Letting It Go

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.”

I even find myself mumbling the sentences while I am brushing my teeth at night. That is when I seem to review my day and sometimes discover myself dwelling on left-over resentments I don’t need or want. I am quite sure that taking my energy back from those resentments allows me sleep more soundly.

You can also use it as a tool for personal growth or even as a spiritual development process. If you choose the latter, scheduling regular practice is extremely helpful.

One problem I have noticed both in myself and in my students is that we tend to forget that we can use the sentences to help with the most stressful situations. That’s right, we simply forget that the tool exists.

I am fortunate that my husband Jonathan and I learned to use this tool together. So now when I say I am frustrated with something or he notices that I am overreacting to some simple situation he suggests that I do the process or offers to help me with it. That is a real benefit of having a partner.

You may find it easier to make and keep appointments for practice sessions with a partner than with yourself. On the other hand, you may feel that this work is very private and not want to share it with anyone. You get to choose what will work best for you and to change it if you want to.

Choose Joy

It’s not what happens that makes you feel stressed or anxious; it is how you respond to what you feel that makes the difference. Instead of holding on to suffering you can choose to use your own response to the toxic stress you encounter as a platform for your own growth.

Remember, you can’t avoid all stress. Your goal is to let go of the effects of toxic stress and anxiety in your life and live as much as possible in the present moment.

The process is to use the Logosynthesis sentences to dissolve your triggers and make your energy available to you right now.

The joy, aliveness and freedom you will experience will be your reward.