When Life Gets Too Much!-How to overcome life’s challenges

Life is something each of us is in search of, we try to experience it, understand it, sometimes we try to win and sometimes we lose, life is neither direct nor often easy until we begin to understand what life is for us personally. Your life is waiting to be understood, and to be lived. In your search for life have you ever stopped to pray or mediate, to try and make sense of everything?

Maybe you have done this without really realising it? Maybe you were desperate, unhappy, drunk or alone. Whatever you feel, wherever you are, whatever you are doing or what is been done to you, prayer is already there within you, communicating in a way that you will eventually understand.What is prayer? Prayer is all of everything talking away, whispering to you waiting for you to hear and communicate back, yes prayer is communication with your inner self and that lives and affects every other thing, living, inanimate, the known and the unknown. Prayer is the craft of creative thought.

Some people think that you have to grab life moment by moment and to live in the ‘now.’ Others feel that there is a plan, or a reason for each and every thing that takes place in our lives. Others think that it’s all random and due to chance, while others believe politics or social change gives life significance.

We were born into life but sometimes feel separate from life. We feel observers, looking out at life and not feeling the vibrancy and simplicity of life as it really is.

Have you ever felt life is just passing you by? That no matter what you do, nothing changes and sometimes ‘it’ all seems too much. People say that they live in the moment, grabbing the ‘now’ and that life is beautiful. Essentially it is but sometimes it can be shockingly violent, cruel, full of unhappiness and suffering.

The fact is that there is no one life to be lived, but many lives all intertwined, lives of ease and hardship and lives of fame and infamy, of wealth and poverty and lives of the ordinary and the unknown. All of these are connected, reflections of the same impulse, for human consciousness to express it self in accord with the consciousness that is the foundation of everything.

Life is not just a series of events but also a series of beliefs and how you respond to the beliefs you hold. The world, we are told, is illusory, not real, but of course it feels real, looks solid and is if a bus runs you down. There are wars, starvation, terrorism and global warming; these seem real, don’t they? Yes, they are real with in a slim dimension of the material world, and all of us are influenced by each and every action and thought of the other.

Why is the world so real and yet an illusion, because illusion is real and this is how it happens? Our brains take in billions amounts of information every microsecond, so much so that in order to stop itself from overloading, our brain stops, pauses for a microsecond, and in that miniscule gap, our world is made. The world of cars, TV, money, mortgages, natural beauty and the larger universe.

Everyone’s brain in the world pauses at the same time, we are all connected. So this means that what we think of as the present or ‘now’ is in fact the past. We have a group pause, a making of the past, yet as we are all different we only see a strand of it. The minds that each of us have are wonderful expressions of consciousness and life’s experiences as our bodies but they are the vehicles of the illusory world, the world that we are in to learn how to be more human and more complete.

Because as our brain pauses for even a microsecond processing ‘old’ information, just like the sunlight we feel or the starlight or moonlight we appreciate is already old, we are living in the illusion of the present, all we have is the past, the gap in which our personalities, lives and planet occupy. In order to go beyond this illusion into a transcendental truth we need to learn about prayer and meditation. People often get confused over these.

Prayer is a natural communication with your inner self and multiple layers of the universe. Meditation is not this. Meditation is not something that you can do or practice. The techniques that people do to meditate are merely devices. Meditation exists within you. It already is. It dwells within you.

You can not do it, you can be open to it, the essence of meditation takes you to a place where perception becomes clear and without illusion both human and universal, but on the way to this, the art of meditation is about learning how to be with what and who you are, it is the art of non-judgement and of been free from the traps of time and learning how to live in the world of illusion and love all within it and yet knowing that this world of contradiction is your world.

You are meant to be where you are right now. This though can be changed. Changed by how you connect your will and intent with prayer. Prayer is invocation that creates a stream of understanding to one’s inner self and to the natural and man-made world, where as meditation is the heart of things in its pure unstained state. Prayer is the song, meditation the singer, and you are the vehicle though which both ply their melody.

Prayer does not have to be associated with any religion or faith, this also applies to meditation. In fact, prayer and meditation exist within the universe and us as natural expressions of life. In learning how to pray you unlearn the very things that trap you, in learning the art of meditation you reveal what you have always been.

People are afraid of prayer they think its religious, its to do with a set way of thinking. Prayer has nothing to do with religion. Prayer is an innate communication of the natural world, prayer is the voice of life; its profound communication with your deepest self. Do you know how to communicate in this way; the first stage is about listening.

