Chapter Core (main takeaway)

1. Explain how visualization can help you feel confident about the future, by identifying both positive and negative feelings you will likely experience, in a relatable way, with an emphasis on how illuminating it is to deeply visualize a specific future path.
2. Unfortunately, people are bad at accessing and articulating their feelings because they try use reason instead of entering a more emotional / intuitive state.
3. This prevents people from deeply visualizing the outcome of taking a future path as if it was really happening, limiting their ability to imagine a real, day-in-the-life experience
4. This exercise helps you access and articulate your feelings about experiencing each outcome/future path, to later inform which tenets you think are fulfilling vs derailing.

Exercise Steps Outline (focus on WHAT > HOW)

Step 1: What is your initial reaction to each outcome?

Step 3: What are your takeaways from imagining each scenario?

Section 2: Scrutinize Your Tenets Without Pressure

Chapter 2.3: How would you feel about each outcome?

Read-Only: 15-30 minutes

Deep Dive: 30-45 minutes

Jump back into Exercise

Gearing up for the Exercise 🎒 📜 🧭

Introduction

Letting Go is a Somatic Therapy that reduces the intensity of the feelings and physical sensations associated with emotion, decreasing the control and immediate influence they have on your experience and decision making. There are two parts to dismantle: the reaction and the trigger itself.

This reduction of intensity does not mean we are indicating a position on a topic — in fact, it is a necessary prerequisite to clear-headed decision making. It dulls the fight-or-flight response which creates the space needed to make decision purely from logic and intuition.

We use Letting Go in two ways:

1. [Reactive] Intervention – After uncovering a trigger that you are actively hitting in your decision making, Letting Go is one somatic approach to relieving the triggering root.
2. [Proactive] Inbox 0 / Being in Tune with your Intuition – Reach a calm state with no impulse/triggers pulling you into fight-or-flight, so you can survey things in your life and act accordingly and also be more in tune with your intuition and logic. You can work to change your default behavior, expand your comfort zone, or prepare for situations you are not currently in.

We can expect to use this method continually for incremental progress, as it is unlikely to be a “one and done” solution.

Goal

To resolve and better understand our emotional triggers.

Workbook Output

A table listing our triggers, what we experienced in letting go, and where we currently stand in resolving this trigger.

Tips

• Use “Forceful Breaths” to help relax the body, quiet the mind, and release emotions.
• We recommend accompanying your session with a spoken audio recording with your triggering phrases. The point of this is to have an input of that is actively bringing up feelings and physical sensation, so that you do not have to actively think during your letting go session (as we are explicitly trying to quiet our thoughts). Examples to come.

Pitfalls

• Letting Go does not mean forceful expulsion of feelings. It means accepting, letting them be felt, and letting them pass in their own time.
• Make sure to deactivate the thinking mind as much as possible.
• We will feel resistance to Letting Go at times. Remember to treat the feeling of resistance as just another feeling to Let Go of. The same can happen with feelings of worry, which often occur when sensations can seem “stuck” and are not dissipating as quickly as hoped/expected.
• Remember that having an audio recording or a guide walking you through triggers and the exercise can be extremely helpful.

Entering the Exercise 🚪🌌

Make sure to read the Letting Go Context piece before starting the exercise.

Step 1: Pre-session Preparation

• Prepare a list of thoughts, ideas, memories, or imagined scenarios that trigger stress or negative emotion.
• For each topic, try to find many phrases or specific real/imagined events that stir a reaction in you.
• Write down all these triggers and have them available during your session.

Step 2: Session Preparation

• Find a quiet place where you can sit comfortably and relax.
• Take a few Forceful Breaths and let go of any tension in your body.
• If your mind is not calming down, refer to our Tips and Tricks for Calming the Mind

Step 3: Triggering Sensation

• Bring to mind a specific trigger of stress or negative emotions. Refer to the ones prepared beforehand.
• As you focus on the trigger, pay attention to the tension or discomfort in your body that arise.
• If you struggle with feeling sensations arise, try another trigger, and work on continuing to lean into your emotional/intuitive parts.
• Now, make a conscious choice to let go of these physical sensations and the emotional trigger.

Step 4: Letting Go of Sensation

• As you do this, imagine the trigger and sensations dissipating and disappearing, but do not try to force it. Allow the sensations to be present.
• Continue to relax your body with spaced out rounds of Forceful Breaths. Encourage sensations to arise.
• During this process, you are likely to feel resistance or worry, as the trigger and sensations do not always quickly and easily go away. Rather than fighting them, treat these new sensations as just more to Let Go of.
• Continue to focus on the trigger & sensations and repeat several Forceful Breaths until you feel a sense of physical calm and relaxation. Forceful Breaths can serve as almost as an “exit path” for physical sensations to disperse.
• A Forceful Breath consists of Breathing in for 6 seconds, hold for 2, and forcefully breathing out for 6 seconds with pursed lips.
• Expect that this process could take anywhere from 10 to 30 minutes, or even longer. You may not resolve a trigger in one sitting.

Step 5: Concluding Session

• When you are ready, slowly open your eyes and take a few deep breaths. Notice any changes in your body and mind.
• If you didn’t resolve all sensations that came up, you can always try again another time.
• Write about your experience in attempting to Let Go of each trigger in your Letting Go exercise table.

Step 6: Form to Output

For each trigger that you’ve discovered during your Inner Compass Work, make note of it in your output table. Give the trigger a title in the table. Describe your experience today with letting go of it. Give it a rating of 1-5 for how intense it was before and after this session.