Did you ever let the laundry pile up? I’m sure it was never as bad as mine got one time. A few years ago my washing machine broke when my schedule was very busy. I put off the repair and just bought more clothes. Talk about a Mount Washmore.
Once the repairs were done I only washed the clothing I needed to wear. There was just too much to deal with and I left the laundry piled up.
I only dealt with the pileup when I invited a houseguest to visit
I wanted my place to look good for company. That’s when I finally went to the laundromat and used a row of washers to get everything washed at once.
As you can imagine, some of the clothes were pretty ripe by the time I dragged them out to go to the laundromat. And it was embarrassing to haul bags and bags of laundry there (and back). But I sure felt better when it was all done.
Doing processes is kind of like going to the laundromat
And just as my laundry looked worse when I hauled it all out of the back of the closet, likewise the limiting beliefs we want to shift can look worse when we bring them out in the light of day. But cleaning these beliefs up will clear out some of our blockages.
Let me explain:
1. Writing out limiting beliefs shines a light on them
2. Group work adds dimensions
3. Three ways that looking at negative emotion is helpful
1. Writing out limiting beliefs shines a light on them
Have you noticed how, even our craziest thoughts make sense when we’re just thinking them. But they sure look different when we speak them out loud or put them on paper? Writing down our thoughts shines a light on them.
Maybe that light is part of the reason why it’s easier to do our alignment work in writing and with structure. The format helps to focus us. And working with what’s showing up can be easier in writing because we have a clearer view of it. Doing the work with other people adds something as well.
2. Group work brings more dimensions
Knowing that someone else is going to look at our work brings an energy with it. There’s a sense of the work drawing energy forth from within us when we know that what we’re writing will be seen by someone else. And when we look at the work that the other person is doing, sometimes we can see things in their work that is not as easy to see in our own.
There is an increased intensity to doing our work in a group. Think of how I finally buckled down and did all my laundry when I knew a friend would see my closets. Likewise, doing our processes with someone else can help us to keep focused and to keep working on a subject that we might otherwise be avoiding. It also helps to do that shared work together for a limited time. Working this hard won’t last forever.
We can make our hard work more productive by using different tools on different emotional situations. Think of how we use different water temperatures and stain cleaners on different fabrics. And that some items need to go to the dry cleaners. Likewise we can use different approaches to cleaning up our energy.
3. Three ways to benefit from looking at negative emotion
There are many ways to profit from poking at negative emotion. I’m going to briefly touch on three ways here, and will explore some of this in future articles.
First, we can notice certain patterns in our negative emotion. When ‘feeling bad’ shows up less often, doesn’t last as long, and isn’t as intense when it does show up — those patterns are evidence of incremental change.
Secondly, sometimes those patterns show us that things are getting “worse,” that we’re spending more time out of alignment on a certain subject. In that case, really good approaches for changing our energy are “going lower” and “going more general,” which we’ll explore in more depth in the future.
The third way to benefit from negative emotion has to do with what may be going on when we aren’t having success even with going lower and going more general. Sometimes there’s an “issue under the issue” that we need to address before we can shift our energy. The ways to identify that underlying issue will be explored in another article.
Objection: I’d rather focus on the positive. It feels bad to activate these negative emotions
If you feel drawn to focusing on what feels good — petting your cat, meditating, basking — do it. Those are all good, solid ways to align your energy. Sometimes it feels aligned to take stock of where we are, and if we feel bad in some of where we are, we want to move out of those feelings. That’s why we do this work. Let’s remember that bad feelings are guidance. Those feelings do feel bad, but they are very helpful to us. We can use that guidance to help us in cleaning up our energy. And it feels great to get things cleared out and cleaned up.
Summary
Looking at our negative-feeling limiting beliefs is an important part of clearing our energy. By doing written work with our limiting beliefs, it’s like airing our dirty laundry. But in doing that work, we also are shining a helpful light on things. Working with a partner or in a group adds dimensions of accountability and structure to our work. There are a variety of ways to benefit from looking at the negative emotions and limiting beliefs. We’ll be exploring some of them in future articles.
Next Step
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Get Short Daily EmailsAll Abraham material is copyright J&E Hicks. This article represents Teresa Rogovsky's personal understanding of the teachings of Abraham.