You Are Not Your Problems: Soul Vs. Conditioning

So welcome everyone and thank you for joining me.

So let's explore something today that can shift how we see ourselves and our lives.

Now let's look at problems.

Now all of us have problems in some way,

Shape or form.

Now what if for today's exploration I told you that you are not your problems?

What if everything you think is wrong with you?

Everything you're trying to fix,

Heal or improve?

What if none of that is actually you?

Now we lived in a world now obsessed with problem solving.

We are constantly being told there is something we need to work on,

Something we need to heal or maybe something we need to achieve to be worthy of love and happiness.

And we spent years,

Sometimes decades trying to fix ourselves,

Trying to improve ourselves and trying to heal ourselves.

Now in my own journey I have discovered that maybe you're not broken,

You never were.

You are just a soul,

An infinite,

Eternal being just wearing a human costume,

Having a human experience.

And with that costume,

With that role comes a lot of expectations,

A lot of conditioning,

A lot of programming and that has nothing to do with who you actually are.

Now just for a moment imagine that you're an eternal being of pure consciousness and then you decide to have a human experience.

You decide to incarnate into a body into a particular family,

Into a society and from the moment you arrive everyone and everything around you starts to tell you who you should be.

You should get good grades,

You should find a career,

You should get married,

You should have a partner,

You should buy a house,

You should have children,

You should follow the rules,

You should be normal,

You should be successful,

You should be happy all the time and you should have it all figured out.

And if for some reason you don't fit into these boxes,

If you don't follow the prescribed path,

There is something wrong with you and clearly you have problems that need fixing.

But what if nothing is wrong with you?

What if your soul is simply rejecting a script that was never meant for you in the first place?

Now from the moment you're born you're placed,

We're all placed into a system of expectations that have nothing to do with your soul's purpose or natural inclinations.

Now we are told there is a right way to live.

Get educated,

Find a career,

Find the one,

Get married,

Be monogamous,

Buy a house,

Have children,

Accumulate wealth,

Retire and die.

And if you deviate from this path,

Society labels you as lost,

Broken or problematic.

And we are all conditioned on some level to believe that our worth comes from external achievements we are taught to suppress our natural instincts and intuition in favor of social compliance and acceptance and we are all programmed to believe that security comes from conventional paths rather than trusting your soul's guidance.

And when our soul rebels against this conditioning,

When we feel restless in traditional relationships,

When we don't want children and we are not motivated by conventional success,

When we feel called to unconventional paths,

We start to think something is wrong with us.

Your soul didn't come here to follow someone else's blueprint.

It didn't incarnate to tick boxes on a societal checklist.

Your soul came here for its own mysterious reasons to experience,

To learn,

To love,

To create,

To explore consciousness in human form and maybe to merge with the divine in whichever way this incarnation unfolds for you.

And often what we label as our problems are actually our soul's rebellion against conditioning that doesn't fit.

Now your difficulty with traditional roles and relationships might be your soul seeking deeper,

More authentic connection Your resistance to conventional career paths might be your soul calling you towards your true purpose.

Your inability to settle down might be your soul's need for freedom and exploration.

Your sensitivity might be your gifts,

Not disorders.

And you questioning social norms might be your soul's wisdom,

Not dysfunction.

Just examples.

And here's something important to understand.

Your pain is unique to your experience.

The struggles that you face,

The challenges that you bring,

The challenges that bring you to your knees,

The experiences that crack you open,

They are not random.

They are very specifically crafted for your soul's journey.

Now society often tries to minimize or even categorize your pain.

Everyone goes through this.

You should be over it by now.

Others have it worse.

But your pain is not comparable to anyone else's.

It's yours for a reason.

Your specific struggles are not the evidence that you're broken now.

They are evidence that you're having your own unique human experience,

Your own lessons,

Your own gifts,

Your own purpose.

