This explains the effectiveness of a ritual I used to do every time I heard a word I perceived as having an opposite/polarity/antonym. I'd do a playful dancing-shrugging gesture while saying "meh...<word>...<opposite>...meh..." and then reframed what was said using: observations without using words that have an opposite, blameless emotions, and needs expressed and/or arising. Doing that consistently for 3 weeks changed my life 9 years ago in powerful ways (most of the intense phenomena you listed dissipated, minus anger & confusion in times of stress). This still left me slipping into undignified ways, though with a much easier time of learning through most of them. When i apply what you've written to the description of the practice I just wrote, I notice clear explanations for which challenges since then were addressed upstream & which weren't. This helps me see how I can refine the practice. Most nourishing, on a scale of most-to-most. May all beings find/choose/learn/experience/play/jazz/dance/sing/feel/ /.../ <breathe> / /write/live/die/pee/poop liberation and the causes of liberation.
The main thing is that ordinariness is sublime, and thats what we should be working towards, not an ongoing state of excitement nor an oscillation between needing to be healed because of our own misconduct and feeling better relative to our bad habits. There are usually lots of spots where we are dishonest and our neurochemistry has been adapted to that version of “normal”.
This explains the effectiveness of a ritual I used to do every time I heard a word I perceived as having an opposite/polarity/antonym. I'd do a playful dancing-shrugging gesture while saying "meh...<word>...<opposite>...meh..." and then reframed what was said using: observations without using words that have an opposite, blameless emotions, and needs expressed and/or arising. Doing that consistently for 3 weeks changed my life 9 years ago in powerful ways (most of the intense phenomena you listed dissipated, minus anger & confusion in times of stress). This still left me slipping into undignified ways, though with a much easier time of learning through most of them. When i apply what you've written to the description of the practice I just wrote, I notice clear explanations for which challenges since then were addressed upstream & which weren't. This helps me see how I can refine the practice. Most nourishing, on a scale of most-to-most. May all beings find/choose/learn/experience/play/jazz/dance/sing/feel/ /.../ <breathe> / /write/live/die/pee/poop liberation and the causes of liberation.
The main thing is that ordinariness is sublime, and thats what we should be working towards, not an ongoing state of excitement nor an oscillation between needing to be healed because of our own misconduct and feeling better relative to our bad habits. There are usually lots of spots where we are dishonest and our neurochemistry has been adapted to that version of “normal”.
10/10 thank you for this
Sharing/restacking is a great way to help, thanks for reading!