Karmic tail 3-7-22: Imprisoned soul

In this life

The first signs often appear at the table in childhood: the child tolerates only a small number of foods and refuses the rest. With adulthood, the restrictions multiply further. There may be a dependency, on food, on medication, or on alcohol. And if the person looks after their health without any of this, it is events that hinder their freedom to move around: a departure is being prepared, and a setback almost inevitably arises to ruin the plan. In the heaviest situations, daily life even depends on an indispensable course of medication or a device. However unlikely it may seem, the way out lies through acceptance and through developing the inner life. For freedom is not limited to the body: it also exists in the mind, in the heart, in the soul, and that is where it begins.

The lesson

The method says it plainly: what limits you only disappears if the person frees themselves. The idea is to take the body’s restrictions as a starting point, a reality to work with, and to invest one’s energy in spiritual growth rather than torment oneself over not being entirely free physically. When inner liberation is complete, unexpected answers arise in the face of difficulties. An improvement in health, or an exit from a dependency that has been in place for years, then becomes conceivable.

External causes restrict the person, but they themselves hesitate to own their decisions: they build barriers and frameworks for themselves, and never really feel at the controls of their own life.

The signals

• Responsibilities avoided
• Commitments not kept
• Feeling bound hand and foot by circumstances
• Barriers one puts up in front of oneself
• A relative who is incarcerated or ill
• Relationships of mutual dependence
• Fear of changing and of deciding
• Habits that have become dependencies
• Loans and debts
• People around you who manipulate
• A childlike attitude, refusing to grow up

You stop fighting every limit of the body: you recognize it as a starting condition. The energy once spent complaining about it goes to the spiritual life, to reflection, to self-knowledge. You tackle old dependencies with patience and suitable support, knowing that inner calm opens unforeseen ways out. Little by little, freedom is lived in the soul before it is lived in the body.

The steps

• Write down the physical limits you live with and accept them as a starting point
• Set aside a moment each day for a spiritual or inner practice
• Notice when frustration makes you suffer and bring your attention back inward
• Choose one old dependency to work on, with suitable support
• Note the unexpected solutions that appear