Breaking the Hold of Past Life Vows, Living Fully in the NOW

Exercise: Moving Fully into Now: Breaking the Hold of Past Life Vows

Summary: Removing Constraints from Vows Taken in Past Lifetimes

For Quick Access to This Exercise:

To get to the parts of this exercise you are most interested in viewing, click on the link below to go there. For best results, read through the entire exercise at least once.

Background on This Exercise
Goal of This Exercise
Preparation for This Exercise
How to Do This Exercise
Example of Exercise Results

Background: Vows are sacred words that we speak to God. Generally, they involve our agreement to “do good things” as well as “not to do bad things”. Depending upon the wording of the vow and the intention we held in our heart while making it in past lives, these “sacred promises of the past” may have been carried through many past lives right into our life now.

At best, these vows may simply be no longer serving us. At worst, these vows may be actively interfering in our lives now by keeping us from being all we can be today. Since all time is now, the good news is that you can unload the baggage from past life vows you no longer need to carry. If your Higher Self has led you here, it means that you have fully experienced the outcomes of your action in taking the vows and you are ready to let them go. All you need to do is ask.

Goal: This exercise will help you to break the energetic hold on your life today caused by vows you have taken in past lives. If you life is not the way you would like it to be and you feel that “something inside” is “somehow” holding you back, you owe it to yourself to consider that this may well be past life vows.

Signs of a past life vow problem are: a> If you have tried affirmations with a persistent and sincere effort with no result. b> If you are acting in ways that you know are not in your best interest but you just “cannot help it”. And c> if you are acting in ways that “do not make sense to you” in the context of your life now.

Preparation:

Careful preparation is the key to the success of this exercise.

1> Do this exercise at night after you have taken a bath but before you have gone to bed. It is best you do it when you will be able to sleep the next day.

2> When this exercise is complete, drink a full glass of water and then immediately cleanse yourself. Good cleansing will vary depending on if you are an:

“Air” person, sweating in a sauna or steam room is good cleansing.
“Earth” person, taking a mud bath is good cleansing.
“Fire” person, sitting surrounded by lit candles is good cleansing.
“Water” person, taking a long shower is good cleansing.

……For how to determine if you are Air/Earth/Fire/Water, click here.
……For a list of recommended cleansing products, click here.

3> Being comfortable is the key. You can lie down (recommended) or sit up. If you opt to sit up, you must be supported and feel fully relaxed and comfortable.

4> Do this exercise in a peaceful place where you will be completely quiet and undisturbed for the entire session. This entire exercise should last for NO longer than 30 minutes. Set an alarm to snap you out of it should the session run longer.

5> Be patient with yourself in the time to come. “Breaking Past Life Vows” systems can be quite disorienting until the changes are fully integrated. It is VERY powerful and it takes time for the work that you have done on the inner bodies to be reflected in your outer body (“as above, so below”). If you are doing this process to effect a change, then you should be fully prepared to expect a change. You know the old saying: “Be careful what you wish for, you might get it!”

How to Do This Exercise:

1. Review the list below on how past life vows can interfere with your life today and identify which, if any, of these situations apply to you.

* If none of them apply, stop here, you are done.
* If one or more of them apply, then you will need to unwind each vow in turn. In other words, break one vow’s hold on you by focusing on it alone while you are doing this exercise. It is best if you wait at least three weeks before tackling another vow.
* Generally speaking, you will only need to do this exercise only ONCE for each vow. However, if you have done it once but the disempowering patterns from the vows persist in your consciousness, go within and ask your guides how many times you need to do this exercise to break the hold that the vows have over you.

a> Vows of Poverty/Anti-Materialism: (Root Chakra)
Vows of poverty stem from underlying beliefs in both Western and Eastern religions that “money is the root of all evil” and “the material must be shed to enhance the spiritual”. Vowing a “life of poverty” is an act of faith that God will support all his children’s needs. And yet the easiest way for God to do this is through the very money that those in religious orders have foresworn. If you believe that “money is bad” or that “spirituality and money do not mix”, then it is likely you are still being faithful to a vow of poverty – this is the past life vow which most often causes present day problems. Yet the truth is refusing money is like turning your back on God’s love for you. Show your love by using money for the greatest good of everyone.

b> Vows of Chastity/Sexual Abstinence: (Sacral Chakra)
Vows of chastity (different than celibacy below) mean that one shows their love for God by agreeing not to have sex. “Worldly pleasures” selfishly takes one’s attention off of God. And yet God is the one who implanted sexual desire in us to motivate us to reach out to another in love. Past life vows of chastity manifest in your life in many ways: lack of sexual desire, dysfunction like male “erectile disorder” and female frigidity, bizarre sexual practices, etc. One of the fastest ways we grow in love and awareness is through our intimate relationships. For we need to really learn to love one before we can learn to love all.

c> Vows of Self Sacrifice/Abnegation: (Solar Plexus Chakra)
Vows of self sacrifice (“I must sacrifice myself to help others”) have at their core vows of self abnegation (“I am nothing unless I make such sacrifices”). And yet, relative to others, are you not someone else who is worthy to be helped? And if you really are nothing, are you saying that God made a mistake by creating you as junk? Of course not. If you are the kind who helps absolutely everyone else but yourself and if you think that you are a “miserable bag of dung”, then you have some serious self abnegation that you must deal with.

