Active Feeling

WARNING: Folks with a history of mental illness, trauma, or panic are urged not to use these techniques without a trained energy therapist. If you decide to do these processes you will agree to absolve the webmaster, his server, and Steve Mensing of any responsibility for the application or misapplication of these processes. Although there are many safety features built into these processes and they have been tested and evaluated, there is always in any process the fraction of possibility that someone could experience some discomfort. So proceed with this warning.



Active feeling is fully feeling our feelings and allowing them to be
there with no intention of getting rid of them or keeping them. This approach
puts us in full contact with ourselves and allows us to naturally integrate
and process our feelings. This integration and processing leads to our
clearly seeing ourselves, others, and the world.
Active Feeling is the basis of sound mental health and aliveness. Active
feeling has roots in mindfulness, focusing, and old school clearing.

Active Feeling stands at the middle way between suppressing our feelings
and overidentifying with our feelings. Active Feeling is basically relaxed
allowing where our bodies are relaxed and we take a non interfering stance
with our feelings. This approach does not judge or evaluate our emotions
and feelings. We simply experience our feelings in a relaxed state of
allowing and greet them with acceptance, love, and a sense of that's the way
it is.

In noting that Active feeling resides between suppression and
overidentification, we recognize that suppression is when a feeling emerges
and we attempt to hold it down, deny it, medicate it away, avoid it, tense
up, distract ourselves, talk about it, or get lost in daydreams.
Overidentification is when feelings show up and we over focus on them and
not grant them movement. Here we grasp the feeling and won't let go.

Active Feeling or allowing ourselves to feel feelings brings relief and
greatly lessons symptoms, habits, compulsions, stuckness, panic, depression,
and chronic moodiness. Active Feeling operates on the common observation
that when feelings are resisted they intensify and persist. Yet when
feelings are fully experienced and accepted they integrate and release.
This is our nature. Resistance and suppression create havoc in our lives.

TIPS ON ACTIVE FEELING

* A fully relaxed body will open us to our feelings. This relaxation can be
brought about by left nasal dominance breathing, slow and deep circular
breathing, and full body relaxation exercises.

* In left nasal dominance breathing we breathe moderately and deeply through
our left nostril only. Our right nostril is gently pinched shut. Exhale is
free and relaxed. A good full body relaxation exercise is to begin at the
top of the scalp and go all the way down the body to the toes, letting go of
any stress and tension you meet in any muscle or body part. A cyle or two
works wonders when combined with left nasal dominance breathing.

* Circular breathing works well too. This form of breathing is described in
the Meridian and Vortex. Circular breathing done in a hot tub can really
open things up for folks who see themselves as non feelers. However, it
should be mentioned that most socalled nonfeelers actually do feel. Often
they deny or misperceive body sensations. Or they discount borderline
feelings such as no feeling, numbness, dissociation. Often they miss their
frustrated feelings in their inability to feel the feelings they desire or
demand. Even so called non feelings and numbness count as feelings. They
are still bodily sensations.

* Copper Biocircuits can assist in feeling feelings and getting things
unblocked. Large copper plates connected with midline wires are very
useful.

* You need not give your feelings traditional names like anxiety or happy or
depression or anger. In Active Feeling we call them "Up Energy", "Down
Energy", or "Neutral Energy". This naming can reduce some of our aversion
to feeling which may come from negative and pathological labeling. This
form of neutralized labeling can give us a clearer experience of feeling.

* Welcome and feel gratitude for your feelings. When you begin to tune into
a feeling and really allow yourself to feel, say hello or Hi to your
feeling. This greeting both acknowledges your feeling and underscuts
resistance to it. Recognizing what good service your feelings perform will
also undercut resistance. Your feelings always perform the valuable task of
giving you feedback about yourself, others, and your reality. Feelings let
you know how you feel about something. Feelings also perform many other
valuable services as well.
Discover them through intuition or asking your unconscious what valuable and
good things your feelings do. By giving heartfelt gratitude or thanks to
your feelings, you further remove aversion to your feelings. In short greet
your feelings, what good things they do, and sincerely thank them for their
services. Done with sincerity these three gestures will help you let go of
aversion to your feelings.

* If you have hostile or fearful judgements or evaluations toward your
feelings, feel these judgements and evaluations. Then allow these
judgements and evaluations to describe themselves with a simple label. You
might get back the labels: hostile, fearful, angry etc. Feel the label then
allow your unconscious to peel it off. Keep feeling and peeling any labels
that pop up until you are left with only "Up Energy", "Down Energy", or
"Neutral Energy". If you want you can even peel off these labels and
experience what is left.

