Energy manipulation problems

[Ceirwan]

Hi,

I asked this queastion a while ago but did not get much response, none of which really solved the problem.

I have been trying to work on NEW energy ways but my problem is i have real trouble controlling my imagination.

I.e. i will be trying to focus awareness in the right hand, if i so much as think about the left hand the i will end up focussing there, or getting some awareness in both.

Its the same with visualisation or tactile awareness, if i imagine myself climbing up a rope then my hands will start slipping, so i put knots in the rope to pull myself up with, this works for a small while and then i might loose strength in my arms so i will try using my feet to help climb at which point some other obstacle will come up. Ive tries loads of different stuff, ladders and cargo nets instead of rope i always end up getting the same kind of problem.

If i try and make my awareness move i usually can't, and if i can it skips from place to place i.e. its like focussing on the hand, then thee middle of the fore arm and then the elbow, as opposed to gliding through the fore arm up into the elbow!

Ive had these problems for ages now and they're driving me crazy and preventing me from learning NEW (or any other system).

Any help would be much appreciated.

Thanks for reading all this!
-Rich

Edit: If by any chance it relates to the problem , i have isuues with self condidence / esteem and general unhappiness with my life, mainly due to constant bullying throughout school because i didn't fit in.

Edit 2: Also when attempting things like stirring action when stimulationg awareness, i notice that the stirring starts going around in my head, instead of in whatever it was i was trying to stimulate if that makes sense!

[Korpo]

I have been trying to work on NEW energy ways but my problem is i have real trouble controlling my imagination.


The answer is really easy. Use only techniques that do not require imagination at all. :)



I.e. i will be trying to focus awareness in the right hand, if i so much as think about the left hand the i will end up focussing there, or getting some awareness in both.


This is not imagination, but lack of concentration. This is the monkey mind acting up. The answer again is easy, but you may not like it - do exercises that control the monkey mind and build concentration.

The first and foremost requires no imagination at all - breath awareness. Watch your breath along the nostrils, enter and exit. Alternatively you can do the same for rising and lowering of the belly in abdominal breathing. Do the later one if you have any problems with the 1st. Count 10 breaths, count "1 in, 1 out, 2 in, 2 out". If you lose count, start again. After 10, start again. Do as long as you can or set a practise time. 10 minutes at the beginning could be good. Raise to at least 20 min. If your mind wanders, begin counting again at one.

It is not necessary to cut off thoughts that arise, but ignore them. Concentrate on the breath, and on the count.

If you can follow your breath for minutes, follow it down the throat, into your lungs and back again. Counting optional, but still recommended.



Edit: If by any chance it relates to the problem , i have isuues with self condidence / esteem and general unhappiness with my life, mainly due to constant bullying throughout school because i didn't fit in.


Had the bullying as well, look for something that builds confidence - the right job, a hobby you are good in. Consider counseling if unhappy. Neither energy work or meditation will make you happy in the short term, but can even increase the problem as stuff gets released. If the stuff gets not handled when released, little changes.

So build some internal strength by other means. Take problems you know you have. Look for help in counseling. Consider self-hypnosis for more self-esteem, but be careful.



Edit 2: Also when attempting things like stirring action when stimulationg awareness, i notice that the stirring starts going around in my head, instead of in whatever it was i was trying to stimulate if that makes sense!

Do you know the joke about the doctor and the patient? "Doc, it hurts when I do this with my hand!" - "Don't do this, two aspirins, 100 bucks." :lol:

Drop techniques that fail badly and retry when you have the feeling you got better in concentration and such. If it does not get better, drop altogether. You do not need all of NEW to get the effect. Everyone has favorites.

Take good care,
Oliver

[Wrong Eye]

Actually, I have a runaway imagination too. It sucks, doesn't it? :(

I have also been teased/bullied/etc and have self-esteem and self-confidence problems.

I think the problem is psychological in nature and is connected to your self-confidence, like mine is. It sounds like it may be the product of second-guessing yourself and the fear of failure. Do you have fear or anxiety problems? That can also cause a lot of what you are experiencing. The fear of losing control (I have a huge problem with that), the fear of success due to low self-esteem, or feeling like you don't deserve good things can be a factor, too.

Probably your subconscious/unconscious fears and feelings are coming out as you are connecting more with them due to your heightened awareness. Perhaps you fear what you are experiencing on some level or percieve danger; perhaps you are having a hard time adjusting to a new reality or fear the unknown and, once again, losing control. Perhaps you fear judgement or criticism for what you are doing. Perhaps you are criticzing yourself internally.

