The Things Holding us Back

The Things Holding us Back

What are some common habits and attitudes that holds us back ? Most Seeker’s don’t have to fight alcoholism, drug addiction, poverty, lack of education, and those kinds of things. Most people’s battles are more inward.

We tend to forget many things in hurly burly of life --- but it isn’t enough to say we shouldn’t be forgetful, because the very nature of mind is the flit and forget. We need to build in constant little little remainder which are forgotten in the hurly burly life. But the main antidote to forgetfulness is “Introspection” which we can practice twice a day. In the morning, set up all you resolutions for the day and in the evening, just review it. By “every watchful and sincere introspection” we can banish all contrary inclination that makes us forgetful.

Let’s not talk about past hurts or bad experiences, or about any of the things people have done that bothers us.

Any form of negative expressions opens the mind of negative thinking. We should use the gift of memories to recall uplifting and positive experiences. Here gift of memories does not mean nay bad experiences, as in life we would have pass through both the bad and the good experiences. The things which had hurt us the most and the things which had made us the most happy.

Negativity can also take the form of watching movies or reading books which pulls us more down in negativity. The negative contents of modern media, such as the TV serials in most channels, political commentary, and the so called “babas pravachans” can easily drag the mind into negative thought patterns.

Most people mostly ladies are habitually pulled into a spiritual slump and gents are habitually pulled into narcotic drugs or more dangerous than narcotic drugs “Depression”. This habitual pulling is due to negativity. But in this habitual pulling they tend to avoid the very things that would help them draw in the upward direction. If you’re on a downward slide, make it a point to go to uplifting events and places.

Everything in the world has magnetism – people, places, thoughts. Put yourself in the presence of upward pulling magnetism.

We can be going along perfectly fine with our negative life or we would be dragging our life thoughtlessly and then all of a sudden we get the thgouth : “I need to go to the mall,” or “I need to relax and see a movie…..” or “I would like to go out with my friends.” Obviously it’s not a bad thing to get out and change our environment once in a while but if we have a habit of becoming restless, then we need to work against that habit.

The complexity of the world is infinite, especially in this age of the internet. There are so many things we can get involved in --- such as the social media and many such things are there in this present age of internet from which a person gets motivated positively and can boost up his life but the main problem here lies is the choosing of the perfect thing to get motivated positively. Most of the people specially the teenagers surf internet frequently or I should say daily 5 to 10 hours but it’s a pity to say that they don’t surf what they ought to surf. They go on a path which leads them to negativity, to abusement and becomes criminal minded.

Another big thing presently occurring is Comparison.  Comparing ourselves with others takes us out of our higher self that is we forgo our own potentials and ability and are dragged into a sense of separation. Comparison involves ego competition with thoughts such as : “He is more intellectual or beautiful or famous, She is not So.” “I am more then they are”, and so on. By this we can easily slip into the feelings of superiority and negativity, or else we can become discouraged about our own potentials and ability.

A way out of this superiority complex is to strive to overcome our own ego. We should look for the ways to take a back seat. This would help us disconnect from the sense, “I am Important”. For feelings of discouragement, the solution is to flush off all such thoughts and trust ourselves because a person who trust himself or herself can only trust others around him or her and can only see the good things and the bad things clearly.

Lastly, I have listed a few things that holds us back, but there could be many others. Infact there are many others. A simple formula to find a solution for all this is. Any time you feel pulled in a negative direction, ask yourself : “What is the opposite of this direction ?” Then put your energy into that positive direction.