~ S P E C I A L ~ F E A T U R E ~
Practical Releasing
an excerpt from the new book
THE SEDONA METHOD
by Hale Dwoskin
INTRODUCTION
The excerpt, below, is from the new book, The Sedona Method, by Hale Dwoskin. The book describes an emotional releasing technique that has been perfected over the past 25 years and is used by thousands of people on a daily basis.
The Sedona Method employs a simple set of questions that help people relax and focus on the present. Its effectiveness at reducing stress was shown in a study conducted by Harvard psychologist David C. McClelland. While some Sedona Method users report amazing improvements in health, wealth, and relationships, most show progress on the little things: sleeping better, more harmony at home, less turmoil at work, less shy in front of an audience, greater ease in quitting smoking or losing weight.
The excerpt begins with a description of the Sedona Method, followed by the case history of a computer programmer who has used the method off and on since 1983. His results are typical, not phenomenal. Among other things, he uses the releasing technique to help stop feeling superior to others, resulting in greater job satisfaction, performance, and compensation.
More information about the book, The Sedona Method, and author Hale Dwoskin follows the excerpt. Relax and enjoy.
PRACTICAL RELEASING
by Hale DwoskinThere are three ways to approach the process of releasing, and they all lead to the same result: liberating your natural ability to let go of any unwanted emotion on the spot and allowing some of the suppressed energy in your subconscious to dissipate. The first way is by choosing to let go of the unwanted feeling. The second way is to welcome the feeling, to allow the emotion just to be. The third way is to dive into the very core of the emotion.
Let me explain by asking you to participate in a simple exercise. Pick up a pen, a pencil, or some small object that you would be willing to drop without giving it a second thought. Now, hold it in front of you and really grip it tightly. Pretend this is one of your limiting feelings and that your hand represents your gut or your consciousness. If you held the object long enough, this would start to feel uncomfortable yet familiar.
Now, open your hand and roll the object around in it. Notice that you are the one holding on to it; it is not attached to your hand. The same is true with your feelings, too. Your feelings are as attached to you as this object is attached to your hand.
We hold on to our feelings and forget that we are holding on to them -- it's even in our language. When we feel angry or sad, we don't usually say, "I feel angry," or, "I feel sad." We say, "I am angry," or, "I am sad." Without realizing it, we are misidentifying that we are the feeling. Often, we believe a feeling is holding on to us. This is not true. We are always in control and just don't know it.
Now, let the object go.
What happened? You let go of the object, and it dropped to the floor. Was that hard? Of course not. That's what we mean when we say "let go."
You can do the same thing with any emotion - choose to let it go.
Sticking with this same analogy: If you walked around with your hand open, wouldn't it be very difficult to hold on to the pen or other object you're holding? Likewise, when you allow or welcome a feeling, you are opening your consciousness, and this enables the feeling to drop away all by itself - like the clouds passing in the sky or smoke passing up a chimney with the flue open. It is as though you are removing the lid from a pressure cooker.
Now, if you took the same object - a pencil, pen, or pebble - and magnified it large enough, it would appear more and more like empty space. You would be looking into the gaps between the molecules and atoms. When you dive into the very core of a feeling, you will observe a comparable phenomenon: Nothing is really there.
As you master the process of releasing, you will discover that even your deepest feelings are just on the surface. At the core you are empty, silent, and at peace, not in the pain and darkness that most of us would assume. In fact, even our most extreme feelings have only as much substance as a soap bubble. And you know what happens when you poke your finger into a soap bubble - it pops. That's exactly what happens when you dive into the core of a feeling.
Please keep these three analogies in mind as we go through the releasing process together. Releasing will help you to free yourself from all of your unwanted patterns of behavior, thought, and feeling. All that is required from you is being as open as you can be to the process. Releasing will free you to access clearer thinking, yet it is not a thinking process. Although it will help you to access heightened creativity, you don't need to be particularly creative to be effective at doing it.
You will get the most out of the process of releasing the more you allow yourself to see, hear, and feel it working, rather than by thinking about how and why it works. Lead, as best you can, with your heart, not your head. If you find yourself getting a little stuck in trying to figure it out, you can use the identical process to let go of "wanting to figure it out." Guaranteed, as you work with this process, you will understand it more fully by having the direct experience of doing it.
