If you are going to get onto The Path and stay on The Path, you have to recognize the invisible obstacles that keep getting in your way. To be on The Path you must learn to have your eyes wide open—to be awake. When you are asleep, metaphorically, you don’t know you are asleep. That’s the reason you keep making the same mistakes in your life, or forgetting to do the very things you know will help you. “What’s going on?” you say, as you keep doing it or not doing it.
It may be difficult for you to acknowledge that you are asleep with your eyes wide open or living in a partial trance. It may be easier if I refer to this as acting from a habit pattern or automatic behavior that keeps you from being awake or aware. But however I refer to it, the results are the same: You don’t have control over your life, and you have difficulty overcoming old patterns that don’t serve you. So, the first step in looking at your resistance is to recognize that much of the time you are not awake. If the goal of being on The Path is taking control and responsibility for your life, then you must be “response–able”—and for this, you must wake up!
Dr. Stephen Sideroff is an internationally recognized expert in resilience, optimal performance, addiction, neurofeedback and alternative approaches to stress and mental health. He is Assistant Professor in the Department of Psychiatry & Biobehavioral Sciences at UCLA’s School of Medicine, as well as the Director of the Raoul Wallenberg Institute of Ethics. www.drstephensideroff.com