They are the expression of joy and take us
back to joy , which is our true nature. Just enjoy them; be one with them.”
Francis Lucille, fr om  The Perfume of SilencePositive and good feelings are a result of saying “Y es” to what is  happening in
life. Positive feelings come from “Y es, I want that,” “Y es, that would be nice,”
“Y es, that’ s good,” “Y es, I love this,” or “Y es, that sounds great.”
There’ s not a p roblem with positive or good feelings. Happin ess and good
feelings, after all, come from A wareness. Bask in good feeling s, milk them,
and fall in love with them. Negative Feelings
Negative feelin gs are a result of you thinking or saying “No!” about
something that’ s happening. Negative feelings come from “No, I don’ t want
this!” It could be something hurtful a person said or did; someon e disagreeing
with you ; or a circumstance, big  or small, that didn’ t go the wa y you wanted,
such as having an ar gument; running late; a health issue; a relationship
breakup; mount ing debt; losing your phone; heavy traf fic; late deliveries;
items o ut of stock; the weat her too hot or too cold; issues with the
government; lat e or canceled fl ights; no parking spaces; or lon g lines at the
supermarket, bank, or airport. When you think or say , “No! I don’ t want this,” it immediately causes
resistance in you, and it’ s the resistance that produces the bad feelings. And
then, as if it isn’ t enough that w e resist a situation, we go ahead an d resist  the
bad feel ings as well. W e find ourselves feeling even worse, trapped in a web
of b ad feelings caused not act ually by anything happening in the outside
world, but by ou r own reactions. Our resistance to what is happening and our
negative feelings not only hold the situation we don’ t want firmly to us, but
also drain our body of ener gy and even impact our immune system! “Feeling sad about anything is h olding on to it. Say , ‘This is som ething I have
to let go of,’ and immediately you will feel better .”
Lester Levenson, fr om  Happiness Is Free, volumes 1–5
Positive feelings  are completely ef fortless because they’re the true nature of
A wareness. W e are made of positive feelings; we are made of j oy , happiness,
and love . Negati ve feelings require a huge amount of ener gy to maintain, and
it’ s the reason w hy we’re exhausted if we lose it during the day . A bout of
negative emotion such as when we lose our temper will wipe u s out, because
it has taken so much ef fort and ener gy to build it up and sustain it. It takes
ef fort be cause it’ s not who we are; when we feel any negative fe elings, in that
moment we are fighting against who we are. “‘Me’ maintenance takes a lot of ener gy .”
Peter Lawry
“It takes a lot of ener gy to be a person. It takes no ener gy to be yourself.”
Mooji
“After you let go of enough ego, you naturally feel the peace an d joy of your
Self.”
Lester Levenson, fr om  Happiness Is Free, volumes 1–5Positive, good feelings occur n aturally in the absence of neg ative feelings. Y ou don’ t have to make any ef fort to have positive feelings. All you have to
do i s let go of bad feelings, an d then you’ll naturally feel hap py and really
good. “Love is ef fortless, and hate requires much ef fort.”
Lester Levenson, fr om  Happiness Is Free, volumes 1–5
Buried Feelings
“Much o f the emotional burden  you now carry began life as a  pushed-away
feeling.”
Jan Frazier , fr om  The Freedom of Being
From the time w e were young children, we have unconsciously suppressed
countless bad feelings, which a re now stored in our subconscio us mind. The
bad feelings remain buried in th e subconscious mind, diminishi ng our ener gy
and our life. All of that ener gy  is trapped in the body , and it’ s this trapped
ener gy that plays havoc on the body’ s health and on the circumstances of our
life. Bad feel ings or negative feeling s are the only feelings we suppress and bury ,
and so suppressed feelings and negative feelings are actually th e same thing. The anger that y ou feel when yo u get angry is the very same suppressed anger
coming from deep inside you. In addition, suppressed negative feelings have many negative thoughts
attached to them, which are th e thoughts that made us feel bad in the first
place as well as all the thoughts we’ve had ever since tha t are connected to the
negative feeling . The thoughts that are attached to the suppre ssed negative
feeling keep us trapped in the  mind by continually recycling themselves,
detrimentally af fecting our life and preventing us from realizing our true self. Babies and children under abou t three years of age don’ t suppress emotions
because they’re naturally living in their true nature of A ware ness, so they
automatically le t go of emotio ns. It’ s the reason why you see babies and
toddlers go from tears to smiles  and laughter in seconds; they don’ t resist any
emotion. “By the time we  are labeled adu lts, we are so good at suppressing that most of
the time it is totally second nature. W e become as good or better at
suppressing as we originally were at letting go. In fact, we have suppressed so
much of  our emotional ener gy th at we are all a little like walkin g time bombs. Often, w e don’ t even know th at we have suppressed our true emotional
reactions until it is too late: our  body shows signs of stress-rel ated illnesses,
our shou lders are stuck in our ears, our stomach is in knots , or we have
exploded and said or done something that we now regret.”
Hale Dwoskin, fr om  The Sedona Method
When yo u have a negative experience that causes bad feelings, unless you let
go of the bad feeling compl etely , it ends up being pushe d down andsuppressed inside you. Even when you might think that you got something of f your chest, or that the
situation that upset you was resolved, unless you specifically let go of the
negative feeling, it will remain with you, suppressed in your subconscious
mind. “The expression of negative feelings allows just enough of the inner pressure
to be let out so that the remainder can then be suppressed. T his is a very
important point to understand, for many people in society toda y believe that
expressing their feelings frees them from the feelings. The facts are to the
contrary .”
Dr . David R. Hawkins, fr om  Letting Go
So, letti ng of f steam or ventin g isn’ t the answer . That will just add more
ener gy to our already suppressed emotion, because expressed feelings get
suppressed too. Sometimes we also deliberately  repress our bad feelings, and they also are
pushed down into the subcons cious. W e deliberately repress our emotions
when we push aside feelings that make us uncomfortable, like grief and
sadness, or when we stifle feelings like anger . “Suppression is keeping a lid on our emotions, pushing them  back down,
denying them, repressing them  and pretending that they don ’ t exist. Any
emotion that comes into awaren ess that is not let go of is automatically stored
in a part of our mind called the subconscious. A big part of how we suppress
our emotions is by escaping them.”
