Just One Look Forum Archives

Hello Folks,

I spoke with John this past week and two weeks previous to that, and he suggested I join the forum. I've just begun to read the threads, and wanted to write something about my experiences of Looking at the Feeling of Me. At first, I tried to follow John's directions by remembering what it felt like to be me at an earlier age, but since I have a lousy memory that didn't really work. Then I tried focusing my attention on my big toe, and moving my attention to different parts of my body, and then on to the Feeling of Me. That did it! For 2 weeks, several times a day, whenever I thought of it, I focused my attention on the feeling of me. A few days ago, when I did that, I had the thought/feeling that "ME" had always been ok, and would continue to always be ok, no matter what. It was quite an amazing and liberating experience. I thought I was "home free", and life would be "easier" from here on out. Ha! Life is still throwing me curveballs: my hubby is sick in bed, we've had 2 financial setbacks just in the last half a week. However, I took John's advice, and instead of letting my mind run away with fear and anxiety, as it would usually do under similar past circumstances, I focused my attention on my breath, and calmed down. I realize that I have past reactions that are embedded in my psyche, and I need to learn to ignore them and they will pass, and eventually new circuits will be made, or so I'm thinking.'m very excited and honored to be joining you all on this adventure. I've studied lots of various spiritual & self-help stuff, but this feels like nthe real deal. Love, Barbara (to be continued)

Hi Barbara,

Welcome to the forum. Each person who participates, especially with writing, benefits all of us. Lera

Hello Barbara,

I just joined here, too, after a year of lurking. I've been thinking about the circuits aspects you mentioned. Our responses to life are hardwired in the brain and have been reinforced for ages, perhaps even decades, and so they might take some time to fade. But as I've been trying the attention directing trick I had this thought that our lives are what we attend to. I'm coming to see that what happens and attending to it are two different things. The latter is under our control, to an extent. It's bit like that new agey saying "you create your life", which isn't true when your life is dominated by fear, though. But it might become true when the fear is gone. We can't always, perhaps not even mostly, choose what appears and what we attend to, but it might make a difference when we can. It remains to be seen. I do cleaning in a neuroscience lab in the mornings, and they did some research there into neuroplasticity, the brain's ability to change and create new neural circuits. It seems the brain can change, throughout life and quite dramatically. This is not news to us laymen but I find it helpful to think that the brain follows the changes in your mind, with a delay, and in our case, the change in the main theme in driving our behavior, the Fear of Life. It's just that the brain being an organ takes some time to adapt and develop the new patterns needed. And this seems to happen in a gentle, almost imperceptible way.

I, too, feel that this is the real deal although I also feel sometimes that this one single look changing the game is just too unbelievable! That the key to end suffering hid in plain sight for so long. But I suppose crazy things happen. If it is true what John says about it and it's effects, we might be witnessing the most unbelievable thing happening for humanity since God knows when. And not just witnessing, but participating in it, and enabling it to happen, if we take part in it. We'll see.

Seppo

Hi Lera! Hi Seppo! Hello other new friends!

Well, it's been a few weeks now, and I thought I'd write in again. I guess this must be what John refers to as the recovery period.

Fear has come up, several times, for various and sundry reasons. When that happened, I just refocused my attention on my breathing, and forgot about the fear! There was one time it came up real bad, so bad I got a wave of panic (Is that fear hormones being released?), and focusing on the breath, didn't do it. Then I decided to focus on the "feeling of me", but that didn't do it either. I couldn't feel the "feeling of me". It felt like there was a big impenetrable wall around the "feeling of me", and no matter how hard I looked, I couldn't see thru the wall. Verrrry interesting to watch all this! Love, Barbara

Hi Barbara

Welcome. I have been involved in the looking for about 2 1/2 years. I can totally relate to your experience of an "impenetrable wall around the feeling of me". I have had that experience on many occasions. My experience has been that the wall starts to thin out over time and it seems clear that you are always here, even during very stressful periods. I don't think that means that these intense experiences will necessarily stop coming up but it does seem to make a difference when it becomes obvious that they are arising in you or me. One thing for sure, this is not a quick fix but it will, overtime, make a huge difference. Again, welcome. Paul.

Hi Barbara, and welcome! The mind has been in charge for so long it doesn't like it when we "look at me", and will throw obstacles in our way at every opportunity; but its all good! The mind as you say has been conditioned over the years, it begins at a very young age - some say it starts at around 2 years of age. So its a huge task, but a worthwhile one. The mind is the ego and the psyche, and wants to remain in charge. I find concentrating on my breath for a few minutes settles me down, and then I "look at me", and have found peace during those times.

Hello My New Friends!

I have a bad cold today. Talk about making lemonade out of lemons....because of it, I realized that there is "ME" that I can sometimes catch a glance of, and there is Barbara's body with a cold. O well, Barbara's body has a cold. It doesn't hurt ME.

I saw this 2 weeks after starting "Looking at ME". That ME was always there, would always be there, and would always be OK, no matter what. What would life be like if we had been taught as little kids to perceive ourselves and our bodies like that? Just an unending experience to observe and participate in, with ME quietly observing. I'd love to hear a few words from John on this....it seems like a big opening to experiencing life differently, and more authentically. If ME is always there, and is, and has been always OK, what is there to be afraid of?

Love, Barbara

Dear Barbara,

I read your posting and responded to it in a live broadcast event we did on December 16, 2012.

Please let me know if more is needed.

John