moving around constantly at their own rate of speed. The desk is pure energy and movement, with its own vibrational frequency. It is The Law of Vibration in action.
However, we cannot see the energy, so we think of the desk as separate and solid, because we see a desk as a solid piece of wood or metal. It is actually an illusion. Billions of vibrating energy particles are within the desk. Everything on earth, including you and me, vibrate at our own rate of speed, because humans are all energy beings and all things are energy, too. It is The Law of Vibration that makes it so.

How to Raise Your Vibration

They are many ways of raising our vibration. Here are a few;

1. Become conscious of your thoughts. Since it is true that everything we think, say, do, or and feel becomes our reality, it makes sense that every single one of our thoughts, words, feelings and actions has an impact on us. Here's a good example: When we are growing up our parents teach us that we all need at least eight full hours of sleep every night. We grow into adulthood with that severely limiting belief engraved in our brains. So what do we do? We hurry to bed every night after the news, so we can be sure and get our eight hours of sleep; thus avoiding those promised consequences of not doing so. (What exactly are those consequences? Does anyone actually know?) Several medical studies over the last decade revealed that an average adult only requires about 6.5 hours of sleep per night. Yep, that's right...scientific fact! So, now it's time we all try getting only six or seven hours of sleep...but before you do that you should condition your brain with a new belief to replace the old one. Just tell yourself a hundred times out loud that you only need six and a half hours of sleep a night. When you change those thoughts that limit your possibilities; shifting to the positive, your reality is likely to become positive too. You really can stay up later for some extra fun and still maintain your perfect health!
2. The next time a negative thought shows up in your head, take the time to acknowledge it, thank it for showing up, and then dismiss it. Turn it around by making it a positive instead of a negative.
3. Find something beautiful-appreciate it-be grateful for it. Beauty is everywhere. Allow yourself to take it in and be amazed by it. Watch for the first hummingbird of the season and get excited because it is such an incredible creature! Watch in awe as the flock of birds perform their synchronized flight, walk barefoot on the beach and feel the sand squish between your toes as the waves caress the shoreline. Take off your shoes and walk through the grass, take a walk in the rain...get back to nature; see, watch or touch an animal. Pet your dog or cat. Cuddle a baby. Smell a wildflower.
4. Take off your blinders! Go watch the sunset with a glass of wine or watch the sunrise and savor a cup of French-pressed coffee; don't forget to inhale it before your first sip. Nothing quite like the smell of great coffee before you taste it!
5. Stop rushing.
6. Breathe.
7. Take the time to stand in the sun and feel it warm you from head to toe.
8. Appreciate your surroundings. Be grateful for them.
9. Start a gratitude journal. Write down five things each day you are grateful for. Don't forget to include things about yourself you are grateful for.
10. Be conscious of the food you eat. Foods each vibrate at their own speeds. Some have high frequencies, and some have lower frequencies. Blueberries have a high frequency. So does Broccoli and spinach. Big Macs...well...not so much! Foods covered in chemicals, pesticides, or wrapped in plastic packaging, have much lower vibrations than good quality organic produce. Get rid of your plastic food storage containers and buy new glass ones. Pay attention to how eating certain foods make your body feel. That will help you know how high or low their vibration is.
11. Drink water. Always drink lots of water. Water helps flush out toxicity. Toxicity lowers our vibration.
12. Pump up the volume. Since vibration requires movement in order to be vibration, it stands to reason that the more we move the more we vibrate. Get off the couch! Dance! Sing! Run! Jump! Exercise! Roller Skate! Ride your Bike! Go for a walk! (BONUS: Movement will also add to your state of happiness, lower your sugar and cholesterol and help you lose weight.)
13. Practice random acts of kindness. Give to someone else without any expectation of receiving something in return. Giving to others, whether it is your time, your help, your money, your things...whatever you give...sends a message to your brain that you are abundant because you are capable of giving to others while still having plenty for yourself. Abundance is an extremely high vibration.
14. Kindness is also at the top of the vibration charts...
15. Meditate. Pray. Be Mindful. Be Still. Sit in a comfortable position, close your eyes and breath in and out. Focus on nothingness or use creative visualization to see things as you want them to be. Meditation helps to calm you and helps you be more peaceful. (It also has tremendous health benefits.) Fifteen minutes of meditation a day, can and will, alter you and your life forever.
16. Be Peaceful. Peacefulness vibrates at a level of 600...just below Enlightenment; the level of Jesus, Krishna and Buddha.

