RickyFitts

@Loba Respect Esilda's wishes, Loba, this is her thread.

Excuse me? Are you second-guessing my motives when you don't know the first thing about me?

@Esilda You're so welcome, you're one of those people I just instinctively liked from the start so I'm glad if I could help. People reached out to me in the past when I was having a really hard time, too, so I know just what a blessing that can be.

@Esilda Okay good, glad to hear it.

Yeah, I've come to think that's the ultimate acid test - all alone in a silent room, with no distractions. Then you're all alone with everything in your body and mind that you've been avoiding, with nothing to numb the pain or divert your attention.

Ugh, I'm so sorry you were subjected to that, that must have felt so violating.

Cool!?

Pain's only an issue when you resist it. Problem is that we tend to be so conditioned to do exactly that - as I see it, spiritual practise is all about learning how to release inner resistance.

So glad to hear that, wonderful.

You're so welcome. So interesting to hear your thoughts on the challenges we face as a society, too, I absolutely agree that things can't stay the way they are but things seem so screwed up at the moment that it's hard to know where to start. But connecting to your intuition is the way to go though I think, as you say - love that you're re-reading 'The Power of Now', because present-moment awareness is central to that I feel.

I think something's always going to feel 'off' whilst you remain unconscious of your true nature, and you're never going to feel truly satisfied. But maybe you'll labour under the illusion that lasting satisfaction can be found 'out there' in the world, which will prevent you from knowing what you truly are because your attention's directed outwards.

@Esilda Oh no, poor you! You take it nice and easy then darl, you need to rest.

Will do, darl. RE anxiety and over-analysing things, that's something I really struggled with a few years back in the wake of a traumatic break-up, the anxiety became severe and near-continuous and it took me the best part of a year to come to terms with it. What I came to realise about my own neurotic mental activity during this period was that it was a way my mind was attempting to deal with strong emotions that felt overwhelming - the mental activity was essentially a coping strategy, which is something I developed from a very young age I suspect (I was a very sensitive, troubled child, and I wasn't living in an environment that was emotionally supportive so I didn't learn to healthily process my emotions). What ultimately helped me was to shift attention out of thinking and into my body, because we can't think our way to emotional resolution - 'you can only heal what you can feel', as Teal Swan so astutely observed. Sounds simple enough in theory, but it was hugely challenging in practice because I'd become very emotionally shut down and consequently had a lot of trauma and upset stored in my body. So you do have to persevere with whichever practice you choose if you do decide to go down that route (for me personally I've found 'do nothing' meditation or simple breath meditation most effective, though yoga was also a life-saver when my anxiety was at its worst, mindfully stretching your body can work wonders to alleviate bodily tension I've found). Really hope that's helpful, darl, because I know just how debilitating anxiety can be. ?

@Esilda Aw, you're too kind - but thank you. You've always been such a sweetheart so I just wish the absolute best for you, I know how incredibly hard life can be when you're highly sensitive (and I understand how extra-hard it can be for women, as you say, with all the pressures and hormonal fluctuations you have to deal with) so I really hope the therapy's helpful for you, lovely. <3

Absolutely agree with this, our chattering monkey minds tend to make it hard for us to perceive our intuition so it can definitely help to redirect attention out of thinking and into the body. Your mind really needs to be calm in order to perceive your intuition, it requires a certain sensitivity and a listening.

By recognising that my non-acceptance only makes me suffer. That doesn't mean to say that acceptance comes easily, but it's helpful to understand the futility of non-acceptance, at least. Become intimate with the moment-to-moment experience of non-acceptance - notice what it feels like in the body, how contracted and tight it makes you feel. Let that tightness relax, and notice what sorts of feelings arise when you do that.

Absolutely, spirituality can all too easily become all talk, so practice is hugely important.

@Consilience Wow, amazing - you articulated that so well and I completely get where you're coming from (I've meditated around two hours a day for about four and-a-half years now and my practice has been quite literally a life-saver, I was in a very bad place when I decided to start meditating more intensively), many thanks for elaborating in such depth ? Understanding the essence of meditation is hugely important, obviously, and this is where I feel like a lot of people go wrong, they think it's about having a particular experience, manufacturing a certain state, when for me it's a relaxation of effort as much as anything, and an allowing of what had previously been repressed (I like Adyashanti's simple instruction in relation to meditation: 'Allow everything to be as it is'). I think it's also hugely helpful to understand that what you're looking for is actually already present - it's just a matter of allowing it to be uncovered, it isn't about somehow conjuring some mystical state out of thin air.

How so, out of interest? What benefits have you noticed?

@Raptorsin7 Cheers buddy, I'll check it out ?

I had a relationship a few years back that helped make me conscious of some pretty serious issues with my heart chakra; I had a strong and frankly weird energetic connection with this person that meant that she could feel all my emotions and energetic issues from hundreds of miles away, and she helped to make me conscious of various issues that had previously been largely unconscious, one of which was a very blocked, traumatised heart centre (I was told by a spiritual healer that this relates to past-life trauma I experienced with this person, which would seem to make sense, though how true that is I don't know). In the past few years I've had to deal with issues in all of my four lower energy centres, and I've made lots of progress particularly with regards to my root and sacral chakras (I had a lot of fear and upset stored in those areas), which are much clearer than they used to be, but I'm having ongoing issues with my solar plexus and heart chakras. What I'm feeling at the moment is a significant build-up of energy right in the middle of my chest; when I feel into this, I can sense that there's deep, deep grief there, but it's kind of mixed in with a lot of anger, too, which seems to be impeding the movement of the grief. What also seems to be complicating the issue is that I'm experiencing a lot of head pressure, too - there seems to be a connection between the pressure in my chest and the pressure in my head, though what the exact nature of that connection is, or how to work with it, I'm not really sure. I'm meditating pretty intensively at the moment - a couple of hours a day - so maybe it's just a matter of time, but I just felt like getting it off my chest (no pun intended) as much as anything. Though if anyone has any insights to offer, I'm all ears