How we can identify past imprints using present trigger events
In our last couple of articles, we have seen how we create imprints and how we create our reality through our imprints or how we start looking at life through the lens of our imprints. Just as a recap, imprints are strong impressions left in our subconscious by our past experiences. As can be easily understood, we can change our present reality, if we clear these past imprints from our subconscious. But we first need to identify what is in our subconscious content that is creating the present challenge. It is a bit like groping in the dark, our subconscious mind is a hidden land for all of us. But there is definitely a way out.
With so many thoughts in mind, we get a doubt if we will ever be in a position to get back to a place of inner peace. We are always under an impression that we will never be in a position to control our mind, but the mind will always control us. Till the time, we strongly believe it, it will remain our truth. Theoretically, we all know and understand that we are the master and mind is our servant, it has to do what we order to do. But practically, we find it is not so easy, we have become servant to our servant and made our mind master. We also believe that mind will be controlled if we get into some meditation practices. So the question we face next is, do we need to learn those practices now, to control mind and only then we can work on these imprints. Not necessarily, meditation does help a lot, however, we can clear the imprints from our subconscious mind which are creating our today's reality that is keeping us away from peace with much ease, without getting into many and tough meditation practices.
Before we start clearing the imprints, we first need to identify what is imprinted on our subconscious that is throwing up challenges now. For this, there are three must haves: (1) Commitment to Self, (2) Authenticity (honesty) and (3) Vulnerability (being open to face pain). Anyone who wants to work on the imprints must be completely, totally committed to Self, to honour their own feelings, to value themselves and their wellbeing. Second, they must be authentic or completely honest with their feelings, he/she should be able to accept “this is exactly how I feel”, not try to escape from painful feelings. That brings us to the last item - vulnerability, or being open to face the painful emotions. This may look like a very difficult thing, but if we want to escape from pain, we cannot work around the challenges in life. It is like bearing the pain of an injection to get over the pain of a wound. Without having these three prerequisites, it is impossible for any individual to identify anything from their subconscious mind.
So what are the key tools for identifying what imprints are there in our subconscious content? There are two critical tools - trigger events and triggered feelings. Life would be so much more easier if we had a readymade list of imprints but I fear, we may not get such a list. Even Google will not be much of a help to us in this matter :) The best option is to look for trigger events. Triggers are literally what triggers you in your day to day events. I am sure you may have faced a situation or a person which repeatedly makes you react strongly with painful emotions. In such situations, you find you are not able to respond with appropriate action or behaviour. You can consider this as a trigger. The pain is so intense because it is from the past. A trigger is simply a current situation we have created in our life today based on the imprints in our subconscious mind. The feelings or emotions that are triggered in this trigger situation will give us key to our past imprints.
Most of the process is carried with the help of subconscious mind rather than the conscious mind. This is because all the imprints are from our subconscious. Subconscious records all the events along with the emotions and has the capability to reproduce the events along with the emotions. Emotions are more powerful than thoughts. Conscious mind may not be in a position to reproduce the emotions along with the events. And, the good news is you don’t need to see a hypnotherapist to identify imprints, you can do it for yourself. Let us look at an example how it works,for an easier understanding.
There is a client of mine who had some issues with his immediate manager regarding work, although they shared a cordial relationship outside of workplace. One evening, while they were going back home, they wanted to stop by for a drink and casual discussion. The discussion turned towards challenges at work and suddenly the entire discussion was taken over by the boss. He started reciting a big list of issues and even put down this guy saying he can never be a successful person in life. This has come as a shock to my client and he was terribly upset, the manager always rated him as exceeded expectations or met expectations. He just couldn’t respond to his boss in any manner whatsoever. He came to me in a panic the very next day. He was almost in tears for all that his boss said. More importantly, he felt devastated, he couldn’t respond appropriately to the situation, standing up for himself.
