Digesting Contraction

Digesting Contraction

There’s a take on purification I realized I’d not covered. Unlike some psychological approaches, we don’t have to dig up every trauma and challenge we’ve ever faced to clear it’s impact. That would make it essentially endless.

The vast majority of our contractions can be handled by samadhi. By stepping deep into pure being, we get a rest deeper than sleep and gradually ground ourselves in presence. With the increased rest and peace, our layers can shed baggage as a matter of course.

We’ll also probably have more robust contractions that have been deeply reinforced or well-buried by self-protective mechanisms or both. These are the harder “nuts” that are often quite unconscious, perhaps even hidden from sight to those who can look within.

And yet because they’re still present, they’ll be casting a shadow across our experiences and choices.

The first step is as above. With regular dips into samadhi, we build a stable platform of awareness that is not trapped in those contractions. When we can bring that open awareness to those contractions as they arise in experience, we bring the greatest healing tool to the table.

We bring openness to contraction, peace to what is agitated.

This is not something we have to figure out or something we have to act on directly. Remember – we’re resolving a contraction, so the art is in letting go, in allowing. If you feel resistance or aversion, that’s contraction too.

All we do is bring awareness, make it conscious, and the process begins. It’s a bit like eating. All we have to do is be slightly conscious of food to eat it. Then the body will digest it.

Many things can be the catalyst for making contractions more conscious. Consciousness uses everything to expand. A life event, what someone says, etc. We notice a reaction or repulsion that’s disproportionate to the stimulus. Sitting with that response for a moment, our attention will be drawn to where the contraction is stored. (whatever body it’s in)  

If we can just be with the sensation for a moment, the contraction may resolve and release. But we may not find it comfortable. That’s fine. Just notice it and go back to living life. There is nothing to be done but notice it. Resisting the resistance doesn’t help. Be gentle.  

Being slightly conscious, some digestion will begin in the background. For small ones, that’s all it will take. A bit of attention and they resolve. For bigger ones, some of the edge will be taken off and it may become a bit more comfortable gradually. Then it will come up again in our awareness for resolution.

Other contractions will be like little bombs. We notice and there is a brief explosion of emotion and it’s done. A wave of feeling washes over us. Over. It was simply an incomplete experience.

For really big ones, we’ll find they peel off in layers. First, we become a little conscious. Then the “edges” are gradually digested in the background. Once the crust comes off, we’ll discover a big charge beneath that which has long been buried.

Again, if it’s not comfortable, don’t go into it. Just notice “Whoa, there’s a whopper (cesspool, sinkhole, etc)” and go back to life. Gradually, the charge will be digested until it’s comfortable enough to bring our attention to it and resolve the core.

Sometimes, there will be smaller bits to process afterward, or a bunch of dust kicked up, or another long-masked contraction under that.

For the big ones, do take extra time to rest as required. It can be a great relief or weight off when it completes. But there may be lots of background digestion before it’s clear.

Of course, the language you may use for this experience may vary. It’s very subjective.

A regular effortless meditation can be a big support for digestion. Yoga asana can be good to help loosen things up or move out the digested energy. And you may enjoy a nice walk in fresh air or similar light exercise – unless rest is called for first.

Avoid getting into a bunch of analysis about what it was from. You’re taking out the garbage. Let it go. You may get information but remember contractions can be layered over long periods so there is often no single origin.

Also, don’t view this process as a “technique” with practice time. You want to give most of your attention to your human life. This is a way of using attention to help facilitate what arises. Someone may suggest you chew your food more but what helps most is just being a little mindful while eating. Only in this case it’s being a little mindful while reacting.

This takes a little practice as things arise. Like Krishna describes in Chapter 2 of the Bhagavad Gita, at first we notice after the fact. “Oh, I’ve done it again.” It was automatic. But we can see if there’s a sensation to resolve and complete the experience.

As this becomes more conscious, we’ll notice while we’re in the middle of it. “Oh, I’m reacting.” Then choice arises and we can facilitate a release instead. Finally, we notice the impulse to react arising. Then we can resolve it without going through the drama.

However, the big stuff comes with a shadow so we may not see it until it’s upon us.

If you feel a little stuck or are not ready for this process, you may find the services of a good energy healer helpful. They can help clear some of the larger stuff, bringing more clarity.

You may also find gaining energetic literacy (reading) skills useful to help make the energy more conscious.

As we get further along, we’ll realize we’re not just cleaning “in house” but a shared load. Or we’ll find “in house” is progressively more universal. I’ve found I’m more prone to clear things that have been personally familiar but they’ve gotten more and more universal.