Hale Dwoskin, fr om  The Sedona Method
Imagine you have a disappointin g experience with a family member or friend. Y our opinion is that the person let you down, and you’re di sappointed in
them. That feeling of disappoin tment remains suppressed withi n you, and the
pressure of the trapped emotional ener gy builds up until some of it has to be
released. The suppressed disapp ointment has to find an outlet to take some
pressure of f the body , so it will find people, circumstances, or e vents that will
disappoint you, enabling some  of its built-up ener gy to be released. This
applies to every negative feelin g that you have ever suppressed, and most of
us have suppres sed the whole gamut of negative feelings. If you’ve felt it,
you’ve suppressed it. If y ou ever fe el annoyed, then you know that annoyance  was already
suppressed inside you. If you didn’ t have it suppressed inside you already , you
wouldn’ t be able to feel annoyed about anything. So, any time you feel
annoyed it’ s the original annoya nce that you felt and suppressed  that’ s coming
out. And it’ s th e case with ev ery negative feeling, whether that be anger ,
frustration, irritation, revenge, hate, depression, grief, despair , jealousy , guilt,
shame, impatience, disillusionment, disappointment, aggravation, or being
overwhelmed. U nfortunately , we suppressed many negative feelings as
children because in our innocence they were too hurtful for us to handle, and
then as life went on, it became a habit to push our feelings aw ay instead ofletting them be. So, we’ve likely all had a lifetime of s uppressing or
repressing bad feelings. Y our mind will c over up the true  cause of a bad feeling by using projection to
convince you that your feeling was caused by something in the world. “[The mind] blames events or other people for ‘causing’ a feeling and views
itself as  the helpless innocent victim of external causes. ‘Th ey made me
angry ,’ ‘He got me upset,’ ‘It scared me,’ ‘W orld events are the cause of my
anxiety .’ Actually , it’ s the exact opposite. The suppressed and repressed
feelings seek an outlet and utili ze the events as triggers and excuses to vent
themselves. W e  are like pressure-cookers ready to release steam when the
opportunity aris es. Our triggers are set and ready to go of f. In psychiatry this
mechanism is called displacem ent. It is because we are angry that events
‘make’ us angry .”
Dr . David R. Hawkins, fr om  Letting Go
Don’ t yo u feel exactly like a p ressure cooker when a bad feeling like anger
sweeps over you strongly and  really fast? If you know of someone who
suf fers f rom fre quent anger , it m eans that they’ve suppressed a lot of anger ,
most likely in th e earlier years of their life. They’re also sure to believe that
it’ s other people or circumstances that bring on a bout of their anger , but most
definitely it’ s their suppressed anger that is the sole cause. “The rea l source of ‘stress’ is actually internal; it is not exter nal, as people
would li ke to believe. The readiness to react with fear , for inst ance, depends
on h ow much fear is already present within to be triggered by a  stimulus. The
more fear we have on the inside, the more our perception of the world is
changed to a fearful, guarded ex pectancy . T o the fearful person, this world is a
terrifying place. T o the angry person, this world is a chaos of frustration and
vexation. T o the guilty person, i t is a world of temptation and s in, which they
see everywhere. What we are holding inside colors our world. If we let go of
guilt, w e will see innocence; however , a guilt-ridden person will see only
evil.”
Dr . David R. Hawkins, fr om  Letting Go
So, when you next experience a negative feeling sweeping over you,
remember that no matter how it might appear to you, you’re experiencing it
because it is alr eady  i nside you—not because an  outside person or
circumstance caused it. Y ou would think we would have worked this out, wouldn’ t you? After all, it’ s
clear from our experience that negative feelings arise from inside  our body . Not one of us has ever walked down a street and had to dodge negative
feelings flying toward us! Y ou’l l never find a negative feeling outside of your
body , or anybody else’ s body . It is our r eaction  t o a per son, cir cumstance, or
event th at is the cause of negative feelings, not the actual person,
circumstance, or event. Honey , I Shrunk MyselfNegative feeling s are ener gized even further when we believe that a negative
feeling is who we are. How can we be a feeling? Y et when we identify with a
feeling, it means we have shrunk our Infinite Self right down, because we’re
allowing ourselves to be ruled by one puny little feeling. “Thoughts and emotions seem powerful because we give the m ener gy . By
letting them rise and fall of their own, they simply move on.”
Kalyani Lawry
“It is not true to say , ‘I am sad.’ W e should say instead, ‘At this moment a
feeling o f sadness is flowing thr ough me.’ If we just let the feel ing of sadness
flow , we  autom atically and unknowingly take our stand in tha t which is not
flowing.”
Francis Lucille, fr om  The Perfume of Silence
Ask yourself: Are you the feeling of sadness, or are you the one that’ s aware
of the sadness? Y ou’r e the one that’ s awar e of the sadness. W ere you here before the sadness came? I’m pr etty sur e you wer e.
W ill you still remain after the sadness leaves? I hope you will still be her e.
W ill you lose a bit of yourself when the sadness goes? I sur e hope not. Y es, you were here before the sadness came, and yes, you’re here after it
leaves, fully intact, because you  are not sadness. Sadness is something you’re
awar e of . It’ s  not at all who you are. Don’ t let a feeling shrink you down to
the s ize of a pea, when you are  the Infinite Being that holds the Universe in
place! “Stop acting so small. Y ou are the universe in ecstatic motion.”Rumi
My teacher suggested that I question every  negative feeling with:
“Am I that, or am I the one that is aware of it?”
This question immediately takes most of the power out of the feeling because
it stops you from identifying with it. “See tha t though ts and feelings are like a train that enters a station and then
leaves; be like the station, not like a passenger .”
Rupert Spira, fr om  The Ashes of Love
Notice that feelings appear and  then disappear , and that it’ s you, A wareness,
that is aware of them when the y first appear and aware of them when they
disappear . “Negative feelin gs are in you, not in reality . Never identify with that feeling. It has nothing to do with the ‘I. ’ Don’ t define your essential self in terms of
that feel ing. Don ’ t say , ‘I am depressed.’ If you want to say , ‘It is depressed,’
that’ s al l right. If you want to say , ‘Depression is there,’ that’ s fine; if you
want to say , ‘Gl oominess is there,’ that’ s fine. But not: ‘I am gloomy .’ Y ou’re
defining yourself in terms of t he feeling. That’ s your illusion; that’ s your
mistake. There is a depression there right now , there are hurt feelings there
right now , but let it be, leave it alone. It will pass. Everything passes,
everything.”
Anthony de Mello, S.J., fr om  A wareness: Conversations with the Masters
“Say to your mind, ‘Get as worked up or depressed as you wa nt. I am only
ever going to observe or ignore you, but I am not going to join you.’”
MoojiIt’ s an Inside Job
“Imagine a patient who goes to a doctor and tells him what he is suf fering
from. The doctor says, ‘V ery well, I’ve understood your symp toms. Do you
know what I w ill do? I will prescribe a medicine for your n eighbor!’ The
patient r eplies, ‘Thank you very much, Doctor , that makes me feel much
better .’ I sn’ t tha t absurd? But that’ s what we all do. The person  who is asleep
always thinks he’ll feel better if somebody else changes. Y ou’re suf fering
because you are asleep, but you’re thinking, ‘How wonderful li fe would be if
somebody else would change; how wonderful life would be if  my neighbor
changed, my wife changed, my boss changed.’”