We used the situation as the trigger event and started working on identifying the past imprints that gave rise to this situation. I asked him to revisit the event in his mind while we did some calming exercise to allow his subconscious mind to help him. I asked him to ask himself, what is the core painful feeling that came up when he reacted to his boss’s comments. After a little probing, we could unearth the most painful feelings as "I am not good enough for my job" and “I can never do well in life”. There is a lot of suppressed anger and sadness behind these two statements. So these two are the triggered feelings in his case.
Whenever we encounter such an event, we generally blame the other person as responsible for painful emotions within us. What we need to realise is, it's not about anyone who is outside of us, it’s always about what is within us that gave rise to these painful emotions. That part within us needs be addressed. So how do we identify what is in his past that had created this situation for him now?
We now asked his subconscious to take him to the very first event in his life, where he felt exactly like this for the first time in his life. He recollected an event when he was a small child of 6 or 7 years, where he was in school and his teacher asked him to do some task. He couldn't do this and the teacher had to handhold him a couple of times. He later completed the task but with some flaws in it. His teacher was so unhappy with him, she told him he is “not good enough" and “he will never be among the best in class”. He could immediately connect to the same anger and sadness in the present situation. Could you ever think that we can take our teacher’s words so seriously and hold them back at subconscious level for so long and create an unpleasant reality out of it?
We could get to the imprints only because we started working with subconscious mind. If my client was using his conscious mind, he would have complained about his boss and how dare he say such things about him or degrade him. We had to understand which part of his life these feelings of “I am not good enough” and “I can never do well in life” came up from. If he is asking conscious mind to take him to the linked event, it may come up with many events that may not be relevant. We will never know about what is hidden in our subconscious unless we face something that hurts us today. Only when the real feeling in the current situation can be felt fully, it provides us the key for the past event that may have been forgotten consciously. The current events and feelings play a major role in identifying the imprints in our subconscious memory. These two go hand in hand and cannot operate without each other. Ignoring any one or both may not serve the purpose of clearing the imprints. That’s the importance of triggers in identifying past imprints in our subconscious mind.
Once we integrated his entire experience through acceptance, I asked him to relook at the entire discussion with his boss. He said it feels okay to him now. He felt his boss is expressing his opinion which he is not ready to buy anymore. Does it mean that after the exercise, my client’s boss would stop saying anything to my client? He may not. His boss may again tell him that “he is not good enough”, however, my client would not react to what his boss is saying so. He would be able to respond to the accusation with an appropriate reply.
How does this small exercise change how he sees his present reality? if you have seen those air conditioners in our houses and offices, the chilled air is thrown a few feet away from the AC. The surrounding air remains cool for sometime. In a similar way, the energy which we have been radiating into the Universe through our subconscious mind may be effective for the next few days or weeks. How long the effect of that energy lasts, will depends on the intensity of impression. But after a while, the energy patterns change and a new reality will be created. My client’s boss might change his attitude towards him or may be my client would get a promotion and move up the ladder or he may move away from the present company. These are many possibilities. Whatever reality he chooses to create now, he will remain much happier than his earlier days. He could now get back to peace much quickly than earlier.
So we have seen how a trigger event can lead us to the past impressions that need to be cleared. When you face any challenge today did you even dream it is anyway linked to any of your past experience? But let me assure you, all of them are linked to the past. It is in fact the past painful experience that is creating the present situation. We did not want to face the pain in our past, so we just pushed all painful experiences into the background of our mind. We think we can just forget about them. But they keep acting as imprints to trigger more such painful situations in the future.
By letting go of past imprints, we start feeling more peaceful and spacious from within. But before letting go of them, the first step is to identify them. Believe me, you will feel a very tangible spaciousness inside of you once you start this process. The process heals all the past pain from your subconscious right from the experiences you may have had while in your mother’s womb. You can start filling this cleared inner space with peace, love and joy. In fact, you do not have to do anything to fill with peace, peace just starts flooding into your inner space once the clearing is done. Life becomes more loving and much more worthwhile.
-Ramakrishna Maguluri
Engaging with Life
ELAI
engagingwithlife@yahoo.com