* Utilize the Accept This/Love That processes on the tech page. The Grok
Drills may be fun too.

* Always allow your feelings to be there with no intention of getting rid of
them or keeping them. Allow. Permit.

* Experience feelings in different ways:
(1) Intensify them or exagerate them.
(2) Tune into them and allow them to migrate to other areas of your body.
Then allow them to return.
(3) Notice the opposite feelings of the feelings you're having. Shift
back and forth between these polarities several times. What do you notice?

* Allow your intention to get rid of your feelings to be there. Pay full
attention to it and recognize it attempted to be helpful in its own way.

* Allow yourself to have feelings and not to have feelings.

* Observe how talking about your feelings is not the same as fully feeling
them. It abstracts them and can be a form of resistance to feeling. This
may shock some folks. Feel a feeling, then talk about it. What do you
notice about the feeling connection here?

* Sometimes during feeling your feelings you may experience chaos and
uncertainty. Feel the chaos and uncertainty and permit them to be there.
It's okay to feel confused, out of control, and uncertain. When you
experience chaos and uncertainty fully you will begin to notice that order
naturally returns even though you didn't seek order.

* Notice the size and shape of a feeling. Notice its outline. Notice its
location. Notice its surrounding space. What did you experience?

* Are there feelings beneath your feelings? Pay full attention to your
feeling. Ask if there is a feeling beneath that feeling. Wait and see if
something appears. Keep letting feelings appear if they suddenly pop up
into awareness. Go until you hit a wall or no more feelings appear. Then
wait for a felt sense to emerge and fully feel it.

* Allow yourself to fully feel your feelings. If some seem overwhelming and
intense, that's okay. The longer you feel them with no intention of getting
rid of them or keeping them, the less intense they will be. Only if it is
absolutely required do a Meridian Grasp head hold or the Neurovascular
Nightmare Exterminator. This will quickly chill down the most intense and
resisted feelings. The directions for them are on the tech page in the
Meridian Grasp and the Nuerovascular Nightmare Exterminator. Even in the
most intense and overwhelming panic symptoms, abreactions, trauma restims,
and flashbacks, it's not the feeling that overwhelms us, it's our intense
aversion or resistance to these feelings that get us to flee. It's our
intolerance to feeling that fires us up. These are the beliefs like I can't
stand it, it's too much, it's overwhelming etc. These evaluations are the
bedrock of aversion. By standing our low frustration tolerance and fully
feeling it, the low frustration tolerance dies down. Fear has never chased
a panicked person anywhere. They leave the scene because they believe they
can't stand their fear. Practice long and often with aversion beliefs like:
I can't stand it, it's overwhelming me etc. Once fully felt and accepted
these beliefs lose their hypnotic spell over us.

* Dissociation or a seeming lack of feeling, sometimes to the point you feel
outside your body is a strong reaction to feeling overwhelmed. Focus on
your dissociation and allow it to return to your body where you can feel it
again. If you are working with dissociation, have someone trusted nearby or
better yet work with a therapist grounded in focusing, mindfulness, or
energy therapy.

* Lack of feeling, numbness, dead feeling, or even no feelings are all
feelings. Allow yourself to fully feel them with no intention of getting
rid of them or keeping them.

* If you experience compulsions, addictions, obsessive thoughts and
actions, then locate the feelings that power up these experiences. When the
feelings that run compulsions, addictions, etc are fully experienced and
accepted, the compulsions and addictions lose all power and vanish.

* A straight spine helps us feel. Keep up your breathing. Stopped
breathing makes feelings stick.

* If thoughts intrude--that okay. Simply say: "thought" and bring your
attention gently back to your feeling.

* Notice those feelings where you want or need something.
Notice those feelings you attempt to push away or avoid.

* Placing your palm on your heartbeat refion can assist in feeling and in
keeping feelings in the body.

* After you have a fgood handle on fully feeling feelings, you can also
focus on physical sensations, pain, and ill feelings.

* Check out how you feel about some of the targets in Targets for Tech.

* Doing the Medualla Un Hold (Nambudripad) prior to Active Feeling can
assist us in clearly feeling our feelings. Also the Central Meridian Trace
is useful to full feeling. These are described in the D.I.E.

* When integration of feelings comes about, changes in belief and emotion
take place. Muscle tension vanishes.

