You are trapped. Not in a physical cage, but in a mental one. Luckily, this is a cage of our own making, and we each possess the key to freedom.

The cage is made of our conditioned likes and dislikes. We think they are not conditioned, that they are natural, innate to us. But they are all conditioned, and they can be changed. 

I used to hate olives and cilantro. They made me throw up. Then one day, a friend told me how she grew to love a food she hated. I had never heard of this concept or knew it was possible. “Challenge accepted,” I thought. 

I kept eating both foods as much as I could stand — it was very gross at first. But today, they are two of my favorite foods. I’ve even heard on more than a few occasions that some people are genetically predisposed to hate cilantro, and they will never be able to change. It always makes me laugh.

Our likes and dislikes can swap. We can learn to love healthy foods, where we used to only eat processed foods. We can learn to love exercise, where it was once the last thing we’d ever want to do.

I also used to hate running. I couldn’t do it. The most I’d ever run in my life was one mile, and I could count the number of times on one hand that I’d been able to do it. It was so hard and arduous, that I thought there must be something wrong with marathoners. Well, last year I got really into walking. I was walking six to ten miles a day. I was getting quite fit. One day, I just had so much energy that I picked up the pace and found myself jogging. And I LOVED it. Today, I am obsessed with running. It is so fun and such a spiritual and mentally challenging activity (but you still won’t catch me at any marathons )

Not only can our likes and dislikes swap, but we can even let them both go. Instead of being for or against everything, we can just be with everything, becoming one with everything. This is true freedom. No longer does the outer world control us. No longer do our internal thoughts and feelings dictate our actions. This is the secret to breaking free.

If we look closely, we’ll notice that not only do displeasing things make us suffer, but even pleasing experiences generate feelings of craving and withdrawal. The key is to realize you are the hamster running on the hamster wheel. You can stop and get off anytime. 

Deep down, we think that we need to react to our mind — chase pleasure and resist pain — in order to succeed and acquire. But don’t growing pains lead to success?

So the question is, can we act to create change without the attachment to our likes and dislikes? The clear answer is, only then can we work without stress, love our challenges, and fully enjoy the pleasures of life.

Much love,
Todd

P.S. Here are a few other topics that I covered this week:

They Fought Like Hell for You to Be Here (Watch Here) Why Bad Things Happen to Good People? (Listen Here)

3. When Life Feels Out of Control (Read Here)

Path to Peace with Todd Perelmuter Newsletter Email JOIN

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