Phase One Practice Exercise

Phase One Practice Exercise (Allow a minimum of 30 minutes to complete the practice.)

The Trigger: Think of something in your life that ‘is not working.’ It could be something you’ve suffered for a long time, or it could be recent. It might be related to your home, your relationships, or your work. It could be your mental, physical or emotional health, your finances or your state of mind. Remember; don’t dig for something traumatic or worry about the detail, just write a short note below of the first thing that comes to mind when I ask the question; What is not working in your life?

Now, allow yourself to feel the stress or fear, or frustration of this situation. Connect for a moment with the suffering. Don’t write yet, just ‘be in’ it for a minute. Think about the many ways it affects your life, your relationships, your sleep or your physical well-being. When you are ready, answer this question; How is this situation affecting your life?

Close your eyes and check in with your body. How do you feel physically? While thinking about this issue, are you feeling tightness or pain anywhere? Do you feel fatigued? If are feeling physical suffering, where do you feel it in your body? How do you feel emotionally and mentally? What thoughts do you have? What are you feeling? Record everything you can about how you feel in a ‘triggered’ state.

Pick an exercise from the Phase One Exercise Options included in your Phase One Practices and practice it for 5 – 10 minutes.

After you’re done with the exercise, close your eyes again and check in with your body. If you feel better, record it. If you don’t, try another exercise. Try multiple—if necessary—until you feel a difference. Once you’ve found one that works, one that changes your experience, make a note of it below, along with how you feel. How do you feel physically? What are you thinking? How are you feeling emotionally?

Finally, ask yourself what state of consciousness you feel you’re experiencing. After completing Phase One Part One, you should be able to notice your state easily. If you’re not sure, refer back to your State of Consciousness Chart. What is your current state of consciousness?

Remember, this has been a practice exercise. After today, you will be able to move straight to deeper practices without creating a trigger. If you have issues that show up in your life, take advantage of this knowledge to address them, but don’t just use the practices to combat triggers. Be sure to do a practice for 10 – 20 minutes once a day, at least. If you can do it two to three times a day, I recommend it. I’ve included another State of Consciousness Chart and enough Journal Pages for you to get familiar with Phase One Practices with your next topic.

Do the practices enough to use all the journal pages and don’t try to do it all at once. If your triggers are mild and your ability to control them feels effortless, you can move on to the next phase of the practice within a week or so. If you have heavy triggers or experienced only a minor shift, continue to practice Phase One until you feel confident in your ability to make yourself feel better no matter how bad the trigger. More journal sheets are available in our online store under Phase One Practice Sheets.

As you fill your journal pages and feel ready to move forward, ask yourself which practices are working best for you. Take note of them below and in the ‘notes’ section of your journal.

Throughout the next couple of weeks, Phase One should help you:
– calm your nerves
– feel more awake or wake you up when you feel tired
– quiet ruminating thoughts
– manage fear
– reduce high emotional states
– and most important: come to know your specific experiences of fight-or-flight and rest-and-digest.

I’ll suggest you try controlling your rest-and-digest state for around a week or two, but in the future, you will only need to use the Phase One practices if you are already triggered. Once you can understand you have the power to do this and can do it at will, you can move beyond these simple coping mechanisms and into a better experience of life, through learning the Phase Two Practices.

Before moving on to the next exercise, what growth have you seen in this practice? Has your experience of life improved? Have you learned something of benefit?