BY PRIYA ALI
In life everything goes through a cycle, hence the term the cycle of life. It starts with conception, whether it be of human life, a plant, an animal or an idea. It ends with completion whether that be death or the idea or project coming to an end. Cycles are repetitive but always have room for change. Many of us are caught up in a cycle that we don’t even know about, the generational cycle.
Through our physical and spiritual DNA, we carry characteristics and genetics of our ancestors. You will see families that have generations that go through cycles of poverty, cycles of lack of education, cycles of abuse, cycles of wealth, cycles of successful business and more. In this case we keep using the same material and while it may look different from the last generation’s experience, it’s always the same core issue being recycled from generation to generation.
It can be very useful to look at the challenges you are facing in your life cycle and explore similarities in the lives of your parents, grandparents and great grandparents if you can. By doing this, it empowers you to become what I refer to as a “cycle breaker”. As Albert Einstein said, “the definition of insanity is doing the same thing over and over and expecting a different result”.
The first step to cycle breaking is awareness, you can’t change what you don’t know. The second step to breaking the cycle is to start doing simple things differently. Get up on the other side of the bed, brush your teeth with the opposite hand, take a different route to work. This will assist you with telling your brain and cellular memory that it needs to wait for instruction rather than continue on auto-pilot like it’s used to.
Once you begin to shake things up, start looking at the areas of your life that you would like to improve. Pay attention to the thoughts you hold, the cliché sayings you quote, the actions you choose in these areas. Begin to research or imagine what it would be like to have your ideal situation in this area of your life. You may hear a little nagging voice from within, that reminds you of how it never worked for any of your family members and why it won’t work for you. Kindly, but firmly, tell that voice to “shut up” and redirect your thoughts and inside voice back to your ideal situation.
Be gentle with yourself in terms of timeframes for results. These cycles have generations of energy and momentum behind them, it may take some time to break them. You may fall off the cycle wagon, but once you realize it, just get back on track. To keep yourself motivated, remind yourself that the benefits of cycle breaking will not only touch your life but the lives of your children or future children and all future generations to come. Be a cycle breaker.
