Is experiencing your feelings a good method for releasing or is it risky?

[Jack]

I had asked a similar question before,but I still need answers.

I sometimes hear a method for releasing your resistances,it is experiencing your negative feelings fully for releasing them..If you sometimes worry about something,then experience that worry fully upto its limits' end.It would release your resistance and you would manifest the outcome of that resistance.

My problem is,for being able to feel my worry,I should imagine my worry.For example,if I have a worry that I may get injured while playing basketball,I should feel my worry fully,and for being able to feel it I should concentrate on me getting injured,I should think,imagine that I am getting injured and think-imagine maybe even going to hospital for that injury.By doing this,I am really feeling my worry fully,and I notice very noticable important decrease about my worry.My worry sometimes decrease too much that it almost gets destroyed by this method.

Now let's come to my problem.It is,by concentrating on-thinking-imagining that I am getting injured while playing basketball and I am going to hospital for that injury very strongly,and feeling it very strongly-fully ,maybe I create that event for future???If imagining-concentrating is creating,then it may quite possibly create the event I think?


I had tried repeating a few words which make me annoyed when I hear them,to myself,my purporse for repeating them was to release my resistances towards those words and so not hearing them from people.Then I got out of room,went to television room directly,and immediately I heard two words from the people on television,which were the same words I had repeated to myself.

In another case,at night I saw something which I have a strong resistance toward,on internet,then I tried a similar technique like experiencing a feeling fully.Then in the morning me and my family flied to another city.We got into a pharmacy and there in a pic I saw the thing which I have resistance toward again.

So I feel like I am manifesting by concentrating-imagining-thinking my resistance and feeling it fully...

What are your thoughts?

[rei]

Do you have to imagine getting injured to feel worry that it may happen?

For me, if a little worry wave starts, it is from the initial thought and not from going to a catastrophic place with. As soon as I begin to think of the thing, poof there would be the little worry wave. It is possible for me to just feel the feeling without imagining the experience any further. So poof, there is the wave, okay now I'm not thinking of the event/experience anymore but rather focusing my attention on the emotion only. (It can grow anyway.) You can relax into the experience of worry without really focusing on visualizing what the worry started about. Or, that is something I am able to do.

By stopping yourself from going through this process out of concern you will manifest it, I think you may be continuing along at 50% released emotion related to the event. You start, then stop yourself, out of concern that you'll manifest this thing. Where you could flow through it and resolve it by continuing.

What if you try listening to the feeling when it starts, with no image in your mind? When you notice the feeling of worry begin associated with an experience, just softly let the experience flow out of your mind and breathe with your focus on feeling instead of thought. May help.

Also, a few people have started threads related to anxiety about manifestation or OCD and manifestation. I remember in one of the threads someone recommended a resource that is said to help, a book or CD but I don't remember more about it. You might try looking up those old threads as well, if this is a concern you've been dealing with for a while and you feel it is in the way of your progress.

[Anagogy]

Originally Posted by Jack

I had asked a similar question before,but I still need answers.

I sometimes hear a method for releasing your resistances,it is experiencing your negative feelings fully for releasing them..If you sometimes worry about something,then experience that worry fully upto its limits' end.It would release your resistance and you would manifest the outcome of that resistance.

My problem is,for being able to feel my worry,I should imagine my worry.For example,if I have a worry that I may get injured while playing basketball,I should feel my worry fully,and for being able to feel it I should concentrate on me getting injured,I should think,imagine that I am getting injured and think-imagine maybe even going to hospital for that injury.By doing this,I am really feeling my worry fully,and I notice very noticable important decrease about my worry.My worry sometimes decrease too much that it almost gets destroyed by this method.

Now let's come to my problem.It is,by concentrating on-thinking-imagining that I am getting injured while playing basketball and I am going to hospital for that injury very strongly,and feeling it very strongly-fully ,maybe I create that event for future???

Yes. You will create that situation if you think about it enough. Your focus is attracting that experience into your reality.

In my humble opinion, attempting to experience negative feelings to their fullest extent is not such a great way of getting rid of resistance. However, I can see why some might come to believe this. When you are vibrating in a very low state like depression or fear or shame, you cannot instantaneously jump to the emotion of love and joy (in other-words a relatively resistance free state). I will concede that some may learn to release resistance rather quickly, but even then, someone at the bottom of the vibrational ladder must pass through the whole spectrum of emotional frequencies between shame/fear and love/joy.

