Messages

1

THE EMOTIONAL CLEARING PROCESS / more questions regarding sub-personalities

« on: March 22, 2014 »

Hi John and everyone on the forum,

first I'd like to thank John for the previous reply regarding EC and psychology of selves. The reply opened up some questions and I'd like to share them with you all. For example in the EC book John says that some of the mental processes that deny or suppress feelings and emotions is perfectionism, analysing and judging (self and others). I have been dealing with a lot of chronic pain that I understand is a result of repressed emotions. Much literature on integrative medicine claims that personality types that most often somaticise repressed emotions are people who tend to be perfectionists and goodists. I realised that in my case emotions that drive such behaviour are the fear of rejection/abandonment, helplessness and sometimes loneliness. My questions is do we approach such behaviours mentally, namely to become aware and consciously stop them in the moment, or are they 'effortlessly' going to change once the emotions are released and resolved. Do we need to approach such behaviours mentally or would that again be too much intellectualising and thus repressing again? Thanks everyone. I am really grateful that this forum exists.
Andrea

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THE EMOTIONAL CLEARING PROCESS / Re: mindbody syndrome and physical pain

« on: March 16, 2014 »

John,

thank you ever so much for this powerful and helpful reply. I realised that some information was missing in my first post that would have helped with explaining the mindbody approach that I mentioned. So, here is more info. The main approach of tuning into emotions rather than focusing on the physical symptoms was taken from Dr Sarno's book 'Mindbody Prescription', who some 40 years ago claimed that many illnesses originate in suppressed and repressed emotions. In his book he relied on Freudian psychoanalysis, claiming that the core feeling being repressed is narcissistic rage. The mindbody approach developed further from that point, although the mind body connection is their basic premise. Today they mostly endorse ACT (Acceptance and commitment theory), which I personally think is much more concerned with mindfulness than Freudian psychoanalysis.

I noticed that the witnessing recording helps most with relaxing into the physical pain. I tried it today having in mind what you wrote. Namely, I focused on the physical sensations and realised that after that it was fear that came up as a feeling. However, by not ignoring the physical pain, I was more able to sink into the pain rather than fight it. I also realised that in the last 2 weeks of working with your recordings, I was stuck with wanting to change the pain and make it go away.

I have one more question regarding yoga practice. I used to do hatha yoga before and would love to include this into the EC process, with the attitude you describe in the book. However, with the physical pain this is impossible at the moment. Is doing meditation while lying down (which is most comfortable) OK for me for the moment?

Thank you again
Andrea

3

THE EMOTIONAL CLEARING PROCESS / mindbody syndrome and physical pain

« on: March 15, 2014 »

Dear John,

I read your book Emotional Clearing and bought the training mp3s and found them a huge help and a revelation. My question is specific to something that has been called 'mindbody syndrome'. You do mention physical symptoms of any kind to point to suppressed and denied emotions. This is very clear to me. However, the community of mindbody coaches that I have sought help with endorsees a specific strategy to deal with emotions connected to the illness and pain themselves. There is a belief that obsessing about the physical symptoms - thoughts and feelings of mainly fear and powerlessness regarding the condition - are believed to be a 'smart' strategy of the mindbody to keep suppressing more important feelings. They advise to ignore the thoughts and feelings regarding the physical symptoms. In the normal awareness, when fear and panic arise, they advise to turn inward to the body and find other feelings apart from fear from illness. Even in a meditative state, while tuning into the body, they advise to ignore the sensations of pain. I have a problem with this approach. For example, I have had a history of painful bladder, skin condition and now am experiencing lower back and sciatica pain. The physical examinations of all these conditions came back with results 'there is nothing wrong with me'. I am committed to the path of inner work and strongly believe that my suppressed emotions and blocked energies are causing the physical pain. However, I feel there is something quite wrong with ignoring the physical symptoms and the emotions around them. The physical pain at the moment is constant and my emotions of fear, anger and helplessness are very strong all the time. I would be grateful if you could share your view on this. Thank you so much.

All very best
Andrea