@Miguel i have to disagree with the above because the emotional states are perceived intuitively, and thus their status (neutral=neutral, good=good) remains the same regardless of other changing factors. On the intuitive level, neutral will always be neutral, good will always be good, excellent will always be excellent, because we intuit what we are experiencing.
Our external conditions may change, which is I’m guessing what you’re referring to, e.g. maybe less stomach gurgling when anxious, not having headaches all the time, more energy in the day, more clarity of mind…
But those intuitive categories remain the same, and are experienced the same (though - at different rates) all the way up to becoming free
Yes, I had thought about that objection/reflection. I think it could be summarized (correct me if I’m wrong): “The important thing is the status you give to a state in any given moment (even if influenced by x or y; even if you think different about it in the future, or what you would have thought about the same state in the past). Anything else is not relevant, and the diagram will work anyway”.
But I did not want to argue about the “true” status of a state, but to expose such reasonings/cognitive aspects as possible problems that may interfere with the communication, description, labeling and comprehension (even for ourselves, as I had said), of what we are observing and reporting to @claudiu (complicating his breakdown of the processes of what I understand he wants to investigate/achieve in certain parts of the diagram -or about the method itself-).
That’s why I give the example about our diffrences in the “basic level” of feeling good, etc.
But if those reasonings/cognitive aspects don’t interfere/affect descriptions, labelings and comprehension (even for ourselves, I repeat), good. I just would not dismiss them outright.
With that in mind @claudiu I would consider rewording that section, because the status is intuitively felt. Rather than something ‘I’ (the doer) give it, it is something the ‘beer’ is
Perhaps the language should be, it’s something that I attentively ‘recognize, intuit’ rather than something that is given as a status
The words that have helped me the most were when @claudiu was explaining feeling good on the Dharma Overground recently.
Basically, feeling good happens all the time naturally. It the everyday, normal feelings of being ok. I wish i had the direct quote, because it was well worded.
Basically, when someone asks “how are you?” and one responds “i am going well”, in that moment, one is generally “feeling good”.
It’s just a matter of getting used to the entry point being so non-dramatic. So, normal.
Feeling good is the everyday, multiple times a day, down to earth feeling of being ok. That is why it’s so difficult to enact for the neurotics amongst us; it’s a completely easy - “no way it can be that simple” - feeling.
I’m not familiar with psychotherapy so I can’t comment much . But my understanding is the goal of psychotherapy is essentially to get you from being a person that is sad/unhappy/miserable in a debilitating/extreme way, to being a person that is sad/unhappy/miserable in an average way (ie to the degree people normally are). And not to be generally feeing good each moment again 24/7
Actualism’s innovation isn’t in acknowledging your feelings - plenty of people already know how to do that. It’s in using the tool of acknowledging your feelings - among others - to enjoy and appreciate being alive via at least a basic/ordinary feeling good each moment again 24/7, which one knows is possible due to being informed by pure intent what is humanly possible as experienced in a PCE (and one takes as a “seems possible” until one has such a PCE, via it making reasonable enough sense logically/rationally and/or seeing others’ reports at succeeding in doing so).
@FrankN I think what Claudiu means is that there are many tools one uses to assist with applying the method, the method itself being enjoying and appreciating this moment of being alive, the tools include things like ;
Investigation
Nipping in the bud
HAIETMOBA
Neither express nor repress
Keep hands in pockets
Tracing back to find the trigger
Seeing the silliness of feeling bad
Fully acknowledging one’s feelings
Basically they are all the things that as an Actualists you are likely to use in order to enable feeling good, but in itself those things are not the method.
4 me, when i remember to and can talk my self into employing it, the . . . release back to non-negativity seems to occur fairly automagically upon its noticing
however, it seems to me upon introspection that this may be due to an . . . internal conviction that has arisen from close self observation that almost ALWAYS any uncomfortable feeling is due to a story (interpretation of events) in concept-space that i have been/am “listening to” (believe, have accepted as true by default, without evaluation)
so usually these days, the majority of any negativity seems to dissipate upon re-remembering that, rather than deeply investigating the root “cause” of the specific “insult”
BUT, i think deeply investigating the deep root for a specific causal-chain “behind” any particular uncomfortable event may help it unwind for good whereas NOT doing so - only contenting myself that the majority of the noticeable negativity has fled - may simply put it off FOR NOW and allow for its return where re-cognizing the root thoroughly may “eradicate” it (and its neighbors) and any un-recognized, un-noted, perhaps-deferred negativity as well
man that seems like it took a lot more words than it shoulda
I was dealing with one of the hen party companies I work for regarding payment for a job I completed for them. They did not make the payment structure clear upfront before I accepted the job and so I was actually owed more money for the work I completed than they had paid me.
My default is usually to simply ‘be the bigger man’ in these sort of situations and take the hit. As in just accept that I got paid less this time and move on. Today though I realised that I tend to do this out of fear of them turning against me if I dare to question them and so I decided to turn around and go down a different path.
Now as soon as I decided to question them and stand my ground in terms of how this situation needs to be resolved I of course experienced the waves of fear that I usually try to avoid by ‘being the bigger man’. Images of the company no longer giving me work, making things difficult etc were all playing out in my head.
So in terms of resolving the intense feelings this is how it went :
Firstly I ensured that I was fully aware of the fact that I am feeling fearful, as in I did not try to run from it and neither did I try to repress it or turn it into something else - Applying awareness-cum-attentiveness.
Secondly I ensured that I keep my hands in my pockets to ensure that I do not act in a way which will cause further issues with the company down the line or that will set of secondary triggers for me. I made an effort to be (psychically) not moving and as such the intense fear had nowhere to go, it could only burn itself out. I equally observed the fear trying to get up to all sorts of tricks such as the fear inspired scenarios I mentioned above. As this was going on there was the intellectual understanding that this is par for the course and that the sensible thing was to continue not moving (psychically) until the fear is capped sufficiently to allow me to look at it intelligently.
Now that the fear has subsided and I am back to feeling good I am able to look back and see just what it was about the situation that caused such a fear in me, I am now able to look at this fear of conflict with the intent of resolving it and all the while feeling good
I just tried this as well and I think it works even better than the ‘distraction’ method because it’s more engaged. Distraction may be useful for some situations still, but this worked well for me.
While my ‘hands are in my pockets,’ it feels similar to ‘holding my breath’ for a bit. And sure enough the feeling doesn’t last.
It’s a good tip to not re-trigger the feeling. That is an error I’ve made many times in the past out of fear of repressing
edit:
Flashing red-light → hands in pockets → don’t ‘move,’ psychologically (‘endure’) → back to neutral/feeling good happens naturally → investigate trigger → continue with feeling good until the next ‘light’
The flashing red-light can also go to ‘nipping the bud’
If ‘enduring’ is not borne, and one begins to spiral beyond what one can bear, then maybe distraction is a good tool
I see ‘neutral / feeling good / feeling excellent / etc’ as a continuum which it is useful to get to feeling as well as possible given any constraints / not losing track of the trigger
. But my understanding is the goal of psychotherapy is essentially to get you from being a person that is sad/unhappy/miserable in a debilitating/extreme way, to being a person that is sad/unhappy/miserable in an average way (ie to the degree people normally are). And not to be generally feeing good each moment again 24/7