This means if you are experiences depression, the next least resistant thought you have access to, that is in your current vibrational range is probably insecurity, jealously, or rage. So rage is a step in the right direction for you, at that moment. You see, it is less resistant than depression. But don't stay at rage, seek the next available more positive thought like anger, discouragement, or blame. Don't stay there either. Find the next most positive thought, like doubt, disappointment, or frustration. Don't stay their either, find the next most positive vibrationally available thought like pessimism, boredom, and finally contentment. From contentment, the higher positive emotions are within your vibrational range. You can sense thoughts of relief that feel really good then . You just keep doing that all the way till you get your vibration back to an allowing place of love, joy, and freedom.

Originally Posted by Jack

I had tried repeating a few words which make me annoyed when I hear them,to myself,my purporse for repeating them was to release my resistances towards those words and so not hearing them from people.Then I got out of room,went to television room directly,and immediately I heard two words from the people on television,which were the same words I had repeated to myself.

In another case,at night I saw something which I have a strong resistance toward,on internet,then I tried a similar technique like experiencing a feeling fully.Then in the morning me and my family flied to another city.We got into a pharmacy and there in a pic I saw the thing which I have resistance toward again.

So I feel like I am manifesting by concentrating-imagining-thinking my resistance and feeling it fully...

What are your thoughts?

Exactly yours. Your focus is bringing these things into your experience. So focus on what you want!

[Jack]

Thanks for your answers.

I had thought doing like rei did ,in the past,trying to experience my resistances fully without imagining that they happened.Then I had asked my therapist,he said that if I imagine I can feel easier.I had asked if imagining my resistance as it was a reality to feel my resistances might manifest it and he had said "No".I had asked what was the difference between imagining a resistance to feel it and imagining something to manifest it,he gave some explainations,but they were far from convincing me.A few weeks ago,I asked the same question to his assistant,and she gave similar explainations,but I am not able to feel the difference of them.

But I don't want to cancel this method and try another method,because I feel that this method really neutralizes resistance charged attention into neutral attention and releases the feeling.

So I decided to apply this method like rei does,without imagining my resistance's physical result.But I have a question,does this method fully release the resistance-feeling or does the feeling-resistance come back after a while?

[Monk]

Originally Posted by Jack

..If you sometimes worry about something,then experience that worry fully upto its limits' end.It would release your resistance and you would manifest the outcome of that resistance.

This method as you put it here is incomplete and therefore yes risky. The original technique requires some sort of *cancellation* after having imagined or visualized your negative feelings/scenarios, otherwise they're very likely to manifest in your life.

The idea is to *reverse* what you start with. For example, some write down their fears/negative scenarios as they think about them, pause for a minute to visualize and deeply feel them even physically, thus release them. Then focused, they finally BURN the paper. Burning the paper symbolizes the *cancellation* of those negative possibilities. They therefore have to be focused, attentive, mindfully relating or even uttering out loud that their fears/negative emotions/scenarios "are now vanishing with this paper" or "do vanish as it burns out," or something like that. Obviously this is a literal act of magic, and it's very powerful.

Similarly you can write on some hard surface then *wash* it, and washing would still do it. You can even just walk in some direction visualizing, and releasing, then walk back in the opposite direction canceling, or *banishing* (of course with the conscious intent of doing so). Like all magic, and most NLP techniques, it's all about symbols and all symbolic, so freely make your symbols, but *never* forget to complete your *rite* and just cancel what you bring up, or *summon*. Otherwise yes, it's risky.

[starsofnorth]

To experience your emotions fully... especially "negative" emotions.
You don't have to shout or tremble either, just feel them through.
With me, my negative emotions always point to a belief that I have.
Today I was both very fearful and angry, felt like everything was coming down on me, sabotaging me on my money goals. But I remembered something from a confidence support group that I'm going to... take a few minutes to really feel it and write down the triggering event and thoughts and feelings about it. Then write substitute alternative reasons/beliefs afterwards, after the emotions subside.
By this method, I've uncovered some unconscious beliefs about myself. And like 30 min or an hour later, I was like "wow, why was I so mad (or fearful)??" So I find out that I've been giving fear all this power.

If it's a continuous trend of feeling this way, then yes it will manifest somehow. So once you find out WHY you feel/think this way, you can change your attitude or thoughts. That's how it works for me.

I asked to become more aware of my thoughts and emotions, and I am being shown my beliefs by feeling things out.

[Angela]

Worry isn't an emotion, it's not a feeling, it's a habitual thought pattern.

