Have We a Process for Clearing Upsets?
Having brought us this far, the record from our sources now stops. If we search for a recommended means to transcend our barriers, clear our upsets, complete with our past, etc., we may find only bits and pieces.
For instance, D.L. Zeta suggests a process in passing.
“[Healing] is possible by embracing your sacred wound, opening to its message and using this wisdom to heal yourself throughout time. Once this is done, you’re able to … step off the karmic wheel and unite Heaven and Earth.” (1)
But that’s all she says.
Kate Spreckly also refers to a process in a single line: “By allowing yourself to be present in your issues and your fears, you allow them to dissolve.” (2) But again she goes no further.
Saul refers obliquely to a process.
“Many issues that humanity has needed to address for a long time, but has blocked or denied, are rising into consciousness causing confusion and dismay. People are discovering within themselves attitudes and beliefs with which they are most uncomfortable and of which they have been in denial.
“However, [these attitudes and beliefs] do need to be recognized and released to enable them to continue to advance along their spiritual paths. They frequently conflict with or are in total opposition to the life philosophy a person espouses, and consequently severely shock a person when they pop into their awareness, and that can cause a strong feeling of shame, which is why they were denied in the first place.
“But unsavory attitudes and beliefs are very common and need to be seen and released. They are not something to be ashamed of, because they are endemic, everyone has some of them.” (3)
He tells us that trying to control or deny our reactions is not a good thing and only leads to depression and fatigue. We can verify this from our experience.
“Locking down and controlling unacceptable thoughts and ideas uses up enormous amounts of the life force that is constantly flowing through you, your life energy. It leads to fatigue and depression as you try to distance yourself from this strange and threatening other self that wants and needs to be acknowledged. You have to acknowledge every aspect of yourself, not just the one you have chosen to display as your identity. Learn what each one wants, and then discover how to integrate them harmoniously into the complete and wonderful person that you truly are.
“Denial causes conflict, confusion, and fatigue, while acceptance, understanding, and harmonious integration of all the different, perfectly normal, and extremely creative aspects of yourself brings you to the divine and sublimely peaceful center of your true self. There you will find a limitless abundance of joy and energy, enabling you and encouraging you to live life with great enthusiasm and equanimity just as it happens.” (4)
What is Saul’s answer to our dilemma?
“Just acknowledge them and let them go.” (5)
And that’s as much as he says. We’re given a fairly complete analysis of our situation, but no process. If we try Saul’s solution, we may find that simply acknowledging our upsets and letting them go does not prove easy and may not do the job. More of a process may be needed.
So we may not find a process for clearing upsets and issues in the literature. We may have to carve out our own path.
I’d like to offer a process for clearing upsets, completing barriers, and healing our sacred wounds. The suggestions I make are along lines I’ve covered elsewhere. (6) I’ve simply gathered everything together and published it in this one place.
I call this process “be with and observe.” If having even a double-barreled name is confusing, then call it simply the “be with” process.
It is the opposite of reacting.
I define it as: “Be with the truth of the moment and observe what arises.”
“Be with”: Abide as an open awareness of, remain neutral to. Be with what?
“The truth”: That which is so, accurate, actually existing. Of what?
“Of the moment”: Of now, this actual instant, inside and outside oneself. And do what?
“And observe”: See, notice, raise to conscious awareness without acting upon. What?
“What arises”: What enters one’s field of consciousness as a result of being with the truth of the moment, what’s so, whatever is.
The Steps in the Process
Here are the steps in the process.
- Step One. Notice that you’re upset. Stand in the face of the upset, without reacting.
- Step Two. Observe what is happening to you internally.
- Strep Three. Ask yourself precisely when the upset started.
- Step Four. Put a name to it – dismay, horror, indignation?
- Step Five. Ask yourself what earlier, similar incident is in play. Take the first thought you get.
- Step Six. Try it on for size.
- Step Seven. Observe whether entertaining it as the cause of your upset brings release.
- Step Eight. If it does, enjoy the release. If it does not, try again.
Now let’s look at the steps one by one.
- Step One. Notice that you’re upset. Stand in the face of the upset without reacting.
Most people don’t begin the “be with and observe” process because they’re not aware that they’re upset. Awareness varies inversely with felt tension in the body. As tension goes up, awareness goes down. As we get more and more upset, we are less and less aware, including being less and less aware that we’re upset.
More often, we think that someone did something to us and we defend ourselves. Our switch into defensive mode seems perfectly natural and we tend to balk if we’re questioned, as if the questioner is crazy or unreasonable. Defending ourselves appears to us to be something that anyone would do. And anyone who doesn’t defend themselves is not in his right mind.
