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

into a feeling, because we are afraid we will get lost or it will get worse. However, if you really let yourself go past the surface and get to the actual core, you’ll discover that this could not be further from the truth, as my student Margie found out.

      Margie came to class with a deep sense of grief that she had been carrying around for over ten years, ever since she had felt betrayed by the staff of another self-help organization. Without getting involved in the elements of her story, we mutually decided that diving in to the grief would be the best way for her to let go of it. I asked her the questions from above, and at first her grief intensified. As she began to cry, I simply encouraged her to go even deeper than the sensations and the story, and we kept going. To Margie’s surprise, in just a few minutes, she entered a state of profound peace. She said afterwards that she’d avoided the grief because she felt like she was drowning in an ocean of it. After she released, she realized that the grief was always just on the surface. What she’d actually been avoiding inside, without knowing it, was an ocean of love.

      As most people work with this way of letting go, they find that it gets easier and easier to drop into the core of any emotion and allow it to dissolve. They notice that every feeling, no matter how traumatic, has little substance and is much ado about nothing.

      Feelings Only Lie

      When you catch yourself rationalizing a specific emotion, telling yourself what a useful function it serves and justifying why you’re absolutely right to hold on to it, it is a signal that you’re being handed a pack of lies. As you move further into the exploration of letting go, one of the things that you’ll notice is that the feelings you’re releasing tend to argue for their own preservation. Feelings lie and make empty promises, such as: “Fear keeps you safe,” “If I feel guilty, I won’t do it again,” “If I hold on to my anger, I’m getting back at another person (rather than only hurting myself).” All that’s happening is that a particular feeling is perpetuating the problem it appears to be preventing. It’s a lie.

      Two simple sentences that I use in my classes sum this up. You may find them a little like a Zen Buddhist koan that cannot be understood unless you just let go. So, here we go: “Feelings only lie. They tell us we are going to get from letting go of them what we already have from holding on to them.”

      The Mind Is Like a Computer

      To put the Sedona Method in perspective, let’s take a look at the many ways in which the human mind functions similarly to a computer. Computer functioning, of course, is partly based on the model of the human mind, so this shouldn’t seem like too much of a stretch. You are probably aware that a computer needs both hardware and software to operate. For the sake of this analogy, consider the hardware the equivalent to the brain and nervous system, and consider the software the equivalent of our thoughts, feelings, memories, and beliefs, as well as our basic, inborn intelligence.

      What does the human operating system consist of? Software programs that run the body and the mind are the underlying intelligence that allows the system to function and accumulate knowledge. Almost everything we need in order to function well in life is innate. The only exceptions are the specific skills we acquire, which can vary widely. These range from playing a musical instrument to performing brain surgery.

      In the same way that a computer functions faster and more efficiently the more memory, or space, it has available, so do we. As we go through life, we have experiences and accumulate data until our resident memory fills up and our processing capabilities become burdened and slow down. In computers, you can free up space by deleting or compressing files. Likewise, experiences that have a neutral emotional content and feel complete are highly compressed. Conversely, emotionally charged or incomplete experiences are like programs and files that have been left open and are running in the background of our lives. They use too much of our available memory and processing capability.

      “My gains include freedom from disabling sensations of anxiety at my job, increased success and enjoyment in my work, and much less fear of the future.”

      —Bonnie Jones, Olympia, WA

      Open programs are not a big problem for most of us when we are younger, but as we age, there is less memory available even for bodily functions like respiration and digestion. As a result, the entire system gets overloaded and starts to break down. Then open programs and files take a toll on our basic ability to function effectively in life and to learn new, useful skills. They create mental confusion and conflict, because they’re often sending us messages that contradict and interfere with each other and with our conscious intentions.

      As we apply the Sedona Method, we let go of the emotional charges that are keeping old programs and files running in the background of our lives. We therefore increase our available memory and speed up our processing capability. Releasing enables us to retain the wisdom gained from experience without having our energy and memory drained by an emotional sense of incompletion. In other words, the more we use the Method, the better the human system functions.

      Written Releasing: What Do You Want in Your Life?

      Upon occasion, throughout The Sedona Method you’ll be invited to explore your feelings on paper in self-created worksheets. At Sedona Training Associates, we call this type of process “written releasing.” I recommend that you purchase a spiral-bound notebook or a simple journal to devote to this purpose for the duration of your reading. Once you’ve finished the book, for privacy, shred the parts you used for written releasing. There is no reason to save your releasing notes.

      So, before you read on, please get out your new releasing journal, and make a list of anything and everything you would like to change or improve in your life. This list will serve as a declaration of your intentions for this self-study course on the Sedona Method. We will refer back to it as we move through the process together, so take as much time as you need and be as complete as possible.

      As you write down your intentions, remember not to limit yourself to what you think is “possible” to achieve from reading a book. You are learning a tool that will be with you for the rest of your life. Have fun. This book is designed to help you begin a process that can lead to you having, being, and doing it all. The process is so powerful, in fact, and works at such a basic level, that many of the intentions on your list will come to fruition even without you working on them directly.

      Write Down Your Gains

      As you let go, I highly recommend that you write down your gains, as they occur, to spur you on to even greater self-discovery. Keep track of these positive outcomes in your releasing journal, or purchase a second notebook small enough to carry around in your breast pocket or handbag in which to jot down your thoughts.

      The following is a short list of the type of gains you can expect as you work with the material in this book.

      • Positive changes in behavior and/or attitude

      • Greater ease, effectiveness, and joy in daily activities

      • More open and effective communications

      • Increased problem-solving ability

      • Greater flexibility

      • Being more relaxed and confident in action

      • Accomplishments

      • Completions

      • New beginnings

      • To acquire new abilities or skills

      • An increase in positive feelings

      • A decrease in negative feelings

      • More love towards others

      

      In addition to gains, as you explore the material in this book, you’ll discover your patterns of limitation and the specific ways that you could change your life for the better. I highly recommend that you write these realizations down whenever