TODAY'S INTENTION
Today, let's observe how reactive patterns are created and practice releasing their stuck energy.
As we learn how reactive patterns are formed, we can practice dismantling them and preventing them from forming in the first place. A pattern forms when a life experience pulls together energy but the energy is not released. The situation may be a single traumatic event that elicits a high level of emotional energy or repeated related stresses that lead to a buildup of emotional energy.
Whenever we encounter a situation that is similar to the unreleased experience (at the core of the pattern or any other part of the pattern) resonance takes place. The pattern is then triggered and degrades attention and our ability to be present. Direct awareness is obscured and emotional energy cannot be released in awareness or into action that arises from presence. We then move into the projected world of the pattern and react accordingly.
However, when experience arises and is released in present awareness, no patterns form—let's explore:
HEALTHY HABIT
Releasing energy in ways that do not create patterns:
- Energy can be released in awareness—a situation is experienced with such a high level of attention that the energy is released in the field of awareness.
- Energy can be released into action—a situation prompts appropriate and effective action as it arises directly from presence.
MINDFUL MOMENT
Unreleased energy is the emotional core of a pattern.
When energy is neither released in awareness nor released as an expression of presence, the unreleased energy initiates the formation of a pattern. Why? Because the unreleased experience evokes within us the possibility of not existing—nonexistence is the fundamental fear of the human condition, deeper even than the fear of death. When we face the fear of nonexistence through a situation that is too overwhelming and can't be released, the unreleased experience then freezes, initiating the formation of a pattern—commonly referred to as “karma” as it's destined to repeat itself until presenced and released.
RELEASING RITUAL
We can release stuck energy by cultivating an active awareness of a habituated pattern.
- Revisit a situation in which you are or were completely disoriented, were unable to take anything in, or had no idea what to do.
- Relax and soften into the experience.
- Observe the shift into blankness as you revisit the original shock.
- Stay present with feelings that arise and how they manifest in your body. Simply notice without adding to the story.
- Hold yourself with supportive tenderness, as if you were holding a newborn baby.
- Reassure yourself that you’re okay, whatever you’re feeling, knowing you're worthy, whole, and perfectly okay.
- Practice noticing the patterns and habitual tendencies, feeling sensations in the body, and releasing the internal dialogue, again and again.
- With repeated practice, the patterns begin to unravel, and stuck energy is released ✨
COMMUNITY CONVERSATION
How have you noticed a reactive pattern manifest in the body?
Join the discussion in our private community comments.