As someone who grew up with an acute sense of suffering, I know what it’s like to move through the ebs and flows of suffering. For me at times I felt expansive and in those times I could clearly see where I was going, but then something would inevitably trigger a mental shift within and I would be drawn into a place of suffering. Eckhart Tolle refers to this as the “pain body”. Unresolved emotional trauma from peak experiences (most often during adolescence), where we weren’t effectively supported, resulting in that emotional trauma being locked into our psyche. Richard C Schwartz refers to this, not as one pain body but as “parts” – exile, protector and manager parts. Regardless, it’s when a thought or incident triggers an unresolved emotional wound that the trauma releases energy into our body, taking over our attention and our consciousness. 

I felt that sense of suffering until around 35 (I’m now 45). It hurts and can drive all sorts of behaviour that’s unsupportive to our wellbeing. If you’re someone who experiences any sense of what I am talking about, then my heart goes out to you. 

For me the suffering was so acute that my primary goal in life was to heal it…  So I did. I don’t suffer anymore. But what I learned is that’s not the end game… quite the opposite, it’s just the beginning. Since then I’ve been exploring consciousness and experienced states I’m pretty confident in saying few have, but all can. I want this for others and hence the work I do with technology, meditation and other tools and techniques as part of iAMconnected.

We can heal ourselves <3 and then what?! 

Throughout this Consciousness Hacking series we’re going to talk a lot about emotional healing. Having unresolved emotional wounds limits our experience and holds us back from becoming what we can become. I’ll share with you some keys which helped me move beyond suffering and provide the foundation for going deeper into consciousness.  

One of the first keys is paying attention to what you believe. What do you believe? 

Our beliefs shape our reality (we’ll do a deep dive in coming hacks around beliefs, what they are, how they form and how we break and re-establish beliefs that support us to become what we can). What do you believe that contributes to your suffering or helps you to expand? 

Here are some of my key beliefs which formed and helped guide me out of suffering:

1. There was a point in time where everything that is known was a unified point, a singularity, everything was one… which 13.8 billion years ago in fractions of a second exploded in a big bang. Life has been evolving since that point, slowly at first and more rapidly now, up an exponential curve. Evolution is accelerating. 
2. We have the perception of being separate, but we are legitimately one. 
3. There is a broader intelligence guiding evolution, and as part of the one we can tap into and flow with it. When I feel most separated (which causes suffering) from this, is when I am in resistance to that unified intelligence.
4. Honouring the present moment is honouring the unified intelligence and connects me to the flow. 
5. The present moment will lead me to becoming the realisation of my greatest potential. A unique part of a greater whole. 
6. When broken down everything is energy. Energy can’t be created nor destroyed, it can only change forms, so effectively nothing is ever truly lost. We are that energy, so can we ever really die? 
7. The energy has an intelligence, some call it God,  I call it consciousness… It can be seen all around us in nature. I am that! I am an expression of consciousness, not separate, but connected as the underlying fabric of everything. I am that, we are all that!. 
8. Remembering who I am. I’m an energetic being, here having a human experience. I can be/feel both connected as one and seperate as one.
9. I have an avatar, a  human form (the most biological evolved technology on this planet), allowing me to have this human experience. Fun 🙂 
10. I am part of that broader intelligence… I am not my internal narrative… In this human form I have access to a mind and I have access to a body (like a VR kit and haptic suit – my avatar). The mind (constant stream of thinking, mental stories, emotions), is a tool to master and use to shape my 3 dimensional reality. Perhaps like a game or experience.
11. There are many places in my human experience where I have closed off my ability to feel, consciously / unconsciously because of unresolved emotional wounds. As I heal my wounds, I open back up to feeling again… feeling the energy that is all around me, that’s in me, that is me. This brings me into wholeness. 
12. Daily meditation connects me deeply into that flow of energy and so each day it forms part of my practice.

What do you believe? And does it serve your evolution?