It is important to know these feelings/fears are not your fault, and you are not a failure. You are dealing with a lot of pain/scars and heightening your awareness at the same time, so this is normal, and not something to be ashamed of. Your pain is not your fault, and you are not bad because of it. It is just pain and the cure for that is loving support.

My advice to you is if it causes you too much pain, leave it alone for now and seek out healing first; if not, seek out healing anyway. Spiritual things are great for this, but you also need people and to do things that feed your spirit and give you happiness. No matter what other people think. Be good to yourself and you will have an easier time, and an easier time of healing.

It is also important to remember that sometimes what you imagine is not real, as well, it is just imagination; learn to tell the difference. This will spare you needless fear and needless pain.

You do not deserve any more pain... and I empathize highly because I am going through a lot of the same. It is not the end, just a bump in the road; don't give up, think positively, affirm yourself, baby yourself, be good to yourself, and learn when to push beyond your percieved limits and know your actual limits. It is not an easy road to healing, but I'll bet there are people willing to be there for you; seek them out, let them help you and love you, and you will be fine!

[Ceirwan]

Thanks for the help, i'll try and take that onboard, and practice the breath thing.

Although i actually have no problems with stuff like following breaths or even blanking my mind completely and having no thoughts at all, thats all to me sort of passive stuff. Its when i actively try and imagine or do something that i have the opposite effect occuring.

Part of the problem may be that when i start something like the rope technique i start of with awareness hands but i usually regress into imagination instead of tactile so i'll look at that.

As for the the self esteem thing i have hobbys and stuff that i know consciously that i am good at, but it never seems to filter through to a sub conscious level. Even if i achieve something really good i can shrug it off with some excuse and it sometimes ends up making me feel worse.

I'll go off and try and do your thing now!

EDIT: This was in response to korpos reply, i'll look at the other one now!

[Ceirwan]

Actually, I have a runaway imagination too. It sucks, doesn't it? :(

I have also been teased/bullied/etc and have self-esteem and self-confidence problems.

I think the problem is psychological in nature and is connected to your self-confidence, like mine is. It sounds like it may be the product of second-guessing yourself and the fear of failure. Do you have fear or anxiety problems? That can also cause a lot of what you are experiencing. The fear of losing control (I have a huge problem with that), the fear of success due to low self-esteem, or feeling like you don't deserve good things can be a factor, too.

Probably your subconscious/unconscious fears and feelings are coming out as you are connecting more with them due to your heightened awareness. Perhaps you fear what you are experiencing on some level or percieve danger; perhaps you are having a hard time adjusting to a new reality or fear the unknown and, once again, losing control. Perhaps you fear judgement or criticism for what you are doing. Perhaps you are criticzing yourself internally.

It is important to know these feelings/fears are not your fault, and you are not a failure. You are dealing with a lot of pain/scars and heightening your awareness at the same time, so this is normal, and not something to be ashamed of. Your pain is not your fault, and you are not bad because of it. It is just pain and the cure for that is loving support.

My advice to you is if it causes you too much pain, leave it alone for now and seek out healing first; if not, seek out healing anyway. Spiritual things are great for this, but you also need people and to do things that feed your spirit and give you happiness. No matter what other people think. Be good to yourself and you will have an easier time, and an easier time of healing.

It is also important to remember that sometimes what you imagine is not real, as well, it is just imagination; learn to tell the difference. This will spare you needless fear and needless pain.

You do not deserve any more pain... and I empathize highly because I am going through a lot of the same. It is not the end, just a bump in the road; don't give up, think positively, affirm yourself, baby yourself, be good to yourself, and learn when to push beyond your percieved limits and know your actual limits. It is not an easy road to healing, but I'll bet there are people willing to be there for you; seek them out, let them help you and love you, and you will be fine!

You've quite unnerved me with your intuition there, its hit very close to the mark, i suppose i do have a fear of success, in a way. I'm always worried about treading on other people toes and what other people will think about any decision i make, so i suppose i do fear other people judgement. I'm not scared as in physically afraid to walk down the street, but i can't really open myself up to anyone, its different posting online but in the real world i can't. I also have a lack of trust in others i suppose, for example i do martial arts and even when practising, if someone is showing me a new punch or technique, even if i know they won't actually hit me i can't help flinching or going to block it.