So here we go.
JAMES: RELEASING FOR WORKPLACE SUCCESS
James has been using the Sedona Method since 1983. Here is the story of how the method has contributed to the trajectory of his career, as told in his own words:
"When I first took the Sedona Method live seminar, I was angry with a lot of things in my life. I was a computer programmer in Silicon Valley and only earned about $25,000 a year. I was mad at my boss because I didn't like the way he defined my job, and I felt constrained. Among other things, he wanted me to work nine-to-five, and I wanted flexible hours. After I started releasing, the first thing I noticed was that I was free of my anger. Once I was done with that -- no longer a victim -- I began looking for other jobs.
"I ended up moving to Pacifica, southwest of San Francisco, and went from $25,000 to $35,000 in my next job. The course was in April and that was in June. Then I made job contacts and an agency called me about a position in New Jersey and a position in Seattle both paying $75,000. As they seemed to need me more in Seattle, I took that job. This was in October of the same year. Other things in my life were changing, too. I met and fell in love with my wife. My health was improving. Change came rapidly.
"Several years later, after going to graduate school and working overseas, I returned to Seattle and took a big pay cut to work at one of the giant computer software companies. I really wanted to work there. But now our family had three kids in diapers and my wife and I were faced with the financial issues of paying off a mortgage, a car, and student loans. There was a temptation to rely on credit cards. My new manager wasn't supportive, but combative. She attacked me in every conversation, often with a smile on her face. Work wasn't going properly, and I wanted approval and control. But I didn't feel as though I could stand up to my boss, because of my financial insecurity.
"I was reminded of the value of releasing when I purchased the Sedona Method Course audio program explaining the process of letting go of the sense of wanting security. I stayed up all night releasing energy for safety. I let go of feelings about monetary issues and feelings about verbal attacks. From then on, I no longer cowered when my manager yelled at me, and I stood my ground in the next couple of meetings. After that she stopped meeting with me, and I hardly saw her anymore. The good part of this was that she wasn't interfering with my work, and I could do it properly. The bad part was that there was no communication. We even did my performance review by email. For a while, I wanted to quit; then I tried to transfer within the company, and she blocked it. But, ultimately, she promoted me to be the director of a software testing team.
"As a manager, I spent a lot of time thinking about how to apply the Method to work situations. I looked at my history with it. Initially, all I'd wanted was to get rid of my anger and move up to a state of pride. I aimed there before being a group leader, because it made me feel happier. Although this was good so long as I was an individual contributor, it wasn't great for management. People are put off by the emotional energy of superiority. I knew I needed to move into courage.
"From then on, when I noticed that I was feeling 'better than' others, I'd let go of wanting to put them down until I felt like we were equals, both members of a team, children of God working towards a common goal. Whenever I noticed that I was thinking someone was being 'stupid,' I'd let go on the spot. I could do it while we were conversing. I could listen and release. I didn't want to put artificial limits on what people would do.
"By letting go, I'd get upside surprises. They'd prove themselves more capable, or, if they were on another team and we were at loggerheads, they'd be more amenable to my suggestions or come up with a compromise. There never was a war in my department, even though the corporate culture was often adversarial. As an outcome of my ability to get teams together, I ended up being the top test manager in the company for a few years. The people who worked for me felt at ease and therefore used more creative out-of-the-box thinking than others did. We got the job done. I owe this success to the Method.
"I love the feeling of releasing. Typically, it's as though energy is directly leaving the midsection of my body, my abdomen and thorax. It feels like plods of dirt are falling away from me, and something that's been trapped by them is rushing out. When I let go, I usually feel a tingling or crunching sensation, and sometimes hear an auditory explosion. I know there are emotions imprisoned inside of me, and these are signs that the blocks of the prison walls are moving."