Anthony de Mello, S.J., fr om  A wareness: Conversations with the Masters
Don’ t expect people, circumstances, and events to change fo r you to feel
better , because none of them ever will. Y ou’ll never be happy if you wait for
the world to change according to your desires or your expectations. T o change
how you feel in any given moment is always an inside job. “W e spend all o ur time and ener gy trying to change external c ircumstances,
trying to change our spouses, our bosses, our friends, our enemies, and
everybody else. W e don’ t have to change anything. Negative f eelings are in
you. No person on earth has the power to make you unhappy . . . Nobody told
you this; they told you the opposite.”
Anthony de Mello, S.J., fr om  A wareness: Conversations with the Masters
Negative feeling s are self-inflicted. W e’re the ones who cause our own stress
and upset, as much as we would like to think that our stress and upset are
inflicted upon us from the world around us. “The actions of others do not have the power to grant you or deny you peace.”
Jac O’Keeffe
“No eve nt justifies a negative feeling. There is no situation in the world that
justifies a negative feeling. That’ s what all our mystics have  been crying
themselves hoar se to tell us. But nobody listens. The negative  feeling is in
you.”
Anthony de Mello, S.J., fr om  A wareness: Conversations with the Masters
It’ s good news  that we inflict negative feelings on ourselves, because it means
we h ave the power to stop doing it! And when we suf fer enou gh with those
bad feelings, we will want to find a way out. Nothing teaches us to look for a
way out more than unhappine ss and being miserable. Even better news,
there’ s a simple way to end bad feelings—for good.C H A P T E R  6  S u m m a r y
When you ar e fr ee of all negative feelings, what r emains is
the Infinite A war eness that you  ar e, and your life will be
absolutely br eathtaking. Thoughts cr eate feelings. The kinds of thoughts you have
will cr eate the same kinds of feelings. What you feel inside will match pr ecisely with your
experience in the outside world. Feeling good is your true natur e . Whenever you feel good, it
means you must have let go of bad feelings, enabling good
feelings to naturally arise. Positive and good feelings ar e a r esult of saying “Y es” to
what is happeni ng in life. Nega tive feelings ar e a r esult of
thinking or saying “No!” about what is happening in life. Positive feelings  ar e completely effortless because they’r e
our true  natur e. Negative feelings r equir e a huge amount of
ener gy to maintain. Fr om the time we wer e childr en we have unconsciously
suppr essed cou ntless negative  feelings, which ar e now
stor ed in our subconscious mind. When you have a negative experience that causes bad
feelings, unless you let go of the negative feeling completely ,
it ends up being pushed down and suppr essed inside you. Letting off steam or venting isn ’ t the answer . That will just
add mo r e ener gy to our alr eady suppr essed emotion,
because expr essed feelings get suppr essed too. A s uppr essed feeling will find an outlet to take some
pr essur e off the body , so it will find people, cir cumstances,
or e vents to e nable some of its built-up ener gy to be
r eleased.When you next experience a negative emotion sweeping
over you, r emember that no ma tter how it might appear to
you, you ’r e expe riencing it because it is  already inside you
—not because an outside person or cir cumstance caused it. Negative feelin gs ar e ener gized even further when we
believe that a negative feeling is who we ar e.
Question  every negative feeling with: “Am I that, or am I
the one that is awar e of it?”
Notice th at feeli ngs appear and then disappear , and that it’ s
you, A war eness, that is awar e of them coming and going. Don’ t expect people, cir cumsta nces, and events to change
for y ou to feel better . T o change how you feel in any given
moment is always an inside job.C h a p t e r  7
The End of Negative Feelings
“The only thing standing betwee n you and what you are is a thought or a feeling. It’ s very simple.”
My teacher
Happiness is your natural state,  so if you don’ t feel happy right now , then you
have a negative feeling that is s topping that happiness from being present within
you. Th is chapte r has various p ractices that will help end nega tive feelings that
have had you wr apped in their re petitive loop. When you are free from them, you
will finally live your life in your natural state of sheer joy and happiness—a life
more spectacular than anything you have lived up until now . “The first thing you need to do is get in touch with negative feelings that you’re
not even aware of. Lots of people have negative feelings they ’re not aware of. Lots of people are depressed an d they’re not aware they are depressed. It’ s only
when th ey make  contact with jo y that they understand how dep ressed they were. The firs t thing you need is awa reness of your negative feelings. What negative
feelings? Gloominess, for instance. Y ou’re feeling gloomy and moody . Y ou feel
self-hatred or guilt. Y ou feel tha t life is pointless, that it makes no sense; you’ve
got hurt feelings, you’re feelin g nervous and tense. Get in touch with those
feelings first.”
Anthony de Mello, S.J., fr om  A wareness: Conversations with the Masters
Y ou don’ t need to know the name of the negative feeling yo u have, because
sometimes it can be hard to pinp oint exactly what you’re feeling. All you need to
know is  that if t he feeling isn’ t a happy feeling, it’ s a negative feeling, and that
negative feeling  is holding bac k your life and preventing yo u from living in
constant happiness. Just be aware of  the negative feeling without resisting it, express ing it, or judging
it in any way , and recognize that it’ s just a feeling. Do not make any attempt to
change t he feelin g. When you st op wanting to get rid of the feel ing, and you stop
resisting it, the ener gy will be released and the feeling can disappear . “If you stop resisting an emotion, it cannot stand.”
Rupert Spira, fr om the talk “Rest in Y our Being”W e’ve convince d ourselves that if we resist bad feelings we ma ke them go away ,
but instead we are guaranteein g that we will experience them  over and over
again. A s the psychiatrist Carl Jung said, “Whatever you resist, persists.” T ake
away re sistance and any negative feeling, no matter how strong, passes through
the body quickly . My teacher showed me that when you place the palm of your hand against
someone else’ s palm and each of you push against the other ’ s hand, you will feel
resistance. If the other person s tops pushing with their hand, immediately both
hands drop. If you can, experiment with this with a friend or family member ,
because experiencing it for yourself will make it crystal clear . This is exactly
what happens when you stop resisting a negative emotion—it drops away . T o stop resisting a negative fee ling, you have to allow  th e feeling to b e present
without trying to change it. Just be awar e  of the feeling. Relax and don ’ t tense up
against i t, because that’ s resisting it. Ironically , you let the feeling go by relaxing
and allowing it to be there, without wanting to change it or get rid of it, without
wanting to make it dif ferent or d o anything about it. Let the feeling be there, and
that allows the ener gy of it to b e released. It’ s the very opposi te to what we’ve
always done, which explains why we have so many suppressed negative
emotions. “Resistance is quite insidious. It’ s one of the main things th at stop us from
having, doing, and being what we want in life.”