If you interrupt the pattern and DO something else, the anxiety that comes with worry will disappear. And if you notice a habitual pattern and you choose to indulge yourself in fully doing it, I would equate that with the idea that if you notice it hurts to step on a nail, you should push that nail all the way in and feel it fully so that you can release the pain.

[LostMyMap]

ca·thar·sis (k-thärss)
n. pl. ca·thar·ses (-sz) 1. Medicine Purgation, especially for the digestive system.
2. A purifying or figurative cleansing of the emotions, especially pity and fear, described by Aristotle as an effect of tragic drama on its audience.
3. A release of emotional tension, as after an overwhelming experience, that restores or refreshes the spirit.
4. Psychology a. A technique used to relieve tension and anxiety by bringing repressed feelings and fears to consciousness.
b. The therapeutic result of this process; abreaction.

Are you talking about #4 above?

[rei]

Originally Posted by Jack

does this method fully release the resistance-feeling or does the feeling-resistance come back after a while?

If you use this method and then you think of the used-to-create-worry scene, and when you think of it again you choose to think it is scary and something to resist, then you'll be feeling worry again.

The worry experience is a choice even though it may not feel like one. It comes from that flash of experience coming up in your mind, and then identifying it as something to avoid. But not only that, also giving that wanna-avoid experience power to be bad, terrible, etc. (It is not always easy to realize/accept/embrace that there is choice here, but there is a moment of choice, even though at this point it may also just be a habit.)

You can also try noticing that you feel that worry when you think of X. Just notice. Don't try to make yourself not worry and don't try to do anything but notice hey, Jack decided to feel worry about a hypothetical experience just now.

Follow that up with quickly visualizing your preferred experience, if you like. As you do, remember you're in charge of creating that visualization so you do have the power to make it a positive one. If you keep this up long enough you will shift the conditioned response that has been occurring.

However, if you tend to be "in your head" a lot already, thinking things through a great deal, be aware that using this method *might* (might not, but might) lead to an increase in the thinking-that-also-comes-with-deciding-to-feel-worried. The increase is temporary and I believe it is a side effect of deciding to listen more fully to that part of you that has a habit of choosing worry. If you keep going with the suggestion above to notice when you are choosing worry then it is likely to start getting better.

I have tapped into mild obsessive thinking before. It is pretty easy to shift away from even if it is a habit. It can take some conscious focus and some discipline to consciously shift that habit because it's a matter of sticking with the -noticing, then focus on what you want- for an extended period of time. It can be done, though.

[Living Now]

It's funny, because I was just thinking about this before I got on here.

The way I look at it is this....

When something is bothering me or I'm worried about something, denying that worry isn't going to work. If I'm stressed about a big presentation I am about to do, resistance won't help. I can tell myself that I shouldn't worry. I can try to convince myself that everything will be fine. BUT the truth is that I am worrying. Telling myself that I shouldn't worry only makes me feel more nervous.

On the other hand, I don't want to focus on everything that might go wrong and feed the worry.

What I do is just focus on the feeling I have. I admit to myself that I am nervous, then I focus on the feeling I am having. I just let it take over me for a short while, with the knowledge that I will move on after letting myself feel the worry. It's kinda like on LOST where Jack says that he lets the fear take over him for 5 seconds, but then he gets back to business (I don't watch LOST enough to remember the exact quote, but I think that's the basic gist). Basically, I feel my worry (or whatever feeling it is I have), knowing from the start that it will be temporary. I think that (for me) helps me believe that I am not "intending" worry or bad things to happen. I am temporarily letting it move through me on my way to my destination.

I think the biggest thing is to focus on the feeling, NOT on the thoughts themselves.

I hope my description made some sense...I'm in a hurry, so I have no time to go back and make it "perfect."

[Jack]

Thanks for your answers.

Monk:
This method as you put it here is incomplete and therefore yes risky. The original technique requires some sort of *cancellation* after having imagined or visualized your negative feelings/scenarios, otherwise they're very likely to manifest in your life

After I experience my feeling fully,I say "vanish" and then I breathe upon.

Angela:And if you notice a habitual pattern and you choose to indulge yourself in fully doing it, I would equate that with the idea that if you notice it hurts to step on a nail, you should push that nail all the way in and feel it fully so that you can release the pain.

I had tried a similar thing to your nail example.I had foot pain,then I pressed on my foot couple of times to feel it fully.The result was,my pain level had increased.

