Hale Dwoskin - The Sedona Method - Your Key to Lasting Happiness, Success, Peace and Emotional Well-being

If you find yourself telling the same story more than once, check to see if you are seeking agreement or approval for the problem. If you are, ask yourself:

— Could I let go of wanting others to agree with me about my having this problem?

— Could I let go of wanting approval for this problem?

• “It’s mine, that’s why.”Pride is a shifty emotion. For we don’t only feel proud of our accomplishments, we also get really hooked into being subtly proud of our problems. We feel so special for having them. This pitfall on the path to freedom may take the form of feeling proud of having prevailed even with the problem, proud of having borne it for so long, or proud of having a problem that is unique to us alone.

Keep an eye open for pride. Look at your problems as you release on them, and check to see if you feel that they make you “special.” If you find any pride and you can honestly admit it and let it go, then you’ll find yourself free to let go of the problem, too.

• It is not wise to ask, “Why?”Wanting to understand or figure out why, or from where, problems arise can also be a major obstacle to letting them go. For we have to hold on to our problems in order to figure them out. Interestingly, if there is something that’s important for you to understand, letting go of wanting to understand often brings the understanding that you’ve been seeking with a lot less effort. Ask yourself a question: Would I rather understand my problems or just be free of them? If you would rather be free, I highly recommend letting go of wanting to figure them out.

“Coming from a background of poverty and excessive physical discipline, I’ve been working on myself for umpteen years. But a number of issues have persisted, despite my efforts to shift them. Having completed the Course, I’m relieved of much of my old anger, and I am better able to deal with the deep-rooted fears that come up. I’m not sure I recognize me, but I’m prepared to be surprised. The Method easily comes to mind when faced with daily challenges, so I have gained some highly effective tools and a calmer, happier way of living.”

—Yvonne Wigman, Kingston, Australia

The reason this is so important is that, in order to figure out a problem, we must leave the present moment, which is the only place we can truly solve anything. In addition, we only truly need to understand a problem if we are planning to have it occur again or are planning in some way to maintain it.

Years ago, during a Sedona Method course that I was teaching, I suggested to my class that if they let go of wanting to figure out their problems, the answers would come. There was one man in particular who had a hard time embracing the concept. He was an electrical engineer, and he “knew” beyond any shadow of a doubt that he needed to want to figure things out in his profession or he would not be able to do his job. I didn’t fight with him about his point of view; I merely suggested that he remain open at least to the possibility that letting go of wanting to figure it out might be of service to him.

In between the two weekends of the course, the engineer had an experience that totally changed his perception. He was working to create a sample circuit and needed a particular part to complete it. But when he went to find it in the parts room—a room consisting of rows upon rows of bins stacked on floor-to-ceiling shelves and filled with small electronics parts that were sorted according to their specifications—the bin where the part was supposed to be was empty. He thought, I am sure that this letting go of wanting to figure out stuff can’t possibly work with this kind of problem, but I’m going to give it a try anyhow. So, he just stood there for a few minutes and let go of wanting to figure out where the part might be. Then he found himself walking around the corner to a new row of bins, where he reached into one that was labeled for something else, and, lo and behold, there was the part he was seeking. He was dumbfounded because he had just done this on a lark, certain it wouldn’t work—and it did anyway!

I highly encourage you to be open to the possibility that you can get the answers you crave in your life through this process of letting go of wanting to figure it out. Like the electrical engineer, you may be surprised!

• Stop rushing past life.Begin to approach your life as though you have all the time in the world. We live in an incredibly fast-paced world where we’re constantly forcing ourselves to move more rapidly in order just to keep up. In our rush to attain our goals, even in the realm of self-improvement, we often rush past the very moment that offers the greatest opportunity for self-discovery and self-recognition—now.

No matter where your consciousness has gotten hooked in the past, in addition to releasing on that issue directly, develop the habit of looking for its opposite. Most of us have become very good at finding problems and limitations. We are experts at the quest for limitation because of our habit of looking for our problems when they are not here.

The freedom that we inherently are is always closer than our next thought. The reason we miss our freedom is that we jump from thought to thought, from familiar perception to familiar perception, missing what’s really happening here and now.

Even when you are working on a particular problem, allow yourself to look for where the problem isn’t. Notice how even your worst problem is not always with you in the current moment (NOW). When you start becoming aware of your basic nature of unbound freedom, you’ll find that this awareness puts all of your supposed problems into perspective and allows you to live your natural state of freedom now.

The following process will help you start to move in this direction. It is a way to experience what’s beyond your apparent problems and get more in touch with the second form of releasing—welcoming.

Easily allow yourself to become aware of your sensory perceptions, beginning with your sense of hearing. Could you allow yourself just to hear, listen, or welcome whatever is being heard in this moment?

Then, while allowing yourself to continue to focus on hearing: Could you also allow yourself to welcome the silence that surrounds and interpenetrates whatever is being heard?

For a few moments, switch back and forth between listening to what is being heard and not heard, including your thoughts.

When you feel ready, allow yourself to focus on what is being seen. Could you allow yourself to welcome whatever is being seen, as best you can?

Then, could you allow yourself also to welcome or notice the space, or emptiness, that surrounds every picture or object, including the white space between the writing on this page?

Again, alternate between the two perceptions for a few moments.

Next, focus on whatever sensations are arising in the moment. Could you allow yourself to welcome whatever sensation is being perceived in this moment?

Then, could you allow yourself to welcome the space, or the absence of sensation, that surrounds every sensation?

Easily switch back and forth between the two ways of perceiving.

Then, could you allow yourself to focus on a particular problem, and welcome that memory with all the pictures, sounds, sensations, thoughts, and feelings that are associated with it?

Could you then allow yourself to notice how most of your experience happens apart from this particular problem?

And, could you allow yourself to welcome at least the possibility that this problem is not as all consuming as it has seemed?