I have a habit of looking at other people lives and then my own and thinking what a loser i am, this just makes me more upset in a way, and i always get it where everything gets on top of me and i need some peace and quiet away from people i.e. my family so i just go into my room, but they usually think i'm being rude and generally unsociable. (They don't know i have a problem and i'm not really the sort of person to tell them)

The only time i tried to get help was with a hypnotherapist but he kept putting off the seccond session we were supposed to have before finally saying that he had retired because he had to much work with his day job.

[Flash_hound]

I had that very same problem especially when I was younger and was bullied more. What you should do is instead of doing something constant in your mind, like climbing a rope you should do a trapeze circus thing in your head, where you fly from rope to rope doing back flips and stuff. Make it fast and constant so that you don't have enough time to screw it up. Then slowly slow it down. That helped me out a lot. If you feel like on the inside you can't get things right break out of your shell and put an explosive amount of energy into trying to do what your doing. Take the left path instead of the right. I don't know if you can do this but I sometimes feel different parts of my brain working, and if one path of your brain you are trying to use is frustrating try a different one. I don't know if this made any sense to you but these are techniques that helped me out.

[Ceirwan]

The trapeze one sounds like a good idea, i'll follow that up, as for choosing the opposite path, i have tried that before, if i try and go right my mind may go left, so if i decide to go with the flow and go left then it flicks right, this will go on forever, or just get faster and faster and faster and i'll be left thinking about nothing!

Got to go to bed now, so i'll reply to any other responses in the morning, thanks!

[Korpo]

Okay, this sounds a bit strange to me. You can concentrate but not keep your imagination in check - how unexpected. :)

Again - it is easy in concept. Remove the imagination completely from your practise. Forget about images, forget about ropes, trapezes, whatever. Just try to feel whatever there is.

You don't need any visualisation for energy work, I do not use it all. I personally keep it in check as I think that you can get more than you initially thought, because images contain a lot of information, more than we are consciously aware of. Furthermore I thought about what you seem to think - what if a more neurotical tendency creeps into the images and I do more damage than good? I better give no examples here, and you may have encountered this yourself.

If you can feel energy blockages, you can simply concentrate on their presence. This will begin a process of weakening them, the longer you concentrate, the better. Try to keep relaxed, and try to get the most relaxed grip on a blockage you can get, but still feel it. It will dissolve into airy energy, if you keep concentrating on the blockage after it has dissolved.

Take these out to the outermost edge of your aura, drop as much of this energy below your feet. This will prevent the blockage from reforming and neutralise the energy that formerly was bound with an issue.

This technique requires absolutely no imagination whatsoever, so no run-away imagination is possible. Can you truely feel energy moving or do you visualise that too?

Oliver

[Wrong Eye]

You've quite unnerved me with your intuition there, its hit very close to the mark, i suppose i do have a fear of success, in a way. I'm always worried about treading on other people toes and what other people will think about any decision i make, so i suppose i do fear other people judgement. I'm not scared as in physically afraid to walk down the street, but i can't really open myself up to anyone, its different posting online but in the real world i can't. I also have a lack of trust in others i suppose, for example i do martial arts and even when practising, if someone is showing me a new punch or technique, even if i know they won't actually hit me i can't help flinching or going to block it.

I have a habit of looking at other people lives and then my own and thinking what a loser i am, this just makes me more upset in a way, and i always get it where everything gets on top of me and i need some peace and quiet away from people i.e. my family so i just go into my room, but they usually think i'm being rude and generally unsociable. (They don't know i have a problem and i'm not really the sort of person to tell them)

The only time i tried to get help was with a hypnotherapist but he kept putting off the seccond session we were supposed to have before finally saying that he had retired because he had to much work with his day job.

I'm sorry for unnerving you, Cerwain. :( I just hope it was of some help.

I understand a lot of what you're saying, and I think Korpo is right too. I tend to not use visualization because it does run away with me.

If there's anything else I can do to help, please let me know.

[Ceirwan]

I can focus on one part of the body i.e. my right thumb and it will feel warm and tingly after a while, my right thumb is easy to do. Some toes i can barely feel when i do it.

Its when it comes to sliding the awareness for stimulation that i encounter
difficulty, i just can't seem to get it to slide, if i want to go from my thumb to my shoulder i need to focus on major things on the way like my elbow, i can't seem to choose a patch of skin and focus my awareness, if i try either nothing happens or i focus on the entire limb it is part of.... :?

[Wrong Eye]

You sound like you're still accomplishing it though.

