Exercise:
Moving Fully into Now: Breaking the Hold of Past Life Vows
Summary:
Removing Constraints
from Vows Taken in Past Lifetimes
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Background:
Vows are sacred words that we speak to God. Generally,
they involve our agreement to "do good things" as well as "not to
do bad things". Depending upon the wording of the vow and the
intention we held in our heart while making it in past lives, these
"sacred promises of the past" may have been carried through many
past lives right into our life now.
At best, these vows may simply be no longer serving us.
At worst, these vows may be actively interfering in our lives now by
keeping us from being all we can be today. Since all time is now, the
good news is that you can unload the baggage from past life vows you
no longer need to carry. If your Higher Self has led you here, it means
that you have fully experienced the outcomes of your action in taking
the vows and you are ready to let them go. All you need to do is ask.
Goal:
This exercise will help you to break the energetic hold on
your life today caused by vows you have taken in past lives. If you
life is not the way you would like it to be and you feel that "something
inside" is "somehow" holding you back, you owe it to yourself to consider
that this may well be past life vows.
Signs of a past life vow problem are: a> If you have tried
affirmations with a persistent and sincere effort with no result.
b> If you are acting in ways that you know are not in your best
interest but you just "cannot help it". And c> if you are acting
in ways that "do not make sense to you" in the context of your life
now.
Careful preparation is the key to the success
of this exercise.
1> Do this exercise at night after
you have taken a bath but before you have gone to bed. It
is best you do it when you will be able to sleep the next
day.
2> When this exercise is complete,
drink a full glass of water and then immediately cleanse
yourself. Good cleansing will vary depending on if you
are an:
"Air" person,
sweating in a sauna or steam room is good cleansing.
[MORE]
"Earth" person,
taking a mud bath is good cleansing.
[MORE]
"Fire" person,
sitting surrounded by lit candles is good cleansing.
[MORE]
"Water" person,
taking a long shower is good cleansing.
[MORE]
......For how to determine if you are Air/Earth/Fire/Water,
click here.
......For a list of recommended cleansing products,
click here.
3> Being comfortable is the key.
You can lie down (recommended) or sit up. If you opt to sit
up, you must be supported and feel fully relaxed and
comfortable.
......For more on "Relaxation Processes & Techniques",
click here.
4> Do this exercise in a peaceful
place where you will be completely quiet and undisturbed
for the entire session. This entire exercise should last
for NO longer than 30 minutes. Set an alarm to snap you
out of it should the session run longer.
5> Be patient with yourself in the
time to come. "Breaking Past Life Vows"
systems can be quite disorienting until the changes are
fully integrated. It is VERY powerful and it takes time
for the work that you have done on the inner bodies to be
reflected in your outer body ("as above, so
below"). If you are doing this process to effect a
change, then you should be fully prepared to expect a
change. You know the old saying: "Be careful what
you wish for, you might get it!"
1> Review the list below on how past
life vows can interfere with your life today and identify
which, if any, of these situations apply to you.
*
If none of them apply,
stop here, you are done.
*
If one or more of them apply,
then you will need to unwind each vow in turn. In other words, break
one vow's hold on you by focusing on it alone while you are doing this
exercise. It is best if you wait at least three weeks before tackling
another vow.
*
Generally speaking,
you will only need to do this exercise
only ONCE for each vow. However, if you have done it once but
the disempowering patterns from the vows persist in your
consciousness, go within and ask your guides how many times
you need to do this exercise to break the hold that the vows
have over you.
a>
Vows of Poverty/Anti-Materialism:
(Root Chakra)
Vows of poverty stem from underlying beliefs in both Western
and Eastern religions that "money is the root of all evil"
and "the material must be shed to enhance the spiritual".
Vowing a "life of poverty" is an act of faith that God will
support all his children's needs. And yet the easiest way
for God to do this is through the very money that those in
religious orders have foresworn. If you believe that "money
is bad" or that "spirituality and money do not mix", then it
is likely you are still being faithful to a vow of poverty -
this is the past life vow which most often causes present day
problems. Yet the truth is refusing money is like turning
your back on God's love for you. Show your love by using money
for the greatest good of everyone.
b>
Vows of Chastity/Sexual Abstinence:
(Sacral Chakra)
Vows of chastity (different than celibacy below) mean that one
shows their love for God by agreeing not to have sex.
"Worldly pleasures" selfishly takes one's attention off
of God. And yet God is the one who implanted sexual desire in
us to motivate us to reach out to another in love. Past life
vows of chastity manifest in your life in many ways: lack of
sexual desire, dysfunction like male "erectile disorder" and
female frigidity, bizarre sexual practices, etc. One of the
fastest ways we grow in love and awareness is through our
intimate relationships. For we need to really learn to love
one before we can learn to love all.
c>
Vows of Self Sacrifice/Abnegation:
(Solar Plexus Chakra)
Vows of self sacrifice ("I must sacrifice myself to help others")
have at their core vows of self abnegation ("I am nothing unless
I make such sacrifices"). And yet, relative to others, are you
not someone else who is worthy to be helped? And if you really
are nothing, are you saying that God made a mistake by creating
you as junk? Of course not. If you are the kind who helps
absolutely everyone else but yourself and if you think that you
are a "miserable bag of dung", then you have some serious self
abnegation that you must deal with.
d>
Vows of Celibacy/Separation:
(Heart Chakra)
Vows of celibacy (different than chastity above) mean that one
shows their love for God by agreeing not to have "a certain
special someone" in their life. The idea is that only true
relationship is with God and we honor our Creator by loving
everyone else equally. And yet, it is God who gave us
Soulmates
through whom we express the highest aspects of
ourself. Past life vows of celibacy manifest in your life in many ways:
sabotaging intimate relationships, fear of commitment, history
of abruptly ending relationships, etc. God means for us to have
others in our lives that love us. Denying ourselves this necessary
solace is the surest way to "stunt" our spiritual growth in greater
awareness.
e>
Vows of Silence/Voluntary Denial:
(Throat Chakra)
Vows of silence in the religious sense mean we commit ourselves
to communicating other than by the spoken word. Originally, sign
language was invented by monks to help them stop the "devil from
snaring their tongue" - only later was it used to help the deaf.
