Learn a quick and easy technique to break free from the influence of your bad karma. Prefer to read? No worries, the transcript is below.
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TRANSCRIPT FOLLOWS
If it’s true that our bad karma can poison every area of our lives, from our careers to our relationships to, even, our health…it might be helpful to know how the heck do we get rid of it? In this video, that’s exactly what we’re going to explore.
Hi, it’s Eric Walrabenstein, and this month inside the BrightLife Yoga Collective, we’ve been talking all about karma…and more specifically, how you can change your own personal karma to completely change your life: Now, you might remember from the last video, we talked about your personal karma as being made up thousands upon thousands of bits of mental programming. This programming is called samskaras in yoga, and it all lives in the brain. Your samskaras are the source of your likes and dislikes, your fears and doubts, and even your confidence and clarity.
It’s why paying attention to your karma, even managing it, is so critical, at least, if we want to live the happy and empowered lives we’re meant to have. So, since that last video (and I’ll put a link to it in the description), so many of you have asked: what can we do about our bad karma, or said more specifically, how can we change our unhelpful samskaras.
Emphasis on “unhelpful” there because many of your samskaras ARE serving you, so, at the risk of stating the obvious, they’re the ones you want to keep. But for those nasty mental habits that you’d like send packing, I have a quick and easy first step. And here it is: Look AT your samskaras; not THROUGH them.
Let me explain. In the last video we talked about how samskaras are in many ways like the lenses on these glasses on my face.
When we look through them, they actually distort and change what we see.
Another way to say that, is that we're not seeing the world as it is, so much as we are seeing the world distorted by the lenses of our samskaras.
For example, when I look at a nice puppy dog through the lens created when I was attacked by a dog, I don’t see a friendly dog, I see danger and feel fear.
Or when I look at myself in the mirror through the lens created by my dominating father always criticizing me, I don’t see my amazing gifts, I see someone who doesn’t deserve love.
But to be clear, the danger and the inadequacy are not coming from reality, they are coming from the distorted lens of the samskara.
And of course, most of us have samskara after samskara stacked up from here to the next county.
For more on this, see my video on How your karma controls you. I’ll put a link to it at the end.
But here’s the real problem. And it’s a doozy. You see, while it’s true that all of us are looking through the lenses of countless samskaras, each and every one, to some degree, distorting what we see. Most of us don't even realize that we're looking through them. We actually think that we're seeing the world as it is. If you’ve ever wondered why you can watch the evening news and be absolutely outraged by what you see, when your friend thinks it’s the greatest thing since sliced bread….here’s your answer.
But here's another thing you should know, not only are your samskaras often invisible to you, they can also be incredibly powerful…with most of them having years if not decades of momentum behind them. That’s why they can sometimes seem impossible to change. And that's where our trick comes in.
Rather than going to war with our samskaras and trying to change them by wrestling them to the ground (something we can talk about in a future video). Here we’re simply interested in seeing the simple truth—that our perception is being altered…and that alone, can make a huge difference.
Something that scientific studies has actually proven.
For example, let’s say I have a samskara that says “I’m not good enough.” On most days, when I look through that samskara, I believe it. Even worse, it causes me to look for evidence of my not-good-enoughness, I obsess over any little the mistakes I make, I hear every piece of advice as a criticism, and I see every set back and proof of my inadequacy (all of which, by the way, is something psychologists call Confirmation Bias) But by whatever name, it’s something that ends up making my samskara’s lie seem like reality.
But today, instead of looking THROUGH the samskara, I look AT the samskara.
That way, when I look in the mirror, I can see my greatness AND the silly samskara that mistakenly thinks otherwise… “Oh, it’s you again. Do you have anything else do you have to say?”
Or maybe I have a samskara that came from a difficult divorce that says “I’ll always be alone.” And instead of looking through it making me feel down and lonely, I look AT it. “Hm, is that so?” And see it’s just a figment of my mind.
It's a super simple process, but it’s one that can help you take back control and start to see the world, and yourself more clearly. To perceive your own amazingness, to feel your personal power, to
This is one of the practices that helped me the most when I was struggling with my PTSD.
So, give it a try and let me know how it goes in the comments. I’m excited to hear how it works for you.
And, if you’ve found this video helpful, please do me a favor and hit the like button. It will help more people interested in living happier, more empowered lives to find this video.
Thanks for watching and I’ll see you in the next one. Until then, breathe deep, smile often, and remember, you’re amazing!
↓ JOIN MY PATREON COMMUNITY ↓ Get my best yoga and meditation practices sent to you each month when you become one of my Patrons. Learn more at the link below: ▸ www.patreon.com/ericwal ↓ JOIN THE BRIGHTLIFE YOGA COLLECTIVE ↓ Join an amazing community of yoga practitioners on a sacred journey through yoga's forgotten teachings and practices in the BrightLife Yoga Collective. Learn more at the link below: ▸ www.ericwal.com/collective