May 9 Meetup: Dealing with Unconsciousness
This month, there were 7 of us who met at the centre to watch an Eckhart Tolle video and enjoy some sharing on the topic of “Dealing with Unconsciousness”. The talk explored the common occurrence whereby people can for a moment or longer, lose their sense of presence and become overtaken by strong emotions or reactions (he sometimes relates this to the ‘pain body’ – an energy field that is stuck and usually linked to some form of emotion and specific thoughts). Eckhart shared a few practical suggestions that he has seen work well for people in moving through experiences of unconsciousness and shifting back to a more spacious being. Tips that stuck out for me: Avoidance of situations or people who ‘trigger us’ is not necessarily the ideal. Each of these situations is actually an opportunity to strengthen our acceptance of ‘what is’ and to become more present. As K. has said when he was speaking about the key to happiness/peace, “I don’t mind what happens” Take-away: prickly people or uncomfortable situations can be gifts inviting a deeper acceptance or embracing of what is. Eckhart suggests that we may have enough self-awareness to know which situations or people tend to bring out a strong bout of unconscious reaction and offers that these may be times when we can assume a position of gentle self-awareness and self-observation – prior to the encounter. The power of detached observation can lessen the strength or duration of emotional – or ‘pain body’ eruptions. Take-away point: knowing our reactive patterns can help us to enter those situations in a starting state awareness. Breathing, sensing our body, witnessing and resisting the urge to label or mentally interpret are all strategies that may help, not only in our own flare ups of unconsciousness but also in preventing reaction to others’ strong flare ups. Take-away: the surface me may ‘lose it’ but as soon as I see that losing it is happening, non-judging observation can bring back presence. A sense of beingness that goes far beyond the momentary reaction can naturally emerge. Finally, an additional possible approach suggested was to have an open invitation to our partners or teams to ask us whether there is a moment of unconsciousness happening. Take-away: Others sometimes can see us more clearly and act as a flag for us when needed. One thing that all of us really liked was that Eckhart described a process of awakening that is gradual rather than instantaneous – noting that sudden dissolving of the egoic self that he himself experienced is only the rare exception. Most of us seem to be in a longer term process of awakening – and dealing with minor ‘surfacing’ of egoic-based tendencies is quite a normal part of the experience. Over time, we may begin to notice that even amidst great anger, pain or despair, there is in the background, an underlying stillness. This deeper sense of presence may eventually tip the scales and become our predominant sense of being. Great session with a wonderful sharing afterward! Shannon