Hale Dwoskin, fr om  The Sedona Method
The ene r gy behi nd a negative f eeling will naturally release when you allow the
feeling to be present. It’ s an automatic process. All you have to do is be aware of
the feeling, allow it to be present, and not try to push it away , change it, control
it, or get rid of it. When you fully allow the feeling, the ener gy of the feeling
passes very quickly and at the s ame time it takes a big chunk of the suppressed
feeling with it. For example, if you don’ t resist an angry feeling when it appears
and you  allow it to be present, it will quickly move through you, taking with it
some of the original anger that you suppressed early in your life. “Don’ t be afraid of feelings—let them come up and be released.”
Shakti Caterina Maggi
When we notice a feeling and allow it to be just as it is, we’re no longer
suppressing or repressing it. W e’ve finally begun to free the suppressed feeling. Even a bout of extreme anger can fall away in under a minute if we are simply
aware of it, allow it to be there, and don’ t resist it. “When we strongly identify wit h negative emotions, rather than observing them,
they can very quickly drain our ener gy supply . By remaining present and learning
how to dis-identify from the emotions, we can reclaim control of our ener gy
supply which then becomes available to enhance our life experience.”
David Bingham
The follo wing practices I’m about to share are the most ef fective methods I know
of to permanently release negative feelings, including all of the suppressed
negative feeling s that you have  accrued throughout your whole life. And when
they’ve gone, you won’ t be af fected by negative feelings the way you once were,
your he alth will skyrocket, and so will your finances, your relationships, andyour entire life. Even better , once the negative feelings are all gone, you will be
standing unimpe ded in the joy and happiness of Infinite A wa reness. Whatever
you want will ap pear in your life ef fortlessly . Y ou will be having the experience
of a human being while being the Infinite Being that you actually are. “When everything that can be let go of is let go of, what remains is what we
desire above all else.”
Rupert Spira, fr om  The Ashes of Love
W elcoming
The brilliant teacher and ex-physicist Francis Lucille describes one method of
releasing negativ e feelings as “welcoming.” W elcoming has proven to be one of
the most powerful practices I have ever done in my life. This practice eradicates
negative feelings once and for all. (It’ s also worth noting that the situation or circumstance that caused the negative
feeling in the first place will also change when you welcome the negative feeling. This is due to you releasing the feeling you have about the situation.) W elcoming is the opposite of resisting. Resistance says to a negative feeling,
“No, I don’ t want this!” And welcoming says, “Y es, you are welcome here.”
A wareness is always welcomin g of everything. No negative f eeling, no matter
how strong, can stand up against the welcoming of A waren ess. In fact, no
negativity whatsoever can stand up against the welcoming of A wareness. It s eems counterintuitive to w elcome something you don’ t want, but it’ s
resistance that holds what you don’ t want to you, and welcoming stops you from
resisting! It can be challenging n ot to resist or tense up against a  negative feeling,
but when you open your atten tion and welcome the feeling, miraculously the
resistance ceases , and the negative feeling—which is just ener gy—dissolves. The
situation that you were resisting will then be able to change. Remember , opening your attention is like zooming out with a camera lens so
you’re n ot focused on any detail  with your mind. Make sure that you don’ t focus
into the feeling. That will make it stronger , because the mind incr eases  anything
we focus on. Notice the feeling, but don’ t focus into it. Keep your attention wide. T eacher Hale Dwoskin suggests that, in the beginning, it can b e helpful to open
your arms out to  the side of your body when you open your atte ntion. Open your
arms as though you are welcoming somebody you love whom you’re about to
embrace. This helps you open your heart (we have a tendency to keep the heart
area of our body per manently contracted, without realizing we’re doing it). I
consciously open my heart when I welcome anything in life that I do not want. My teacher says that when we’re welcoming, we are bein g our true self,
A wareness, beca use welcoming is our very nature. In fact, the In finite A wareness
that you  are is so welcoming that negative feelings can’ t possi bly remain in its
presence. Quite simply , when you welcome anything negative , you allow it to
dissolve back into its source— Y ou, A wareness! And so when you welcome a
negative feeling you are tapping into your infinite power to dissolve it.T eacher Francis  Lucille says tha t as we become more establish ed in welcoming,
we realize that w elcoming is not really an activity of its own; r ather , welcoming
stops the  activity  of resistance. I nitially we think that welcoming is something we
do, and as we practice it more, we realize that it’ s actually stopping  us from
doing something many of us do automatically—resisting. “The fee ling eva porates because  it’ s only ener gy , so when a fee ling arises, notice
it is only ener gy and welcome it. It has arisen because you’re ready to be free of
it.”
My teacher
What Hurts Y ou, Blesses Y ou
Some ye ars ago, I found myself in a state of depression. At that time I didn’ t
know most of the things that I’m sharing in this book, but fo rtunately , I knew
how I had brought about depression. My daughter was very  sick at the time and I
feared for her l ife, and I had one terrifying thought after another . Because I
believed those fearful thoughts, in a few months they sent me sp iraling down into
depression. “Feelings like anger or sadness exist only to alert you to the  fact that you’re
believing your own stories.”
Byr on Katie, fr om  A Mind at Home with Itself
T o lift myself ou t of the depress ion I tried to think positive thoughts and thoughts
of gratit ude, but  what I discovered is that our thoughts have ve ry little power in
the depths of depression. It’ s a safety mechanism that protects us from our
thoughts manife sting when we’re down really low in despair or depression. So,
with the failure of my usual way to turn things around, I had to find another way . I de cided that i f I couldn’ t ov erride the depression with positive thoughts, I
would ju st stop  resisting the de pression, because I knew that “what you resist
persists.” So I c losed my eyes and focused inside my body where the depression
seemed to dwell. I opened myself up to that black cloud of depression as if I were
stretching my arms out to welcome it, and as if I were embracing it by putting my
arms aro und it, just as you would greet someone you love dearly and haven’ t
seen in a long time. I opened up my heart and loved the depression as best I
could and pulled it in close toward me. For a few seconds it worsened, and then
all o f a sudden i t became lighter and lighter , and then completely dissolved. In a
matter of seconds it had gone—just like that. The relief was exquisite. A fe w hours later the feeling of depression came back, but it was much less
intense than before. I followed  the same process, and I con tinued to do it
whenever the depression reappeared. Each time I did the practice, the depression
got weaker and weaker , and in just a few days it had totally gone. “The moment you accept what troubles you’ve been given, the door will open.”
