My spirit guides told me during an out-of-body experience today about the importance of not holding onto bitterness and resentment -- whether when other people treat you unfairly and do things that piss you off, or at the government or another country's government for the things they do, or even at life itself for having a life that seems more difficult than that of those around you. Bitterness and resentment are heavy emotions to carry around, and when you eventually die, there they still are within you because you never released them -- only they are magnified and pull you down into one of the darker regions in the afterlife.
Your existence in the afterlife reflects not only the kind of life you lived in terms of physical actions, but also the kind of life you lived emotionally -- how light-hearted you were, or how heavy of heart you were. Eventually, if you persist enough and do a lot of work on yourself, you may learn to leave the darker region for one that's a little lighter, but it is much easier to change how you are in the physical world. Why? Partly because during your lifetime you're around a variety of people, but in the afterlife you gravitate towards the particular area where you're surrounded by people that were most like you during your life -- so that a murderous person is surrounded by other murderous people, a betrayer is surrounded by other betrayers, a resentful bitter person is surrounded by other resentful bitter people, a person who's always gloomy is surrounded by other people who are always gloomy, a kind forgiving person is surrounded by other kind forgiving people, etc. The process is very exacting, like magnetism. And because it's all you see around you, you don't have the good examples of more loving people there for you to observe and apply to yourself as you do in the physical world.
Part of it is also because of how emotion-oriented the spirit world is -- because you're no longer wearing a physical body that tones down the emotions you experience, and instead you experience emotions in their raw, much more powerful form. And this tends to make it more difficult to break habits that you formed during your lifetime.
Another thing that can make it more difficult to progress to a lighter area in the spirit world is that by doing so you will begin encountering people who are more loving, and this can be difficult due to shame and anger at self. Shame for one's past unloving actions, and anger at self for not having been a more loving person than you have been, tend to make a person rather comfortable in the area that they end up in, and can make spiritual progress that much more difficult there.
All of this i have seen for myself during out-of-body experiences. Among other people, i've interacted a number of times with a friend of mine who died in a car wreck back in '92 during her senior year in high school, Jenny. She was bitter at God for having died so early in life, which seemed unfair to her, and she was resentful of her classmates for getting to continue living their lives. And what made feeling bitter and resentful that much easier was how much she had resented her parents for how unloving they sometimes were during her life, as well as how bitter she'd been over relationships with boyfriends that didn't work out very well. And so her emotions magnetized her to one of the darker areas in the spirit world, where she's been surrounded by other resentful, bitter people. Jenny thought that she had it rough during her life, but she's experienced much more difficult things since then. Eventually though she will feel ready to move on and be willing to ask for assistance from those in the lighter areas.
All of this is why it's wiser to endeavor to change how you are now while it's easier, because you reap in the afterlife what you have sown in all areas during your life -- physical, emotional, and mental. I realize that just because the principle of this is simple doesn't necessarily mean that applying it to your life is easy, but this is something that is infinitely worth striving for. And remember -- it's never too late to begin, but it is better to begin sooner than later.
Your existence in the afterlife reflects not only the kind of life you lived in terms of physical actions, but also the kind of life you lived emotionally -- how light-hearted you were, or how heavy of heart you were. Eventually, if you persist enough and do a lot of work on yourself, you may learn to leave the darker region for one that's a little lighter, but it is much easier to change how you are in the physical world. Why? Partly because during your lifetime you're around a variety of people, but in the afterlife you gravitate towards the particular area where you're surrounded by people that were most like you during your life -- so that a murderous person is surrounded by other murderous people, a betrayer is surrounded by other betrayers, a resentful bitter person is surrounded by other resentful bitter people, a person who's always gloomy is surrounded by other people who are always gloomy, a kind forgiving person is surrounded by other kind forgiving people, etc. The process is very exacting, like magnetism. And because it's all you see around you, you don't have the good examples of more loving people there for you to observe and apply to yourself as you do in the physical world.
Part of it is also because of how emotion-oriented the spirit world is -- because you're no longer wearing a physical body that tones down the emotions you experience, and instead you experience emotions in their raw, much more powerful form. And this tends to make it more difficult to break habits that you formed during your lifetime.
Another thing that can make it more difficult to progress to a lighter area in the spirit world is that by doing so you will begin encountering people who are more loving, and this can be difficult due to shame and anger at self. Shame for one's past unloving actions, and anger at self for not having been a more loving person than you have been, tend to make a person rather comfortable in the area that they end up in, and can make spiritual progress that much more difficult there.
All of this i have seen for myself during out-of-body experiences. Among other people, i've interacted a number of times with a friend of mine who died in a car wreck back in '92 during her senior year in high school, Jenny. She was bitter at God for having died so early in life, which seemed unfair to her, and she was resentful of her classmates for getting to continue living their lives. And what made feeling bitter and resentful that much easier was how much she had resented her parents for how unloving they sometimes were during her life, as well as how bitter she'd been over relationships with boyfriends that didn't work out very well. And so her emotions magnetized her to one of the darker areas in the spirit world, where she's been surrounded by other resentful, bitter people. Jenny thought that she had it rough during her life, but she's experienced much more difficult things since then. Eventually though she will feel ready to move on and be willing to ask for assistance from those in the lighter areas.
All of this is why it's wiser to endeavor to change how you are now while it's easier, because you reap in the afterlife what you have sown in all areas during your life -- physical, emotional, and mental. I realize that just because the principle of this is simple doesn't necessarily mean that applying it to your life is easy, but this is something that is infinitely worth striving for. And remember -- it's never too late to begin, but it is better to begin sooner than later.