06-04-2017, 01:32 AM
(06-03-2017, 03:08 PM)ffaux Wrote: I used to use the release technique the same way you're describing to escape the subliminal. This round I've consciously avoided it for the same reason you describe. What I'm curious about is how you've handled it when you've had these negative feelings, I've always felt a little bit helpless and like I don't know what todo.
Have you ever heard of the enneagram? Certain personalities gravitate towards certain coping methods for stress. Look up enneagram 9 and see if you relate. Anyway, it's tough but the solution I've found is you have to just be present with the feelings. It's the exact opposite of what you've probably been doing. You'll know you're doing it right if you find it incredibly difficult or uncomfortable. The biggest issue I had was the release technique, which I also practiced in the past, reinforced my unhealthy coping strategy of detaching from emotions without processing them.
It's very abstract and hard to describe what to do because it's literally about strengthening the part of your mind that regulates your emotions. My best advice is to just breathe deep and let go into the emotion or feeling. Sometimes I'll get this feeling of intense fear or it'll feel like an internal shutter. This is why E2 works a lot better than E1. Think of this process as a valve. E1 is like turning it on and it keeps going. Sometimes your mind just doesn't have the capacity to keep going and it shuts down and reverts to old coping methods. E2 is more like little bursts of what you can tolerate, which is slower process but more consistent. In my experience if you have a personality like mine, the E1 way of going about things requires a lot of conscious intervention to stay out of that dissociation or detachment coping method. When Shannon made E2 he used a few of these points in the creation of it, so I know objectively speaking E2 is superior for me. The biggest issue you have to deal with is these old coping methods are very sneaky and you'll fall into them without realizing it. You have to be very vigilant.