Rumi
I kn ow without any doubt that I will never suf fer from depression again. It has
left my body permanently .If I can do this with depression , you can do it with any negative feeling. When
you do it yourself, you will understand the process much better . Dissolving a
negative emotion when it’ s in full flight is the best feeling in the world. Instead
of resisting the feeling of depres sion, which only made it worse and held it to me,
I did  the  opposit e. In my own way , even though I didn’ t know it at the time, I had
intuitively welcomed the negative feeling of depression. Since th at time, I have used the same practice for any negative f eelings that have
arisen, f or negative thoughts, and I have also used it for any painful sensations in
the b ody , like a cramp in the foot or a headache. I’ve found that bodily sensations
can dissolve as quickly as negative feelings when they’re not resisted. Use the welcoming process for anything that makes you feel bad, any negative
thoughts or stories, negative feelings, painful sensations or  memories, and
limiting beliefs. W elcoming free s you from emotional bondage and allows your
life to change for the better in every possible way . “When we love our hate, we stop hating. Love always wins . T o love hatred
means to  welcom e it. It doesn’ t mean that we should do what it tells us to do, but
we shouldn’ t suppress it either . When we love hatred, we put ourselves out of the
process of hatred, and love begins.”
Francis Lucille, fr om  The Perfume of Silence
Negative feeling s like fear can be immensely uncomfortable, or even terrifying,
which is  why many of us have developed the habit of automatically suppressing
them ra ther than facing them. But they have fooled us. When we allow any
negative feeling to be present, welcoming it without trying to  push it away , it
may feel overwhelming for a couple of seconds as it intensifies, but then it
completely disappears. When y ou have allowed a bad feeling to be present and you haven’ t suppressed
it, that feeling will never be as strong in you again. Y ou have weakened it, and it
is now on its way out. A few more times of allowing the feeling to be present and
it w ill be release d from your bo dy . W atch then how much happiness floods into
your body , and how much good ness floods into your life from just one negative
feeling being released. “Sometimes we surrender a feeling and we notice that it returns or continues. This is because there is more o f it yet to be surrendered. W e have stuf fed these
feelings all of our lives and there can be a lot of ener gy pushed down that needs
to come up and be acknowledged. When surrender occurs, there is an immediate
lighter , happier feeling, almost like a ‘high.’”
Dr . David R. Hawkins, fr om  Letting Go
The relief that you will feel from releasing negative feelings from the body is
exquisite. And with every released negative feeling your body will become
lighter , your life more ef fortless, and you will find your happiness expanding. Y ou also gain m omentum the more you do it, and it becomes ea sier and easier to
release negative feelings. Y ou’ll reach a point where most negative feelings
dissolve instantly , because they  are automatically released the moment you’re
aware of them. This is the infinite power of A wareness. “Releasing is like breathing—it’ s natural. Inhale and exhale.”
My teacher“That’ s what every uncomforta ble feeling is for—that’ s what pain is for , what
money is for , what everything in the world is for: your self-realization.”
Byr on Katie, fr om  Loving What Is
Every negative feeling is there to direct you back home to who you are. They
alert you to the fact that you’re believing stories that are not true, so you can
welcome those feelings and live  your life as the magnificent A wareness that you
truly are. Isn’ t it  ironic that nega tive feelings, the one thing we do everything we
can to avoid, are the very thing that will liberate us? “What hurts you, blesses you. Darkness is your candle.”
Rumi
Use eve ry negative emotion that appears as an opportunity to permanently free
yourself from that negative emotion. As my teacher said, a negative emotion only
arises w hen you ’re ready to be free of it. W elcome the emotion,  without trying to
change it or get rid of it. Y ou are the Infinite Being, and welcoming is your very
nature. W elcome every negative feeling until you are free of them all forever . “It is possible to be in very ‘peaceful’ surroundings and yet be tormented, and it
is po ssible to b e in dangerous, noisy , negativefeeling surroun dings and yet be
entirely at peace.”
Jan Frazier , fr om  Opening the Door
How do  you welcome feelings  about subjects that you have a strong opinion
about, or a strong stance against, like cruelty to animals? Understand that  the bad feeling s you feel around that subject  are causing you
harm an d are not helping wha t you care about. W elcome the sensations and
feelings that the subject may ev oke in you. W elcome your disapproval, welcome
the feelings of unfairness and injustice. Keep welcoming u ntil there is no
sensation or feeling left when you think of the subject.Y ou mig ht think that you don’ t want to stop feeling the pain  about a subject,
because then you’ll stop caring  about it. But this is a story the mind is telling
you, and  the very opposite is tru e. Y our strong resistance to a subject ener gizes it,
adding a  lot of ener gy and power that makes it bigger . So when you release your
negative feeling s around it, you are releasing all the ener gy you have focused on
it, and you are disempowering  the  circumstances surroundin g the subject. W ithout that negative emotion, your love and compassion, which will naturally
arise in place of  the negative em otions, have atomic power , and they can make a
huge dif ference in the world. Let me tell you  about Lester Levenson. Lester became enlightened through
releasing all of his negative emotions and beliefs over a three-month period. Prior
to this, Lester had many hea lth problems, including depression, migraine
headaches, gastrointestinal imbalances, jaundice, an enlar ged liver , kidney
stones, spleen trouble, hyperaci dity , ulcers that had perforated his stomach and
formed lesions, and coronary heart disease. One by one every disease and  af fliction disappeared as Lester released his
suppressed nega tive feelings. Lester called his method of releasing negative
emotions “The Sedona Method,” and under the guardianship of one of his
students, Hale Dwoskin, who is featured in both The Secr et  and  this book,
Lester ’ s method continues to reach many the world over . “I was letting go and undoing t he hell I had created. By squaring all with love,
trying to love rather than trying  to be loved, and by taking resp onsibility for all
that was  happen ing to me; findi ng my subconscious thought and correcting it, I
became freer and freer , happier and happier .”
Lester Levenson
“Think o f one painful memory from early life, one terrible regret that has been
hidden. Look at all the years and years of thoughts associated with that single
event. If  we could surrender the underlying painful feeling, all of those thoughts
would disappear instantly , and we would for get the event.”
Dr . David R. Hawkins, fr om  Letting Go
When we release or welcome a suppressed feeling evoked from a memory , no
matter how far back that memory goes, all the hundreds and thousands of
thoughts attached to that memory will be released with the feeling. There’ s
nothing better than doing this! The lightness, the happiness, an d the “high” you
feel as you release the feelings a ttached to painful memories cannot be described,
not t o m ention h ow completely your life changes. Y ou will know with certainty
that thos e suppr essed feelings have been af fecting the health of  your body when
you release them. And when yo u see all the circumstances of your life begin to
change f or the better , as they most definitely will, you will know through your
own experience that those feelings were holding your life back too. I once did this p ractice on a hurtful childhood experience that had stayed with me
all my life, and I can now no longer remember what the exper ience was; I only
remember releasing it. When I released the hurtful feeling that the memory
evoked, it took all of the thoughts of the memory with it, so much so that the
memory itself vanished! Hurtful memori es are heavy bu rdens for us to carry; they get in the way of us
having t he life we deserve, and they’re not who we are. Y ou ca n free yourself ofpainful memories. “Notice the feeling  beh ind every th ought and it will dissolve. It’ s a self-cleaning
mechanism. Us e the shortcut of dissolving feelings to dissolve hundreds of
negative thoughts by welcoming the feeling.”