4. Psychology a. A technique used to relieve tension and anxiety by bringing repressed feelings and fears to consciousness.
b. The therapeutic result of this process; abreaction.

Are you talking about #4 above?

LostMyMap,I think yes they maybe similar.Also this technique is used in Gestalt Therapy:

"Unfinished Business
Feelings about the past are unexpressed
These feelings are associated with distinct memories and fantasies
Feelings not fully experienced linger in the background and interfere with effective contact
Pay attention on the bodily experience because if feelings are unexpressed they tend to result in physical symptom"

"Rather than talking about the conflicted feeling, they(clients) intensify the feeling and experience it fully. Further, by helping the clients realize that the feeling is a very real part of themselves, the intervention discourages them from disassociating the feeling."

Living Now:
I think the biggest thing is to focus on the feeling, NOT on the thoughts themselves.

Seems like this is a very important distinction.

[Showtime]

Experience them for a second then try to feel better.

If you try to resist negative emotion it gets a lot worse.

If I find a little negative something in my brain (rare now-a-days) I'll just work it into a better spot so that next time it comes up it won't annoy me.

If I don't have time for that I'll just switch the subject.

[Angela]

Originally Posted by Jack

I had tried a similar thing to your nail example.I had foot pain,then I pressed on my foot couple of times to feel it fully.The result was,my pain level had increased..

Yes, that is exactly my point. Increasing pain doesn't feel like a very smart thing to do, does it?

[Diandra25]

im confused....the book busting loose tells us to dwelve in the pain/discomfort and take the power from it...

so...

[Living Now]

One interesting thing that happened to me involved focusing on my pain (physical pain). I kept getting a headache whenever I tried to meditate. After experiencing this time after time, I was getting frustrated. Then I read something about focusing on/allowing your pain, so I did just that. I focused on my headache and just accepted it, instead of resisting it. I felt it as fully as I possibly could...and then I went into a different state of mind that I can't really describe...it was very blissful. The pain went away and so did my thoughts.

From then on if I felt a headache when I would start to meditate, I focused on it and it brought me to that same state. I don't usually feel that headache anymore when I meditate, but it changed my perspective. I thought before that focusing on my pain would make it worse, but it didn't.

Extra note...I also used a similar technique during childbirth to have a painfree childbirth without drugs, and it worked amazingly well.

[cassiopeia]

Originally Posted by Jack

I sometimes hear a method for releasing your resistances,it is experiencing your negative feelings fully for releasing them..If you sometimes worry about something,then experience that worry fully upto its limits' end.It would release your resistance and you would manifest the outcome of that resistance.

What you are describing is my favourite meditation method at the moment. EFT, Sedona method, Release Technique, Ho'oponopono, Busting Loose Process, and I'm sure many other techniques.. they're all based on this method. The premise is that emotions are simply energy flowing through our body, and when we experience a "negative" emotion, our usual first instinct is to suppress it, distract ourselves, or otherwise avoid fully feeling the emotion (because it hurts, and most of us don't like pain!).

I truly believe that this is the best way to heal yourself emotionally and energetically. If you've got an emotion that feels painful to you, don't shy away from it. Feel it fully and completely - although as rei said, you don't really have to think too much about it. Another point of this technique is to separate the feeling from the 'story' behind it, i.e. the thoughts leading to it. Once you've got the feel of this emotion in your body, fully immerse yourself in it without judging it. Completely accept it as if it were your own child, because you are the one who has created it. When I manage to fully embrace the feeling, I often 'trace' it through various parts of my body, and even though if it's a painful feeling, being able to feel it without my brain interfering often feels peaceful. And then it starts disintegrating... I find I don't need a more positive emotion to replace it with, as when the negative emotion is gone, the blissful feeling of freedom and serenity that remains beats any other feeling in the world!

I'm not really sure why people would think that this technique is harmful at all. In my opinion, trying to cover up old hurts with positive thinking seems far far more harmful as it doesn't really address the trapped energy (or emotions, whichever you prefer). Positive thinking without releasing might help for people who are mostly healed/ positive already, but it sure never helped me. I think it seems like the only thing to be concerned about for you, is to not use your head too much when you release. Use your head to create the scenario, then when you feel a negative emotion, use your body to feel the feeling. If you keep creating images in your head at this point, then you are only re-enforcing that this feeling is "real", and that the story behind the feeling is "real". Of course if you lose the feeling again by getting distracted for example, it's ok to use scenarios as a prompt. but keep reminding yourself to focus on the feeling as a separate entity. That is the point you are trying to get across to your mind-body: the emotion and the thoughts that trigger it are not the same!

