yoniso

In the 1960s Michael Gazzanega noted that: the human brain is organized in terms of a “mental society.”…alongside our verbal system, there resides any number of “mental units” [that each] have memories, values, and emotions, and are expressed through any of a variety of systems.’ What makes this process so eerie is that these systems may not be in touch with each other but rather, have their own existence outside of language and our logic.’
• reptilian brainstem: homestatic body regulation; breath, digestion, shutdown freeze autonomic systems (digestion, appetite, sleep) are disrupted; hold breath

• midbrain: survival impulses that activate core emotions (amygdala); heart racing, terror, panic, addictive craving
RH/Emo mind, processes experience emplicitly; impulses lie outside of cons. control; context, connection & security. Early, pre-verbal memories are stored in oFrntl & amygdala; the emotional mind largely sends non-verbal signals

• Emo facial cues: tears after loss, shame hurting tribe
• old coping strategies (avoidance, introversion, sadness)
• attention shifts to unwanted memories/distractions

• LH: inner chatter/thinking —>interpreter that explains & attempts to regulate our behaviors for the illusion of coherence.
• the interpreter relies heavily on speech acts we’ve heard from others (caretakers, peers, role models) to corrall impul
• sometimes the interpreter is mystifed: procrastion/panic attacks

A Miller’s inner child/Jung Shadow Self/freud’s return of repressed; buddha’s yoniso manasikara

Healing requires integration, accept & parenting unconscs content (repressed emotional wounds, ) which have been denied, neglected, abandoned to meet socializing demands.

—buried content: closing down, armoring, avoidance
—Repressed primal needs of the inner child—love, acceptance, protection, nurturance, attunement—remain frozen, like children.

—Attempting to force others into fulfilling these needs leads to failure or infantalizing relationships.

IFS/cetasikas/anusayas: parts have goals, similar to individuals. Some work together, others are conflictual: thought, moods, behaviors, anxiety, avoidance, obsessive ideations.

Exiles hold relational wounds that are too painful to bear.
Managers (proactive actions preventing neg. emotions) or Firefighters (reactive distractions once repressed emos have been activated); there are also parts holding painful exp: exiles.
• Manages/FireF try to protect us from re-exper. Exiled feelings

• Exiled parts are established in early years, holding the extreme feelings of rejection or abandonment; these parts, through repression, have become isolated from the rest of the system

• Managers want you to look good and be approved of, often based on introjections of positive behaviors of caretakers:

—self-sufficient w/ the stiff upper lip, keeps up the good fight
—caretaker a part that maintains relationships by being the one who listens & attends but doesn’t exprss authentic emos/needs
—inner critic introjected voices that urge us to achievement and lead to perfectionism
—people pleaser, social face, performer, host, entertainer
—>all unsustainable and lead to self-repression

• Firefighters only care about distracting from the pain of the exile;introjections of caretakers negative traits:
—addict compulsively self-numbing via various compulsions
—avoidant/procrastinator avoids difficult exp.
—anxiety; panic; hyper‐vigilance; somatic illness; cravings

It’s important to not judge, criticize, suppress managers firefighters, as they seek to protect us, we develop a appreciative relationship with them, let them know we’re grateful for how they’ve supported us

• Negotiate respectfully if we plan to access an exile.

Schwartz and Roberto Assagioli note that traumatic events play an important role in creating parts: During painful periods, extremely negative beliefs take on the burden of numbing the underlying emo pain. Van der kolk “...in trauma the system breaks down, our parts become polarized and go to war with one another. Self-loathing coexists (and fights) with grandiosity; loving care with hatred; numbing and passivity with rage and aggression. These extreme parts bear the burden of the trauma.... "

insight & awareness (sampujhanna) allows us to access underlying emotional beliefs w/o repression/reactivation:
• non-judgmental doesn’t relate to part or experience as self

• awareness doesn’t push protectors that protect exiles away; it holds them in a secure gaze and nurtures them.
• Somatic/emotional – strong feelings & body states that grow into full blown discomfort (vedana)
• Agitated mental states – tiredness, worry, jumpy, fixated (citta)
• Verbal Thoughts – access the feeling via message it carries.
• Compulsive Behaviors – part(s) that get activated in unsafe or stressful situations; note what triggers were present. (anusayas)

Ask: “What is your job?” “What are you afraid would happen if you did not do this job?” “Are there other ways we could meet your needs?” Seek permission to connect with exile.