My teacher
It’ s inspiring to know that releasing just one negative feeli ng will take out
hundreds if not thousands of negative thoughts with it. As you dissolve your
negative feelings, you take out thoughts of doubt, unworthiness, needing
approval from others, insecurity , lacking confidence, and every other kind of
negative though t that holds y ou back from a life filled with wonder and
continuous happiness. W ith every negative feeling that is released, your life will
soar . The Super Practice
I want to share with you an in valuable practice that my teacher gave me that
changed my life, and that I continue to use every single day . This is a simple but
powerful combi nation of the tw o most important and vital prac tices in this book
—welcoming an d staying as A w areness. My teacher says that w hile you stay as
A wareness, the body is an autom atic self-cleaning mechanism. What that means
is th at while you stay or rest as A wareness, the trapped ener gy from every
negative emotion is unwinding automatically and being released from your body
by itself ! Y ou can sometimes fe el the ener gy unwinding around the area of your
chest. Step 1. W elcome Anything Negative
Open your heart and welcome any negative reactions, negative feelings, negative
sensations, negative thoughts or problems, in the moment they appear . Step 2. Stay as A war eness
Stay as A wareness by keeping your attention wide like the lens on a camera, so
it’ s not focused on any detail. Because A wareness is naturally welcoming, you will find after doing the Super
Practice for a w hile that the t wo steps mer ge into one. In the moment you
welcome, you’ll find that A wareness is instantaneously present. Since do ing this practice, I’ve noticed that negative emotions an d reactions have
become much weaker and eva porate quickly . I even reached a point where I
loved a negative emotion or reaction to come up, because it not only reminded
me to welcome it and stay as A wareness, but it felt so good  when it dissolved. I us e the same practice when a negative situation, circumstance, or problem
appears. I open my attention, open my heart, and welcome the negative feeling
about th e situati on, and then I stay as A wareness the best I can. (A way to stay as
A wareness that I have found to be invaluable is to love A wareness. Simply byloving A wareness you are giving your full attention to it.) I find that the negative
situation change s very soon af ter I do this practice. It actually must change,
because our resistance is what holds a negative situation to us! “In the state of that awareness, all suf fering ceases.”
Jan Frazier , fr om  When Fear Falls A way
A few years ago, I went through an event that would be considered by most
people intensely scary and stressful. However , due to welcoming and staying as
A wareness, the event didn’ t af fe ct me the way it would have be fore I knew these
practices. W ildfires were threatening to d estroy the community I live in. I was evacuated
from my house, yet felt a peaceful state of calm about the safety of my home. I
felt calm because I was fine with whatever happened. I had evacuated, and if I
had lost my house, I absolutel y knew it would be for the b est, and that life
needed to take m e in a dif feren t direction. The fire was out of control for many
weeks, d estroying everything in  its path. Eventually it loomed closer to my home
and was burning houses in the road where I live. But I felt no fear , and no
attachment to any outcome. I knew that I would remain happy no matter what
happened. W ith no resistance to any outcome, my house remained safe. I had
welcomed the situation, and I have no doubt that the peace and calm I felt
through those fires was due to the welcoming I had practiced in the past. “I’ve rea lized ho w much misery comes of resisting the present facts, or of living
in the past or th e future. I don’ t  think I realized how much pain I was in before. It’ s like I was hitting myself on the shin with a hammer for fifty years, and then
the hammer fell out of my hand.”
Jan Frazier , fr om  Opening the Door
T o be free of negative emotions is worth every second that you put into it. I have
been fee ling goo d most of the time since I discovered The Se cret in 2004, but
these da ys I exist mostly in a state of gentle happiness due to the knowledge and
practices I’m sharing with you in this book. Can you  imagin e living a single  day without any negative emot ion af fecting you
whatsoever , let alone living a month that way , or a year? If you didn’ t have
negative emotions, you wouldn ’ t have negative thoughts to contradict what you
want, an d you would become a magnet for anything and everything you want! When yo u exper ience this for yourself, then you’ll know that this is the true joy
of living.C H A P T E R  7  S u m m a r y
Happiness is your natural state of being, so if you don’ t feel
happiness right now , then you ha ve a negative feeling that is
stopping that happiness fr om being pr esent. Be awar e of a negative feeling without r esisting it,
expr essing it, or judging it in any way , and see that it’ s just a
feeling. The ener gy behind a negative feeling will naturally r elease
when yo u allow the feeling to be pr esent. It’ s an automatic
pr ocess. W elcoming is a practice that eradicates negative feelings. W elcoming is the opposite of r esisting. W elcoming says to a
negative feeling, “Y es, you ar e welcome her e.”
In th e beginning it can be help ful if, when you open your
attention, you also open your arms out to the sides of your
body . Y ou can consciously open your heart too. Use the welcoming pr ocess for a nything that makes you feel
bad, any negative thoughts or stories, negative feelings,
painful sensations or memories, and limiting beliefs. When you have allowed a bad fe eling to be pr esent and you
haven’ t suppr essed it, that feeling will never be as str ong in
you again. Every negative feeling is ther e to dir ect you back home to
who you ar e. They alert you to t he fact that you’r e believing
stories that ar e not true, so you can welc ome those feelings
and live  your life as the magnificent A war eness that you
truly ar e.
A negative emotion only arises when you’r e r eady to be fr ee
of it.When you r elease your negative feelings ar ound a subject
you feel str ongly about, you ar e r eleasing all the ener gy you
have focused on it and ar e  disempowering the
cir cumstances surr ounding the subject. When we welcome a suppr essed feeling evoked fr om a
memory , all the hundr eds and thousands of thoughts
attached to that memory will be r eleased with the feeling. The ligh tness, the happiness, and the “high” you feel as you
r elease the feelings attached to painful memories cannot be
described. The Super Practice
Step 1. W elcome anything negative. Step 2. Stay as A war eness (loving A war eness is one way to
stay as A war eness).C h a p t e r  8
No Mor e Suffering
“Here’ s the bottom line: suf fering is optional.”
Byr on Katie, fr om  A Mind at Home with Itself
Y ou are not meant to suf fer . And when you’re living as you r true self,
A wareness, you will never suf fer . It can be hard to imagine a life without
suf fering, but most assuredly it can be your life, right now . “There is pain in the physical, but suf fering is of the mind.”
Anthony de Mello, S.J. “Y our h igher se lf does not suf fe r . Y our familiar self can hardly  figure out
how not to suf fer .”
Jan Frazier , fr om  The Freedom of Being
Suf fering is caused by believing negative thoughts. So, suf fering is self-
imposed. “I di scovered that when I believed my thoughts, I suf fered, but that when I
didn’ t b elieve th em, I didn’ t suf fer , and that this is true for every human
being. Freedom is as simple as that.”
