LIFE QUESTIONS

How to Get Out of Compulsive Mental and Emotional Patterns?

Stuck in an emotional rut and can’t seem to find a way out? Deepen your understanding of compulsive patterns in life as Sadhguru reveals all about the cycles that threaten to enslave us.

Same Old Cycles, Only the Scenery Changes

Questioner: The same kind of emotional patterns keep happening to me repeatedly. How can I come out of them?

Sadhguru: It is good that at least you noticed the same patterns are repeating themselves. Most people do not even see that. They keep repeating the same cycles in different scenery, and they think they are okay. Life’s scenery will change. Maybe some rubbish happened to you when you were in school. The next time it happened, you were in college, so the scenery was different. Another time, you were in a job. The next time, you were married. But if you observe your life closely, the same things keep happening. That means you are going in circles.

If you are looking at human life as just the body, it is going to the grave. If you exist here only as a physical entity, life will be play, then it becomes pleasure, then it becomes so many other things, then every joint hurts, and then it gets terrified because it is coming to an end. This is the progression of physical life. But our fortune is that we are not just physical – we have other dimensions to us.

Our fortune is that we are not just physical – we have other dimensions to us.

Your mental and emotional status can either continue to grow, or it can go in circles. You may not be aware of other dimensions yet, but even there, you can either go in cycles or you can go somewhere. When you say, “my life is going in cycles,” you are essentially talking about the situations around you, and more than that, your own mental and emotional states.

The Blessing of Being a Woman

Some of the ladies may observe this better than the men because their mental and emotional cycles are shorter. Every month, at a certain time, many of them go through repetitive mental and emotional states. A physiological situation is creating a psychological situation. This is something that they can clearly notice.

Unfortunately, men do not have menstrual cycles. I am saying “unfortunately” because if there was such a strong reminder, they would not miss it. Men’s cycles are of a different kind, so they can close their eyes to them and go through life without noticing them. Women are blessed because they cannot miss it. Men have to be much more aware. The strong reminder that is there in the female body is not a curse – it is a blessing if you know how to use it.

Any volatile situation is a possibility for change. When there is a set process, you cannot change things so easily. But when there is a periodic destabilization of the system, there is a great possibility for change.

Understanding the Cyclical Nature of Existence

Everything is cyclical. The Earth is going in cycles; the Moon is going in cycles. The longest cycle that is happening here is 144 years. Once in 144 years, certain things happen in the solar system for which we have the Maha Kumbh Mela. The next cycle is twelve-and-a-quarter years. The others are much shorter. There are three-year, eighteen-month, and sixteen-month cycles. Depending upon how unaware, unstable, and unfocused you are, you become available to those cycles.

Astrology is trying to tell you how these cycles bind you. Spiritual process is telling you how you can get away from these cycles.

If you are completely scattered, you become available to the smallest cycle. If you are a little focused, you become available to longer cycles. But everyone is subject to these cycles. If you do not stand up with a certain level of awareness, determination, and a sense of going somewhere, you will naturally become a part of the cycles. These cycles can mean either bondage or transcendence. That depends on who you are.

The difference between astrology and spirituality is just this: Astrology is trying to tell you how these cycles bind you. Spiritual process is telling you how you can get away from these cycles. We are not denying the cycles. The cycles are definitely there, but we are looking at how you can slip away from these cycles.

If you live by the cycles, being conscious of the cycles, your life will have a certain equanimity, success, wellbeing, and prosperity. If you are constantly looking at how to become free from the cycles, you are looking for your liberation. Are you looking for just wellbeing, or are you looking for liberation? That is the question. You must live accordingly.

Learning to Ride the Cycles

If your life is going in cycles, you are not going to reach anywhere. It is time to change the pattern. I want you to observe whether it is happening monthly, once in three months, once in nine months, once in sixteen to eighteen months, once in three to three-and-a-quarter years, or once in twelve years. Whether you are able to notice it or not, it is happening. It is not just happening with your mental and emotional situations; it is so uncanny that even physical situations around you repeat themselves.

If it is manifesting every three months, we can push it to nine months; if it is manifesting every nine months, we can push it to eighteen months; we can push it to three years, twelve years, or 144 years. Above all, instead of trying to dodge these cycles, we can ride these cycles.