Psychological Reversals

Surrendering the battle of the divided self(44 slides)

creatively compiled by dr. michael farnworth

Have you ever felt as if you were your own worst enemy?

That you sabotage the very things you say you want or that you push away the very people you say you want to love the

most?

That sometimes your life doesn’t make sense because you say one thing but then do another?

This state of mind is known as psychological reversal.

A well know condition in Energy Psychology that thwarts and destroys attempts at healing and change.

A house divided

• In Mark 3:22-26 the scribes accused Christ of casting out devils by the power of the devil… to which Christ replied in parables:

• “And if a kingdom be divided against itself, that kingdom cannot stand and if a house be divided against itself, that house cannot stand and if Satan rise up divided against himself, and be divided, he cannot stand, but hath an end.”

I believe that if we see our self as the enemy and try to metaphorically cast our sinful self out of our life (via our will power,

self control, or competition: Pride is essentially competitive in nature.)

We remain a fulfillment of the parable of Christ.

We in essence battle our self with the paradigms of the mechanistic culture and the repressed energies of childhood

and become fragmented, broken and a house divided.

I have felt for many years that there is something in our existence that may have the unintended effect of

neutralizing the power of change in our lives.

The one thing that seems to permeate our thinking and our paradigms of the world are the philosophies of our

culture.

Including but not limited to Modernism and the Scientific Newtonian paradigm of a cause and effect reality, with it’s

emphasis upon the mechanistic- materialistic interpretation of the world.

When we try to fix ourselves with this stuff based upon our own will power or strength of character, we suffer the

unintended consequence of failure (psychological reversal) since we feel we can do it ourselves.

Self will

• In this culture we are socialized to believe that we can accomplish just about anything we set our minds to.

• Since an independent spirit is what built this great nation we are instructed to think the same about our own life.

• This reminds me of a guy in high school that, as a senior, his quote in the school annual read: He was a self made man and he loved his maker.

• Wonderful as self-will and control is it epitomizes and nurtures pride, vanity, and arrogance.

The energy of the will

• Much energy of the will lies hidden in the repressed history of the person’s life.

• Just underneath the level of consciousness lurks the depression, emptiness, alienation and contempt of a scared, unworthy and lonely, wounded soul.

• So many of the successful people in this culture are driven by a dark energy that they have tasted and because the energy is so intense they learn to keep their distance from it.

• It is a fascinating and powerful dynamic.

Here is a paradox that is instructive to understanding the dynamics of life.

What we fight, we feed.

When we are in a constant state of struggle and preoccupied with every pertinent thought and behavior about the

problem we create the very thing we say we are trying to defeat.

We become part of the problem and eventually the enemy.

The nature of psychological reversal (PR)

• Psychological reversal is defined generally as saying we want our life a certain way but then actually living in a way that is different and often times opposite from it!

• A good example is New Years Resolutions: We say we want changes in our life but in a short time we give up on those changes and return to the familiar life style with which we were supposedly unsatisfied with.

• In truth if we really wanted to live that way we would already being doing so.

• PR has also been defined and described as a self destructive drive.

The origins of psychological reversals

• Psychological reversals can occur from trauma, shock and repeated teachings and warnings (polarization) of what you should or shouldn’t do.

• This condition is described as a constant state of warfare where the person is engaged in a long running struggle between what they say they want and how they actually live their life.

• It may concern issues with sexual activity, anger management, food, exercise, or any other addictive state.

Will Power is not enough

• Many believe that will power is the answer to their problems with impulse control.

• They fight for the control they need in order to feel good about themselves.

• They tell them self, over and over, about what they should or shouldn’t do and fail miserably in the long term prospects of change.

• There are short seasons of success that further fuel their compulsions at will power and self control but the will power struggle drains their body of energy as it is only a matter of time before failure comes a knocking again.

The other option

• There are some who are so self-controlling that they do win the long term struggle with them self but they pay a heavy price for the supposed success.

• They become rigid in personality, in spirit and in body.

• The reversal doesn’t go away but simply goes underground where it fuels the rigidity and compulsive behavior that masquerades as control.

• The repressed energy creates imbalance and disharmony inviting stress and dis-ease from living an inauthentic life.

• The PR fuels the paradoxical state of control.

But please note:

Many of these rigid controlling people will (with regularity)

experience loss of control but it will be in privacy and they keep the failure a closely guarded secret.

They feel so much shame and embarrassment they hide from themselves pretending that nothing ever happened.

And because they are the only ones that do know about it the pretense works.

But the secret continues to gather energy to one day break free again.

It is only a question of when.

When a person is in psychological reversal it is a state that is antithetical to healing.

Many people who feel weak, hopeless and useless for having so little self will power and control are simply suffering from

a state that is resistant to any kind of healing and change psychological, medical or spiritual.

There is hope.

Psychological reversal is based on a condition of the natural electromagnetic energy flow of the body.

It often gets reversed because of neurological disorganizations, psychological disturbances such as stress, trauma, fear.

There are acupressure techniques that can re-establish positive energy flow.

What follows is one person’s account of trying to deal with the effects of psychological reversal

“The last couple of weeks have been like a vicious cycle. One minute I am having open communication and in tune with myself.

The next minute I am completely out of balance with myself.

I have lost all peace , comfort and happiness.

During this time of pain my spirit invites me back to the place where I feel safe- but I say no!

I choose to stay with my energies where I am at. I latter submit and then the cycle starts over again.

Will I ever be at full peace?

This positive flow of energy is vital to health and change.

PR has been compared to putting in a flashlight battery upside down.

There is nothing wrong with the flash light or the battery but it still won’t work.

Sometimes the same could be said of us.

Sometimes because of our childhood pasts we really do believe we are unworthy of love, of being healed or of even

living out a happy and contented life.