UNIVERSAL LAW: Grace

Negative Karma may be experienced harshly, but positive Karma comes back to you in mercy and grace. If you put out positive energy as in love, mercy and grace to others, you will receive the same in return. What you give, you get.

UNIVERSAL LAW: Wisdom

Wisdom erases the need for Karma in the universe. When you attain the wisdom to learn your life lessons with love and wisdom you automatically do away with your own suffering. More often than not, people learn life lessons fastest through pain and suffering. When you experience the consequences of your actions you begin to understand what you should have done.
Example: You might be greedy and take from another person to enjoy your own version of abundance. Instead of coming from a position of love and wisdom and earning what you desire instead of taking it from others. You have then deprived, so you must experience (in the future) someone greedily taking from and depriving you. You suffer from the act and you experience what you caused the person you took from to experience. This is because you lack the love and wisdom to provide positive energy instead of negative. You will most certainly suffer your own greed whether later in this lifetime or in a future lifetime, but rest assured, it will happen, and you will suffer whatever negatives you bestow onto others.
Example: In your last life you were married to a Soul who is your mate today, and whom you cruelly left for another in that previous lifetime. In this lifetime (or another) under extremely similar circumstances, your mate will cruelly leave you. This will allow you to balance your Karma and directly experience the pain of abandonment.
Using Wisdom, you would detach consciously from the relationship you wish to leave and coming from a position of love, you ease the pain your mate might otherwise suffer while also avoiding negative Karma and progressing (growing) your own soul.

UNIVERSAL LAW: Harmony

This law supersedes the very basic law of Karma. Simply put, Harmony is the balance of the universe and all that is in it. The purpose of Karma is to attain Harmony. If you throw a rock into a pond you will disturb the Harmony of the pond. You are the cause. The first effect is the splash. The continuing effect is the ripples that flow out and back again. There is an effect on all things the ripples contact…the fish life…the plants…the land…the air…until Harmony is again restored.
The effect of throwing a rock into a pond is quite similar to your own disharmonious actions. Your actions that are not Harmonious flow out into the Universe causing a splash which causes ripples that ebb away from you and then head right back to you again, day after day, year after year, lifetime after lifetime, until such time that your own harmony is restored.

UNIVERSAL LAW: Soul Evolution

Every earthly life shares the goal of Soul Evolution even though many people never realize this during any number of their lifetimes. The purpose of reincarnation is spiritual evolution. That is, the desire for your soul to evolve. When you become driven in your life by unconditional love you raise your vibration and your level of human consciousness and move closer to a state of harmony.
Even when we think we are not evolving spiritually; we actually are making progress. As human beings, we learn many of our life lessons through the pain of our disharmonious acts (negative energy), which in a nutshell is our poor choices, mistakes and failures. Learning through suffering is most often how we gain the knowledge we need to use to evolve and begin to put only positive energy into the universe. This is the law of Soul Evolution.

UNIVERSAL LAW: One

Every Soul in the entire universe, living and discarnate (without human body), is connected. Although our connection with all other souls exists, most of us are not aware that we are all connected. This lack of awareness is a collective of unconsciousness that is deep within our Higher-Self.
We are all part of a great energy wholeness called God, and because we are part of God, we are God. We are all a particle of God.
It is the goal of the whole energy group to always move the energy forward, creating more energy. So, when we live in harmony with the universe, we each increase our vibration. As we each increase our individual vibration, we contribute to the whole group which increases the vibration of the entire group.
When our behavior (energy) is not harmonious, we decrease the vibration of the entire wholeness. Since we are a collective and therefore, we are one, everything you think, say and do, affects every other Soul in the universe.

UNIVERSAL LAW: Fellowship

The Universal Law of Fellowship is actually each person’s ability to gather like energies to their own in order to accomplish a single, specific, purpose. When you gather with another person (or more than one other person) of similar vibration to your own, for a shared purpose, your combined energy that is directed to the fulfillment of a single purpose, the total of the energies of the group is increased in dramatic proportions. This esoteric awareness has been continually used by healing groups, various religions and recently by worldwide meditations for world peace.

UNIVERSAL LAW: Abundance

The Universal Law of Abundance means that all people have the power within themselves to make their own life a utopia by merely accepting that abundance is your divine birth-right.

