Transform! Week Three Self-Study This week continue to play with the breathwork exercises and chakra balancing asanas you began in week one and try integrating them with your Destination Vibration. This week’s practices are journaling exercises that build upon these foundational somatic & mindfulness techniques to begin to weed out any resistant, lower vibrations hardwired into the body that prevent you from fully moving into your Destination Vibration. Remember that these
breathwork and body scanning techniques are tools in your toolbox that you can draw upon as old, dense vibrations are (inevitably) stirred up in your body through these self-study prompts! Additionally, it can be useful to remind yourself that you are not “merging” with these old vibrations. You are simply pulling them up in your embodied memory to “get the data” and take inventory of what’s there so that you have a better sense of what you are working with. Trust that your body will only allow things to surface that you are ready to clear—and that you are strong enough to investigate these memories you have been avoiding. In fact, that’s why you are here!
Vocabulary/Concepts: Destination Addiction & Spiritual Bypassing Patterns of Victimhood Unworthiness Stories The 4 “Fs”: Fight, Flight, Freeze, Fawn (Fear Responses) Reading: “The Pain Body,” excerpt from Eckhart Tolle’s A New Earth
Journaling Prompts: Destination Addiction & Spiritual Bypassing: One of the “danger zones” of a Destination Vibration is using it as a form of escaping the current landscape of our life without taking responsibility for the ways in which we have contributed to it. This week spend some time bringing a critical eye to your Destination Vibration: • Is anything in my Destination Vibration a form of escapism? • Is there anything on my list that is due to my inability to accept the “what is” in my life? • Is there anything in my Destination Vibration that is an Egodesire rather than a Heart-desire? How do I know?
Patterns of Victimhood: When we are unable to accept the “what is” in a situation, circumstance, or relationship in our lives and our responsibility in attracting, building, and/or allowing an unwanted dynamic or vibration, we will often project blame onto the unwanted dynamics with people or situations around us—or claim victimhood. In both situations we do ourselves a disservice by giving our power away. Take some time to notice your responses to those situations and relationships in your life that are not ideal. Get curious: • What stories do I tell myself about the aspects of my life that do not feel in alignment? • Is my “go to” blame (fire/pitta)? Martyrdom (earth/kapha)? Escape (air/vata)? Victimhood stories aren’t rigidly connected to our doshic imbalances, but often overlap. • What patterns of blame and victimhood do I notice in my life? • Do these patterns differ in different areas of my life? • When did I develop these patterns? What unmet needs were they created in response to?
• What steps can I take to begin taking responsibility for these victimhood patterns in my life?
Unworthiness Stories: One of the main ways we have been groomed to give our power away is to internalize unworthiness stories based on norms and expectations placed upon us by our environments during early development, whether from familial or cultural expectations (i.e., “I am a bad person”; “I am unlovable”; “I am not deserving of having my needs met”; “I am not enough”; “I am too much”). Spend some time considering your internalized unworthiness stories: • • • •
What is my “flavor” of unworthiness? What stories do I tell myself about how I am “not enough”? Where do these stories originate? Who or what circumstances do they stem from? Are they true?
Fear Responses: In order to make ourselves feel safe, our younger selves developed coping mechanisms to create the illusion of safety. As a result, these fear-based, survival responses have now been “hard wired” into the body. In order to move into higher consciousness and higher vibrations, we want to rewire these responses so that we can move into our awareness body. First, we need to identify our predominant patterns— though most of us will exhibit all four responses at different times. The 4 “Fs” are: • Fight (fire/pitta): Defensiveness, Verbal Assaults, Argumentativeness, Physical Aggression • Flight (air/vata): OCD, Compulsive Busyness, Pleasure Seeking • Freeze (air/vata): Avoidance, Detachment, Shutting Down, Sensory Overload • Fawn (earth/kapha): Codependence, Accommodator, Martyrdom, Peacekeeping at All Costs Spend some time recognizing your hardwired responses to conflict:
• • • •
What are my “go to” fear responses? Do these patterns differ in different areas of my life? How do they manifest themselves? When/where did I learn these patterns? Are they serving me?
Remember to be kind to yourselves as you are moving through this heavy lifting. A soft heart and a sense of humor go a long way in this work! We’re not meant to be perfect—we’re meant to be having a messy human experience while navigating this density from a place of love. The more we can allow ourselves to show up just as we are, the more we are able to hold space for others to do the same.