Browse published articles attributed to Benedikt Dommes, with full-archive search.
The Power of Simplicity There is a difference between simple and easy. The greatest things in life are all about simplicity. The most powerful recipe for manifesting the life of your dreams is also the simplest and consists of only two words: Be yourself.
What do we truly refer to when we speak of addictions? What do I mean when I say that I´m addicted to something, be it a substance such as nicotine, alcohol or heroine, or be it an activity, such as sex, gambling or work? What is the major driving force pushing me to addictive behavior? In my view it´s fear. Fear of what I´m feeling right now and what this might turn into. Fear of being open and vulnerable to life and everything that might be far beyond my control. Fear of the unknown. Fear of suffering. And finally, fear of dying.
Shame is an energy, something that we can feel and relate to, but we are not born with it. Shame at is foundation is made of ideas about ourselves that we took on and absorbed through the course of our lives. The essence of these ideas is always self-judgment: we judge ourselves or a part of ourselves to be wrong and false.
Indesiveness is born out of fear and insecurity. As long as I am in the grip of my fear and fear-based conversations, I will not be able to really honor myself. And without honoring myself, I will not have the courage to make decisions out of my true being. I am spiraling downwards into self-doubts and insecurity. I do not trust my intuition. I conform to the opinions of others and to what is generally accepted to be true and right. Fear, self-doubts and insecurity - all of that is not a problem.
The real secret of staying positive is to go beyond any effort to think or feel positively. Trying to keep your thoughts positive automatically creates inner conflict as you are approaching yourself and your way of thinking from a place of judgment and evaluation. Paying attention to your current focus of thought from a place of neutrality is far more powerful.
First myth: Allowing for my emotions creates suffering.
To accept out of love has tremendous power. It permits to reinvigorate stagnant energies, dissolves old pain and to open up to the infinity of your heart and being.
We don´t like to be vulnerable. We don´t like to be at the mercy of pain and sadness or any other intense emotion that runs through our body. We like to be in control of what we feel and experience, to defend ourselves whenever we are hurt, to appear strong and powerful. So we run from our pain, whenever we sense it coming. We try to outsmart our suffering by avoiding it as best as we can. What we don´t actually realize is that running away from our feelings is actually what causes us to suffer.
Many of us are living, but are not really alive. We do not truly live our experiences, but perceive them only through the veil of past impressions, thoughts and concepts. We are more at home in our constantly analysing and evaluating thinking processes than in our direct sensations. And by so doing, we disconnect from the beauty and magnificence that life has in store for us. Joy, happiness, love, peace are all vibrations of our hearts, that want to be felt and experienced at each moment of our lives. But only rarely do we allow ourselves to be really happy and fulfilled.
Are you ready to receive in each moment who you truly are? Are you ready to receive each moment in the fullness of your being? Are you ready to receive everything you´ve once rejected, because you deemed it bad and negative and feared that it would turn you bad and negative? And are you ready to receive the bliss that you rejected, because you considered it too magnificent and simple to be true for you or because fear told you it wouldn´t last forever?
What is true freedom for you? Does it mean to have the power to do whatever you want and whatever pleases you at every moment? Is it related to your finances, to the ability to afford whatever you want and desire? Does it mean not to be bound in any way, be it by your work, your partner, your children or anything else? Freedom, as I experience it, is an expression of Beingness. I feel freedom whenever I allow the truth of my being to shine through whatever I experience. I feel constricted, whenever I get caught up in resistance.
Fear is the number-one ingredient of any form of self-sabotage. And fear is a blessing. Fear is unconsciousness. And fear may be a wonderful gateway for conscious living. How do these seeming paradoxes fit together? Well, it all depends on how you approach and experience fear. It also depends on how actively aware you are of your fear at each moment that it holds you in its grip.
Whenever we speak of fighting, we generally refer to fighting through violence. Something is there menacing us in some way and we feel the need to crush and annihilate it. We may see this menace inside or outside of us. However, menace as a way of seeing and interpreting our reality always takes root within ourselves. Fighting that comes out of the feeling of being menaced, is always a way of reacting instead of responding. The difference? To react means to be governed by conditioned and automatic behavior.
Let us start with a little query: Are you tired of struggling? Then let me ask you another one: who or what is causing you to struggle in your life? Though you may not be fully aware of it right now, you are the source of everything that happens in your life. And whatever causes you to struggle originates from you.
Each one of us knows to what extent the human experience can be hard and painful. And most of us try to live our lives doing their best to avoid painful experiences and to look for those that feel pleasurable. We tend to forget that the more we try to avoid pain and run away from it, the more we actually suffer. And we end up being caught up in this way of experience.
The more you are able to open up inside, to you and your energy, to everything that wants to flow through you, the more your perceptions of the outside will change: your way of dealing with situations implying other people and the way you relate to them. Whereas surrender, receptivity and compassion are feminine aspects of your being, important masculine aspects are clarity and disce ment.
Time can be your friend or your greatest nemesis; a means for great experiences or deep suffering. Indeed does suffering require time. I can´t suffer without experiencing time as a reality and myself as a being subjected to time. If you really understand that what you are is beyond time, you access the key to find inner peace out of every form of suffering. Whatever it is that seems to disconnect you from fulfillment: You can leave illusion behind you at any moment and get back to the reality of your true Self.
Does it actually exist the key to a life in happiness and fulfillment? Can joy be at the base of my experience? Why are pain and heaviness so prevalent in our lives, even though everybody in essence wants nothing else but happiness? Joy, bliss and fulfillment are expressions of your true nature, your unlimited being that you are at your core. There is not a single moment in your life in which they are not available for you. Still we do not experience fulfillment at each moment. Why?