Reducing Mind Momentum is the Key
The problem is that anything can be used by the mind to hike its activity even more, for example, when there are teachings about “ego” in spiritual circles, the mind hooks on to the teachings and goes about trying to get rid of the ego, making this into a new obsession. When there is a […]
Link back to full article: https://www.calmdownmind.com/reducing-mind-momentum-is-the-key/
Sen, your articles are amazing and very insightful. Nevertheless, I feel so hopelessly bogged down in a bottomless pit of never-ending negativity through chronic anxiety that I cannot reduce my mind momentum even the slightest bit. I have been working with the practice (or non-practice?) of allowing my negative emotions to simply be there for well over a year now. It seems so simple. Just allow. But something is so hopelessly stuck inside me that I feel hardly any benefit at all from any of this. The negativity that arises in me is so overwhelming that I cannot help but suppress it, and often I try to suppress it through “allowing.” I do not know how to find the strength or the courage to actually face it, even after reading a bunch of articles like this. I feel like I understand my problem very well, but understanding it has done nothing to free me of it. My life (and my identity, as you have mentioned) revolves around trying to stay in a space of allowing and awareness while ultimately being ruled by negativity. Any thoughts or suggestions would be deeply appreciated.
Scott, the question you need to ask yourself is – what is the energy that’s driving my practice of allowing? After you “trying” to allow from a place of fear, in a manner of trying to ignore, and get rid, of certain fears in your mind? Are you are being really allowing with the attitude of openness to see fear for what it is, to really feel the fear in every part of your being, to know it so intimately that you no longer fear its presence? I’ve mentioned this pointer of getting to know fear very intimately (the way you would get to know a lover), in this post – don’t fear fear. As long as you don’t meet fear in a total openness, you will keep fearing fear, and hence you will keep trying to hide from it, thus you will never be really allowing of it, and hence you won’t let a release happen. If you stay in the cycle of fearing fear (as a feeling), you will keep fueling the emotion of fear in you, and stay in this loop. The only way to break this loop is to bring a courage to really see fear for what it is – as a feeling, it’s only a sensation in the body, and you can see its limits clearly you don’t try to hide from it. Once you see its limits, you will no longer fear this feeling, and you can then truly allow its presence in you – this allowing will cause the integration of fear into wholeness, and thus bring an end to the momentum of fear in you.
Scott,
I have struggled with the release at times. What has really helped me is to understand that mind is a machine with limited programming. Thoughts generated by mind are just thoughts, I do not have to buy into them or believe them. They can come if they want to but they are not absolute truth or reality but coming from mechanical intelligence of my brain.
Sen: When I am suffering, even I have found it very difficult to follow practice of allowing without the motive to reduce suffering. Specially when suffering is too much. Ultimately, that is the desire anyways. I am not sure it is possible not to have background of driving force to get rid of suffering. It is just there…
Also, as I understand, you cannot force attitude because that is more like trying to trick your mind. That does not work.
Maybe I am missing the point and would request clarification.
Anu, there will always be this background feeling of wanting to be free of the “low state” created during a release. This background feeling is natural, and it comes from your being, as well as from your body, since the low state is contrary to the natural state of wholeness. However, the low state can’t be avoided during a release, and it’s a temporary phase of unpleasantness that’s part of any “detox” cycle. It’s just something you ride out until the release is done with in terms of momentum.
Sen
I have read most all of your posts. You have a great insight into mindfulness and trying to help people. This post in particular caught my eye because I have been searching for months trying to find answers to my never ending negativity, or shall I say my minds ability to to dwell there. In particular my thoughts turn to scenarios that most always turn negative. It seems like I am somehow trying to gain control of future events, or re-write past events, by running every possible scenario through my mind, all of which are negative/pessimistic interactions. It is usually me telling someone off, or even fighting with them, none of wich I would ever do. I will even have scenarios where I put myself in other peoples places and argue a point for them, like this is what I would say if I was you. It seems to stem from what I perceive as unfair acts by others. And it gets real negative real fast. Of course this is just an example, I can turn anything negative. If my wife doesn’t answer the phone, I run a million negative scenarios as to why she has not answered. From car crashes to burglars I will run them all right down to the funeral arrangements. You can see the toll this negativity plays on me emotionally after a while.
