Hello Patrick,
As well as receiving support my neighbour has been away for several days so it's been a more peaceful environment at home and I now have a couple of days off work and hopefully it continues.
Terrific :)
I noticed things like strong physical resistance around 'throat area' and strong energy around 'head area' and turning to other thoughts/stories or dissipating, but kept bringing it back to original thought/story as you suggested and looking for an actual link. I've been a bit more gentle in approach at times also. In the last sit I've come out of just before writing this message there was more ease staying with the sensation 'around upper chest'.
Nice work, Patrick. I would suggest that you continue to do this as a means to continue becoming comfortable with what thought says are intense, uncomfortable sensations. The more you do this, the less intense and uncomfortable they become. It is also good to see how you react to these sensations. What I mean by that is, is to watch the thoughts and reactions that want to move you away from the sensations, so as not to feel the sensations.
I cannot find an actual link/connection between thought/story and the sensation 'fear/anxiety'.
The sensation itself doesn't know the thought/story.
Great looking and observing.
Labels ‘fear/anxiety’ is AE of thought and not AE of fear or anxiety
Labels ‘intense/uncomfortable’ are AE of thought and not AE of intense or uncomfortable
Sensation labelled as ‘fear/anxiety’ is AE of sensation and not AE of fear/anxiety
Image labelled ‘me/I/body’ is AE of colour and not AE of a ‘me’ who is fearful/anxious.
Thoughts about fear/anxiety and what they are and what they mean and who they are happening to…are AE of thought and not AE of fear/anxiety etc?
What is actually known is labels + sensation + colour + thoughts, however fear/anxiety is not known.
Is this clear now? Being clear does not mean that those sensations or thoughts will never appear again. Or that the story about a 'me' who is feeling anxious will never appear again. Being clear simply means that you have seen what they actually are as opposed to the thought stories about them? And that there is no one found who is actually in fear or anxious.
Another great tool to use is the “blahblahblah” exercise.
What thought tends to do is add “virtual layers” about experience, by adding story about what IS. The more complex the idea, the more “virtual layers” have been added. So what needs to happen is to strip the layers of story away, until all that remains is the bare bones. And, there is way to determine when you have stripped away all the layers that are pure fantasy, and you have only the bare bones left. If you can replace the thought with “blahblahblah” and what it was referring to remains, you know you are down to the bare bones.
So, close your eyes (or leave them open) and bring the story of “I am feeling anxious” to the forefront, and notice the sensation and images that seemingly go hand in hand with that thought.
Now replace the thought “I am I am feeling anxious” with “blahblahblah”. Look at the actual experience, with thought only saying “blahbahblah.” Is there a “I” that is “feeling anxious” without thought saying so?
If yes, that thought is referring to actual experience. That’s a “bare bones” thought, with all additional story layers stripped.
If no, then you know that the thought has added “virtual layers.” It is fantasy, and it isn’t confirmed as actual experience, because what it was saying didn’t remain when the thought was replaced with “blahblahblah.” If what remains, for example is sensation, then all that is confirmed in actual experience is AE of sensation, but can an “I am feeling anxious” be confirmed?
You can do that exercise with any thought that appears to see if a thought is a ‘bare bone’ thought or is a thought that has added ‘virtual layers’ to AE.
Test it out and let me know what you noticed.
Kay
Nothing real can be threatened. Nothing unreal exists.