I will share with you a method of prayer that will assist you to communicate with life. Later we will go over a meditation method that will help you to release the inner meditative state that is within you.

But first on to prayer. Most people think that prayer is about asking for things, but that is only a small part. Prayer is sitting down and talking, entering into dialogue with the forces of humanity, nature and the universe. Every prayer is always heard, because every prayer is a voice of the greater human soul. We all know how to pray but we forget who we are easily.

The first thing that you need to be aware of it is that the act of prayer or communication is constantly going on, in our bodies, our minds, in nature. Our cells metabolising, bees harvesting pollen from flowers, the sea lapping against the shore, the wind in the trees, sunlight caught in the moon, all of this prayer. Prayer is communication. Prayer is also action; it creates access to the energy of the natural world, to divine energy, to manmade energy, making things happen. When we talk from our hearts in love and sincerity to another this too is prayer. Anger and violence is prayer, communication of destruction, a negative prayer. A prayer of fear.

To be open to prayer you need to listen, to listen you need to know what you are listening to, in knowing what you are listening to, you are communicating. The question you must ask yourself is, do you want to be in communication, or do you want to live your life in a solitary box? A boxed-in life with no meaningful communication.

You can live such a life successfully doing things that seem important but eventually fade. In all human endeavours the only thing that lasts is what people have communicated. So I need to ask you how do you communicate?

How do you communicate with your loved ones, friends, colleagues or people that you come across daily? How do communicate with your self? Is there anger, sadness, greed, impatience, lust, confusion in your words, what are you communicating behind and through your words. Whatever exists behind your words becomes the intent even without you knowing it. So the first step in prayer is to know what is your true intent?

You start by listening. Firstly sit comfortably, close your eyes. Listen to the sounds around you, do not judge them, react to them, and just listen. Then let your listening expand through these sounds and listen further until you are hearing everything. Slowly as you listen you start to slow down, this slow place is where intent is borne, made and directed.

In this slow place give up any confusion and pain, any anger or rage, and let yourself become slow and focused. Here at this point, you can start to pray. Let your focus and intent grow then when it becomes to strong to hold, let it go out into the world, and then say, ‘Reveal the intent of the prayer within me.’

You will find that the intent of the prayer is shown to you, at the moment cover it in love and wellbeing and thankfulness and send out into the wider world. As this happens listen to the intent of the prayer and hear it communicate with you. Yes, prayer communicates back to you, prayer is a two-way communication, a dialogue, where faith is made.

Focus upon this sentence; repeat it over again until you feel it:
“ All that which is made communicates with what made it.”

As you communicate and repeat this sentence you start to generate energy within you, mental and emotional energy that gives your prayer more potency. You can start to pray to gather calm and emotional balance. You can pray to still your mind and to be less anxious, you can pray to be less angry, to be kind, humorous and patient. You start with these things to learn the craft of prayer. The more you pray the better and more skilful you become. Examine your life and look at what you wish to improve upon. Start with issues that you regard as spiritual or emotional, things that live within you first, only slowly moving on to do with the everyday world.

Make a list. After you have made the list, start at the top and work your way down using the method of prayer mentioned earlier. Start with the method and focus on it exactly.

Praying for the inner things, for happiness, calm, healing, balance, spiritual growth is the first step. Praying for a lover or partner, for a better job, for more money, a better place to live, praying for material benefits is ok, but be aware that when you pray for these things they can often happen quickly and not always in the way you expect them to.

Prayers for the material world operate on a different process than the inner world. The inner world takes longer to respond; prayers dealing with money are much faster, as you pray give yourself a pause to feel what your prayer is about. You might think you are praying for money, but your underlying intention could be for comfort, security, and safety.

These are not money but people confuse them with money and money cannot really provide these in a lasting way. As you gain skill in prayer you open up your ability to communicate deeply within yourself and too the world around you. As you open yourself, you will inevitable hit that subtle obstacle, the chattering and fearful mind caused by the daily interaction with the world.

This chattering mind does not want to stop its ranting because it knows its time is up, it is fearful of losing its grip, its fearful of becoming something better, constructive, integrated. So it will put up a fight. Imagine it as a dialogue something like this: It’s a dialogue between the foolish and wise part of your self. Sit back and listen to the conversation.

