Uncover Your Self-Concept And Free Yourself!

In Part 1 we talked about how your identification with a self-concept and resisting what is appearing in your life actually causes more suffering than your life events.

Then in Part 2 we looked at how your self-image and belief system operates like the operating system on your computer.

We also talked about how we believe our self-concept is what we ARE and you are given a way to begin to experience the pure consciousness you actually ALREADY are.

 “Our illusions — the beliefs we hold on to — are the very doorways to our freedom. We simply have to enter through them, without grasping or pushing away.

We must not believe them, but we must not run from them either.

We need to see each moment of apparent bondage as an invitation to freedom.

Then it becomes an act of love, an act of compassion, to stop running away.”

~ Adyashanti, The End Of Your World, pg 60

Step 1
Invite Your Mind To Bring Up A Subject Which Troubles You. Then Get In Touch With Uncomfortable Body Sensations.

To do that, go to this page: Emotional Pain – To Heal It We Need To Acknowledge It and you'll be guided through this first step, especially here and here.

Step 2
Listen To The Energy And Write Down What It Is Saying.

With your attention, go right inside the energy of tightness or constriction in the body which you identified in Step 1.

While you’re there inside it, listen to what it is saying. To be more clear, this isn’t about listening to what your thoughts are about what you think it might be saying.

Instead, be attention itself, which can move around inside your body. Then move right inside the sensation you noticed in your body in Step 1.

Now, simply listen, the same way you would listen if you walked into a room, sat down and focused on listening to whatever sounds were in the room, such as the hum of an air conditioner or the drip of a leaky faucet.

What do you hear when you go inside the energy? What is it saying? Listen to the feeling it is voicing, and then let the feeling turn into words. Write those words down in a list as you hear them.

The vibration / energy of the tightness / constriction itself, IS what it is saying in its own language. The vibration you experience IS it trying to express itself.

And it will do it in words if you ask it to.

If You Feel Stuck With This Step:

Silently within, ask the energy directly:

• What is your story?
  
  
• What is your world view?
  
  
• What is your opinion of yourself?
  
  
• How do you feel about yourself?
  
  
• What do you believe to be true about yourself?
  
  About the world?
  
  About other people?
  
  About life?
  
  
• What do you lack?
  
  
• What do you want?

Don’t ask you, Jane, or you, Tom, what your story, and etc. is. Instead, one by one, ask these questions of the energy you became aware of in Step 1, in your belly or heart or wherever it appears. Ask IT what ITS story and etc. is.

Pretend the sensation is a young person. Imagine it is starting a sentence with the word “I.”

“ I ____________.”  What does it say after the word “I”?

When you become aware of something the energy is saying, write it down. Even if you’re wondering if you’re doing this “right,” or how on earth this will help you discover your self-concept, still write it down in a list. Each time you write something new down, write it on a new line.

Each time you hear / are aware of something being expressed by this energy, add it to your list. Keep listening and writing, listening and writing. Each statement will come from a deeper and deeper place. Continue with this for as long as you can in one sitting.

Example For Step 2:

Continuing with the car episode example from Part 1 of this series, perhaps when you bring up the memory of slamming on your brakes, afraid of crashing into the other car, as you review NOW, in present time, this memory of something which happened in the past, let’s say you now notice a tightness in the solar plexus area, in the upper abdomen.

When you go inside this energy, listen and let it talk, here is an example of what it could be saying, starting with the first thing it says:

Then as you continue listening and writing and a deeper level opens up, you might hear something like:

Note: These are just examples, not necessarily what YOU will hear when you go inside the energy constriction you experience in your body.

Step 3
Read Your List And Simply Hear What Part Of You Is Trying To Communicate To You.
Then Read It Again And Look For Beliefs / Self-Concepts.

After awhile, when you feel you’ve gone as deeply as you can with Step 2 for the moment, read over the list you’ve just written.

As you read each sentence, get quiet within and listen to what an energetic part of your being is trying to express to you about how it feels.

Then go back and read it a second time, this time looking for the statements that are beliefs.

Example For Step 3:

In the list above, the statements that are beliefs are:

Step 4
Ask Within, “Is This Actually True?”

Now one by one, look at each of the beliefs you uncovered in Step 3.

Read the first self-concept and ask within, “Is this actually true?”
When you do this, don’t ask your mind for its opinion. We’re not looking for a “yes” or “no” answer here.

The point of this is simply to QUESTION the statement. These beliefs have been in the background of your consciousness for a long time, unquestioned. We not only don’t question them usually, we don’t even LOOK at them, at least not directly.

They are so much a part of the fabric of the being we think we are, we just assume they’re unquestionably true.

If you were a lion cub who was raised by lambs all your life, you’d probably believe you were a lamb. Your self-concept would be: “I am a lamb.” You most likely wouldn’t even question it. For the lion to fully realize it is a lion, it would need to become aware of the belief that it is a lamb and question it.

What we’re doing here is simply raising the question, “Is this actually true?” for each of the beliefs you wrote down in Step 3. Take them one at a time and ask the question. Feel how it feels to question it.

Remember, we’re not looking for a “yes” or “no” answer. It is the energy of questioning itself which is important.

Step 5
Ask Within, “Is There A Possibility The Opposite Is True?”

Now, one at a time, look at each of the belief statements (which make up your overall self-concept) you uncovered in Step 3.

As you look at the first statement, beside it or below it, write the opposite statement.

Feel how it feels to let both statements co-exist.

Example For Step 5:

One by one, as you look at each belief and the opposite belief sitting right next to it, let them both co-exist equally.

Again, this isn’t a mental exercise. It is about feeling the energy of the original statement, then feeling the energy of the opposite statement and letting the feeling of both simultaneously co-exist.

Also, this isn’t about choosing one belief over its opposite. It’s about letting them both simply be here, fully. Notice letting them both be here neutralizes both of them.

Even from a strictly mental perspective, depending on your viewpoint at the time, each belief could be true or false. So how could they BOTH be absolutely true? They couldn’t.

None of the beliefs you wrote, or their opposites, or ANY self-concept is about YOU. YOU are the consciousness which these thoughts arise in. And these beliefs and their opposites are JUST THOUGHTS! They don’t and can’t define what YOU are.

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Living Brilliantly
interview with Kai Hu by Lacey Sherwood
(from the Stepping Into Brilliance TeleSummit)

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