Core Catharsis is ... | Blog |
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Our negativity bias is based in our fight-flight-fright response. These responses help us to quickly and strongly deal with threats without needing to be fully conscious. These responses tend to interfere with full awareness. These were essential to our survival when we were hunter gatherers. They don't work well in society. We usually can't run from or fight an abusive boss. In that situation, the fight-flight response causes constant anxiety. Without an alternative to the fight-flight-fright response, we deal with perceived threats with inappropriate ineffective responses, and with reduced conscious awareness that further inhibits a resolution. Core Catharsis is an antidote to our negativity bias, to the fight-flight-fright response, the anger-fear-freeze response. The beauty of the Core Catharsis approach is it in no way represses or ignores existing responses. It builds on them. It adds options and awareness. Core Catharsis transforms discomfort into comfort by removing blocks to awareness, resolving inner conflict or the rejection of your own experience. "Comfort" usually means physical comfort but not always. For example, when I was afraid to ride roller coasters, I wouldn't stand in line for one, but if I did I would reject or repress the fear I felt and feel extremely uncomfortable. Now that I like riding roller coasters, I accept and enjoy the feelings I have while standing in line. They are much the same feelings I would have felt before except that now I describe the feelings as excitement, not fear. I'll wait in a second line so I can sit in the first car of the roller coaster to scare, or excite, myself even more. It wouldn't be accurate to say anyone is comfortable while riding a roller coaster. It's physically demanding. Yet, I experienced much more discomfort from my fear then from actually riding a roller coaster. Fighting our own experience is frequently the cause of all the pain we feel. When the experience is fully accepted, there is no more pain. The primary method of Core Catharsis is repeatedly asking and answering a question about a feeling or emotion. The goal is to find plausible answers that you haven't thought of before. Nonsensical answers are valid for the following reasons: - They can ease the pressure of looking for "right" answers. - They sometimes feel correct in some way and can lead to plausible answers you wouldn't find otherwise. - They let the mind find its own way. Questions like: How can my hate help me love?, are designed to: - associate feelings with goals - associate feelings with your sense of wellbeing - affect your full mind (not just your thoughts or beliefs) - create new desirable automatic responses in addition to your existing automatic responses Asking and answering a question repeatedly strengthens the neurological pathways used to try to answer the question. Memory is affected the more the question is asked and answered. The more a question is asked about a feeling, the more likely the answers will automatically come to awareness the next time the feeling is experienced, and from then on. The environment is set to reprogram or condition a new response that you desire. This is something you already do whether you're aware of it or not. Repeatedly asking yourself why you're such a loser will also build a mindset--probably a mindset you don't want. The Core Catharsis approach is choosing the questions you want to create the mindsets you want. The only direct goal of the questions is to create options and remove blocks to awareness. The questions do not analyze or try to create understanding about feelings, emotions, or beliefs. The questions do not try to change your feelings, emotions or beliefs. However, indirectly, the process of building options and awareness frequently creates much understanding and change. More importantly, the Core Catharsis approach creates a strong mindset that includes a conscious association of feelings and responses. This mindset includes comfort and has more response options. Emotions and beliefs will naturally become positive without the effort of figuring them out or working on them in some way. A mindset that has strong ingrained neurological patterns throughout the many faculties of the mind, simply has more power than a belief that's not associated with a conditioned mindset. Questions strongly affect more of the mind and more quickly than assertions or affirmations. Questions can have a much stronger affect on conditioning than assertions or affirmations. It's called "Core Catharsis" because it has defined exactly what the core of catharsis is. Catharsis is the point when a repressed experience is fully accepted and all resistance or blocks to awareness are removed. When an experience is fully and permanently accepted, there is no more psychological pain. When anger is fully accepted, it becomes drive or determination. When fear is fully accepted, it becomes caution or excitement. The usual definitions of "catharsis" aren't descriptive or are just wrong. When we experience a psychological catharsis, nothing is purged or released. If someone notices when a catharsis occurs, they can feel a great sense of relief and physical relaxation but nothing has fundamentally changed other than their awareness. They now realize they no longer need to avoid or repress an experience they might have repressed since birth. For example, if the executor of a will tells you that ten years ago someone left you fifty million dollars, nothing has really changed. You already had the money, you just didn't know it. Of course, now that you know it, you can make many changes. Likewise, when self induced repression of your own experience is resolved, you have more wealth. |
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