- Excerpt
THE SEDONA METHOD
by Hale Dwoskin
INTRODUCTION
The excerpt, below, is from the new book, The Sedona Method,
by Hale Dwoskin. The book describes an emotional releasing technique
that has been perfected over the past 25 years and is used by thousands
of people on a daily basis.
The Sedona Method employs a simple set of questions that help people
relax and focus on the present. Its effectiveness at reducing stress was
shown in a study conducted by Harvard psychologist David C. McClelland.
While some Sedona Method users report amazing improvements in health, wealth,
and relationships, most show progress on the little things: sleeping better,
more harmony at home, less turmoil at work, less shy in front of an audience,
greater ease in quitting smoking or losing weight.
The excerpt begins with a description of the Sedona Method, followed by
the case history of a computer programmer who has used the method off and
on since 1983. His results are typical, not phenomenal. Among other things,
he uses the releasing technique to help stop feeling superior to others,
resulting in greater job satisfaction, performance, and compensation.
More information about the book, The Sedona Method, and author
Hale Dwoskin follows the excerpt. Relax and enjoy.
PRACTICAL RELEASING
by Hale Dwoskin
There are three ways to approach the process of releasing, and they
all lead to the same result: liberating your natural ability to let go
of any unwanted emotion on the spot and allowing some of the suppressed
energy in your subconscious to dissipate. The first way is by choosing
to let go of the unwanted feeling. The second way is to welcome the feeling,
to allow the emotion just to be. The third way is to dive into the very
core of the emotion.
Let me explain by asking you to participate in a simple exercise. Pick
up a pen, a pencil, or some small object that you would be willing to drop
without giving it a second thought. Now, hold it in front of you and really
grip it tightly. Pretend this is one of your limiting feelings and that
your hand represents your gut or your consciousness. If you held the object
long enough, this would start to feel uncomfortable yet familiar.
Now, open your hand and roll the object around in it. Notice that you
are the one holding on to it; it is not attached to your hand. The same
is true with your feelings, too. Your feelings are as attached to you as
this object is attached to your hand.
We hold on to our feelings and forget
that we are holding on to them -- it's even in our language. When we
feel angry or sad, we don't usually say, "I feel angry," or, "I feel sad." We say, "I am angry," or, "I am
sad." Without realizing it, we are misidentifying that we are the feeling.
Often, we believe a feeling is holding on to us. This is not true. We are
always in control and just don't know it.
Now, let the object go.
What happened? You let go of the
object, and it dropped to the floor. Was that hard? Of course not.
That's what we mean when we say "let go."
You can do the same thing with any emotion - choose to let it go.
Sticking with this same analogy: If you walked around with your hand open,
wouldn't it be very difficult to hold on to the pen or other object you're
holding? Likewise, when you allow or welcome a feeling, you are opening
your consciousness, and this enables the feeling to drop away all by itself
- like the clouds passing in the sky or smoke passing up a chimney with
the flue open. It is as though you are removing the lid from a pressure
cooker.
Now, if you took the same object - a pencil, pen, or pebble - and magnified
it large enough, it would appear more and more like empty space. You would
be looking into the gaps between the molecules and atoms. When you dive
into the very core of a feeling, you will observe a comparable phenomenon:
Nothing is really there.
As you master the process of releasing, you will discover that even your
deepest feelings are just on the surface. At the core you are empty, silent,
and at peace, not in the pain and darkness that most of us would assume.
In fact, even our most extreme feelings have only as much substance as
a soap bubble. And you know what happens when you poke your finger into
a soap bubble - it pops. That's exactly what happens when you dive into
the core of a feeling.
Please keep these three analogies in mind as we go through the releasing
process together. Releasing will help you to free yourself from all of
your unwanted patterns of behavior, thought, and feeling. All that is required
from you is being as open as you can be to the process. Releasing will
free you to access clearer thinking, yet it is not a thinking process.
Although it will help you to access heightened creativity, you don't need
to be particularly creative to be effective at doing it.
You will get the most out of the
process of releasing the more you allow yourself to see, hear, and
feel it working, rather than by thinking about how and why it works.
Lead, as best you can, with your heart, not your head. If you find
yourself getting a little stuck in trying to figure it out, you can
use the identical process to let go of "wanting to figure
it out." Guaranteed, as you work with this process, you will understand
it more fully by having the direct experience of doing it.