If I am reading you article right, a big key, if not the key to all mind/body issues is mind momentum. My mind has an unbelievable propensity to hop on the negative track and just roll on. I understand that this will take time to fix, so my question is this. Is there a step by step process to help me get this flood gate opening? I am very new to awareness of the mind and have incorporated meditation to help negativity awareness. I still have no idea what exactly to do to stop this type of mind momentum. I do not know the process of becoming aware or allowing of thoughts, or letting them go. It’s all kind of confusing. So is there something you recommend to get me started? Again , thanks for your help.
JP, it boils down to practicing the state of allowing to release this past accumulated momentum, you can read these posts for insight on this
http://www.calmdownmind.com/reaching-a-place-of-total-allowing/
http://www.calmdownmind.com/faq-on-the-state-of-allowing/
Hi Sen, I’ve been practicing awareness and can see my dysfunctional thoughts and emotions (sometimes!). I really like the advice you give for releasing this type of negativity. However, I’m a bit confused as to how you let go. Do I consciously have to let go, i.e. I see the thought/emotion and I affirm that I let go? Or will the letting go part just happen naturally? Thanks for your help with this.
Edel, a negativity is only fueled when one is unconsciously lost to its pull. Some people don’t even realize their imbalances, and are lost to the pull of their imbalances, and these people are at a very low level of awareness – but that doesn’t exempt them from facing the consequences of their imbalance, and these consequences, in fact, act as a wake up call for them to grow in awareness. Some people do realize their imbalance, but feel helpless to its pull, these people have awareness of the negativity but are not able to let go of it and hence feel helpless – these people have no choice but to develop the inner power to consciously let go of the pull, because that’s the only way forward. Once you become aware, you have to make the conscious choice to “let go”. When you ask “how do I let go”, it’s like asking – “I know I am eating stale food, but how do I stop eating”, and to that I can only say, “do it as a conscious choice, it’s a choice only you can make” because you are aware now of the staleness of the food. To keep asking “how do I let go” can easily become a mind ploy to avoid/delay letting go, and just defending your sense of helplessness. The point of awareness is to make you aware of your imbalances/negativity, after that it’s for you to develop the attitude/courage/power to consciously let go – there are no techniques, it’s just a “choice”, and it’s for you to make this choice. It’s just that the negativity has a momentum from the past, and hence even when you dis-identify from it, it continues to keep coming up because of its past momentum. Hence, you have to keep making the choice to let go, again and again, until it loses momentum – there is no short cut to this. The practice of spending time with yourself (possibly for 30 mins a day), without distraction, and consciously working on connecting with your space of awareness/being, allowing your mind/emotions to arise (without suppression), and letting go of hooking on to the mind’s thinking or the emotional-pull, is a way to develop this “inner power”. I’ve described this in the post – The basis of inner freedom.
It’s not about “affirming” that “I am letting go” (like a rote) – it’s about being aware and making an inner choice to no longer be pulled around by the mind/emotional momentum.
Sen, thanks very much for your reply (and for all your articles!). Your blog is a huge help to me.
Hi Sen,
Last year I was diagonised with anxiety.Was on medication for almost one year.Horrible thoughts had taken over my life.But with time and reading posts from your blog i realised that thoughts were just the symptoms of anxiety.I have started watching my thoughts in a detached manner but still some form of anxiety is left in me .I am not able to eliminate one trouble in my life.My mind unconsiosly recognises a place or situation and associate with the horrible thought.I know that this is just the anxiety trick played by my mind,but I am not able to come out of it.Whenever i goes or see the situation,my mind relates the thought and get feared.Please suggest me what to to.
Ashish, as I’ve mentioned in this post, you need to give yourself time as you work with the process of deepening in the stability of your awareness. If anxiety comes up, develop the openness to allow its presence without “reacting” to it from a place of fear – this capacity for openness will take time to develop as you work on being more and more allowing, you can read this post for more insight – The basis of inner freedom
How do you know when you are done growing in awareness? I find myself continually confused at what state I’m in, due to the fluctuations. Most of the last week has been great, with thoughts and feelings coming up, but never really affecting me, as though I truly understood and had a sense of awareness, but the last couple of days that has changed. I’m not able to feel as secure or feel the wisdom I had the last few days. There’s a sense of persistant irrationality. I’ve had this before, and I usually meditate a while each day to open up, but am I just running by doing that? I’m not meditating to erase the thoughts, just expand my mind and awareness.
