This article by Sandra Veronika Gross was originally published in the Sanathana Sai Sanjeevini Newsletter in August 2024. It is based on my talk at the Sanjeevini Annual Conference 2024, you can watch a video excerpt here.
At this year’s Sanjeevini Annual Conference, experiences and insights on the theme of education and human development were presented. The talk “Education Towards the Self” explored which view of the human being enables us to develop compassion for ourselves and others and to act according to the five human values of love (Prema), truth (Sathya), right conduct (Dharma), peace (Shanti) and non-violence (Ahimsa), and which thoughts, feelings, behaviours or problems can hold us back from this.
The occasion for transformation
Our Higher Self accompanies us throughout our entire life, whether we are aware of it or not. The urge to change our life or to shift our perspective is often initiated by the Higher Self. A crisis or conscious reflection can move us towards transformation when we want to change something in our life.
Transformation is often triggered by problems or challenges that we cannot solve with our usual means. Through negative thoughts in the situation, negative beliefs, negative emotions or behaviours that do not correspond to the human values, the challenges cannot be resolved. With positive actions and a new perspective, it then becomes possible to solve the problem. In this way people grow inwardly through their challenges, their sense of self-worth is strengthened, and a positive transformation of their personality for the better becomes possible.
But how do we get there with ease? My suggestion is to walk two paths at the same time: (1) healing the programming from childhood and (2) cultivating a practical, consistent and conscious spirituality in everyday life.
Healing the programming from childhood
Our personal self is shaped by childhood experiences, karmic imprints or patterns from the ancestral line. In childhood we experience situations that shape our emotional body. Many believe that the emotional body is formed again just as it was left in the last incarnation. Unresolved problems return in this life so that we can grow and transform negative traits. A person for whom anger, for example, was part of their personality would, according to this teaching, come into situations in this life where they must find a new solution, without the anger. It is fine to be annoyed occasionally, as long as we do not harm others, do not hold on to this emotion and do not let it become part of our personality. There are of course many other reasons for childhood experiences, which will not be explored further here.
Unconscious and conscious programming in adulthood often has its origin in childhood, from beliefs taken over from the family, to smaller hurts, all the way to severe traumas. We can gain clues to the programming of childhood through self-reflection. For example, we can ask ourselves: When do we react emotionally? Where do we constantly criticise ourselves? Are there specific triggers for behaviours we do not want? Why do I keep running into the same kind of problems?
An example from my practice: at 40, a client still slept with the light on and suffered from breathing difficulties and heavy coughing under stress. He could not stop smoking. In a meditative state he came to the cause of the problem: while playing, his father had almost suffocated him with a blanket, which triggered a coughing fit. At that, the father stopped. The subconscious stored the information that coughing brings relief in moments of great stress. Through regression and the visualisation of the same experience with a different, positive and non-traumatising outcome, the memory was rewritten, so that there was no more danger, and therefore no more need for the subconscious to protect my client through coughing.
Unmet childhood needs and traumas can therefore later create emotional patterns and emotions that block the connection to the Higher Self. The goal is to release them, so that we can receive the stream of consciousness of our Higher Self ever more clearly and it increasingly permeates our life and our personality. Put differently, one could also say that the pure stream of consciousness from our innermost being, our divine spark, cannot express itself fully in us.
Cultivating a practical, consistent and conscious spirituality in everyday life
Transformation comes more easily when, alongside conscious healing, we live a practical, consistent and conscious spirituality in everyday life. The following methods can help strengthen the connection to the Higher Self and nurture our own spirituality:
- Taking pauses: When emotional reactions or rumination arise, change the channel and do something positive, such as breathing exercises, stretching or reciting a mantra. A few minutes are enough; it is not necessary to go straight to a 90-minute yoga class.
- Practising gratitude: Gratitude is the opposite of fear. We can only be grateful for things that are already here and now, and they are positive. Gratitude is also a powerful tool for manifesting positive change. It is important to imagine that what you wish for is already in your life. For the subconscious there is no difference between past, present and future.
- Blessing your life and its circumstances: Everything you bless that is negative becomes positive. Everything that is positive becomes even more positive. Through the regular practice of blessing, a deep feeling of connectedness with the universe can arise.
- Regular mindfulness, meditation and devotion: Mindfulness brings us into the present moment, meditation focuses the mind, and devotion leaves the outcome to the Divine.
- Prayer: Prayer is a simple and powerful tool for easing worries. It can strengthen trust, confidence and acceptance and give someone the confidence and inner peace they need to meet their challenge better.
The connection between healing and spirituality
The more we attend to our personal healing while at the same time leading a committed and spiritual life, the more we can observe how we develop step by step. We solve problems we might otherwise have closed our eyes to, or even escaped from into a pseudo-spirituality. For practitioners and clients it is important to find the healing method that corresponds to the client’s consciousness and can bring about the greatest possible positive transformation. The Sanjeevini healing method offers an effective way to heal the causes of problems in a spiritual way.
For a complete transformation, both healing and spiritual practice are necessary. This approach on several levels at once makes it possible to heal negative emotions and behaviours from within, to develop a deeper connection to the Higher Self and to reach an ever higher spiritualisation of life in a natural way. It is important to recognise that there is not a spiritual life and a worldly life, as if these were two different things. We want to work towards aligning our daily life and our personality ever more with spiritual values, and to do so effortlessly. Our spiritual life and our worldly life serve us most when we see them as one.
Sandra Veronika Gross
If these topics speak to you
If, while reading, you noticed that a pattern or recurring challenge of your own is on your mind, I would love to talk with you.
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