DISCOVER THE GRINBERG METHOD TORECOVER YOUR STRENGTH AND RESILIENCEANYWHERE YOU ARE

This week, every day we will sit for 5 minutes and feel (determined):

We are our stomachs. We will breathe deeply in the direction of the stomach and just feel her physical sensation. We will not dissect what we feel, every time a thought arises - we will leave it - and go back to feeling the stomach.

 

When the clock rings after 5 minutes we will ask ourselves 3 yes or no questions, and we will answer them immediately out loud. We may say "ah ha" that it is, or we say "mm mm" that it is not. Actually we are training to answer from the stomach.

 

We will not prepare the questions in advance, and we will not think about them beforehand. We would like to surprise ourselves with the question, it shouldn't be an important question. We just ask a question, answer it, and move on to the next questions. It doesn't matter what the question will be, as long as you train to answer from the stomach.

 

It's acceptable to think that the head is the most important part of the body, the thinking brain... Our society sanctifies rationality and logic. But there are drawbacks in the form of calculated thinking.

 

1. This thinking is too slow: sometimes, in cases of danger, we will have to make a very quick and authentic decision that must go over the head.

 

2. This is the thinking of the machine in us: if it does not involve the stomach and the heart, it may be cold, overthinking, less thoughtful of those close to us, a thinking of black and white.

 

3. A thinking that is stuck in our history, and perpetuates it: it is difficult to get out of existing thought patterns because they are already embedded in our brains in the form of paths that go and deepen with time: for example, negative, pessimistic, manipulative thinking, fear and avoidance thinking. This is the habit.

 

4: The inclination: We are so prevented from survival, that even when we think there is logic in our thinking process, often the survival part of us "takes over" the thinking and pretends as if he is a certified logic. It is easiest to notice in an argument with someone, that you understand that there is no logic in his logic, and there is something else, hidden, that drives his argument.

 

Survival prevents him, physical survival or survival of the self-image he holds.

Of course it's harder to see it on ourselves...

 

If we become aware of this process within us, we can make wiser decisions. We are not as rational as we think.

 

In short, in a lot of cases the head will not bring us the best solution to our challenges.

 

An interesting way to try to get around this problem, is to think from the gut. Our stomach developed long before the thinking brain and has millions of years of intuitive knowledge. The phrase "gut feeling" doesn't exist for nothing, and the recommendations to follow the gut feeling, trust it, listen to it.

 

This is very intelligent knowledge of ours, that we don't really know how to explain. For example: When we see someone who looks suspicious and walk to the other side of the sidewalk to avoid bumping into them. We have a gut feeling that says "stay away". Only later will we explain to ourselves why we thought so, but these explanations come hinting and in many cases are simply our inventions.

Even when we want to get close to someone, sometimes we don't know exactly why, but it feels right. Something in His being draws us to Him, something that cannot be explained.

 

In order to know what our gut is, we will first want to have our stomach in communication. This is the purpose of the exercise, to develop communication with the stomach and to learn to listen to it. Give her 5 minutes of focused attention (she will be very happy), and then give her a little practice and learn to listen to her.

 

Notes:

I don't think you have to rely on your stomach for everything. Simply in our culture, the primary inclination is to sanctify the mind and rationality of the head. Therefore, the purpose of the exercise is to take the pendulum to the other side, down to the abdomen. Corrective discrimination, if you like

The part of the exercise, that ask questions and answers in certain voices, taken from clips I saw on the "Human Map". Their goal: to develop the sacral authority.

Every day this week, we will put 2 reminders (alarm clocks) at different times. Once we hear the ringtone we will stop everything we are doing and take one conscious, full breath. We will pay attention to the air that enters from the nose to the lungs and follow the feeling of the air entering and filling us. Pay attention to the feeling of air coming out of the nose (10 seconds).

 

A few more details:

Most of us are barely breathing, we are not taking advantage of the natural potential of our breath. Over the years we've developed a pattern of quick and shallow breathing. A primary reason for this is that we try, unconsciously, to avoid fear and pain in all its forms.

Our shallow breathing pattern shrinks our diaphragm, less air asset to the lungs and less oxygen reaches the brain, our body is distressed. Our thinking becomes mechanical, thoughts repeat themselves in a loop, and we don't even realize that it's related to the way we (barely) breathe.

 

This week, the alarm clock will remind us to breathe deeply. We'll get an opportunity to stop all this loop, and for a moment to insert attention that focuses on the breath. I'm interested to test if a few seconds of breathing awareness can really take them out of automaticity.

Maybe this gives us an opportunity to stop something that is not currently useful to us, so that we can start something new. To wake up for a moment and change the momentum we are in, if necessary.

 

For newcomers, 10 seconds of presence is a lot of time!

 

And those who try to increase their focused attention need to start small. The main thing is that we make a real effort to be present. Later, if we want, we can extend this short meditation.

This week we will look at the criticism we have of others. We will pay attention to situations in which we speak or write with other people, and look at the criticism we get. Let's just recognize the sentences we say to ourselves about the other at that moment, and remember them.

 

It is very important not to be judgmental about our criticism, because then we will not be able to really observe. If we become judgmental about our criticism, we will try to change it, and we will not be able to really look at it.

Over the weekend we will make a list of 3 main features that we were critical of in the other.

 

For example: he talks too much, she makes up or lies, he doesn't know what he's talking about, she doesn't love me, he's trying to avoid me, she's stupid, he's cocky, she's selfish, he's depressed.

In the end we will get a list of 3 traits that we tend to complain about and avoid. We'll keep the list and we can work with it down our way.

 

Some thoughts on the exercise.

If we want to get from one point to another, we must first know where we stand exactly. In every process of development it is the most important thing to establish already at the beginning, where I stand. What is the truth about my present place.

 

It’s so hard for us to look at ourselves because we’re constantly trying to fix. We try to skip the first steps of the scale which are:

 

One of the things most of us find the hardest to accept is our own criticism. We prefer to see ourselves as someone who has transcended beyond criticism, and if he is already critical then mainly towards himself.

But if we manage to recognize for a moment our criticism, and clarify to ourselves what are hated about us in others, we will get a glimpse of our own shadow. For the part that is most difficult for us to see, yet he is part of us.

We will receive qualities that we have in the shadows, in hiding, qualities that belong to us but we do not allow them to be, and we often cast on the other.

 

Features that are forbidden to us, and therefore we cannot observe them by ourselves.

 

If I hate when people show off, may I ask am I doing this? Where do I get this done? If I hate being exploited I will ask am I being exploiting? If I'm born of insecurity and weakness I'll ask where I'm weak and insecure?

What matters is this: The way we criticize others, can give us clues about ourselves. We can ask why this particular feature upsets me so much. Why does it pinch me in the most sensitive place? We will get an opportunity to explore aspects of ourselves that are less accessible to us in our daily lives.