Tyler, awareness can keep growing in many ways (as a part of eternal growth as a being), right now your journey would be towards finding inner wholeness and your awareness will grow in that direction. Get used to this feeling of “uncertainty”, or confusion, and it’s something you will sense now and then during the phase of “letting go” (or the phase of release) which is what you are going through – there is no need to cling to the familiar feeling of certainty or “security of knowing”, just allow yourself to be open to the feeling of “not knowing” without getting worried or irritated about it. Meditation is fine as long as it’s a way of opening up rather than a tool to discipline your mind (during this phase of letting go it’s about allowing the mind momentum to keep releasing in the state of openness, without working on suppressing or controlling the mind).
When I try the releasing process when negativity comes up, I get two different results (by trying it different ways). One feels like I am pleasantly deflating. I can feel the presence of negative energy, but it doesn’t feel too uncomfortable. The other one does. I feel the discomfort of the negativity, and at the same time I feel a sense of panic, like the kind you get when you can’t breathe (even though I am breathing). Is any of this what I am supposed to be feeling? Am I trying too hard or not doing enough?…. or should I just not worry about this?
Also, when I feel the panic coming, my body tightens, and sometimes it shakes. I feel like there is a possibility that this may somehow slow or impede the release. Should I just let this happen? Is this part of the release, or a bodily reaction to suppress the negativity?
Sen, is it possible that the mind momentum trigerred by exeternal factors such as a word, a picture, a song, ect? Because i have been following your blog while reading the Power of Now at the same time. And now that i finished the book, i just following your post. In the book, it says there are some trigger words for everyone that trigger the mind momentum. And i feel it too, and it kind of annoying when i hear or see certain words and the mind just starts pulling me. Is the same letting go can be applied here?
Mark, the momentum can be triggered by external triggers, like certain people, pictures, words, songs, events etc, but that doesn’t mean that the problem is the trigger, rather the trigger is just a assistance that allows you to see the imbalanced momentum present in your mind. Instead of trying to fight the trigger what’s required is to work on releasing the momentum by moving into a state of openness/allowing whenever it gets triggered. Use the triggers as an opportunity to get a sense of your mind momentum (what you sense as your mind’s pulling power), and develop the openness to allow the momentum to arise freely, without suppression or over-identification, thus allowing it to get released over time. Once the momentum is released you will notice that the “triggers” either dissolve from your reality or they are no longer an influence.
Your words have awoken me. Given me a completely new perspective on life and religion. You mention in one of your post about not spreading this word. I beg to differ, I just recently came across your blog and its made me re evaluate my life entirely. ~Thank you
Bill, I am not sure if I’ve ever mentioned about “not spreading this word” (or not propagating the pointers of finding inner freedom). I might have mentioned that don’t to force these understandings on someone who is not willing or who doesn’t want it or who may not be ready for it – different people have different levels of awareness and their receptivity is determined by what they are ready for currently.
I apologize, what i meant was it should be more focused on in schools world wide until almost everyone can obtain this information on some level. Then allowing a clearing focus for their interest and which field of study they would like to proceed with. I feel like my entire schooling has been a bunch of fluff and waste of focus. Again i thank you for awakening my inner self.
Yes, I agree with you Bill. Ever since I read in ‘The Power of Now’ by Eckhart Tolle that little children can be taught to watch their mind, I have been wishing to start a school with this philosophy. I have even registered a company by name Sathva Grammar School Pty Ltd, with trading name Sathva Grammar School, several years ago. Let us see what the universe thinks of this and how this project takes off the ground.
Sen,
Is it possible that life orchestrated events for your fears and negativity to come up even when you were not aware of this process of release? I am looking back at certain events that happened in my recent past, before I found your blog, that seemed to have done just that.
