Last week, I shared that I’ve been unraveling a karmic knot—that pattern that repeatedly plagues us—and that once I got to the simple root-source-truth of what was holding the knot together, I knew exactly what to do.

But, how?

How do you even get to the root-source-truth of that pattern that maddenly plagues you without getting stuck retreading the same mental and emotional ground yet again?

And, what exactly do you do with it when you do?

I believe this is the heart of spiritual work—and I know it’s the heart of freedom. (This is not my first karmic knot to unravel, and it’s not likely yours either.)

It takes curiosity.

My guru always taught that curiosity is your guide into your spirituality. She said she only entered spiritual life because of curiosity: I wonder what will happen if I do this breath?

Curiosity, genuine curiosity, gets rid of the judgment. It also eliminates the assumption (conscious or unconscious) that you know the answer, the path or the outcome. Curiosity opens you to new possibilities and allows you to be surprised.

Begin with a simple question about the heart of what plagues you. When I undertook unraveling this knot, as it was showing up in my relationship with money, I asked, What is at the heart of abundance? Immediately, I breathed easier: that was an investigation I could undertake with curiosity. I let that sink in, breathing in Om and breathing out Om.

I stayed with that for a few days. I brought the curiosity to my practice, and with each new awareness, I did the same. Curiosity. Breath and mantra practice. Curiosity. Breath and mantra practice. Rinse and repeat.

It takes compassion.

This is something about which you are tender and over which you’ve struggled, perhaps all or most of your life, and whatever you do, you cannot seem to be free of it. That is no small thing. That is an incredibly painful, perplexing and maddening thing.

Give yourself compassion for your experience. Look upon each piece that arises with compassion. You are a human, worthy of care, who has suffered and who is brave enough to do the work to heal.

It takes commitment.

Perhaps I should have put this one first, because honestly, my commitment to “get to the bottom of this” with my own karmic knot came first. Only after that did curiosity arise—pretty spontaneously. (That’s the beautiful thing about spiritual work: you get a lot of help.)

I mention commitment last because our tendency is to get kind of harsh with ourselves about, and in the name of, commitment. There’s an edge to it (can you feel it?) that most of us need to soften. I’ve found that true, effective commitment arises internally from the heart of your being. It is not imposed, forced or hoisted upon (which seems to be the way we always talk about it in our culture). For all it’s strength and clarity, there’s a softness to it: the commitment of the heart to its own longing.

It is life-changing.

I just received this message from an Individual Mentoring client this morning:

I invite you to experience it for yourself, held in an intimate container—with a lineage of teachers and millennia of unbroken devotional practice behind you.

What do you continue to confront, again and again and again, despite bringing every tool, practice and approach you know to it?

Bring it to this practice together.

Unravel it into its simplest form, and let it go. At its root.

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