The problem of Somatic Deflection With love God may be gotten and held; With thought and understanding,

never. from The Cloud of Unknowing Deflection is the avoidance of contact or of awareness by turning aside, as when one is polite instead of direct. Deflection can be accomplished by not expressing directly or by not receiving. In the latter case, the person usually feels "untouched"; in the former case, the person is often ineffective and baffled about not getting what is wanted. Deflection can be useful where, with awareness, it meets the needs of the situation (e.g., where the situation needs cooling down). ther examples of deflection include not loo!ing at a person, verbosity, vagueness, understating and tal!ing about rather than to ("olster and "olster, #$%&, pp. '$($)). *wo descriptions of the +olution to Somatic Deflection # Drop the +tory ,emoving the b-ect by *hich .hat /anh in the boo! ,econciliation (0dited by 1ic!ey 2ud!ovics )3##) *he essential practice is to stop thin!ing. 4ecome silent without words. 5ome bac! into the body and into your feelings. +tay with the energy in our bodies. 6ollow your energy bac! into your body and feelings. 7et go of any tension or holding in our body. 0mbrace everything gently and tenderly. 8llow the tension to unwind and transform itself. 9e heal. :+ometimes the energy in the body and feelings can seem impenetrable or overwhelming. In that case, we can touch the difficult feeling or situation for a short time, perhaps twenty seconds to a minute. *hen we can open our eyes and rest our attention on something outside us for a few minutes;perhaps loo! out the window at the natural world. *hen when we<re ready, we go bac! to be in touch with the feelings again. 9e can try going bac! and forth for a few rounds. 8lternating our attention li!e this provides us a safe base outside, and gives us space inside. http=>>www.feelingeverything.com>emotional?discipline>core?practices.html

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) Benture Inside the pain /uxter 4uddhist meditator :8s I ventured inside the pain, I was flooded with memories. I discovered feelings of re-ection, fear and loneliness which went far bac! into my childhood. *hese feelings also related to my adult life and as I meditated images of past interactions and associated emotional feelings of inadeCuacy and frustration would emerge. *he images and feelings arose concomitantly with the pain in my heart. *he pains lasted on and off for a period of about two years. I meditated upon them whenever they arose, and slowly I gained acceptance of the pains and the past that they represented. 7i!e the integrative processes of Destalt therapy, I found that the more I could accept the pain, the more I could accept myself as a whole. *his acceptance was also reflected in the way I communicated with other people. I could relate with less fear and more openness and honesty. In addition, the pains became a useful tool. "articularly, when I interacted with people, (such as threatening individuals) the heart pain served as a warning signal that communication was difficult. 9ith the mindfulness training, I could be attentive to the difficulty and allow myself to be open to those individuals (and the pain) finding acceptance rather than closing down with resistance, re-ection and fear. *he mindfulness process related to my heart area was therapeutic and healing in many areas of my life. +lowly and gradually the pains vanished.E 1indfulness thus can open up and facilitate a resolution of undermining influences in our lives. *he detached (but not disassociated) attitude of present centred awareness also allows for a space to occur between life<s events and the ego<s reactions to those events, thus preventing our lives from being overwhelmed by unwise obsessions and actions. 1indfulness, for example, can catch a thought of anger before that anger is converted into a fist in someone<s face or it can catch a worrying thought before the thought explodes into full blown anxiety. *he regular practice of present centred awareness, can gradually alter habitual and crippling reactions to disturbing thoughts and feelings. /owever, another even more potent and rapid method for effecting change in habitual tendencies and promoting well(being is to experience a radical alteration of consciousness or a pea! experience.

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