Hi LQ,
I saw your post and just wanna share with. The answer of your question is yes. Sen also said that life will assist us irrelevant to our consciousness (have we awakened or have we not). I had thought about some events back in my life, and life is obviously orchestrated alot of events to wake me up, but i didnt know any of these. Right now, life is still orchestrating the events.
Hope this can clear your doubts.
Regards
No doubt about it! The events happen in our lives because of our internal imbalance. Whether we are aware of it or not, that is why. That they happen over and over is the key to getting us to notice. Eventually we see the patterns and begin to awaken.
Thank you Markus!
How do I know when the process of release is complete?
Brandon, when you sense that there is no real “intensity” to the pull of emotions (like fear, depression, sadness, anger, hatred, attraction, excitement et al) or mind/thoughts, it’s an indication that you’ve come to a place of stability. As long as you sense a “momentum” in your mind/emotional-space you would have to work on the phase of release.
Hi Sen,
The phase of release started a few months back for me. I came upon your website about a month and a half ago, and it has given me great pointers in this process. Anxiety has been one of my biggest issues in the past few years, to the point where panic attacks terrified me enough to stop driving on the highway completely. I have been getting on the highway little by little, along with being in a state of allowing. I’m definitely experiencing immense releases lately, and I’m ok with that. Yes, at times it knocks me on my side because it’s so heavy, but I get myself back to a state of allowing after some time.
My concern is that when I would feel fear/panic arise in the last few months, I had the confidence/knowledge to let it be, and it would just pass through me, and I would get on with my day. The other day after a huge 2 week long release of depression (cried for 10 minutes straight in therapy), I was driving and this panic came up, and that knowledge/confidence that I had before just felt like it was gone, and I didn’t know how to get back into a state of allowing, so there I was panicking and freaking out for 10-15 seconds thinking I was going to die, until I finally pushed myself to get on with my day. It’s been 2 days and the fear of a panic attack has come up hard (to be released I’m sure) when I thought I was done fearing them since I was handling them decently. I guess one thing that might’ve contributed to this is that during that 2 week depressive release I felt completely detached as if I was not myself anymore (confused, alone, “something’s wrong” kind of worry), and I think I was fueling that fear for a while so that when the panic came up, it felt like I was not myself in a very amplified way. I’m not too sire what I’m asking, or if I’m asking anything, I just wanted some pointers for the state I’m in.
Thank you for your writings, Sen.
Mike, the release happens in layers and there can be some releases that feel very intense. It’s not about trying to use the pointer of “allowing” as some concept to feel good during the release, neither is it a technique that you need to execute when a wave of release comes up – allow the confusion, the loss of control, the feelings of panic, the anxiety as an experience, as it arises, it’s not about trying to feel good but about the openness to allow the bad feeling. The fact is that once you connect with the state of allowing/openness, the releases just start happening on auto-mode and there is bound to be a sense of a “loss of control” (or a sense of “something’s wrong”, “I am regressing”, “I may not be doing this allowing thing right” etc) when the releases happen – you no longer need to use any understandings, neither do you have to try to “remember” to allow, rather you just have to ride out the release cycle as it happens.
Hi Sen,
I’ve had obsessive thoughts for several years. After recently discovering your site, your articles have helped me a lot. And through “allowing” I started to feel better. But for these several years my mind has had a very unpleasant tendency. When I start something new or just do some certain things, and if during that process a negative thought arises, my mind remembers that thought and then associates that certain thing with that thought. For example, when I’m installing a new program on my computer my mind tries to remember some certain negative thought that may arise during the installation process and then when I use that program or just think about it, my mind keeps repeating that thought. Or when I take a photo of something, my mind may try to remember a negative thought arising at that moment, and then keeps repeating that thought when I think or look at that photo. So, what my mind tries to do is associate different objects with a certain negative thought that may arise during my interaction with those objects. Usually it happens during my initial interaction with a new object (buying, installing, downloading from the internet, or creating it in some way). And from that moment on when I think about that object, that same negative thought keeps arising in my mind. It’s especially irritating if that thought was about someone being hurt. Because it doesn’t feel good when such a thought keeps arising whenever I interact with the object that my mind associated that thought with. Moreover, it gives me the feeling as though that object receives some negative energy from the associated negative thought.
Please, give me your advice.
Thank you.