The depth of your pain often corresponds to the depth of your capacity for wisdom,

Compassion,

Authentic living,

And even spiritual growth.

So don't let anyone diminish your experience by comparing it to others.

Your soul chose this particular path with these particular challenges for reasons that only you can ultimately understand.

Now we've become a culture obsessed with self-improvement,

Healing,

Fixing.

There's always another workshop to take.

There's always another therapy to try.

There's always another spiritual teacher.

There's always another aspect of yourself to work on.

Growth and healing can be beautiful but they can also be painful.

When did we start believing that we have projects to be completed rather than beings to be experienced?

And what is the end goal?

You are not a problem to be solved.

You are not a being to be perfected.

You are just a soul having a temporary human experience.

That experience will always include challenges,

Difficulties,

And what we call problems.

These things are not who you are.

They are just part of your experience.

As we settle into our true nature and today try to remember who you are,

Who we are,

You can now find a comfortable position wherever you are and very gently close your eyes.

Let's start by taking a few deep breaths as we allow ourselves to settle into this moment.

For the next few minutes we are going to practice distinguishing between who you are and what you are experiencing.

Between your essence and your circumstances,

Between your soul and your human story.

Let's begin by bringing to mind all the things that you think are wrong with you.

All problems you are trying to solve.

All aspects of yourself you are trying to improve or heal.

Just let them all come to mind.

All the things I am trying to heal.

All the things that I think are wrong with me.

They are coming up now in my body,

In my awareness.

Now I will see,

And visualize whichever way guidance is coming for you.

All these things are now a heavy coat that you have been wearing.

The coat of things that need fixing.

Feeling this energy now in your body.

The coat of things that need fixing.

Fixing.

Notice what you notice in your body.

Heaviness,

Tightness.

Maybe in your shoulders,

Maybe in your back,

Maybe in your chest.

Notice how heavy this coat is.

And just how much energy it takes to carry around all these problems.

Now,

If your body allows,

Very gently,

Simply imagine taking this coat off.

Now you are not throwing it away or pretending that these challenges don't exist.

You are simply setting it aside for now.

For a moment,

To remember what you feel underneath.

Now without the coat of your problems,

Who are you?

Now,

Imagine traveling back before all the conditioning began.

Before you were told how to live,

What you want,

Who to be,

What is right,

What is wrong.

Just going back before you learned that you needed to fit into these boxes.

Feel into the essence that was there before you learned that you were supposed to be anything other than exactly what you are.

We call this essence pure,

Unlimited,

Expansive,

Curious,

Loving,

Freedom.

This is who you actually are.

The rest is just conditioning.

Just be with this essence,

Whichever way it is showing up for you.

My human experience is very much there,

But I have just decided to externalize it and I have taken that coat off.

I am sitting with what I am left with now.

Pure,

Unlimited,

Expansive,

Curious,

Loving,

Freedom.

And I am breathing into it now.

Now just to do a little bit of rewiring,

Just receiving my words in this state.

Now where is the secret that no one tells you?

The things that you are naturally drawn to are often connected to your soul's purpose We may have been conditioned to dismiss our natural inclinations as impractical,

Unrealistic,

Selfish.

Pay attention to what captures your attention without effort now.

The subjects that fascinate you for no logical reason.

The activities that make you lose track of time.

The people and places that feel like home instantly.

The creative expressions that flow through you naturally.

And the causes that are close to your heart without personal benefit.

Now these may not be random interests.

They are your soul's breadcrumbs leading you to your authentic path.

But your mind,

The society can often dismiss these saying that's not practical,

You can't make a living from that,

You need to be realistic.

Now your soul doesn't need to care about the practicality in the same way your conditioning does.

Your soul only cares about joy,

Expression,

Purpose and authenticity.

And when you follow what genuinely draws you even when it doesn't make logical sense you are following your soul's navigation system.

Trust what calls you even when others don't understand it.

Especially when others don't understand it.