So here we go.
JAMES: RELEASING FOR WORKPLACE SUCCESS
James has been using the Sedona Method since 1983. Here is the story
of how the method has contributed to the trajectory of his career, as
told in his own words:
"When I first took the Sedona Method
live seminar, I was angry with a lot of things in my life. I was a
computer programmer in Silicon Valley and only earned about $25,000
a year. I was mad at my boss because I didn't like the way he defined
my job, and I felt constrained. Among other things, he wanted me to
work nine-to-five, and I wanted flexible hours. After I started releasing,
the first thing I noticed was that I was free of my anger. Once I was
done with that -- no longer a victim -- I began looking for other jobs.
"I ended up moving to Pacifica,
southwest of San Francisco, and went from $25,000 to $35,000 in my
next job. The course was in April and that was in June. Then I made
job contacts and an agency called me about a position in New Jersey
and a position in Seattle both paying $75,000. As they seemed to need
me more in Seattle, I took that job. This was in October of the same
year. Other things in my life were changing, too. I met and fell in
love with my wife. My health was improving. Change came rapidly.
"Several years later, after going
to graduate school and working overseas, I returned to Seattle and
took a big pay cut to work at one of the giant computer software companies.
I really wanted to work there. But now our family had three kids in
diapers and my wife and I were faced with the financial issues of paying
off a mortgage, a car, and student loans. There was a temptation to
rely on credit cards. My new manager wasn't supportive, but combative.
She attacked me in every conversation, often with a smile on her face.
Work wasn't going properly, and I wanted approval and control. But
I didn't feel as though I could stand up to my boss, because of my
financial insecurity.
"I was reminded of the value of
releasing when I purchased the Sedona Method Course audio program explaining
the process of letting go of the sense of wanting security. I stayed
up all night releasing energy for safety. I let go of feelings about
monetary issues and feelings about verbal attacks. From then on, I
no longer cowered when my manager yelled at me, and I stood my ground
in the next couple of meetings. After that she stopped meeting with
me, and I hardly saw her anymore. The good part of this was that she
wasn't interfering with my work, and I could do it properly. The bad part
was that there was no communication. We even did my performance review
by email. For a while, I wanted to quit; then I tried to transfer within
the company, and she blocked it. But, ultimately, she promoted me to be
the director of a software testing team.
"As a manager, I spent a lot of
time thinking about how to apply the Method to work situations. I looked
at my history with it. Initially, all I'd wanted was to get rid of
my anger and move up to a state of pride. I aimed there before being
a group leader, because it made me feel happier. Although this was
good so long as I was an individual contributor, it wasn't great for
management. People are put off by the emotional energy of superiority.
I knew I needed to move into courage.
"From then on, when I noticed that
I was feeling 'better than' others, I'd let go of wanting to put them
down until I felt like we were equals, both members of a team, children
of God working towards a common goal. Whenever I noticed that I was
thinking someone was being 'stupid,' I'd let go on the spot. I could
do it while we were conversing. I could listen and release. I didn't
want to put artificial limits on what people would do.
"By letting go, I'd get upside surprises.
They'd prove themselves more capable, or, if they were on another team
and we were at loggerheads, they'd be more amenable to my suggestions
or come up with a compromise. There never was a war in my department,
even though the corporate culture was often adversarial. As an outcome
of my ability to get teams together, I ended up being the top test
manager in the company for a few years. The people who worked for me
felt at ease and therefore used more creative out-of-the-box thinking
than others did. We got the job done. I owe this success to the Method.
"I love the feeling of releasing.
Typically, it's as though energy is directly leaving the midsection
of my body, my abdomen and thorax. It feels like plods of dirt are
falling away from me, and something that's been trapped by them is
rushing out. When I let go, I usually feel a tingling or crunching
sensation, and sometimes hear an auditory explosion. I know there are
emotions imprisoned inside of me, and these are signs that the blocks
of the prison walls are moving."
Copyright (c)2003 by Hale Dwoskin, all rights reserved. Please feel
free to duplicate or distribute this file, as long as the excerpt from the
book is not changed and this copyright notice is intact. Thank you.