In my view, it doesn't matter how you accomplish it or whether you're "doing it correctly", just that you are doing it, and that is something to be proud of.

[Korpo]

Hello, WrongEye.

I think one of my problems with visualisation is fear. As soon as fear creeps into visualisation work it's hard to refocus, and easy to be distracted. How about you?

I just know if I do an exercise like the one above I can make mistakes and be distracted, but it cannot go haywire like a runaway visualisation, and it can be quickly fixed by reconcentrating.

Ceirwan, in fact the technique I described can be done with the kind of concentration you call "passive" for best results. Sorry I misunderstood your first post so much, in fact I have a similar problem, but fixed it with this. If you have as good concentration as you say, you should be fine with such techniques as I described, it largely depends on what you try to achieve. What do you try to achieve? :)

About self-esteem: Here some carefully crafted affirmations might be of help, cancelling out the ones you may inadvertently repeat every so often. Usually people with problems with self-esteem tell themselves stuff like "I will not amount to anything", "I'm a failure", etc. This is already affirmation if it becomes a habit of thinking so. Maybe members knowledgeable about hypnosis like TempestInATeapot can make some useful suggestions for how to deal with low self-esteem with self-hypnosis, she is a hypnosis therapist.

Negativity is a problem, as it will unnecessarily hinder you, and benefit you nowhere. It is far from what a sensible self-critique would be, which helps emotional maturity. Instead it is self-destructive. Fix this and a lot of things get better - I'm thinking along the lines "I will recognise my errors, I love myself still".

This will not fix your visualisation problem - there are some deep-running issues and fears running in such stuff usually, which express "themselves" through the subconscious components of images. They resurface in image work most easily, so I recommend for the time being to stop imagining stuff and start feeling stuff, as this has no run-away component.

Again, sorry to have misinterpreted you. As I had the same problem, I should have recognised it when you told about it. I just did not very much remember, since I never thought back to using visualisation techniques as my new ones work so well - for me. A lot of NEW techniques can be done without any imagination at all, it just takes patience, relaxation, and the skill to feel and control energy which comes over time. My personal opinion is that they then work better. This internal feeling skill will stay and is most useful for many things.

BTW, smile a lot when practising. It makes things easier. Helps keeping the inner critic down and sets a positive tone.

Wish you the best and take good care,
Oliver

[Korpo]

I can focus on one part of the body i.e. my right thumb and it will feel warm and tingly after a while, my right thumb is easy to do. Some toes i can barely feel when i do it.


That's exactly the starting point you need. This feeling of warmth comes from blockage release. Lack of feeling and numbness usually comes from blockage. Toes are actually very important, as major energy lines exchange there with the outside, very important for health.

It is simple - just keep on concentrating. Your capacity to feel will increase. If I may be so forward I suggest a book, "Opening the Energy Gates of Your Body". It trains these self-feeling techniques and helps me a lot. Unlike NEW, which advertises with "NO Visualisation" and then comes up with visualisations like the bandage in Etheric Wrap, the techniques described therein require no visualisation, just concentration and patience. It may seem a bit boring at first, but it gives you results to no end. Boredom is rarely a problem for me these days, as I feel into the very fibers and blood vessels and nerves of my body and release associated blockages, feel the vitality, feel coming alive again.

This can be even expanded into a full-fledged meditation later on, but for now you seem to still need to work on your body awareness. :)



Its when it comes to sliding the awareness for stimulation that i encounter
difficulty, i just can't seem to get it to slide, if i want to go from my thumb to my shoulder i need to focus on major things on the way like my elbow, i can't seem to choose a patch of skin and focus my awareness, if i try either nothing happens or i focus on the entire limb it is part of.... :?

Ceirwan, if not doing exactly NEW you do not need "sliding awareness". As I said, if you are not comfortable with techniques like bounce, look for different ones. Energy usually travels where you concentrate. If you concentrate on points on the way, energy will have travelled the whole way sooner or later, you just need to be aware of the energy enough to feel some of its moving.

Energy usually trails awareness, unless you are really, really unblocked. Your thumb/toe description for me does not fit this bill. So you will have some inertia when moving energy as it hits and loosens very minor blockages.

Over time you will be able to fixate more points along the intended line quicker and quicker and it will become continuous, and then you can move smoothly and if you have stabilised that skill, bounce, if you still desire to. :)

BTW, there's nothing wrong with targetting an entire limb. As long as you keep your concentration, things all over the limb will start releasing. It takes time, especially where you are numb.