Yes, this means the process continues long after we’ve tidied up our backlog. But as we’ll also be operating more universally, it’s still the same house and same quality of life upgrades we’re doing. Only now it’s helping many more.
Davidya

Average rating 5 / 5. Vote count: 2

No votes so far! Be the first to rate this post.

29 Comments

  1. Lori lothian

    And sometimes the garbage we take out is ancestral patterns. In that case letting go of this charged shadow material heals the family system both up and down the line. ( because expansion in space time works both ways. )

    Thanks David for an interesting read. I would like to know of an example of a contraction from your own life where is samadhi rescue remedy has been useful.

    1. Hi Lori
      Agreed. Ancestral patterns can be potent. I remember reading some family history and realizing I’d had some of the same life situations as my grandfather and great-grandfather.

      And yes, I’ve experienced examples where healing healed the past, effectively changing it.

      (laughs) As my practice brings samadhi all the time and my life has been full of opportunities for contraction, I could go on and on.

      This article spins out of a comment on another post but is also very present as I’ve been processing a whopper recently. Though unseen, I became aware of it’s presence by effects.

      It began to become conscious on the 8th and I’ve gradually been stepping through the layers of it. But this is not yet complete and I don’t want to share it’s energy.

    2. But I can think of many times in the past where meditation kept me sane in a place of chaos.

      Like having a Police Chief go off his nut, talking him down while he had his sidearm pointing at me. Happy that karma is done. 🙂

  2. Tim Owens

    I keep having synchronicities with these posts. Yesterday, I had an elaborate dream where I saw and felt the connection between inner emotional “stuff” and the process whereby a physical situation is manifested to allow the opportunity to unwind the emotional knot. The dream was lengthy, connected to multiple dreams I have had previously, and extremely visceral – I felt the intensity of the connections. And today I open up your latest post and find you echoing the material of my dream with step by step instructions as to how to process these situations: “We notice a reaction or repulsion that’s disproportionate to the stimulus. Sitting with that response for a moment, our attention will be drawn to where the contraction is stored. (whatever body it’s in)” The phrase “a reaction or repulsion that’s disproportionate to the stimulus” really covers a lot of ground. I am reminded of an old spiritual truth told in a rather inelegant fashion:”We can always tell when we’re making the greatest spiritual progress because it sucks so much.”

    1. Hi TO
      Sounds like a mighty potent dream. Some people do have “instructional” ones.

      You may recognize the quote as different wording for General Points in TM checking for clearing a big release.

      Happily, over time, the ground covered will be a lot less. But we are working through lifetimes of it, so it takes time.

      (laughs) Yeah – we shouldn’t expect the road to be rough, but don’t be surprised if there’s some construction zones…

  3. Christine

    This interests me as since I began a psychotherapeutic process I’ve always used life as a way to clear trauma. Life shows up, things are triggered and resolved. It seems very natural. I look forward to clearing the universal.

    1. Hi Christine!
      Right. Life moves in various cycles and those cycles bring certain kinds of experience up for processing. We work through each as it arises.

      This is better than going digging in the mud as, for example, it may not be an optimum time to process some things. And then we’re living in the mud rather than in the flow of life.

      In a curious way, you’ll discover there has only ever been universal. As our identifications with the local fall away we come to recognize a much bigger picture of who we are and what is unfolding. 🙂

  4. It’s worth noting that “samadhi” is another name for turiya or the fourth state of the functioning of our body-mind. The other 3 are waking state, dreams, and sleep.

    We all have very brief moments of samadhi when, for example, we change states. Effortless meditation is a practice to culture it.

    Just as sometimes we’re more awake than others, samadhi has degrees of depth and clarity. Patanjali listed degrees of depth. Clarity will depend on how rested or stressed we are. But a good practice will bring some value of it on a regular basis, helping unravel our backlog.

    Really deep samadhis can be said to roast mountains of it. But most will be kind of foggy. Research shows the benefits come anyway.

    I talked about Pantajali’s types here. Others have made somewhat similar lists.
    https://davidya.ca/2012/10/05/the-samadhis-of-patanjali/

  5. jane killingbeck

    Thankyou for this Davidya…I am doing a spiritual counselling session tomorrow, and needed reminding of the power of effortless meditation to remove residue from past experiences without going into analysis…I remember my teacher saying that spending time every day with eyes closed, choosing to rest in the ground of our being in every moment and coming back to that place of rest whenever we see that we are involved in thought, is like allowing a vacuum cleaner to hoover up all the dirt…it just removes it without looking at each bit and naming it or going into a story about how it got there,so without effort, without ‘work’ as some people insist on calling any process of becoming, we gently allow ourselves to become clearer and more who we are . so tomorrow instead of allowing my client to get too involved in their story, I will instead suggest we spend time in silent meditation together, and let go of trying to sort it all out…. .