We may feel so flawed and ashamed that we feel ostracized from our own sacred places within heart and soul.

This feeling of unworthiness can wreak havoc in our inner emotional lives.

Sadly, it is a condition that overtime becomes more and more familiar and one which we can eventually come to

accept.

Rachel Remen in her book: My Grandfather’s Blessings (page 373-4) describes the

metaphorical liberation of the children of Israel coming out of Egypt and how it shadows our own struggles from

bondage and the liberation of what holds us in slavery.

“The slavery that keeps us from following our goodness is an inner slavery.

We are trapped by ideas of worthlessness and lack of self-esteem, by desire or greed or ignorance.

Enslaved by notions of victimhood or entitlement.

It is a story about the fear of change, about clinging to places and behaviors that are small and hurtful because letting go of them will mean facing something unknown.

I heard again my grandfather’s words: The choice is never between slavery and freedom; we must always choose between slavery and the unknown.

Freedom is as frightening now as it was thousands of years ago.

It will always require a willingness to sacrifice what is most familiar for what is most true… few of us are truly free.

Money, fame, power sexuality, admiration, youth; whatever we are attached to will enslave us, and often we serve these masters unaware.

Many of the things that enslave us will limit our ability to live fully and deeply.

They will cause us to suffer needlessly.”

How does one affect the dynamics of the psychological reversal?

There are two techniques that can change and impact PR

• 1st: Tapping the karate chop spot of either the left or right hand.

• 2nd: Rubbing the sore sensitive spot on either the right or left hand side of the upper chest while saying the dynamics of the problem followed by verbalizing the affection and love for one’s self.

• • Example: Even though I suffer from bulimia, I still love and

accept myself deeply and completely.

These two techniques can be used by most people anytime to re-establish the positive flow of energy within their

systems.

These techniques are part and parcel of energy psychology treatments and can help create the stage for healing and

change.

The techniques seem simple and the results are subtle and because of this quality many western minds will reject them.

Thus perpetuating the very psychological reversals they are plagued with in their life.

Interesting dilemma.

Please Read:

Anger and Suffering

by Rachel Naomi Remen, Kitchen Table Wisdom

The purpose of suffering:

• I believe the purpose of suffering is to open our hearts to compassion and truth.

• The fruits of suffering honestly and meekly is to feel compassion, mercy and love.

I doubt anyone would seek suffering.

It is pain filled and uncomfortable.

When we get old enough, most of us avoid anything or person that would hurt or wound us, (but we didn’t have that option as children).

How much sense does it make

• It’s as if we like to pretend that what happened to us really didn’t occur.

• We deny the very experiences that could teach us what we need to learn.

• We refuse to suffer the reality of what happened.

• We pretend, disassociate, deny, forget.

• If our purpose in life is to experience it then we forfeit the very reason we came here by defending ourselves against the pain and discomforts of life, by refusing to suffer the realities of it.

An idea from Carl Jung

• “Neurosis is always a substitute for legitimate suffering.”

Refusing the energy

• When we refuse to suffer the energies of grief and loss in our lives the resulting suppression of that energy gets stuck and then leaks out and corrodes the other aspects of our life that have little to do with our original loss.

• This leaking out of suppressed energy fuels our idiosyncrasies and neurosis, that perplex and wound others in our life.

“All therapy is grief work.”

Grieving is suffering and suffering is the beginning of compassion and wisdom.

The following represents one of my favorite quotes and ideas.

“Sometimes what seems like surrender isn’t surrender at all. It’s about what’s going on in our hearts. About seeing clearly the way life is and accepting it and being true to it, whatever the pain, because the pain of not

being true to it is far, far greater.”

Nicholas Evans, The Horse Whisperer

I love the idea in the previous quote.

• When we live a life that lacks integrity and congruence the resulting imbalance is at the source of our stress and disease with ourselves.

• We first have to embrace the pain and hurt of our past before we can came to our self and awaken to who we really are.

The energies come a knocking.

• When we ignore and deny our life the energies are not so easily dismissed.

• They will always come for the most inopportune timed visits.

• The discomfort of these energies can be postponed but they will eventually have their say in the addictive lifestyle we will adopt to put off their effects in our lives.

• We will ignore the invitation for learning, healing and wholeness that the visits are requesting.

Compassion defined

• Compassion means to suffer with someone.

• It is an experience of mercy extended to another.

• It draws out feelings of passion towards another.

• The bible uses the same root wood for compassion and mercy.

• They both can mean the same show of kindness and goodness toward others.

The purpose of our suffering…

• The purpose of our suffering is to open us up.

• We need to crack open the shell of our hardened hearts to let the love, compassion and mercy to flow in and out.

• If we refuse to suffer we remain hard and distanced from our own histories and wounds.

• We remain hard and distanced from the wounds and histories of others namely the ones we say we love the most!

“Suffering is the path of consciousness, and by it, living beings arrive at the possession of self- consciousness.

For to possess consciousness of oneself, to possess personality, it to know oneself and to feel oneself distinct from other beings, and this feeling of distinction is only reached through an act of collision, through suffering,

through the sense of one’s own limits.”

Miguel De Unamuno, Tragic Sense of Life

Suffering can bring about compassion and mercy towards our self and others.

Maybe our suffering will invite us to be more compassionate and merciful and if it does we probably shouldn’t be running from it.

There is one other idea that you need to ponder and understand.

The body was never designed to store energy.

Energy that gets stuck can lead to illness and imbalance.

We need to learn to embrace life and let the energy flow through us.

In this way, we are able to suffer life without becoming stuck and experiencing the stress of the unlived energies that

create the symptoms of free floating fear, anxiety, anger and depression.

the end