How To Thrive in 2023

Experience, Reflect in 2002, Reframe in 2023, Practice.

If you make this practise a habit, you will shed limiting habits that derail you and re-create a new future for yourself. It’s that simple, yet potent beyond belief.

‘What does the universe wish me to be?’.?

Sit quietly with this question, move within, experience whatever comes up, then reflect on what comes up, act upon it, then reflect some more.?

We may think we control our destiny. Truth is that we don’t even control our next breath. At best, we support our destiny by what we think and do. To do this right, questions that we ask ourselves need to be right. What I need to do is what works best for me, for those I impact, and for those who impact me. This larger systemic and spiritual approach brings us hope, joy and fulfilment. That is what the universe wishes us to be. ?

The path to this is simple, not easy. We have hurdles to cross in this Hero’s Journey once we accept the quest of the universe as ours.

Much of what we do is driven by what we imbibed before age 7 from our caregivers. Don’t blame yourself. You have enough other stuff to feel guilty about. Till 7, our mind operates at Theta brain wave level of 4 ~8 Hz, which is highly influenceable. Our care givers caution us not to do things, and guide us to do things, for our good. Our mind embeds the DO NOTs, more than the DOs. What remains anchored as a belief system in our unconscious mind impels many of us to do what we have been warned not to. Our unconscious has a strange habit of interpreting the NO in the Don’t, as DO. Seems strange and eerie, but true. Many of us yearn to do what we have been warned not to do, as we grow into adolescence and adulthood. I know I did. Reflect back on your misspent youth and see how true it is.

The DOs that embed also create an unconscious belief system, perhaps less potent, yet powerful, if repeated often enough by many voices we respect and fear. In turn, these beliefs create actionable values in us. These values mirror our beliefs. My father, his father, his grandfather had all been scholars or follower bureaucrats, not entrepreneurial leaders. So, I grew up conditioned and comfortable with an aspirational value to become a scholar and a follower. This would have been my natural karma, as it were, following the dharma of scholarship.

However, some experiences as I grew up provided me opportunities to exhibit my leadership skills and entrepreneurship. They made me joyful. I was now in a dilemma. Do I follow my conditioned, but limiting belief-based value of a follower, or do I action the exciting possibility of a leader that I enjoyed and others around me now appreciated? As it happened, I moved into leadership and entrepreneurial roles, and at a much later point reverted to being a scholar. This required me to follow my heart on what made me joyful, and my head on what helped me to this joy, integrating both.

Beliefs and values can be reframed. They need to be reframed. If we pursue a value that does not align with embedded beliefs and values associated to these beliefs, our unconscious mind will block the new value systems we wish to espouse. This is the reason why we find ourselves addicted to past behaviour as limiting habits. We find ourselves disempowered. Quite often, we are blind to these limiting habits that derail us till others who care enough about us point them out as our blind spots. However, if we develop a habit of reflecting on whatever we experienced during a day, focusing on what we could have done better in an honest and vulnerable manner, our own inner voice would tell us where we screw up.

Sometimes an emotionally traumatic experience may create blocks in us not allowing us to risk such experiences again. These blocks can be dissolved through somatic reflection of re-living these traumatic experiences, sensing where they are actually felt in our body, and labelling them as emotions. You will find the sensations being relieved in a few minutes. If you are able to visualise the sensations in the body in colour, matter and shape, you will see that these too morph and become positive and healing. This reliving and relieving process is very effective in loss, fear and grief, as well as associated emotions of regret, guilt and shame. Resort to this process when you face hurdles.

Start with a daily reflection. First be grateful for the good that happened in the day. Then, think about what you can do better, and how, without blaming yourself. Ask the universe ‘what would you wish me to be?’ as a prayer seeking an answer. Move inwards into that safe space of your inner Self, which is the Collective Consciousness of the Universe.

Once you start doing this regularly in a meditative and reflective manner, in acceptance of yourself and in gratitude for what the universe provided you visualising how you wish to change, you will find yourself changing. This is a dynamic process, which throws up hurdles you’re likely to face. Go back into that collective consciousness within you to find the answers, relive and relieve, and then move on.

Reflect on what you experienced, reframe, practise and reframe again as you move on. You will get closer to where you wish to be, to do and to have in 2023 and beyond.??

Take these simple steps to Thrive in 2023.

1.??Visualise yourself as a metaphor in a meditative state. My metaphor is Shiva. What’s yours? Why? Metaphors are your unconscious drivers. Think through, draw and free verse write about your metaphor using your right brain.

2.??Reflect back on what made you really joyful in the past. There will be a pattern that reflects your passion. This will support your metaphor.

3.??Ask people who know you well and reflect on what they say about the strengths that helped you doing what made you joyful. This is from your left brain.

4.??Integrating the metaphor, passion and strength will give you an idea of what would be a meaningful opportunity that fulfils you.

5.??Create a 3-year holistic wheel of life plan for 2025 based on that opportunity, listing goals with 8 factors: Wealth creation, Position of influence, Health, Relationship, Serving others, Learning, Doing for the joy of it, and a larger set meta spiritual goals.

6.??Envision yourself 30 years ahead (if you are 60, twenty years; if you are 70, why bother, just accept who you are and be happy) drawing up the same wheel of life on what you believe the universe wishes you to be. Walk back in 3-year milestones to the earlier 2025 timeline. Compare the two. The gap is your Intent to bridge.

7.??Visualise creatively this as your manifested reality, sensorily, multi-dimensionally. In your mind, journey the path to your 30-year vision ahead. Face the challenges that you anticipate in your Hero’s Journey before they occur. You will reach what you intend.

Start now. If you have questions, please post.

Ram is co-founder and mentor at Coacharya?https://coacharya.com . Ram's focus is integration of Eastern wisdom with modern science, spiritually, systemically and sustainably.