As the saying goes, you announce your plans and God laughs. This is the way it’s always been and unless your plans are part of your fated path, no amount of creative visualization will allow you to side-step your unique, predestined framework. This includes the life circumstances and events you were born to experience. You can’t just skip them, no matter how much forgiveness you express or inspiration you generate.
We applaud you for striving for your goals and dreams to make the most of your life.
However, believing that you’re above cosmic law with the help of “conscious creation training,” for example, only sets you up for disappointment.
How to Escape This Trap
Your first step in avoiding this trap is to acknowledge that unavoidable personal adversity exists.
Yes, you have free will to make the most of undesirable circumstances, but you can’t just hit the delete button and make them go away. Everyone endures varying degrees of unique life afflictions.
Examples typically include the following: early life abuse leading to serious subconscious and oppressive fears; hard to break habits or even addiction related to over-indulgence greatly hindering your progress in life; being financially trapped in a marriage from which you can’t escape; limited resources with burdensome responsibilities and little extra time to learn other skills; lack of intelligence or wherewithal to remove one’s self from a restrictive environment; physical handicaps prohibiting upward mobility; serious illness draining resources and blocking the ability to apply one’s self toward success; or heavy family obligations such as one or more problem children or an ailing parent who demands your constant attention and support.
Some of these things are commonly referred to as “accidents of birth,” and the others are circumstances in which one may become unavoidably ensnared. No amount of trying to “make the right choice” seems to change anything.
By the way, embracing the literal meaning of the term “accidents of birth,” in our opinion, is a point of view that denies the eternity of the soul, reincarnation, karma, and predestination. It’s a victim mentality (or mere resentment of those born under more favorable life circumstances) and a refusal to acknowledge personal accountability beyond what you can see, feel, and touch in this lifetime. In our view, there are no real accidents of birth and there is no chance. Everything is the way it’s fated to be, and it’s up to you to make the most of it.
Next Step in Escaping This Trap
The next thing you must do is to know yourself, through and through. Coming to know your strengths, challenges, hidden fears and defenses, and your spiritual lineage (past lives, even if you only view them metaphorically, the insight is still very helpful) allows you to know who you are, where you’ve been, where you’re going, and with what you will likely be faced.
Thorough self-understanding allows you to formulate realistic goals that coincide with what you want and who you really are, within the framework of your unique karma and fate.
Follow the above advice and you’ll never get caught in this spiritual trap again.
Copyright © 2011 Scott Petullo, Stephen Petullo