UNIVERSAL LAW: Unconditional Love

When we give and express unconditional love, it results in harmony. Harmonic balance is the reward of unconditional love.
Unconditional love is not romantic love. It is not the love of a specific person or thing. Unconditional love is the acceptance of others just as they are, without judgment and without expectation. It is you, giving complete acceptance of all other people and things without attempting to change them on any level other than inspiring them. Inspiration using your own behavior as a positive example is the only manner in which you would ever attempt to change another human being.
When you go out of your way to come from a position of unconditional love in all aspects of your life, you rise above fear and instill harmonic balance and goodness wherever you go.

UNIVERSAL LAW: Divine Order

The Universal Law of Divine Order means that everything is exactly as it should be. There are no accidents. Everything is with purpose. Your energy is translated into thoughts, words, emotions and behaviors. It is this energy that you send out into the universe that causes all of your experiences. This assures that you always have the opportunity to learn your life lessons and resolve your karma. The energy you send into the universe, you receive back. Thus, you are always in control of your own experiences. You create what it is that you get in your life. Everything is as it should be according to what you create.
In the same fashion that your own energy causes your own experiences, the collective thoughts, words, emotions, and behaviors of all of humankind, create the environment we live in, for all of us. As a whole unit (all of humankind), we get what we create.
Example: If enough souls were to focus their energy on creating world peace, we would have world peace. If the majority of souls are filled with anger, we will have war.

UNIVERSAL LAW: Resistance

Whatever you resist in your life, you draw to yourself like a magnet. When you resist something, you extend its influence in your life. Resistance is fear, and as such, it is your goal to resolve your fear to avoid the Karma of fear. If you are afraid you will have much to be afraid of. The Law of Resistance means you must let go of the fear by facing it. You are then forced to deal with it by learning Conscious Detachment.

UNIVERSAL LAW: Manifestation

All things manifested begin as a thought or an idea. Your own Ideas combined with all of your experiences create your beliefs and behaviors, which create the reality you live. If you are unhappy with your reality, you must change your beliefs and your behaviors. Meaning, you must change the way you think and what you do in order to change the result. You can manifest any reality you want by making choices to change your thoughts, beliefs, words and behaviors.

UNIVERSAL LAW: Free Will

It is true that much of the daily happenings in the world are universally predestined to take place and that many of the major events in your life are so predestined, as well. Let’s explore how this plays into your choices and abilities to create your own fate.
Free Will is described as your choices that are made by you freely or of your own accord. Free Will gives you the ability to make choices that are capable of coexisting with all things divine. (Things are regarded as "divine" due to their transcendental, mystical or awe-inspiring origins. Divine things are regarded as eternal—things that are permanent and last forever and based in truth—while material things are regarded as ephemeral; things that are temporary and based in illusion. Illusion is false, or the opposite of truth.)
What is or is not divine might be loosely defined, by different people and their different belief systems. In most belief systems the soul is considered divine. Miracles and visions and salvation are also considered by the many, to be divine. The root of the word ‘divine’ means ‘Godlike’. Most belief systems purport a God or a Higher Power of another nature to be at the center of their beliefs. Almost all belief systems agree that the universe exists and, in it remains the power of any and all God or Godlike Power and Beings.
The Universal law of Free Will has three aspects.

1. You will mitigate the impact of all negative outcomes in your life or do away with them entirely, by your own choice. In spite of many things being predestined to occur at a precise moment in time, you have been given the entitlement (birthright) of Free Will. Free Will is you having the ability to choose. Thus, you are able to mitigate the impact of any event, circumstance or situation and/or to transcend (rise above or surpass) it entirely; whether it is predestined, or not.
2. You will enjoy the all the abundance that life has to offer, and you will detach from the negativity by allowing it to flow through you without affecting you. If you spend your life affording grace and mercy to others, and are a grateful, positive, compassionate and loving person; always demonstrating by your actions that you have learned your past life lessons, you will minimize or completely diminish your disharmonious earthly experiences. This aspect of Free Will is a direct result of how you live your life up to the situation you have destined for yourself to experience in the NOW. As you begin to practice awareness and develop conscious (involved) detachment, you will be far less affected by all worldly events than in the past. By doing so, you will always enjoy all of the abundance in your life that is your birthright. All negative events, circumstances, situations and occurrences will pass through you with no effect on you or your life.
3. You will always have Free Will in how you respond to any situation. If you respond with positive emotions, compassion and integrity, it is indicative that you have, in fact, learned your karmic life-lessons and will not have to experience similar situations in the future. Once you learn each life lesson the universe will not allow you to experience that suffrage again. However, if you do not learn your lesson in the form it is presented the first time, the universe will continue sending you the same lesson in a different form until you learn from it. Each time the lesson re-enters your space it will be more intense and a harder lesson to accept. Therefore, it is always wise to learn from your lessons as they appear in your life and avoid similar negative behaviors in a demonstration that you have in fact learned your lesson.

