Change and improvement

Many of us feel that we need to improve something about ourselves. Sometimes the aim is rather large and fuzzy - like the sense of meaningfulness. Sometimes it is definite and pointy, like a physical ailment. Sometimes we are just dissatisfied with how everything fits together in our life without there being anything obviously wrong with any part of it. We may also like to improve something about our emotions / feelings.

Improvement science teaches us that we should understand the root cause of a given fact or situation that we are trying to improve. An especially useful tool for personal use, and not only, is to ask ourselves “why” something is the way it is, ideally with a depth of 7 layers. This means that we should ask ourselves 7 consecutive “why”s about it. If we do that, we will always fiind out that the root cause is internal and much larger than what we started with. This could go something like this: I don’t sleep well - I keep thinking about the days ahead - I get really anxious for anything to go wrong - I am afraid someone will criticize me - I want to be seen as excelling at work - I want to advance in position - I need to make more money - I want to afford anything I like.

It is easy to see how different the beginning snd the end are, and this is a relatively mild and commonplace example. The reason this is important to do this way is because if do not touch the root we will never be able to make lasting and sustained improvement. We may go on making changes, but true improvement will elude us. And in this particular case the story often ends with some form of medication that may then create its own issues, obscuring even more the root cause. The western society, or at least a good part of it, is built on stimulating consumption. We are so steeped in it that we may not even realize that we are a passenger in that train that is running faster and faster and giving us so much trouble in the process.

And even if we go through the exercise and we are finally facing the root, dealing with it is not easy in the above-mentioned larger societal landscape. In the context of the above example some may simply try to swap extremes and become hermits - which of course may come at its own price. The practice of Sahaja Yoga will make all of this so much more straightforward. Diagnosis wise, in meditation we will feel the the balance and general state of the subtle system with particular attention on the chakras and aspects involved. We don’t need to worry if it is the truly the root we are getting at, because by definition it is the deepest level we can reach. Once the big picture crystallizes, we can then proceed to corrections with relatively simple interventions. Lastly, because of the living nature of the process, once a developmental stage is crossed, the issues associated with it remain behind as well and that leaves us with a unique sense of freedom in the end.