Growing Pains

Growing pains. We have all had them. You can not find a person alive who has not had difficulty with something. In all reality, it is so common place; it is sometimes hard to see why people react the way they do to some of life's tests.

A great deal of the pain and stress we suffer is self inflicted. This is due to the egoic identity we mistake ourselves for and the many ideas and concepts we are identified with. All of these things become part of our identity. Our identity becomes our comfort zone.

Beyond the limit of your comfort zone lies nothing but stress and pain. Everything beyond what is considered to be the best scenario for the ego's well being causes you stress. This could be as small as a minor irritation or as major as life and death. If it is a threat to your idea of well being; it is stressful to your ego.

Loss of any kind is usually considered a pain. It is often only through this type of pain that the walls of our comfort zone can be shattered. What ends up happening is your comfort zone becomes wider. You are able to be without someone or something and still recognize that you are good. The pain helped you grow.

This is where sayings like, "Whatever doesn't kill you makes you stronger," come from. There is a much deeper meaning behind this and many other sayings than maybe noticed on the surface.

It is a regular fact that unexpected incidents and occurrences affect our lives from time to time. These can be seen as horrible experiences in our lives or they can be seen as chances to grow in perspective and adapt to what is.

You can literally change the meaning of pain.

To get more on this in depth; read What Is Really Good? and stay tuned!

Out The Box

Most people live in a box. Many will go through their whole lives without making a conscious effort to get out of this box.

This box is made of identity concepts and past experiences. Within this box, all contentment and happiness is short lived. You are also subject to several levels of stress and suffering.

Outside the box there is only peace. This peace is expressed in countless ways. Joy, excitement, enthusiasm and freedom are a few forms of this peace.

To get out the box, you first have to notice that there is a box. This box is very real, although it is invisible to your five basic senses. Many times people confuse the box for who they really are.

When the box starts to get damaged, they believe that they, themselves have been damaged. Some times, it takes a box getting nearly completely destroyed before people start to wake up and notice that they are not their boxes.

Are you ready to get out of the box? If you have caught glimpses of being out, are you ready to stay out? To learn how, read What Is Really Good? and stay tuned!

Related posts

• Shatter Proof
• Growing Pains
• Either Master or Slave
  

You Scared? Have No Fear

Fear, pain, and stress are almost synonymous. They are all resistance to what reality is right now. They are all ways for us to interpret the experience we are having in that moment as something that should not be. They are all defensive modes of being that are actually there to protect us. Think about it yourself. Don't take my word for it.

Think about you own experience of fear. What is it really? What does it come from? What is the relationship with pain? What is the relationship to stress?

Here is an excerpt from What Is Really Good? on the topic:
The root of all stress is fear. Of course fear is a survival instinct. It is imprinted on the design of your ego (your sense of 'I') to motivate you to take protective action.

This is true for both physical and mental stress. Physical stress is
physical pain; subtle or blatant. It is a signal that something is wrong and to remove yourself from the situation. Mental stress is mental pain; subtle or blatant. It is a signal that the situation does not meet the ego's definition of well being. In both cases fear is the motivating factor that brings the signal of stress/pain.

Physical fear is always short lived and only comes from a direct physical threat. Mental fear is the real issue. It is at times mistaken for physical fear and it is actually over 99% of the fear you experience. The fear produced by your mind attempting to keep the ego and its many identifications in a state of well being is produced at disproportionate and dysfunctional levels.

Fear is supposed to keep us safe. Problem is, it has gone way past doing for us what it does for the animals. A wild animal gets scared; they fight or take flight. Then it is complete. A person fears about the future and stresses about the past. A person holds on to fear like a ball and chain.

Ironically, the fact that the animal doesn't hold on to the fear after the cause of it, is the same reason that we are so much more advanced. Their minds can not hold the ideas and concepts that ours can. As a result, their egos can not identify with ideas as ours can. Their only sense of identity is their physical selves and maybe offspring. Our egoic identity spreads as far as our concepts and ideas can take us. My stuff, my money, my house, my country, my business, etc. Our fear is magnified by the identifications.

To live without fear; live without stress; and minimize all physical pain is not as far off as you might think. As a matter of fact, you hold the key right now. It just needs some attention.

Learn how to be free of all fear. Read What Is Really Good? and stay tuned!