* Feelings may change into other aspects or even release memories. Pay full
attention. The majority of feelings tend to cluster in the torso, yet they
can be faound in every part of the body and sometimes exterior to it.

* As you get more tuned into feeling a feeling you will notice the
separation between yourself/being and the felt energy. This separation is
subtle. This energy blur is not quite you. Pay attention to this
separation and feel it.

* Feelings have beginings, middles, and ends. Feelings arise and pass away.

* Be willing to forgive a feeling.
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*STEPS TO ACTIVE FEELING

(1) Recline or sit and allow yourself to relax. (Left
nasal dominance breathing, relaxation exercises).

(2) Bring your attention to your body. Central torso
often a good place to start.

(3) Permit your feelings to come up. Do not force or
attempt to make something happen. Feelings will only
come to awareness if an intention of permission is
there.

(4) Greet your feeling: Say Hi or Hello. Name it: Up
Energy--Down Energy--Neutral Energy.

(5)Be with your feeling. Pay attention with sincere
interest and openness. No hurry--just allow it to be
there with no intention of getting rid of it or
keeping it. Just let it be.

(6) Ask it what good things it does for you and give
your feeling time to respond.

(7) Thank it for its good service.

(8) Ask it what it wants to tell you. You will get a
sudden felt like response or intuition. Pay full
relaxed attention.

(9) Allow your feeling to tell you even more if this
is your sense. Be patient.

(10) Be willing to be with your feeling and feel it no
matter what. Remember: No intention of getting rid of
it or keeping it.

(11) After you've spent what seems like enough time
with your feeling, you may stop. You will know this
by a felt sense. Thank your feeling again.

*We may have intuitive conversation with our feelings.

(a) You can employ your feelings to know what you
want. You can ask your feelings directly: "Feeling
old pal--what do you want?" Don't hurry an answer,
just wait patiently.

(b) Feelings can provide answers in felt senses,
pictures, sounds. Other questions might be: What
brings you here? What good things are you doing for
me?

(c)Overwhelming emotions always have something
important to tell us. Ask what they want. You might
even ask them how they might help to make you whole
and complete. What can I learn from you that might
bring serenity or even power?

(d) Ask your feelings what might be holding you back
or blocking you. And what might you do? You are
going strait to the heart of intuition by asking your
feelings.

(e) Feelings provide an opportunity to listen non
judgementally and really hear what our feelings have
to say. Treat a feeling like a buddy.

(f) Ask your feelings if they require distance. If
they answer back yes, then permit them distance.
Experience them now as "Those feelings over there"
"That feeling" "My feelings beside me"
This slight distancing alters our relationship with
them and allows them more accessibility.

(g)Feel a sensation, then ask what it is. Feelings
and sensations are gateways to intuition. However if
your answers come back with "I think" or "I believe"
you are not coming from an intuitive place.

(h) Ask your feeling to let you know what it would be
like to experience wholeness, serenity, power, or love
again.

(i) Avoid questioning feelings with "why" questions.
Why questions will take you quickly out of the feeling
mode.

* If you're feeling doubtful about your feelings, then
return to them and experience them.

*Notice any sense of impatience or pushing. Allow
yourself to relax and focus, paying full attention
with a sense of permission.

* Be willing to feel even good feelings.

*Active feeling can be employed for powerful feeling
experiences like compulsion, grief, obsession, and
panic.

* Many times when you become experienced with active
feeling, you will experience spontanious releases.

*If you have been condemning a feeling--see how you
might accept it.

* Sometimes we may experience two or more feelings at
the same time. Feel both at once or naturally let
yourself gravitate to the one you find most
interesting. You'll experience a pull.

* Keep somewhat warm during Active Feeling sessions.
This helps feeling.

* You can always return to a feeling you felt
previously.

* A common block to Active Feeling is simple
performance anxiety. Here we wonder if we're doing it
right. Or do we have a feeling? This is okay.
Whatever is there for you in your body is a sense or a
feeling. They work.

* If you've decided to work on a particular feeling
and your body had another feeling in mind, guess who
wins? Your body. You can ask your body if it's okay
to proceed with this other feeling, but if it says
otherwise, pay attention and work with what it
provides.

* Never rush or push feelings. Allow. Permit.
Relax.

* If a feeling abruptly vanishes, this might hint you
have intentions to hurry up and make it go away.

* Sometimes you might feel good and miss it because
you expect to feel really bad.


Copyright Steve Mensing