“What is the point of praying, no one listens. What’s the point of meditating I just get a sore bum, trying, and I sometimes feel worse than when I started, I can’t concentrate and when I try a song I really hate starts going around and around in my head!”

“Be still, there is not a point to praying but a communion between your Self and the universe. All of life listens. As you start, all that causes you confusion will boil up and spill, out just like a pot left to boil, but as you take it from the heat, you can heal.”

“Be still!! Its easy for you to say, you don’t have to go to work, or look after the kids or pay the bills, I am to anxious to be still, I am too busy, I don’t have time to be still, this is making me really angry.’

“I am in everything you do, and feel, in your children, in your job and the boss you dislike, in the untrustworthy colleague, in your anxiety, in your problems at home, in your secrets, I am even in your anger, in the loneliness of your heart, I am there.’

“Who are you then?’

“I am the deepest part of you, that which even in your darkest hour you seek, even when you feel far from love or happiness, safety or friendship, I am there. I am there you call to in prayer and that which is when you meditate.’

“Look, I asked you a question…a simple question, who are you?”

“I am you, the all knowing unsullied light of you, as you truly are and always have and will be.’

“That makes no sense at all, I am in the real world, I have things to do, responsibilities, I am a busy person.’

“I am you, the all knowing unsullied light of you, as you truly are and always have and will be.’

“ I have things to do. Things to worry about, concerns, my future, my past, my finances, my relationship, I have things to do.”

“I am you, the all knowing unsullied light of you, as you truly are and always have and will be.’

And so the internal often unheard conversation goes on, until something in our life goes pear-shaped and we are left with only what is within us while everything we thought we had, loved or was disappears as if it never was. In a sense, it really was.
Have you found yourself in a situation like that, even if for a terrible scary moment?
Inside of the exterior that we give to the world what is there? What is within you?
Do you know? Prayer helps you to find out through this sacred process of communication.

Now lets look at meditation. I said earlier it was something that you cannot do. Meditation is…it is within you, waiting to be revealed. The practice you do to reveal meditation is not to be confused with what arises from it. The simple meditation below will help you to become still naturally where meditation will spontaneously arise of its own volition.

Close your eyes. Sit any way you want but make yourself comfortable. With your mind concentrate upon your physical heartbeat. Feel each beat, concentrate upon it as completely as you can.

As you do this, let your day, worries, and then your body dissolve into each and every heartbeat. When you first start, do this for just a short time of say fifteen minutes in the morning before breakfast.

Do this for ten days, and with each day, you will become used to this. After ten days increase the time to twenty-five minutes. After a month increase it to thirty minutes.

This is simple to do. Do not be swayed by the dialogue that will come up, all the reasons not to mediate, if it helps go back and reread the dialogue that was written earlier, and consider it again. That dialogue goes on. The dialogue is a natural process that each of us needs to go through as all that we don’t need fades away.

Also you can in your daily practice start with the method of prayer that I outlined and then move onto your meditation using the method just mentioned.

Deep within us, there is a sway, towards this and away again, like a huge emotional pendulum, swinging back and forth. Either way, you must go there in some form towards your moment of truth. You can go there kicking and screaming and miss the entire thing, the lesson lost, or you can enter it willingly and come out of it, renewed, reborn and alive.

Prayer can help you across the confusion that may arrive. Meditation will show you why you had to make the journey. Prayer will be the light. Meditation will show you where the light and dark come from. Prayer will guide you as you fall into the chasm. Meditation will show you why you had to fall. Prayer will guide you back from your troubles. Meditation will help you to be reborn.

As you gain a better practice in your meditation and in your prayer you will find that those things that troubled you will lose their grip, long standing issues and questions will be answered, forgiveness will come to you and you will be able to forgive. You will discover that prayer affirms life and meditation shows you what life is.

Your suffering will not trap you like it used too as you learn how to suffer less. When you suffer less you live more, in that you allow Life to live through you. Life seeks itself through you and when you get in the way, the troubles that you have had become the blockages to living, but thankfully you can learn from them, turning them to opportunities and stepping stones on the path back to your self.

Whenever life seems too much, pray, communicate. When life seems to have no meaning, slow down and listen to the beat of your heart. When life seems complete and has significance, pray, communicate and listen to the beat of your heart. This offers you the language of prayer and the speech of your soul.

Thank you for reading.”
(ENDS)