UNIVERSAL LAW: Conscious Detachment

Suffering in our earthly life is caused by our own resistance. Whatever doesn’t work in your life is considered “suffering”. Example: Suffering is anything you are affected by in a negative way. Suffering includes; when you experience the loss of a loved one, have relationship problems with family members, friends, business associates, neighbors or romantic interests, feel very lonely, become ill or diseased, have an accident wherein you are physically or emotionally hurt or damaged, harbor feelings of guilt, have monetary hardships, feel lost, become heartbroken, possess unfulfilled desires, are mentally ill or physically challenged.
Some things in life are simply facts that you cannot change, no matter what you do. For example, if you are born with one arm you cannot grow a second arm. It is a fact that is undeniable and unalterable. If your wife divorces you and is no longer in love with you it is merely a fact that you cannot change and do not have control over. If the company you worked at for thirty years goes bankrupt and closes its doors tomorrow, you are out of a job. Nothing you do can make the company open back up and rehire you. It is not changeable by you. If your neighbor is crabby and mean to everyone all the time, no matter how kind everyone is, it is still a fact that the neighbor is crabby and mean.
Facts are things in life that ‘are what they are’ no matter what we do. We cannot change them or rearrange them. The truth is that we will not have a good result if we try to alter the unalterable. We will fail. It is as simple as that.
When you accept what is, you accept the things in your life that are unalterable realities, without resisting them. You do this because there is nothing you are going to be able to do about them, regardless of how much you might want to “fix” them or change them or alter them in some way that will better suit you.
In your life, you should always seek to change for the better, what you are able to change. At the same time, you must seek and possess the wisdom to accept unalterable situations, things and people, as they are; without wasting your quite precious mental or physical energy attempting to change what you cannot change. You must learn to accept the reality that there are and will be many things you cannot change.
With acceptance, comes involved detachment. Conscious (Involved) Detachment is the ability to enjoy all the positive aspects of life, but to allow the negative to flow through you without putting up resistance and without the negative affecting you.
Developing Involved Detachment takes a combination of self-discipline and an absolute mindset of doing away with suffering in your life.
If there is one thing we learn at a very early age and can always be certain of, it is that we will not achieve every single goal and dream that we envision for ourselves. As humans, we are simply not capable of achieving 100% success in everything we attempt or desire to have. Some disappointment along the way is inevitable. Example: The job you just knew you had in the bag went to someone else. The university you have always planned to attend turned you down. The class you needed to take was already full by the time you tried to register. The part you really wanted in a play is won by another, more experienced thespian. The car you are crazy about costs too much for your current budget. The person you have fallen in love with doesn't have the same feelings for you.
We also learn that even when we do get what we want, what we have sometimes slips away. You got into college but then flunked out in your sophomore year. Your daughter stops speaking to you because she marries a man that doesn’t like you. Suddenly, you lose your job without a minute’s notice. You lose that wonderful home you had for ten years, to foreclosure. Your wife divorces you. Your health disappears and suddenly you are ill. You make a mistake during a play and it costs your football team the victory. Your best friend moves across the country. Your business goes under. Your successful career goes away.
Your Inner Defender complains loudly when you don’t get what you want and when you lose what you had. The one drawback to having goals and dreams is that when you don't achieve them, you feel miserable. You suffer. Is it then better for us to not dream or set goals or desire things during our lifetime? That, is a question we all ponder at some point in our life. In order to consider this answer we must shift our own perspective. The issue is not what is going on outside of us but rather what is taking place inside of us. The pain we experience isn't caused by our desire to attain our goals or have nice things or live abundantly. Our pain and suffering is created by our own attachment to the outcome of our goals and desires and dreams and plans. Even though we often cannot change the things going on outside us, we can always change what is going on inside us. When we want to increase our positive experiences in life we do not give up our dreams. The way to embrace our dreams with hope and enthusiasm and not suffer pain and loss when our dreams go away is to develop involved detachment.
We must pursue goals and dreams with inner determination and a positive mindset with an unfailing commitment to succeed. We must accept the result of our efforts, whatever that result might be, with total Conscious Detachment.