Another thing to keep in mind: I have worked with this method a lot on anxiety/ worry. One thing that has helped me is to look at it and ask myself: "What is the fear behind this fear? What emotion am I afraid of feeling?", because to me, anxiety is usually a fear of feeling your fear fully. Often I get all these anxious thoughts in my head that go on and on and on, and I'll be focusing on those, when I suddenly realise that they my mind is spouting them out in order to distract me from feeling a bigger fear inside me. And once I've disconnected my thoughts from this fear, it's not so big and scary anymore.


I say definitely continue this, you won't manifest bad things if you do it the right way. My most successful manifestation occurred with this method, and what I did was bring up all my fears about money and release on them, with a certain goal in mind - making a certain amount of money each week at my waitress job. I imagined all the worst-case scenarios, and all the best-case scenarios (you need to release all your feelings of lack and wanting too... You know the feeling you get when you imagine yourself being really really rich, but you don't believe you'll ever be? That whiney want-it-so-bad feeling? That needs to be released too) and released for a couple of hours. From the next week onwards, my weekly income increased by 40 % - still not much mind you, as I never earned much to being with, but the amazing thing was that the figure I had chosen stayed constant for the next few months, week in week out - even though if it never did that usually. I was still on minimum wage and working variable hours, but sometimes the difference would be made with tips, other times they'd have some incentive at work and I'd win a bit of money... Without fail, it was the same amount.

I'd really recommend The Abundance Course by Larry Crane, who does the Release Technique. Also, once you start releasing, try to keep going. You might find that the same emotions keep rising up again. They are all just different layers. It's like your subconscious notices that you have found a way of releasing toxic emotions, and it starts alerting you to more of them to help you along, sometimes by attracting situations which trigger them. Otherwise known as the healing crisis. It can seem disheartening, but just see those moments as another opportunity to release.


Hope this helps!

[cassiopeia]

Originally Posted by Angela

If you interrupt the pattern and DO something else, the anxiety that comes with worry will disappear. And if you notice a habitual pattern and you choose to indulge yourself in fully doing it, I would equate that with the idea that if you notice it hurts to step on a nail, you should push that nail all the way in and feel it fully so that you can release the pain.

Originally Posted by Jack

I had tried a similar thing to your nail example.I had foot pain,then I pressed on my foot couple of times to feel it fully.The result was,my pain level had increased.

I think this is misinterpreting this method of release. Angela, you are talking about a pattern, however release techniques are used for the feelings that fuel the pattern. You can allow yourself to feel all the feelings that you usually experience during that pattern, without indulging in that pattern itself.

To modify the nail metaphor: you step on a nail. First, remove the nail (It's probably possible to release the pain while the nail is inside you, but I wouldn't try it unless you're already an enlightened yogi, walking on coals, sleeping on spikes 'n all that jazz ). Do you:

A) Try really really damn hard to not think about the pain, to not feel the pain, to distract yourself in any way you can, i.e. the way most of us subconsciously learn to address painful emotions.

OR

B) Allow yourself to feel the pain fully without judging it, and accept it as best you can. Your instinct is to shy away from pain, but travel with your mind to the very centre of that pain. Feel it, breathe it, while keeping in mind that it is just energy, nothing else. It may increase for a little as you focus on it, but then it usually lessens, if you do it properly. If nothing else, you should at least feel calmer and happier, even though you're in pain.

I'm not saying that there are no other ways to stop pain, or to make peace with pain... But personally I feel this is the most effective and rewarding. Rewarding because you face what you fear, and come out stronger. I like to see my little releasing sessions as shamanic journeys into my energy-body Fun! I've even got my own little spiritual warrior-persona thing. If anyone else saw me, they'd think I was just lazying about on the couch... Little do they know that I am busy battling three-headed fire-breathing demons the like of which have never been seen before! Muhahahaha!

[Jack]

Thank you all,for your answers,they are really helpful.

[Solipsist]

Originally Posted by rei

What if you try listening to the feeling when it starts, with no image in your mind? When you notice the feeling of worry begin associated with an experience, just softly let the experience flow out of your mind and breathe with your focus on feeling instead of thought. May help.

This

...has helped me immensely. The key is to remain unidentified, unattached to the emotion with thought. If you can do that, you'll be a free man in no time!