Here’s the other half of that pre-course lesson I promised. I’ve kept it very short again so that you can get in the habit of listening to the lessons straight away.
Click here to listen to this audio Second_lesson_for_the_spiritual_group
WRITTEN VERSION OF THE SECOND PRE-COURSE LESSON
When I was a baby, I was bitten by a snake and I was snake phobic most of my life. I couldn’t even watch them on TV without having nightmares.
Then a couple of years ago now, I had an amazing and very welcome experience with a snake. Click here for that article for those who didn’t see it.
Some of you will laugh at this, because I probably should already have known – but that day, I discovered that the snake is a sentient being – a completely thinking creature. I am convinced that this snake deliberately played me like a violin, helping me work my comfort zone until I was no longer afraid.
For me, recognition of a snake as a being who was CAPABLE of making such an amazing gift was huge.
This whole experience was eye opening and the work on MY comfort zone had a HUGE impact on my horsemanship.
So that was the background, when I realised that Lina, my new German student was seriously terrified of spiders here in Australia.
I have this very cheeky small house spider that lives in and around the light in my lounge room. I asked Lina to go as far out of the room as she needed so as to feel comfortable and then to deliberately work her comfort zone.
Lina worked her own comfort by approaching and retreating from the spider. Approaching when she felt OK. Retreating when she felt Not Quite Right and retreating far enough to feel a comfort zone again. I made sure she knew that she could go all the way outside the house and up the garden path if she had to – HOWEVER FAR AWAY SHE HAD TO BE FROM THE SPIDER TO FEEL COMFORTABLE.
Now here’s the big addition to the approach and retreat method, the thing that shortens the whole exercise and makes it incredibly powerful.
Once she had retreated far enough to feel comfortable again, then she did the breathing exercise that I taught you yesterday, to get a quiet mind – WITH THE INTENTION of understanding what she needed to know or do about that feeling.
She wanted to know Whose Not Quite Right feeling was it really – hers, the spider’s or someone else’s completely? And What did she need to know or do about that feeling of Not Quite Right? She didn’t wake up one morning having decided to make her trip to Australia miserable being terrified of spiders, did she?
Now, she didn’t THINK about those questions while she was breathing, she just INTENDED to understand whatever it was that she needed to know or do and FOCUSSED ON HER BREATHING and just allowing the answers to drift up from her sub-conscious WHEN THEY WERE READY.
There’s a reason for her overwhelming fear and when she understands what to know or do about it – pffft – it will just disappear.
This is huge for Lina, so it didn’t happen overnight and it may not happen overnight for you either.
So this is it ladies – that’s your mission should you choose to accept it – find something that you are afraid of that you can do this little comfort zone exercise with. A simple house spider is an easy choice.
Do NOT choose something that you are phobic about – I wouldn’t like you to do any work THAT big until your support systems were in place.
Speaking of support systems, I’ll have a discussion group / chat page set up for you within a few days so you can start sharing with each other what this exercise does for you!
Much love to you all, and remember the whole idea of this is find enjoyment with the spider!