The 3 Origins of Suffering

Ancient Suffering

When life’s challenges persist despite logic and trying everything, the cause is most likely ancient. This ancient suffering is passed down from our ancestors, paternal and maternal bloodline, soul lineage, and past lives. All passed down to us through our DNA.

This is the non-optional inheritance that is part of the human experience. Nobody did anything wrong, but when parents consciously work on their ancestral issues, they pass down more blessings than challenges to their children.

This ancient suffering is our way of balancing something that happened in the past. These issues need to be looked at and reconciled for them to become blessings. Shamanic indigenous medicine and systemic family constellations are best suited to organize this level of consciousness.

This reminds me of a process I did for someone to explore the roots of their financial suffering. This person could not hold down a job, and the business they were running on the side was not working either. The family had similar financial suffering, so it was clear the root of this financial fate was coming from somewhere deep within their lineage. Our process revealed financial karma that happened at the great grandfather’s level reverberating in the lineage forward and impacting everyone.

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Present Suffering

Present suffering is two-fold. It’s all the traumas we go through in our current life – abuse, abandonment, death, racism, sexism, illness, poverty (the list is endless). And the impact it leaves on our brains, thinking, perceiving, and feelings.

The actual underlying roots of these challenges can be ancient. But the impact alters our brain chemistry and locks us internally in that traumatic state. Healing these issues needs to be a twofold process. We need to resolve the underlying ancient roots of this suffering. And we need trauma healing techniques to rewire our brain and liberate our nervous systems from the damaging effects of trauma.

Some of the many impacts of trauma include – brain fog, dysregulation, disorientation, dissociation, difficulty making decisions, distorted thinking, flight/freeze responses, distorted love and attachment styles, internal panic and fear, distrust, lack of boundaries, codependency, difficulty concentrating, failures, developmental deficits, and an overall lack of joy and purpose to life. The earlier the suffering starts in life, the more significant the impact.

I remember working with someone who had changed a few therapists because they felt she wasn’t putting in the effort and perhaps was not ready for change. The real problem was that her brain was so foggy from the impact of her troubled childhood that dissociation was a survival response. We first addressed this impact, which slowly helped her stay present and allow change.

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Future Suffering

Every life has an evolutionary arc and a destiny to become who we were born to be. There is a quiet inner voice continuously guiding us towards that north star. If we stray too far away from our evolutionary track, something shifts abruptly to bring us back on course.

This can show up as sudden death of relationships, careers, and life plans. Or they can linger as constant unhappiness or challenges in a particular path. They are all signs that our choices do not align with our soul’s evolutionary track. This is an intervention from Grace. The suffering of this kind requires us to go inward, connect with our hearts and follow that quiet voice within.

Many years ago, I experienced traumatic abusive behavior from a spiritual organizer, which led me to leave that organization. For a while, that spiritual space felt misaligned, but I kept thinking that something was lacking in my faith. Processing that incident brought me to the Divine Mother’s feet and face to face with my wild sacred divine feminine. A whole new portal of spirituality opened for me. It was the right fit. I was home, and my heart blessed the suffering brought onto me by that organizer.

Lastly, there is also a shared aspect of collective suffering, but that is a topic for another time. For now, I hope this breakdown makes it easier to identify where our challenges fall and make informed choices.

Suffering, in general, asks us to go on a treasure hunt into our subconscious. We need to discern and heal the cause of our suffering. These journeys will be painful but will bring the necessary liberation and growth we need to make something beautiful of our lives.