d> Vows of Celibacy/Separation: (Heart Chakra)
Vows of celibacy (different than chastity above) mean that one shows their love for God by agreeing not to have “a certain special someone” in their life. The idea is that only true relationship is with God and we honor our Creator by loving everyone else equally. And yet, it is God who gave us Soulmates through whom we express the highest aspects of ourself. Past life vows of celibacy manifest in your life in many ways: sabotaging intimate relationships, fear of commitment, history of abruptly ending relationships, etc. God means for us to have others in our lives that love us. Denying ourselves this necessary solace is the surest way to “stunt” our spiritual growth in greater awareness.

e> Vows of Silence/Voluntary Denial: (Throat Chakra)
Vows of silence in the religious sense mean we commit ourselves to communicating other than by the spoken word. Originally, sign language was invented by monks to help them stop the “devil from snaring their tongue” – only later was it used to help the deaf. These vows of silence are not as harmful to us as those imposed on us under threat of death (as in the case of Galileo who could not teach his truth). Or those where we may have vowed never to speak our truth again after dying from torture. And yet God did not give us minds or tongues if we were not intended to use them. One of the things most needed for self growth is self expression. For it is by our questions that we learn and by our answers that we discover precisely how we need to “improve ourselves” as we grow into Soul awareness.

f> Vows of Suffering/Retribution: (Third Eye Chakra)
Vows of suffering and retribution are among the most toxic that are carried over from past lives. The myth underlying vows of suffering is that the body-mind are impediments to spiritual progress and must be “chastened, mortified, and delivered into submission”. Nothing is further from the truth: body and mind are the gateways to the spirit: anything that impairs their proper functioning impairs the connection to spirit (and can lead to undesirable behaviors like Self Mutilation). Just as vows of retribution (“May God ‘get me’ for what I do that is wrong or what I fail to do that is right”) can paralyze one into an inactive, joyless existence (leading to undesirable problems like Scrupulosity). The truth is that God is all about love and joy, not suffering, and only wants people to be mindful of the law, not panic stricken by it.

g> Vows of Obedience/Humility: (Crown Chakra)
Vows of obedience and humility mean that we agree to “give up our own will and subordinate that to the Will of God”. Yet problems with obedience arise when it is totally blind: for if one believes that “God’s will is to destroy the infidel” and does so, those actions only send more karma to future lives to be worked through. While problems with humility arise when it is totally deaf: for if one believes that they must “meekly follow” in a mission to harm others, it has the same result. The truth is that “leaders” requiring blind and deaf obedience do their “followers” no good service. Surrendering power to another is as bad karmically as abusing power over others. Karma free life means becoming both leader and follower at once in CoWorkership with God by learning to balance “my will” with “Thy Will”.

2. Take some deep, refreshing breaths until you are totally comfortable and relaxed in whatever position you have chosen (it should take you no more than 3 minutes to get comfortable).

3. Close your eyes and envision the energy chakra that you have selected for healing. Only you know what is bothering you the most which is what to work on the first. If you have no preference, you may get better results by starting with the Root Chakra and working your way up to the Crown Chakra.

4. Allow your inner guidance to show you how this chakra became blocked by a vow in the past. Be ready to accept that this block was there for a reason in the past and be open to the knowledge. The more you resist the past knowledge or are “in judgment”, the harder it will be for you to “break” it’s hold over your life today. For it is your resistance now which gives the past life vow it’s power over you.

5. Once you understand why you entered into the vow in the past, ask to be shown how this vow has served you in your life today. The truth is it only has power over you now because it still serves you in some way. Maybe it keeps you safe. Or it is teaching you how to tap more into your creativity. Perhaps it is forcing you to look for alternatives that are “outside your comfort zone” or better than you could have imagined. Thank it for the lesson because you are ready to move on.

6. Envision a ball of white light (or whatever color represents healing to you) in front of the chakra to be healed. Visualize the energy of the vow moving out of your chakra and into this healing ball as you make a new vow. It is vital that you speak this new vow out loud for it is the sound of your voice which gives this or any vow it’s power in this universe (if you are breaking vows of silence, SHOUT!).

7. Say aloud this new vow to the universe with pride, enthusiasm, and passion:

“In the past, I made a Vow of [fill in here the name of the vow that you made]. I have learned much from this Vow [it would give you better closure to repeat what you learned from the vow here]. Yet in the present and for the future, I realize that this old Vow of [name old vow] now no longer serves me. I now release this old Vow from my energy field and my consciousness at all levels as well as all the limitations that it has created in my life now. I now embrace a new Vow of [Abundance substituting for Poverty, Creation for Chastity, Self Love for Self Abnegation, Union for Separation, Expression for Silence, Joyful Living for Suffering, and Trust for Obedience] and incorporate it into my Beingness. I ask my guides to bring the new energies of this vow into my life. I embrace the needed learnings and the wondrous changes that this new vow will bring into my life. So be it, it is so.”

8. Once this new vow is completed, release the healing ball containing the old vow into the Universal Life Stream. Fill your being with love as you watch the ball disappear into the life stream. Do the Reiki Heart Anchor daily for three weeks to help the new vow take hold in your being and transform your life.

Example: Often blocks from past life vows appear in your energy field appear as religious objects, like rosaries, medals, icons, statues, etc. Know that by removing these items you are NOT removing any of the valuable experiences that you gained while on those paths.

You are just eliminating false restrictions on your life now that are keeping you from being all that you are meant to be today.

God wants you to live you life as a fully realized being and the only way you can do that is to have open and flowing energy chakras.

Dare to be all you can be… do it now.

Credits: adapted from an exercise shared by Robin Pearl Smith.