I find that reacting comes easily to me and is often invisible, even if I know the “be with and observe” process. I react and then I review how I did, justifying and excusing myself and denying any incompetence or wrongdoing. I often only wake up to the need not to react only after some time has passed.
It often comes as a great surprise to me to realize that I’m upset. I’m in the middle of an upset. I’m reactivated. My buttons are pushed. I’m experiencing a vasana or habitual reaction pattern. I’m having a stack attack. And I don’t immediately wake up to the fact that these things are happening. Instead I go into attack mode. Wrrner Erhard used to call this mode “resist, resent, revenge.”
However I often wake up when attack does not remove the barrier. I see the unwanted condition sticking around and this realization acts like a signal to have me check out whether I’m reacting or not. If I am, I stop. Instead, I switch into “be with and observe” mode. I’m now no longer reacting but observing.
It can help in this first step to begin noticing my breathing. I keep my mind busy by having it pay attention to the breath. That frees up what Patricia Cota-Robles calls the “I AM presence” to be with and observe the barrier. (7)
Once I’ve achieved the place of being with and observing rather than reacting, once I’ve reined the runaway horses in, I can go on to step two.
- Step Two. Observe what is happening internally.
I begin to notice in a general way what’s happening inside. I look for places where the energy is stuck. Do any of my muscles hurt? Can I breathe easily from the in-breath’s beginning to its end? If not, where does the breath become labored?
I look at the place where breathing becomes labored and try to get a sense of the resistance there. I watch to see how difficult it is to stop reacting. I get a sense of the way I’m feeling. I get the lay of the land. And then I go on to step three.
- Step Three. Ask yourself precisely when the upset started.
In step three, I ask myself exactly when the upset started. Did it start when something was said? Was it when I had a thought? A feeling? A sensation? I be with and observe the beginning of the barrier. Once I find the time of the upset’s start, I go back and forth between the time before the upset to the upset itself and then the time after, looking for what may have triggered it.
If I can identify the trigger moment exactly, the barrier may disappear. If the barrier is too ramified or deep and persists, I go on to step four.
- Step Four. Put a name to it – fear, anxiety, embarrassment?
What exactly is the barrier? Is it fear? Anxiety? Embarrassment? I try each named feeling on to see if it fits. If it fits, the upset may disappear at this point. If it does not appear, I continue naming it. Sometimes I may name it and it fits but the upset does not disappear, in which case I go on to step five.
I know that putting a name to the condition can work to cause negative or unwanted conditions to disappear.
It has a slightly different effect on positive or wanted conditions. If I experience love or bliss and then name it, I may “go into my head” and cause the flow of love or bliss to cease. That’s why Krishnamurti, for instance, recommends being in love or bliss without naming it. (8) Intellectualizing may be OK in the “be with” process to cause unwanted conditions to disappear, but, if you wish wanted conditions to stay around, you may not wish to use it on them, but instead just to enjoy them without intellectualizing.
If the unwanted condition persists after being named, I go on to step five.
- Step Five. Ask yourself what earlier, similar incident is in play. Take the first thought you get.
If it persists, I ask myself what earlier, similar incident is at the root of the upset? If I ask the mind, without struggling or trying to focus it, to give me some clue, the mind is so constructed that it will feed me back a thought, a word, a picture, an intuition, a feeling that identifies the earlier, similar incident.
Once I have the thought or image, I go on to steps six to eight.
- Step Six. Try it on for size.
- Step Seven. Observe whether entertaining it as the cause of your upset brings release.
- Step Eight. If it does, enjoy the release. If it does not, try again.
I try on the earlier, similar incident to see if it’s the one causing the upset. By “trying it on” I mean I say to myself, well, supposing that is the earlier, similar incident – that day on the school patrol or that time with my girlfriend or the day I stole the nuts from the supermarket. Suppose that’s it. How would I feel?
If I find that I feel the same way I know I feel now, then the incident may fit. It may be the cause of the upset, the triggering event. If it is the cause, then the upset may disappear now.
Why does it disappear?
Jesus said, “And ye shall know the truth, and the truth shall make you free.” (9) I grant that Jesus is referring to the Absolute Truth here, but his words are as relevant and applicable to the relative plane as they are to the Absolute.
The truth of what is transpiring within my mind and body, seen, experienced, and completed, will set me free from mental stress, physical holding, and emotional anguish. Why that is I think only God can answer since He (She or It) designed life.