Oliver

[Wrong Eye]

Fear is almost the entire reason why a visualization or astral sight or perception or... etc. can quickly turn nasty (or nightmarish nasty) for me. I've actually learned to shut down some things and/or develop alternative ways of percieving astral stuff just to keep from going through a horrible "reality".

I do not see on the astral, except through what one nonhuman described as "seeing without seeing"- mental images of astral stuff, sometimes like 2-D pictures or even pure mental images. Nonthreatening and totally thought with no substance or power.

I have the ability to sense, that is all. Touch on the astral is not necessarily conscious, either.

My mental perception has problems, so I compensate. What I imagine can seem so real that even though I know it is not real, I have emotional reactions to it as if it was, even though it is all a construct of my own mind.

That's why I said it is important to learn to differentiate what is not real from what is, even on the astral. *smiles sheepishly*

[Korpo]

This sounds wonderful and inspiring, WrongEye, thank you!

It may fix some of my problems as well.

Oliver

[Wrong Eye]

You're welcome, I am trying to do what I can, and I go through these things on a regular basis.

Now, I have a question.

My own way of taming this fear is to trust God and trust my own astral and intent and that I am still on the physical and/or I can return at any point if I am not.

But the question is, how to prevent this (the fear, the nasty stuff)?

[Korpo]

Fear is mostly blockage in your emotional body, where former fear has solidified and now prevents to experience new situations freely. It's not unusual to feel fear when we encounter unexpected and unknown things, but if we repress fear, if we do not deal with it, its emotional energy does not get released and solidifies.

Many ways that access the original fear should work, as for example counselling. If you can handle the fear when reencountering it on your own meditation is a good tool, and there are some meditation methods to dig into the higher energy bodies. The physical and etheric bodies are less subtle, our deeper seated personality issues in the remainder of our 8 energy bodies, emotional being the first, need some sensibility training to be touchable and resolvable in meditation. There are some books again I can suggest, but every technique that brings you back in touch with feelings and brings you back to the source of the feeling and makes you accept and release it may work, so there are lots of options actually.

I'm in the process of doing this myself, and it is not easy. For me it is anger and fear mostly. It takes time, and cannot be rushed. It is reversing the inner process, restoring all the energy that went into neurosis and repressing stuff while avoiding to accumulate new stuff that draws energy. You may have an easier time than me, or a harder, I cannot guess.

What do you look for in a technique? Maybe I know one that may be of help to you, even though my knowledge is limited and my experience much more so. :)

Oliver

[Wrong Eye]

I'm looking for something that produces results (meaning connection and emotions and insights) quickly and safely, without a chance of going out of control, and perhaps a technique for relief of emotional pain (to relieve the pain that will be brought up).

That's all I require in a technique. :!:

[Korpo]

Well, WrongEye, quickly and safely? That's a dichotomy mostly, you know. You have to sacrifice one for the other to some extent. It's all shades of grey in between.

What I am doing is very safe, but somewhat slow. Other techniques may be quicker, but may get you burned. I do not know anything that is safe and quick, else I'd do that. I don't believe such a thing exists, anyway.

Dealing with emotions requires you as a personality to be able to do it. It is the same kind of maturity you need every day to take responsibility for things, to face things down you are aware that need to be done, to rely on yourself. If you have that in you or struggle to obtain it, and think it worthwhile, what I am doing may be interesting to you as well.

In "my" technique if blockages are followed to their resolution, release happens and things are looking up from then on. Also I have some techniques related to this that can grant some relief, but I think that is temporarily while trying to achieve the former. There's no real quick fix. :)

I have spent times after my energy work very angry or fearful, and still do, but I realised that this is part of the release. When the release happens, these things go. This process can be eased and supplemented by other stuff, and it will get smoother over time, but facing the issue and the emotion cannot be avoided in the long run if you wish to accomplish anything lasting. Energy work can be a tool to access these deep-seating difficulties, and a tool in helping resolve them, but in itself it will not resolve it if you cannot face the music, so to say.

Growth, especially sustained growth, and obtaining true strength, have never been easy. But someone like you with already using sensing should have pretty much a foot in the door. :)

The technique I follow release stuff piece-meal, and when you stick with it, you will release at your own end. You may sometimes bite off a bit beyond your capacity, and feel a bit overwhelmed, but never actually overwhelmed, as the technique is safe if you adhere to the rules.

Oliver

[dslandolfe]

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