    1. Hi Jane
      Sometimes, it can be valuable to talk it out and get some perspective. But at a certain point, it can become reinforcing rather than healing. Someone else is accepting our story, making it more real.

      It’s a fine point. It’s normal to have trauma but not so healthy to turn that into part of our identity.

      Also it’s worth noting we don’t spend all our time vacuuming. That’s just anther obsession. It does need to be done, but not all the time. Like digestion, the robovac happens automatically.

      It is “work” in the sense of gentle persistence at working through our baggage or culturing presence. But yes, not work in the sense of trying harder or controlling it.

      Ego sees it as hard work and difficult because it can’t control it. But it’s actually profoundly easy when you get the hang of it. But it can seem to go on and on sometimes. 🙂

      Hope the experiment is productive.

  6. Jim

    Hi David, Good point. I am a huge proponent of getting out of one’s own way, and letting life reflect the results. Yeah, thinking about what is going on and trying to resolve it through analysis only goes so far. For one thing it can be the self resistant to transcending that is doing all the analyzing, at best getting stuck in the drama.

    Sitting in samadhi doesn’t necessarily resolve the issue, though it continues to unmask and dissolve it over time. The one element that is a challenge for particularly thorny issues, is thinking prematurely that all is done, since a little clarity goes a long way, and rediscovering that there is further to go. In any case, life results are the best indicator of progress and/or further to go. I agree that our spiritual growth can become a not very useful obsession if we allow it to.

    1. Hi Jim
      Ah good point. Samadhi is not a solution in itself but does help make the process much easier. It’s the part missing from a lot of healing modalities.

      And yes, there is always more. And yes, we can ironically turn growth into a dead end.

    1. Hi N
      Because you don’t want to force it. That can produce strain and resistance – the opposite of healing. And yes, it can reinforce the contraction.

      Once the ego is unentagled, it becomes easier to allow higher charges and process them without concern. Then, the sensations themselves may not be enjoyable, but there will be comfort in allowing the process.

  7. Lindsey

    Well shared David…resonates deeply with me and gives extra clarity to how I process as well…flows nicely with it. Thanks again!
    Yes, also energetic healing has helped me with processing those shadow items too. I am grateful for Rose Rosetree’s help with that! 🙂

    1. What I find most interesting is how this stuff just shows up. Informed by experience and the laws active here, but nothing I can take credit for.

      This one came out of a point that showed up in reply to a comment on Our Choices. Began an article and it just flowed out. A little tidying and voila!

    2. Thanks for the shout-out, Lindsey, and thanks for your reference in the main post, David, about developing skills of energetic literacy.

      When I started to co-create the system of Aura Reading Through All Your Senses®, I had no idea that it could ever be related to Enlightenment.

      1. You’re welcome, Rose. It’s nice to be able to recommend people that can help with this deeper stuff. I’ve been to some “healing” workshops – most didn’t get past stage 1.

        We don’t have to take a Home Depot approach to healing. Nor shopping at the mall. 🙂

    1. Jim

      Congratulations David, and sounds like excellent progress on your book too. Perhaps due to the infinite nature of spiritual evolution, you should reference it as ‘Volume One’. 😉

  8. K

    I am not complaining because this process is for the greater good but this digesting contractions is not much fun. Especially the really big ones that peel off in layers as you explain above. After feeling and suffering a bit (no I am not resisting, but there is suffering. And I am understanding the concept of dukha), I suddenly got irritated at the set up – like who decided that it was okay to put me through this? I am frustrated that I have to go through this and not just focus on my professional work and move forward. Sorry – just venting a bit. I am sure I will be grateful for everything once I have processed some nuts out.

    1. Well, K, it gets easier. Partly as we get more skilled and partly as we get less entangled. Then it becomes mostly like – ‘Oh look – some dust bunnies under the couch.’

      You don’t want to be taking it personally though. (I’ll be doing a post on this shortly) These are simply the consequences of how you’ve responded to things in the past. So it’s like cleaning up debts.

      It may be irritating but keep in mind this stuff is shadowing your experience meantime. As you clear the decks, your quality of life will enjoy another upgrade. Especially after the dust settles from a big one. There have been times when I felt a great weight lift or new energy came available that was formerly used in holding the contractions.

      And I know sometimes it can seem endless. But there is an end to the challenges of it.

Leave a Reply to Davidya Cancel reply

Your email address will not be published. Required fields are marked *

Pin It on Pinterest