Letting It Go

Use Your Technical Aids

Use the tools you already have to help you.

The sooner you can use the sentences without stopping to read them, the better. You can enter them into your phone so you can read them frequently and memorize them. Be sure to download your free gift listed at the end of this chapter. It contains phone-ready images you can easily photograph.

You can also read the sentences aloud into a recording app in chunks, just like a partner would, so you can just repeat the chunks using your own target.

Keep your photo or recording instantly available to remind you of the process instead of having to search for this book or your notes when you need them.

Let Your Self Take Charge

You can’t control what happens! Get used to it and relax.

There is a part of you, your ego, which is doing its best to run your life based on your past experiences and the stories you tell yourself. That part of you may say things like “I don’t know where the right place within myself is located.” It may also tell you to be sure to remember and repeat the words to yourself—over and over again. Your ego is interested in CONTROL! Its theme may be “I can do it myself!”

That is not what this process is about. This process is about helping your ego let go and engaging the guidance of your Self, the deepest part of your being, the very Essence of you, to care for you and lead you to the life you wish for. Your Self has your best interests at heart but may organize things in an order or direction you don’t expect. Just notice your responses to what happens.

When you say the sentences, don’t expect anything in particular to happen. Just be observant and notice what does happen. You may sometimes experience intense emotions, physical sensations or movements, or deep peace, or absolutely nothing. These responses are simply signals that energy is moving. They usually pass quickly. There is no right way to do this and there are no wrong answers or experiences.

Take Your Time

Your energy moves while the words impact your systems. This may take anywhere from 15 seconds to several minutes or even longer. Your ego may attempt to take control again by deciding that nothing important is happening and urge you do go on to the next sentence. When you cut the process short, you are less likely to gain the benefits of your practice.

If you sit quietly with your eyes closed and just notice thoughts, feelings, memories, sounds, smells, images, sensations, etc., you give your energy time to move back to the place where it belongs. You will learn to notice when the energy flow seems to settle and nothing more happens. Then it is time for the next sentence.

Use Images When You Can

Images are stronger targets than just words.

An image, like a snapshot, has lots of information contained in it. It often represents a time when you froze some of your energy in response to stress. It has the things you pay attention to and those that you don’t but are still aware of. You can get a sense of this by looking around. What do you notice? What else is there?

The room I am in has several chairs, some stuffed animals and a few tables. I am more aware of what is happening on the computer screen than any of those things.

When you take your energy back from an image you carry, the image often changes and that shift may help you better understand yourself. An image does not need to be visual. It can be a memory of sounds or voices which also may represent a time and place where you froze a piece of your experience.

Words work too. If you have both words and images available to work with, choose the image.

Take Small Bites

Use small slices of an experience rather than the entire remembered experience as a target.

You may be more successful in releasing stress and anxiety from one piece of an event at a time. You could work with a small part of the entire scene like the thumping sound you heard or the look on someone’s face. Dr. Lammers calls this slicing the salami.

When you work with one slice at a time, particularly when you are working with a distressing memory, your responses may be smaller and feel more manageable.

This quote sums it up for me. “Do it badly; do it slowly; do it fearfully; do it any way you have to, but do it.” Steve Chandler, Reinventing Yourself: How to Become the Person You've Always Wanted to Be.

If you feel overwhelmed at any time, slow down. You can get professional help if you need it. There is a list of certified professionals in many different areas at Logosynthesis.net. Most of them will work with clients by phone or over the internet communication systems.

You can practice on your own or find a buddy to work with or both!

Use Your Imagination and Creativity

Although I have focused on using this process on reducing stress and anxiety, it is useful for many other challenges.

Irene was taking one of our classes when she decided to try it for procrastination. She had been putting off writing a series of papers she needed to complete a certification process and discovered that Logosynthesis can be an incredible aid to productivity. At one meeting, she surprised us by reporting that she had completed the reports in record time using the target “whatever is keeping me from finishing these papers.”

Some people have successfully experimented with using the sentences to help with physical issues. Dr. Lammers has cured himself of hay fever using the process. I have been less successful but may have averted a few infections by retrieving my energy from “this inflammation.”