October 6, 2021
In this article we look at how we can step away from unwanted events such as fear. The key is to 'witness' yourself 'doing' those emotions.
Angry!
Scared!
A few days ago I checked my email and received all the usual spam that ended up automatically going in the trash.
But one message got through the spam filter. Normally these wouldn't worry me either. I usually tell my email program to learn this as spam.
However as I started to read it I realised: this was not just another sales letter, but a crude attempt at extorting money out of me!
As you could imagine, I really felt the anger rising! Not only that, but a day or so later I was still seething about it!
I'm sure you have experienced a similar situation where a negative emotion will leave you in that state for hours, if not days and even years... even with trivial issues.
In the heat of the emotion, we struggle to control our thoughts and even our actions.
This is because most people are unaware how their emotions come about - largely a result of our mental programming.
The cure to this is straightforward in concept, but not easy to implement.
The best way to make these moments better is to 'step back' from the moment and observe what is happening impartially.
This is called the 'Principle of Witnessing.'
In order to witness, it's necessary to 'detach' from the outcome and be 'curious' about it. You might even say to yourself 'there I am being angry' or 'there I am being sad.'
But that is easier said than done. Our entire life has usually been spent trying to suppress our negative emotions. It requires great mental discipline to respond a different way.
There are a variety of approaches to solving this issue, but the most reliable long term solution is meditation.
Long term meditators have the ability to 'step back' and observe themselves without being invested in the emotion. But people who are just getting started with meditation get discouraged when progress is slow.
Personally I have been using Holosync™ meditation for about 7 years now.
Holosync accelerates the changes that happen in your brain with meditation. Its creator, Bill Harris, claimed it is about 8 times faster than more traditional types of meditation.
When I look back to the time before I started using it, there is a huge difference in how I handle anger now.
When I noticed that I was angry, I said to myself - 'OK, I'm doing anger, and that's OK'. From that point onward I was quickly able to detach from it. I let the anger subside, which it did quite quickly.
Once that happened, I was able to reason that this was no threat and just some sophomoric attempt to rile me up!
Witnessing is an acquired skill. You can use meditation as above but it does take time to learn it. Tools like Holosync make that task a lot quicker.