Now seeing what you are seeing,

Feeling what you are feeling,

Receiving what you are receiving.

Rest in the knowing that you don't need to become anything other than what you already are.

You don't need to fix yourself to be worthy of love.

You don't need to solve all your problems to start living fully.

You are already whole,

You are already enough and you are already exactly what you are supposed to be.

A soul exploring what it means to be human.

I imagine approaching your human challenges from this soul's perspective.

Instead of saying I have problems that prove I am broken maybe today we try I am having experiences that are teaching me something.

How would you relate to your difficulties if you knew they were simply part of your soul's adventure?

How would you make decisions if you trusted your soul's guidance over other people's and society's expectations?

What would you choose today if you were not trying to fix yourself but simply expressing what you are?

Now this doesn't mean that you ignore practical matters or never work on personal growth.

It simply means you approach these things from a place of wholeness rather than brokenness from curiosity rather than urgency and from love rather than self judgment.

You can take care of all your human needs while remembering your soul's nature.

You can engage with healing and growth while knowing you are not broken and you can work with your challenges while maintaining perspective about what they mean.

Now as we prepare to close consider how your life might change if you truly embody this understanding.

Instead of asking what's wrong with me you might ask what is my soul trying to experience through this?

Instead of forcing yourself into societal molds you might trust your authentic inclinations and desires.

Instead of seeing every challenge as evidence of your brokenness you might see them as part of your soul's curriculum.

Instead of trying to fix yourself into acceptability you might just express your true nature and attract what's actually meant for you.

Remember the path that the society has prescribed house,

Kids,

Job,

Marriage,

Success,

Is just one option amongst infinite possibilities.

It's not wrong but it's not mandatory either.

Breaking free from conditioning requires tremendous courage and it means questioning everything you've been taught about life and how life should be lived.

It means distinguishing between what you actually want and what you think you should want.

Your soul might be calling you towards unconventional relationships or ways of loving,

Creative expression over traditional career success,

Travel and exploration over settling down,

Spiritual seeking over material accumulation,

Service to others over personal advancement and maybe solitude over constant social engagement.

And none of these inclinations are problems to be fixed.

They are your soul's guidance about what it came here to explore as you.

The things that draw you,

That call you without explanation,

That make you feel most alive,

They're not distractions from your real life.

They are your real life.

Now have the courage to follow what genuinely calls to you even when it doesn't fit the script.

Have the courage to disappoint people in service of your soul's authenticity.

Have the courage to find your own truth even when it contradicts everything you've been told.

Your soul didn't incarnate to live someone else's version of a good life.

It came to live your version of an authentic life.

Now,

As we begin to close knowing,

Trusting and believing that anything you were aligned with today,

Anything you resonated with today,

You have received that on a conscious and a subconscious level.

Place both your hands on your heart and feel the eternal expansive being that you are.

The one that existed before you had any problems and the one that will continue to exist after all your current challenges have been resolved.

You're not your problems.

You're not your conditioning.

You're not your struggles.

You're a soul infinite eternal whole having a limited temporary human experience that includes challenges,

Growth and also what we call problems.

But these experiences are not who you are.

They're just what you're going through.

You don't need fixing.

You need remembering.

You don't need to become whole.

You need to recognize the wholeness that you already are.

So the next time you catch yourself thinking what's wrong with me?

Try asking instead what is my soul experiencing right now?

And the next time you feel pressure to confirm to expectations that don't fit,

Remember your soul has its own unique agenda and it's perfectly valid.

You came here not to solve yourself like a puzzle but to experience yourself like a miracle.

Now when you're ready you can gently open your eyes returning to your human experience while carrying the knowing of what you truly are.

I am not my problems.

I am a soul having a human experience.

My challenges are temporary experiences.

I trust my soul's guidance over society's expectations.

I am already whole,

Already enough and already exactly what I'm meant to be.

So thank you everyone for listening and Namaste.