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gementBefore I rant, quick update for my concerned public: After I went home early on Tuesday, I danced Shiva Nata for an hour and it really helped clear my head. I was productive working with J that evening. I was surprisingly productive at work yesterday, I intend to be today as well, and I have an appointment with the anxiety specialist this afternoon.
I went to a class on tapping last night, as in tapping on acupressure points while processing negative emotions and reactions. For a lot of people it short-circuits the nervous system response and defuses the reaction. I've been meaning to get some training in it for a while. (Formal names for it are Emotional Freedom Technique [EFT] or Meridian Tapping [MT].)
<rant> I am glad I went and got some muscle memory practice in the rhythm of it and the pattern of how to talk about a problem while doing it. I went knowing that the people involved were probably going to be much more woo than me, and armored up to deal with that. But the woo, it burns.
Full disclosure, I was raised New Age and have a certain amount of baggage accordingly, so I get fight or flight reactions more easily in a woo context. I still practice a certain amount of skeptical woo myself, though, and I have a lot of practice at reframing people's language.
If someone's talking about The Law of Attraction, I will translate it into "setting an intent makes you much more likely to notice the opportunities that were already in front of you," and move on. I respect that people's personal experiences are absolutely valid as perceptions, even if I have different interpretations of them. I know people who have been ridden by gods; I respect that epic internal experience and will use their language when talking about it. I speak woo.
Easy translations in this class: I distrust when a technique is about accepting the moment and yet the standard starting phrase is, "Even though I [have this problem], I completely love and accept myself." I substituted "While I," which is much more value-neutral, or skipped that phrase completely. I translated, I moved past it, but sloppy sloppy sloppy. (I take the love and accept myself part internally as the Buddhist sense of acceptance and compassion, "I'm starting from where I am right now." That doesn't take much translation for me.)
Buttons pushed in this class:
1) "Oh, don't worry, we'll FIX you."
2) "They're medicating all these children for ADD when really their energies are just out of alignment!" See also referencing "What the Bleep" as a source of scientific insight.
3) When I asked how they recommended opting out if we were working on negative statements that didn't apply to me, such as "My parents never had enough time for me" or "I don't like myself", it took them a couple minutes to understand what I meant. Five minutes later they'd already edited their memories to think that I'd been resistant to the positive statements because I just wasn't ready to love myself yet.
4) Instructors projecting their own emotions onto people and trying to get people to come up with a root cause (preferably involving parents) even if the problem was "I just feel so numb right now." If the point is to deal with the current experience, deal with the current bloody experience and see what explanations appear in the process, yes?
5) Instructor doing muscle testing (if you're not grounded, it's hypothetically easier to push your arm down) pushed hard enough to make my elbow ache on something she thought I should feel weak on. I've seen enough amazing chi tricks that I don't doubt there's some value in this technique, but I don't trust this instructor's objectivity to apply it evenly as far as I can spit a rat.
6) Assumptions, assumptions, assumptions, my experience is not yours, GAH.</rant>
So when they were tapping on loving one's drama (the instructor's issue again, not the person who was very reluctant to talk about her problem in the first place), I was tapping on my sovereignty, that I was struggling with drawing boundaries and feeling claustrophobic in a roomful of people who disagreed with me. That part felt pretty good.
When I got home, I told Jason. He said, a la Nicholson, "Wait 'til they get a loada me." He then proceeded to imitate Daria. "I completely love and accept myself. I see a herd of beautiful ponies galloping into the sunset, completely loving and accepting themselves."
I felt much better.
I went to a class on tapping last night, as in tapping on acupressure points while processing negative emotions and reactions. For a lot of people it short-circuits the nervous system response and defuses the reaction. I've been meaning to get some training in it for a while. (Formal names for it are Emotional Freedom Technique [EFT] or Meridian Tapping [MT].)
<rant> I am glad I went and got some muscle memory practice in the rhythm of it and the pattern of how to talk about a problem while doing it. I went knowing that the people involved were probably going to be much more woo than me, and armored up to deal with that. But the woo, it burns.
Full disclosure, I was raised New Age and have a certain amount of baggage accordingly, so I get fight or flight reactions more easily in a woo context. I still practice a certain amount of skeptical woo myself, though, and I have a lot of practice at reframing people's language.
If someone's talking about The Law of Attraction, I will translate it into "setting an intent makes you much more likely to notice the opportunities that were already in front of you," and move on. I respect that people's personal experiences are absolutely valid as perceptions, even if I have different interpretations of them. I know people who have been ridden by gods; I respect that epic internal experience and will use their language when talking about it. I speak woo.
Easy translations in this class: I distrust when a technique is about accepting the moment and yet the standard starting phrase is, "Even though I [have this problem], I completely love and accept myself." I substituted "While I," which is much more value-neutral, or skipped that phrase completely. I translated, I moved past it, but sloppy sloppy sloppy. (I take the love and accept myself part internally as the Buddhist sense of acceptance and compassion, "I'm starting from where I am right now." That doesn't take much translation for me.)
Buttons pushed in this class:
1) "Oh, don't worry, we'll FIX you."
2) "They're medicating all these children for ADD when really their energies are just out of alignment!" See also referencing "What the Bleep" as a source of scientific insight.
3) When I asked how they recommended opting out if we were working on negative statements that didn't apply to me, such as "My parents never had enough time for me" or "I don't like myself", it took them a couple minutes to understand what I meant. Five minutes later they'd already edited their memories to think that I'd been resistant to the positive statements because I just wasn't ready to love myself yet.
4) Instructors projecting their own emotions onto people and trying to get people to come up with a root cause (preferably involving parents) even if the problem was "I just feel so numb right now." If the point is to deal with the current experience, deal with the current bloody experience and see what explanations appear in the process, yes?
5) Instructor doing muscle testing (if you're not grounded, it's hypothetically easier to push your arm down) pushed hard enough to make my elbow ache on something she thought I should feel weak on. I've seen enough amazing chi tricks that I don't doubt there's some value in this technique, but I don't trust this instructor's objectivity to apply it evenly as far as I can spit a rat.
6) Assumptions, assumptions, assumptions, my experience is not yours, GAH.</rant>
So when they were tapping on loving one's drama (the instructor's issue again, not the person who was very reluctant to talk about her problem in the first place), I was tapping on my sovereignty, that I was struggling with drawing boundaries and feeling claustrophobic in a roomful of people who disagreed with me. That part felt pretty good.
When I got home, I told Jason. He said, a la Nicholson, "Wait 'til they get a loada me." He then proceeded to imitate Daria. "I completely love and accept myself. I see a herd of beautiful ponies galloping into the sunset, completely loving and accepting themselves."
I felt much better.
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no subject
Date: 2010-06-17 05:06 pm (UTC)If it helps you, you can ignore the Woo.
Peace and Love!