In a safe environ, enter the Exile’s memories & feelings; understand its beliefs. If a manager wants to minimise or repress it, ask it not to do that; fully witness what the exile is holding.
• Unburdening ritual: Once the Exile has revealed what its holding, reassure it and invite it to bundle its worries and concerns and to send them away to light/air/fire/earth/water.

Exercise 1) Consider a prominent tendency or attitude; close eyes, create a scenario when it would be activated; feel the body. Let this part express itself; don’t judge it, ask about its needs. Talk with it, give it either a non-judgmental name or image. Repeat.

2) After naming some managers, think of a time we engaged in compulsive activities we were embarrassed to admit—shopping, food, drink or drugs, workaholism. See if you can imagine a scenario or feeling when these addictive tend. would be engaged.

—>ask what we might feel if it were not for these firefighters

3) Finally, bring up a painful memory, RAIN practice.

“When a normal person has an uncomfortable exeperience they crave sensual pleasure. Why? Because they don’t understand there’s any other way to respond to the unwanted, other than to either resist it or to crave pleasure. They fail to see that every experience has an allure (assada), a drawback (adinava), and an escape (nisarana).”

dharma’s theory of mind rests on causality (idappaccayata):

—>A cause creates something (seed in soil—>plant)
—>A condition supports something (sun & water & soil—>plant)

Mental experiences appear due to causes and continue due to their conditions; when causes are prevented, or conditions are removed, the experiences disappear.

To remove X, don’t focus on X, address the causes or conditions

• Trying to get rid of crime by imprisoning those found guilty

—>While causes & conditions exist, so will symptoms

Further explored in yoniso manasikara (wise attention):
two arrows sutta: “someone who isn’t trained experiences one of life’s inevitable painful experiences, they resist the experience and takes it personally, complains, beats his breast, becoming stressed out.

• like shooting oneself with a second arrow of suffering.

• The instructed doesn’t resist, take it personally, complain
—>suffering = resisting the inevitable, taking personally.

“When the uninstructed person experiences a negative feeling they crave sensual pleasure. Why? Because they don’t understand there’s any other way to respond to discomfort but to resist it or crave pleasure. They fail to see that every experience has an allure (assada), a drawback (adinava), and an escape (nisarana).”

All sankharas—thoughts, feelings have allures: they address an underlying need.

—a belief that seeking attention results in embarrassment

—all emotional beliefs originate in earlier experiences

Most of us understand the drawback of the symptom
—this creates the effort to remove the symptom
—social animals; interpersonal setbacks creates lasting imprints

underlying allures can run contrary to conscious views

—believing relationships are important

—vs understanding that intimacy leads to wounds

Healing must be experiential (show not tell)

—interpreting symptoms leads to knowledge, but not change

1) symptom deprivation: imagine difficult situations without engaging the symptom; listen for what’s uncomfortable

—eg a situation that triggered compulsive shopping;

—ask: what would you feel if you didn’t shop?

2) free association: start a sentence designed to elicit pro-symptom belief; ask: “If I don’t shop I…”

—A: If I stay here, I’ll feel lonely/unimportant, etc

Change requires an awareness of the implicit belief

—experiencing beliefs directly are when they can be changed

—incompatible beliefs can only be maintained if compartmentlized

—talking about it isn’t enough; we must inhabit the belief

—running in the background it can go on for decades

When the mind actively encounters contradictory beliefs, it is forced to choose

—a lived experience has to invalidate an active belief

—an assessment is made: which is more true, the other eventually resolved