If you look under the Key Posts link on the right, I have a section on “Clearing” that covers some of the suggestions. Gratitude leading to forgiveness was huge for me. Some of my friends have found EFT potent. Tom Stine writes about Sedona. Service is an interesting one I’ve not covered for awhile.

I’ll also mention meditation again. Because it is meditation that will help culture that awareness that allows, it is the cornerstone for dissolving the foundation of the story. The techniques themselves are much better as supplements than core process.

Thanks for your thoughts.

In some ways, these can just be a little sub-conscious, a little hidden. Not really a “dark side”, so it’s not really necessary to make some big story about it. But most do struggle a bit with some things.

People often use the analogy of peeling an onion. You peel a layer or 2, seem to make some progress, then something more comes up. Other things, or perhaps deeper values of what has already been cleared. So it can seem to go on for awhile.

Another way to see this is a dismantling of the ego story and then identity. It can go quite deep. But as you make progress it becomes more automatic and then Self takes over and does it for you.

Awareness is enough, but also a willing awareness. It must be seen fully to let go. Some may fall away here and there, then a deeper aspect when it is seen more deeply. If it’s emotional stuff, seeing may mean a brief experience of it, a wave of feeling. Short but complete, the resistance ends.

Also, an innocent or detached awareness. If the awareness is seeing it but caught in it, it is not being released. It is a first step but it must be seen a bit more deeply. Not stepping further into it but stepping back from it more.

Make sense?

At some points on the path, some attention to the positive can be useful. But it can also become a trap, yet another illusion to overcome.

In many ways, this is true of pretty much every technique and concept on the journey. Meditators can get stuck on doing it right rather than transcending it, inquirists can get stuck in analyzing every thought, even bliss can be a trap if we become too enamored of it. Some teachers talk of people who retire into the transcendent, not integrating it into the world.

It’s not uncommon for people to have some sort of transition period when they make a major shift. What had worked may no longer or it has to be rejigged. If you are the transcendent, how do you meditate? That’s when understanding where they are is useful, to avoid the pitfalls of any given step.

And that’s why understanding the “dark side” – which is of course just a story line itself – can help people get out of this one.

It’s particularly rife on the web. It’s seems to be an obligatory rite with bloggers and self-help gurus to push “positivity” and “optimism.” I even saw it on a website that has “zen” in its title!

It’s an easy hit; nobody argues against it and it sounds so wonderful. And it is true that attention expands, so attention on the positive will expand the positive. It is also true that resisting the negative encourages it to fester.