Behavioral patterns—narratives formulated from lived experience—become solidified through present-day actions and identifications. Samskaras are like lines etched in one’s palm: a map of the past, present, that continue to create indentations of the future. The alignment of the stars, the influence of the planets, the movements of the cosmos, and the elemental forces of nature—all these converge to shape our tendencies and the stories we carry about ourselves.Why does one person tend toward anxiety or depression? Why is one driven by emotion, while another leans into logic and reason? A therapist might give a theory for a person psychological behavioral patterns or attribute it to trauma or unresolved issues from childhood. No one can answer why One person’s proclivity is working with numbers while another is drawing with a pencil.
Philosophy and religion try to explain the depths, but even they sometimes fall short, why certain behaviors emerge that were never modeled or taught. Perhaps what we call “learned behavior” is simply a continuation—a residue—of what was lived in a previous embodiment.. This embodiment is a container that just allows each one of us to live the learnt behaviors and attachments from our last embodiment. life seems to be a playing field to explore, change, grow and liberate from some of the learnt behaviours and patterns, or to solidify and live into those behaviors as ones self
I’ve seen it in my daughter. From infancy, certain tendencies in her felt inherited not from this life, but carried over from something deeper. When my daughter was born,she popped out of my belly, fast and quick—as if she arrived in a state of fight or flight, ready for this world. My son, by contrast, came through a long, slow labor, as though caught between realms. Their birth may have influenced their present nature, or perhaps what their last embodiment was influenced their birth.
She was adored—by me, her father, even her older brother. Loved immensely. Yet still, she sought attention as if starved for it. No amount of affection seemed to satiate her need for reassurance. I saw in her the same insecurity I’ve wrestled with my whole life—an insecurity I worked consciously not to pass on, and yet somehow it showed up in her, as if it was born within her. We mirror each other. Her soul, perhaps, came to me to reflect what I needed to see and heal. And likewise, I am here to hold space for her journey of healing too.
As a teen, she began to articulate her social anxiety. I wondered—where did it come from? No clear trauma, no neglect. And yet, these Imprints and experiences spill over from one’s previous mind/body embodiment, mixed with and impacted with present day influences. who can make logic and reason for a person’s actions and behavior .
Samskaras are deeply ingrained mental impressions or patterns—formed through repeated thoughts, actions, and experiences—that shape how we perceive and respond to life. Subtle imprints left on the subconscious mind by every action, thought, or emotion—positive or negative. Not bound in time or space, impressions spill over from past embodiments that we are not even aware of. Skill, behaviors, fears, longings—some are simply born into us. They surface early, without clear cause. Life becomes a playing field for exploring these imprints: to live them out, to transform them, or to finally liberate ourselves from them.
Life is a mystery, and untangling the mystery might require sitting quietly and being the observer of the underlying blueprints of our habits and tendencies (vasanas), that have often formed unconsciously over time. The power of seeing or witnessing , allows the greater consciousness to acknowledge self as something greater than the constant pull and push of the one’s samskaras.
Our bodies are a map that blue prints the impressions that have flowed through our nervous system . Through tracing back to the original imprints we can begin to release and relinquish unconscious patterns that have held us hostage in reactive binding patterns . Those imprints are experienced on a physical level through sensations that have become immobilized and embedded in the muscle tissue, those sensations hold an emotion, an untold or unheard story. Conscious mindful movement is a somatic way to retracing and relinquishing what no longer serves. It takes effort, that sometimes feels like climbing mount everest alone. No one sees or validates the effect, except faith and resilience keeps one on the path.
I write as there have been so many mornings, waking up with depression and an existential crisis, while questioning: What am I doing here? What is the purpose of life? Even at a young age, this feeling existed. No therapist could quell my dissatisfaction. No therapy gave me the nourishment my greater self sought.
Although religion and spirituality were windows into something greater, institutional organizations and dogma soured my experience. Depression became a cry for truth. Seeking truth in every exchange and relationship—while bound in a world of superficiality.
Observing my own cravings, shaped by society’s imprint and influence, by emotional imbalance and physical need—yet still knowing I was, and am, greater than all that I experienced. Noticing the pull and push that arise from being embodied, samskaras spilling over from previous embodiments, affecting my choices, my so-called will, and behavior patterns—while simultaneously yearning for something far greater.
Intuitively knowing: I am not this narrative.
This is the struggle of every spirit soul, embodied and housed in the human container. So many rooms, so many parts of the self—yet somewhere in the house, there is a cry. The cry of the Self, patiently waiting to be heard.
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