The work you do inside of yourself will always be much more important than any of your external work or accomplishments.
The inner work that you partake in ensures that you can actually enjoy life instead of maintaining the illusion of control that separates you from the present.
Today, I will describe a quick summary of the inner work. A more comprehensive description will be available in the resources section later.
The process of deprogramming subconscious patterns is the same as the process of inner work. It requires one to embody the four elements. As mentioned before, a comprehensive description of each element will be available in the resources section.
Earth
The element of earth deals with presence, and it is blocked by fear. When we suppress our awareness of fear, we also suppress our ability to release fear. In this way, we accumulate a lot of fear as a lot of our desires, behaviors, and thoughts become rooted in fear. The last thing you want to do is live a life based on fear.
You can embody the element of earth by being present with your fear. You will quickly find that you do many things throughout the day in order to avoid being present with fear. Be present with fear anyway.
When you are present unconditionally (regardless of fear), you create space for yourself that reveals blind spots, or things that were previously subconscious to you.
Water
The element of water deals with feeling, and it is blocked by judgment. When we judge our feelings, we prevent ourselves from being present with them as they are. This prevents us from being present with our emotions, resulting in an accumulation of emotion in our mind and body.
You can embody the element of water by practicing nonjudgment. This establishes "flow".
Remember, we cannot release emotions if we are not present with them without judgment.
You will start to realize that you do many things throughout the day based on judging emotions as "good" or "bad". When we go through life on auto-pilot mode, we are constantly avoiding "bad" emotions by searching for "good" emotions. As you release judgment, you realize that emotions are not positive/good or negative/bad. All emotions serve as an energetic connection between your mind and body. If you can become present with these emotions without judgment, they will flow away.
Fire
The element of fire deals with power, and it is blocked by shame. When we live life from a place of judging our emotions as bad, the actions we take in the present are based on shame toward the part of our self that feels those "bad" emotions. As long as we live life based on suppressing parts of our self from a place of shame, we struggle to channel adequate drive to create a fulfilling lifestyle for ourselves. Remember, it takes a lot of drive to constantly shame yourself every day.
Most of the time, this shame will not present itself as a conscious thought designed to suppress some part of yourself. Rather, it will typically present itself as some kind of thought pattern that redirects your attention away from your inner reality onto your external reality. This is often referred to as control issues. When we become attached to external forms of power, we lose our inner drive.
You can embody the element of fire by releasing attachments to external forms of control. You will find that you have many attachments to external forms of control as a way to suppress emotions. Release these attachments and feel all of your emotions anyway.
Air
The element of air deals with openness, and it is blocked rejection. When we live life from a place of rejecting ourselves, we experience a very limited lifestyle. Imagine a life where only part of you is allowed to be present while the rest of you is locked away in your subconscious. This results in a lot of fragmentation and separation between our mind and body.
You can embody the element of air by opening your heart and mind to new ideas, possibilities, relationships, and forms of love. This creates an expansive space where things from your subconscious are allowed to return to your conscious awareness in the present.
Deprogramming Patterns
Deprogramming subconscious patterns requires the use of all four elements. However, certain elements are more important at certain points of the pattern.
When you are surfacing a subconscious pattern in order to be present with it, the element of air is especially important. The openness of air allows you to open your heart and mind to the parts of yourself that you have rejected. Once this happens, you create space for the rejected parts of yourself to come to the present. These are often referred to as your shadow.
After the subconscious pattern has surfaced, you now have access to the defense mechanisms driving the pattern. This is where the element of fire is especially important. Use the element of fire to release attachments to external forms of control. This often involves releasing limiting beliefs. These limiting beliefs drive the thought patterns that redirect your attention away from your inner reality onto your external reality (note that your external reality also includes your thoughts themselves). As you release limiting beliefs, you will regain access to your inner drive. Use your inner drive to release even more limiting beliefs until the emotions that were being suppressed are allowed to come to the surface fully.
As these emotions come to the surface, the element of water is especially important. The nondualistic, nonjudgmental feeling of water allows us to feel the entire duality of emotions. This removes the separation between our "good" and "bad" selves, reconnecting them as one being. This is typically when you will cry a lot. Many memories may come to the surface as well. Just feel these emotions thoroughly. It is important to feel all of the "bad" emotions AND "good" emotions. These two parts of you will be very pleased to be reunited.
As you bridge the duality of emotions, the original fear that you judged to create the subconscious pattern in the first place is now present. This is where the element of earth is especially important. Simply be present with this fear. Breathe into it. This allows your consciousness to expand beyond that fear. When we expand beyond fear, we realize that there was nothing to be afraid of.
As mentioned earlier, this is a quick summary of a process that can often become very tedious or tricky (depending on how you programmed yourself). For more information, check the resources section on this website or contact me for conscious coaching services.
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