These vows of silence are not as harmful to us as those imposed
on us under threat of death (as in the case of Galileo who could
not teach his truth). Or those where we may have vowed never
to speak our truth again after dying from
torture. And
yet God did not give us minds or tongues if we were not intended
to use them. One of the things most needed for self growth is
self expression. For it is by our questions that we learn and by our
answers that we discover precisely how we need to "improve
ourselves" as we grow into Soul awareness.
f>
Vows of Suffering/Retribution:
(Third Eye Chakra)
Vows of suffering and retribution are among the most toxic that
are carried over from past lives. The myth underlying vows of
suffering is that the body-mind are impediments to spiritual progress
and must be "chastened, mortified, and delivered into submission".
Nothing is further from the truth: body and mind are the gateways to
the spirit: anything that impairs their proper functioning impairs the
connection to spirit (and can lead to undesirable behaviors like
Self Mutilation).
Just as vows of retribution ("May God 'get me' for what I do that is
wrong or what I fail to do that is right") can paralyze one into an
inactive, joyless existence (leading to undesirable problems like
Scrupulosity).
The truth is that God is all about love and joy, not suffering, and
only wants people to be mindful of the law, not panic stricken by it.
g>
Vows of Obedience/Humility:
(Crown Chakra)
Vows of obedience and humility mean that we agree to "give up our
own will and subordinate that to the Will of God". Yet problems with
obedience arise when it is totally blind: for if one believes that
"God's will is to destroy the infidel" and does so, those actions only
send more karma to future lives to be worked through. While problems
with humility arise when it is totally deaf: for if one believes that
they must "meekly follow" in a mission to harm others, it has the same
result. The truth is that "leaders" requiring blind and deaf
obedience do their "followers" no good service. Surrendering power to
another is as bad karmically as abusing power over others. Karma free
life means becoming both leader and follower at once in CoWorkership
with God by learning to balance "my will" with "Thy Will".
2> Take some deep, refreshing
breaths until you are totally comfortable and relaxed in
whatever position you have chosen (it should take you no
more than 3 minutes to get comfortable).
3> Close your eyes and envision the
energy chakra that you have selected for healing. Only you know
what is bothering you the most which is what to work on the first.
If you have no preference, you may get better results by starting
with the
Root Chakra
and working your way up to the
Crown Chakra.
4> Allow your inner guidance to show you how this
chakra became blocked by a vow in the past. Be ready to accept that
this block was there for a reason in the past and be open to the knowledge.
The more you resist the past knowledge or are "in judgment", the harder
it will be for you to "break" it's hold over your life today. For it is
your resistance now which gives the past life vow it's power over you.
5> Once you understand why you entered into the
vow in the past, ask to be shown how this vow has served you in your
life today. The truth is it only has power over you now because it
still serves you in some way. Maybe it keeps you safe. Or it is
teaching you how to tap more into your creativity. Perhaps it is
forcing you to look for alternatives that are "outside your comfort
zone" or better than you could have imagined. Thank
it for the lesson because you are ready to move on.
6> Envision a ball of white light (or whatever
color represents healing to you) in front of the chakra to be healed.
Visualize the energy of the vow moving out of your chakra and into
this healing ball as you make a new vow. It is vital that
you speak this new vow out loud for it is the sound of your voice
which gives this or any vow it's power in this universe (if you are
breaking vows of silence, SHOUT!).
7> Say aloud this new vow to the universe
with pride, enthusiasm, and passion:
"In the past,
I made a Vow of [fill in here the name of the vow that you made]. I
have learned much from this Vow [it would give you better closure to
repeat what you learned from the vow here]. Yet in the present and
for the future, I realize that this old Vow of [name old vow] now no
longer serves me. I now release this old Vow from my energy field and
my consciousness at all levels as well as all the limitations that it
has created in my life now. I now embrace a new Vow of [Abundance
substituting for Poverty, Creation for Chastity, Self Love for Self
Abnegation, Union for Separation, Expression for Silence, Joyful Living
for Suffering, and Trust for Obedience] and incorporate it into my
Beingness. I ask my guides to bring the new energies of this vow into
my life. I embrace the needed learnings and the wondrous changes that
this new vow will bring into my life. So be it, it is so."
8> Once this new vow is completed, release the
healing ball containing the old vow into the Universal Life Stream.
Fill your being with love as you watch the ball disappear into the life
stream. Do the
Reiki Heart Anchor
daily for three weeks to help the new
vow take hold in your being and transform your life.
Example:
Often blocks from past life vows
appear in your energy field appear as religious objects, like rosaries,
medals, icons, statues, etc. Know that by removing these items you are
NOT removing any of the valuable experiences that you gained while on
those paths. You are just eliminating false restrictions on your life
now that are keeping you from being all that you are meant to be today.
God wants you to live you life as a fully realized being and the only
way you can do that is to have open and flowing energy chakras. Dare
to be all you can be... do it now.
Credits: adapted from
an exercise shared by Robin Pearl Smith.