Byr on Katie, fr om  A Thousand Names for Joy
“Whenever you  are suf fering, your suf fering is contained in a single
thought: ‘I don’ t like this.’ In other words, we allow a sing le, flimsy ,
insubstantial thought to spoil our happiness.”
Rupert Spira, fr om the talk, “Suffering Is Contained in a Single Thought”
Our min d tends to respond to the circumstances of life with No, No, No,
while A wareness always responds with Y es, Y es, Y es, to everything. “A wareness even says ‘yes’ to ‘no’!”
My teacherSaying “ No” ho lds what you don’ t want to you. Saying “Y es” to what you
don’ t want releases your resis tance, allowing what you don’ t want to
change. It’ s counterintuitive, but it’ s how it works. When you say , “No, I
don’ t w ant this,” you’re resisting, and as you’ve come to u nderstand,
whatever you resist persists. “If you abide in this state of acc eptance, you create no more negativity , no
more suf fering,  no more unh appiness. Y ou then live in a state of
nonresistance, a state of grace and lightness, free of struggle.”
Eckhart T olle, fr om  The Power of Now
“I am a lover of what is, not because I’m a spiritual person, but  because it
hurts when I ar gue with reality .”
Byr on Katie, fr om  Loving What Is
“If y ou w ere to altogether let go of resistance this moment, never to start it
up again, by that single gesture, you’d liberate yourself from an enormous
burden of suf fering.”
Jan Frazier , fr om  The Freedom of Being
If w e don’ t resis t what has happ ened, there’ s no conflict, and the ener gy of
the situa tion passes. W ithout our resistance to something, it can’ t stay in
our life. On the other hand, if we resist what’ s happened, we’ ll hold the
situation to us, a nd we’ll continue to suf fer . The wonderful teacher Sailor
Bob Adamson says to just allow experiences to come and go without
judging them. “It is only the grasping, the hanging on, or the resisting and pushing away
that creates the bind of psychological suf fering.”
Peter Lawry , fr om the talk “No Separation”
“Most people go to their graves believing suf fering is unavoidable. How
sad that is. If yo u turn from the possibility that it could be otherwise, you
will suf f er needl essly until the day you die. But here is something: the end
of suf fer ing wou ld be the least of the benefits, if you became free. The real
miracle is not th e profound undoing of anguish, but the riches that would
flood the freed-up ‘space.’”
Jan Frazier , fr om  When Fear Falls A wayAn Instant End to Suffering
What I’m about to share with you may not be the easiest thing to grasp, but
if you can get it, it will take you out of suf fering immediately . Our mind
makes it feel like we  a re the one who is suf fering, and of course if we
unquestioningly believe our mind, our suf fering is immense. But the truth
is that you are the one that is awar e  o f the suf fering , rather than th e one
suf fering. The one who is suf fering is the idea you have of yourself that
you’ve believed but is not who you really are. “The end of suf fering happens w hen you recognize that there is no one to
suf fer .”
Hale Dwoskin
My teacher would say to ask yourself this question:
“Am I the one suf fering, or am I the one that is aware of the suf fering?”
If w e ca n stop believing the mind’ s suggestion that we’re the on e suf fering,
the suf fering will end immediately . “Once the nature of the mind is understood, suf fering can’ t exist.”
Byr on Katie, fr om  A Mind at Home with Itself
“A wareness ope ns the door , diss olves all the beliefs and opinion s and ideas
that are in the way of and covering up your natural state of happiness.”
Anthony de Mello, S.J. “It’ s no wonder that when the machinery of suf fering has fallen apart, and
the mind  has grown quiet, the fe eling is that you’ve come home. Home has
found you—which is often the impression, since you hadn’ t necessarilybeen try ing to find your way the re, not consciously anyhow . Or maybe you
had been, but now you see you’d been looking in the wrong places.”
Jan Frazier , fr om  The Great Sweetening: Life After Thought
There is one belief in particular that’ s the root cause of all the suf fering in
the w orld. It’ s th e belief that w e’re a separate person. W ith tho ught, your
mind convinces you that you are  just a person, and that you are vulnerable
to an entire wor ld of things that  could go wrong. If you believe the mind’ s
story of separateness, you will be completely under the contr ol of your
mind. Y our mind will send a co nstant feed of fearful thoughts t hat you are
vulnerable, bad things can happen to you, and that you and your life are
limited. Sadly , this will become your life if you believe it to be true. But
the truth is the very opposite of this. W e are not separate. There is the
appearance  t hat  we’re a separate person, and we’re having the experience
of being a separate person, but for a magnificent life filled with lasting
happiness, stay  aware of the truth that you are infinit e, eternal,
Consciousness-A wareness, and that there is only One of us. The End of Pr oblems
W e believe we h ave a problem when something has gone dif fer ently from
what we expected it to, or when  we feel something has gone “wrong.” Our
mind’ s immediate response to a problem is: “I don’ t want this!” Y et:
“Problems exist only in the human mind.”
Anthony de Mello, S.J., fr om  A wareness: Conversations with the Masters
“Problems are not real. Problems are only imagined. There are no
problems. It’ s impossible. What you are is free of problems. Pr oblems are
manufactured—every single one of them.”
My teacher
“All pro blems are based on memory; in this moment, the re are no
problems.”
Hale Dwoskin
“If t here were n o human mind, there would be no problems. A ll problems
exist in the human mind. All problems are created by the mind.”
Anthony de Mello, S.J., fr om  Rediscovering Life
The truth is that  problems are just another story created by the thoughts of
our mind. It’ s the mind interpreting life by telling a story about something
that’ s happened and turning it into a problem. T o experience a problem-
free life,  instead  of believing yo ur mind, use the power of your A wareness
to become awar e  of your mind. When you’re living more and more as A wareness, then you will see clearly
that problems are imagined lim itations. How can the Infinite A wareness
that you are have a single problem?“It’ s as if you put your hand in a fire and say , ‘Ouch, it’ s hot! M y hand is
burning! Boy , do I have a problem!’ And then you put your hand back in
the f ire, and so on, and so on, until one day you see that you are doing it
and you  stop. If you have a p roblem, you’re putting your hand into a
problem and yelling, ‘It hurts!’  and acting as though you’re not putting
your hand in it. Y ou act as though you are not doing it. But you are.”
Lester Levenson, fr om  Happiness Is Free, volumes 1–5
“All problems come from the  ego. Y ou’re free when you don’ t give
validity to any problems.”
My teacher
The dif f iculty is  that when you believe  you  have a problem you will m ost
definitely experience  h aving a proble m. But if you can be aware that it’ s
really the mind and its thoughts  telling another negative story , you allow
any supposed problem to dissolv e and disappear because your b elief is not
holding it to you or the world anymore. “Anyone who says, ‘I have trouble,’ has it in his mind. That is the only
place where it is, because you can’ t see or conceive of anything anywhere
else but in your mind. Whatever you look at, whatever you hea r , whatever
you sense, is in and through your mind. That is where everything is.”
