Prosperity is normal. Getting healthier and happier is the natural way. Prosperity isn’t necessarily riches or lack of suffering, but it is certainly joy and immense satisfaction. The human organism is genetically wired to prosper above all else. The goal of evolution is prosperity, and we are wired to evolve: to survive, adapt, flourish, and prosper. Many of us are not accustomed to prosperity simply because we got stuck in survival somewhere along the way in our evolution journey. The getting stuck in survival part happens more frequently in our minds than it does in our physical circumstances because most of us don’t live in situations where our survival is really at stake. But we react to life as if survival is at stake; especially in our thoughts and feelings. Survival-thinking is useful, but only when survival is actually at stake.
The pathway to prosperity is transformation. Transformation is often treated like it’s unusual, a blip in the screen. When we meet someone who’s completely changed her life, we make her into a hero or saint and keep telling ourselves most people never change. But transformation is as much a part of daily life as eating and drinking. It’s one of our most basic and primal abilities, a foundational pattern of all life in this universe. Making healthy life changes has an addictive quality to it, because prosperity builds on itself. It all works and feels so much better, so we want to keep finding ways of making healthier decisions. Transformation becomes a hobby and a habit.
We don’t get healthy because we learn to identify with disease as if it’s more normal than health. I speak mostly of the disease of a suffering, spiritually confused mind. We lose ourselves in disease-based identities, and disease-based ways of coping. I used to have a disease-based worldview, seeing myself as disordered with anxiety or tainted by the evil of sin. This kept me from healing and from prospering because every attempt at getting better was just another variation of disease, another version of disease-oriented thinking and living. The problem was in my understanding of myself. I didn’t realize that I was not the problems I was experiencing. I am not anxiety or poverty, nor am I prosperity or happiness. But I had to be able to let myself go, to let go of my entire identity – my whole notion of who I am – to be able to separate myself from my problems.
Transformation occurred easily once I let the parts of myself go that were attached to problems, for they were not actually parts of myself. They were created as ways of living and being in response to challenging situations I had to face. Nothing defines me ultimately, not even my body or personality. If anything defines me, it is life, which is the power of evolution unleased to take my problems and create prosperity through transformation. Living in transformation is my new normal.
If you would like to work with me to transform your trauma into the place of your power and fulfill your potential, schedule a Free Transform Trauma into Power Session. In this session, my intention is to help you gain clarity and support, learn a few powerful suggestions, and see whether one of my Coaching Programs is a good fit for you.
Do you feel psychologically traumatized by religion, or isolated and disempowered by trauma and limiting beliefs in your life? I’m Andrew Jasko, Master of Divinity (M.Div.), M.A., Counseling Psychology in progress, and I work to help you transform your trauma into the place of your power and connect to a healthy, authentic spirituality that works for you (whether that’s as a spiritual, atheist, religious, transitioning, or agnostic identifying person). I was born into a minister’s family and became a preacher and missionary to India, after studying theology at Wheaton College and Princeton Seminary. As a Christian, my relationship with God was my passion, but unhealthy religious teachings caused me an anxiety disorder, sexual repression, and spiritual disillusionment. I felt alone, traumatized, and abandoned by the divine. After an agonizing crisis of faith, I rejected religion and spirituality. Then, I had an unexpected spiritual awakening through mystical and spiritual practices like meditation, psychedelics, and connecting my heart’s desires and intuition through my Divine Mindfulness practice. My passion is to help you in your spiritual or life transition to heal and connect with your authentic spiritual wholeness.
BOOK ME TO SPEAK: andrew@lifeafterdogma.org about healing religious trauma and psychology, spirituality and mental health, interpreting the Bible through a mystical, nondual lens, psychedelics, and other topics. I also provide consultations for therapists and ministers and speak on podcasts and video channels.