My sense is that God designed it so that the truth would set us free. After all, the end of life is to realize ourselves as God, after which we are set free, right? The purpose of life is for God to meet God. Life is a divine leela or drama that God has arranged so that the One can know Himself (Herself, Itself). When a person, an illusory form, a fingerpuppet, realizes God, God experiences Himself. (10)
Realizing God is discovering the truth and discovering the truth sets us free from illusion. I think that discovering the truth at any level of existence releases us from the illusion and pain of life at that level.
When I discover the truth of my upset, I’m released from it.
I’m restored to a sense of being the container in which the upset is happening, rather than the upset itself. I could say that I’m restored to being the context for the upset rather than the contents of the upset. I also call this feeling “restored to Self.”
I find, when I’ve successfully run this process, that I’m naturally restored to the love and bliss which is my nature. There is nothing I must do to experience this love and bliss other than remove the layers of resistance, resentment and vengefulness that my issues and upsets overlay on me.
I’m going to conclude my publishing on this process as a “post” here. I will continue to publish two more articles as “pages,” in the righthand column under “Preparing for Ascension.”
Two more articles in the series follow. They are located to:
“Time to Complete Old Issues – Part 5: What Can Go Wrong?”
“Time to Complete Old Issues – Part 6: Philosophical Considerations”
Footnotes
(1) D.L. Zeta, “Aligning with Fifth-Dimensional Energies Incubates the Dream of the New Earth,” 25 September 2010, https://tinyurl.com/24at264.
(2) Kate Spreckley, “Presence Dissolves Issues,” at https://goldenageofgaia.com/ascension/preparing-for-ascension/presence-dissolves-issues/
(3) Saul, Jan. 3, 2010, at https://johnsmallman.wordpress,com
(4) Loc. cit.
(5) Loc. cit.
(1) D.L. Zeta, “Aligning with Fifth-Dimensional Energies Incubates the Dream of the New Earth,” 25 September 2010, https://tinyurl.com/24at264.
(2) Kate Spreckley, “Presence Dissolves Issues,” at https://goldenageofgaia.com/ascension/preparing-for-ascension/presence-dissolves-issues/
(3) Saul, Jan. 3, 2010, at https://johnsmallman.wordpress,com
(4) Loc. cit.
(5) Loc. cit.
(6) See for instance “Dealing with Stored Emotional Trauma,” at https://goldenageofgaia.com/ascension/preparing-for-ascension/dealing-with-stored-emotional-trauma/ ; “I Know I Came Here to Communicate This,” at https://goldenageofgaia.com/ascension/preparing-for-ascension/i-know-i-came-here-to-communicate-this/ “OK, I Feel Upset … Oh, Great!” at https://goldenageofgaia.com/ascension/preparing-for-ascension/ok-i-feel-upset-oh-great/ ; “To Be With and Observe,” at https://goldenageofgaia.com/ascension/preparing-for-ascension/to-be-with-and-observe/ ; “Presence Dissolves Issues,” at https://goldenageofgaia.com/ascension/preparing-for-ascension/presence-dissolves-issues/ ; “Running the Process,” at https://goldenageofgaia.com/ascension/preparing-for-ascension/running-the-process/ ; “Positive Thinking, Negative Thinking, and the Truth,” at https://goldenageofgaia.com/ascension/preparing-for-ascension/positive-thinking-negative-thinking-and-the-truth/ ; “Sri Ramana Maharshi on the Problem of Our Habitual Tendencies,” at https://goldenageofgaia.com/ascension/preparing-for-ascension/sri-ramana-maharshi-on-the-problem-of-our-habitual-tendencies/ ; “Can Illness be Caused by Major Reactive Habit Patterns?” at https://goldenageofgaia.com/ascension/preparing-for-ascension/can-illness-be-caused-by-reactive-habit-patterns/ ; and “Deconstructing “Me”: Removing the Masks,” at https://goldenageofgaia.com/ascension/preparing-for-ascension/deconstructing-me-removing-the-masks/ .
(7) Patricia Diane-Cota Robles, “Responding from Our I AM Presence” at https://sbeckow.wordpress.com/2010/10/13/patricia-diane-cota-robles-responding-from-our-i-am-presence/
(8) “It is the experiencing of what is without naming it that brings about freedom from what is.” (Krishnamurti, J. Commentaries on Living. First Series. Bombay, etc.: B.I. Publications, 1972; c1974, 54.)
(9) Jesus in John 8:32.
(10) See for instance “To Know God is the Purpose of Life” at https://goldenageofgaia.com/16244-2/to-know-god-is-the-purpose-of-life/ ; “Life No Matter Where, No Matter When,” at https://goldenageofgaia.com/16244-2/life-no-matter-where-no-matter-when/ ; and “What is the Divine Plan for Life?” at https://goldenageofgaia.com/16244-2/what-is-the-divine-plan-for-life-part-12/
