The Home of Steven Barnes
Author, Teacher, Screenwriter


Wednesday, February 22, 2006

Hyper-Sensitive



The light came even more easily this morning.  I slept until my body felt cool and light.  Then I sat up in bed, and began to listen to my heartbeat until my breathing slowed and mind quieted.

I looked into my mental mirror, saw myself naked, and sharpened the contours of my body—I have a goal of getting down to 175 pounds by my birthday, March 1 (2 1/2 pounds to go!) When my body was right, I created a female doppleganger, and we sat facing each other, hands touching. 

There was a goodly amount of light running up and down our spines/chakras, and I concentrated it into a single small, happy glowing child.  Took that child into my body, and sank  it to my base chakra.  Light, warmth, vibration. My heartbeat, low in my body.

Slowly, I expanded the light up through the next three chakras.  Stopped at my heart.  The reasoning?  If I am properly rooted in the first four, the rest will take care of themselves.  I would rather trust instinct to their management.

But I did visualize a triangle at the 6th Chakra.  Rotated it to represent each of my three major goals, visualizing them, hearing the laughter, feeling the joy.  Let the light spread through my body.  Returned to my heartbeat.

Opened my eyes.
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As anyone reading this blog knows, I’m getting hyper-sensitive to certain negative media images.  Every time I see them, I flinch, and flinching bonds my energy.  New tactic.  Envision a white-water raft traveling down a narrow river.  The negative stimulus is a rock in my path.  When I feel the fear/anxiety flinch, I switch to Performance breathing (“Be Breathed”, the technique taught in the Five Minute Miracle) for five breaths.   If I have the time and space, I might do this while performing a djuru (softly), swinging a Clubbell, performing a set of FlowFit, or performing a kinetic chain designed to remove a tightness.  A yoga pose would work as well.  But just doing the breathing, even a single good breath, would work.
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Why?  Here’s the theory, and I invite you guys to try it and report back: the negative stimulus creates a bracing, a flinch response that interrupts the balance of breath, motion, and structure, sending us into a negative emotional/physical spiral.  Pretty natural, right?  By using the negative stimulus to trigger a positive, re-integrative response (not “positive thinking” but an actual physiological pattern) you are creating a Pavlovian stimulus response loop between stress and proper use of the mind and body.  In other words, you are  developing the habit of responding to stress with excellence and balance.
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Eventually, (so the theory goes) that given stimulus will no longer trigger a negative  response.  You will need to look deeper to find a good trigger.  The freed energy can be invested in growth and change, and will naturally contribute to personal evolution.
That’s the theory.  We’ll see, won’t we?

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