About the Book
The Sedona Method:
Your Key to Lasting Happiness, Success,
Peace and Emotional Well-Being
by Hale Dwoskin
Foreword by Jack Canfield
Published by Sedona Press
ISBN 0971933413, Paperback, 432 pages, $17.00
Available wherever books are sold or directly from
http://www.sedonamethod.com
"The Sedona Method is one of the easiest and most powerful tools for self-improvement and spiritual growth that I have ever experienced. I have been amazed at the simplicity of the Method and the powerful effect it has had on my life."
-- Jack Canfield, Co-Creator, Chicken Soup for the Soul
"I consider the Sedona Method to be the best contribution to preventive medicine that I have seen in my twenty-five years of interest in the field. I am amazed at the simplicity of the training and its effectiveness."
-- John L. Kemeny, MD, Columbia University Medical School
"The Sedona Method is a unique program for making positive changes in your life. As you learn this simple process of releasing the underlying emotions that rob you of abundance and joy, your fear and anxiety will gently slip away."
-- Cheryl Richardson, Author of Stand Up for Your Life
"...invaluable for my possible upcoming war assignment. I wish I had known these techniques in some of the crazy situations I've been in, in the past!"
-- Harry Phillips, Producer, ABC News
"The simple process of letting go has had a profound impact on my life. I don't readily say such things."
-- Michael Gerber, Author of The E-Myth
"The Sedona Method is a valuable tool to help make our journey of self-discovery one that leads to powerful personal breakthroughs and new beginnings."
-- Barbara De Angelis, Author of Real Moments
"The Sedona Method is an extremely powerful tool that will support you in finding inner balance and emotional freedom. I highly recommend it."
-- Debbie Ford, Author of The Right Questions
"Brilliantly simple and simply brilliant!"
-- Gay Hendricks, Ph.D., Author of Conscious Loving
"If you want to fundamentally change your life for the better in the shortest possible time, start using The Sedona Method today."
-- Yehuda Berg, Author of The 72 Names of God
The secret's out! Learn to access your natural ability to let go of painful feelings on the spot and release underlying emotions that rob you of abundance, success and joy.
Validated and proven effective by a Harvard Medical School study and results from tens of thousands of people throughout the world for over a quarter of a century, The Sedona Method is a quick, easy, highly-effective, yet elegant way for you to protect and expand your sense of inner security and well-being-even in today's challenging and demanding environment.
In short, The Sedona Method will show you how to enjoy living a happier, more productive, more satisfying, more loving and joyous life. Because our world has changed so radically, letting go is a critical survival skill that we all need in order to maintain and expand upon the life that up until now we may have taken for granted.
Tapping your natural ability to release will allow you to produce results far beyond what you could achieve with any other transformational tool available today. In fact, the results will often seem quite miraculous.
We realize that these claims may sound extravagant; however, if you are open, you can attain an inner mastery and true happiness you never dreamed possible. This can all be yours, because The Sedona Method is not another "should" or external "fix." It is a powerful way for you to transform yourself from the inside out, easily and permanently.
About the Author
Hale Dwoskin is the CEO and Director of Training of Sedona Training Associates, an organization headquartered in Arizona. He co-founded the company in 1996 to teach courses based on the emotional releasing techniques originated by his mentor, Lester Levenson. He is an international speaker and featured faculty member at Esalen and the Omega Institute. For the last quarter century, he has regularly been teaching The Sedona Method to individuals and at corporations throughout the United States and the United Kingdom, and leading instructor training and advanced retreats since the early 1990s. He is the co-author of Happiness is Free: And It's Easier than You Think (a five-book series).
Sedona Training Associates is an educational training organization created to continue fulfilling Lester Levenson's wish to share the practical and powerful methods he discovered for removing an individual's personal blocks to abundance, health, happiness, and success.
Many thousands of people from all walks of life worldwide have benefited from this work during the almost three- decade history of the Sedona Method Course. Sedona Training Associates currently offers seminars throughout the US, Canada, Australia, Great Britain, Eastern and Western Europe, and Japan. It also publishes tape programs that are distributed worldwide. In addition, the organization publishes a quarterly newsletter, Release, and maintains a website: http://www.sedona.com.
Copyright (c)2003 by Hale Dwoskin, all rights reserved. Please feel free to duplicate or distribute this file, as long as the excerpt from the book is not changed and this copyright notice is intact. Thank you.