Lester Levenson, fr om  Happiness Is Free, volumes 1–5
“I’m go ing to tell you something very powerful. There is not a problem
anywhere at any time. There is only a lack of love.”
My teacher
When y ou don’ t  resist anything, when you accept everything just the way
that it is, this is love. Where l ove exists, no problem can ex ist. It’ s the
reason why no problem can touch who you really are, because you are pure
love. It is a love that is so pure our minds can’ t conceive of it. It is
completely welcoming, accepting, all allowing, and totally unattached. It’ s
the kind of love demonstrated by the remarkable enlightened beings like
Buddha, Jesus Christ, Lao Tzu, Krishna, and so many more. And this pure
love that you are has no problems ever . But from the perspective of a limited person, problems do seem real. Our
mind ha s the opposite reaction to Infinite A wareness, and it resists and
denies the way something is rather than accepting and allowing it. “Life is a series  of natural and spontaneous changes. Don’ t resist them—
that only  creates sorrow . Let reality be reality . Let things flow naturally
forward in whatever way they like.”
Lao Tzu
“When there is no emotional investment in trying to force things to be the
way we want them, then they are free to move and resolve themselves.”
Kalyani LawryFrom using the principles of The Secr et  I’ve found that when I’m happy ,
there are barely any problems in my life. That’ s because from the place of
happiness problems either don’ t appear , or they’re so small that  they don’ t
have the  ability to disturb my h appiness. When I’m happy , problems look
like anthills compared to when I’ve been in despair and the smallest
problem appears  to be mountain ous. So doesn’ t it make sense that from the
ultimate level of happiness, where we know who we are, there are zero
problems? “There’ s no end to problems in the world. If you try to find the end you go
on and on forever and ever solving problems in the world and you will
always f ind more and more. As long as you are conscious of pro blems they
exist. Only when you discover the real you, will you discover an end to
problems.”
Lester Levenson, fr om  Happiness Is Free, volumes 1–5
How to Be Fr ee of Pr oblems For ever
“Y ou can be free from everyth ing. Do you want to give a problem your
attention by changing it, fixing it, or trying to figure it out, or d o you want
to be free of it?”
My teacher
When I shared with my teacher what I thought was a big proble m, she said
the following words to me. Y ou could not have clearer words than these:
“Stop fo cusing into the problem. Stop wanting it to be more o r less. Stop
wanting it to go. Stop wanting to change it. Stop wanting to fi gure it out. Stop wanting to control it. It will naturally collapse when you d ecide to be
A wareness. Eve rything that is not love collapses in the fac e of love. Everything that is not real collapses in the face of A wareness.”
My teacher
As The Secr et  e xplain ed, whe n we give our attention to something, we
ener gize it, so w hen we give our attention to a problem, we e ner gize the
problem and it gets bigger . T r ying to fix a problem, trying to solve it,
control i t, or eradicate it, means we are giving our attention to th e problem! When w e shift our attention away from the problem, the problem
disappears because all the ener gy has been removed from it. It has to
collapse. It’ s like taking the oxygen out of a fire—the fire will go out. “Now , trying to get rid of a problem is holding on to it. Anything we try to
get r id o f, we’re  holding in mind  and therefore sustaining that pr oblem. So,
the only way to correct a problem is to let go of it. See not the problem. See only what you want.”
Lester Levenson, fr om  W ill Power audioAnd once you h ave taken your a ttention of f any problem, then you can use
your mind to c reate what you want, by focusing your mind and your
thoughts on what you want. “Ener gy flows where attention goes.”
Michael Bernar d Beckwith, fr om  The Secret
W e g ive our atte ntion to what w e don’ t want, expecting that will change it,
when th e oppos ite is true. W e have to remove our attention to allow a
problem to dissolve. I heard somebody once say that problems are like an
unwelcome guest; if you don’ t give a guest any attention, they will leave! Use the power of your A wareness to be aware of your mind ’ s negative
thoughts and stories, thereby di ssolving them, and you will be  free of all
problems and suf fering. It’ s simply another example of the jo y and bliss
that is yours when you stay as the A wareness that you are. “This is a gently unfolding miracle. Be patient. All your life, you’ve been
doing it the other way , believing  yourself to be at the mercy of  life. Don’ t
expect the whole thing to undo itself all at once.”
Jan Frazier , fr om  The Freedom of BeingC H A P T E R  8  S u m m a r y
Y ou ar e not mea nt to suffer . And when you’r e living as your
true self, A war eness, you will never suffer . Suffering is caused by believing negative thoughts. So,
suffering is self-imposed. If w e r esist wha t’ s happened, we’ll hold the situation to us,
and we’ll continue to suffer . Ask your self this question: “Am I the one suffering, or am I
the one that is awar e of the suffering?” The truth is that you
ar e the one that is  aware of the suffering, rather than the
one suffering. Ther e is  one belief in particular that’ s the r oot cause of all
the suff ering in the world. It ’ s the belief that we’r e a
separate person. Pr oblems exist only in the human mind. Pr oblems ar e not
r eal. Pr oblems ar e only imagined. T o experience a pr oblem-fr ee life, instead of believing your
mind, use the power of your A war eness to become  aware of
your mind. When we give o ur attention to a pr oblem, we ener gize the
pr oblem and it gets bigger . When we shift our attention
away fr om the pr oblem, the pr oblem disappears because all
the ener gy has been r emoved fr om it. Once yo u have taken your attention off any pr oblem, then
you can use your mind to cr eate what you want, by focusing
your mind and your thoughts on what you want. Use the power of your A war e ness to be awar e of your
mind’ s negative  thoughts and stories, ther eby dissolving
them, and you will be fr ee of all pr oblems and suffering.C h a p t e r  9
Dissolving Limiting Beliefs
“All beliefs are imagined limitations.”
My teacher
What is  a belief? A be lief is just a thought that we think over and o ver
again—until we believe it. All beliefs are limited because they come from
the m ind. Let’ s look at an exam ple: the belief that says something is “too
good to be true. ” W e first hear it said by others, then we begin  having the
thought ourselve s, after a while we believe it’ s true, and then we start to
see evid ence of it in the world. The very moment we believe it is true it
becomes a belief stored in our subconscious mind, and from th at moment
on th at b elief op erates as an auto matic program in our subconscious, and it
must project itself in the world and continue to prove itself to be  true in our
life. “A thought is harmless until we believe it.”
Byr on Katie
“It is not what the ego says, it is how much it is believed.”
Mooji
Beliefs also throw up other thoughts based on the belief, and the thoughts
play like  recordings. W ith the be lief “something is too good to be true,” the
subconscious m ind will play tho ughts like: “When I feel this happy , I feel
like som ething bad is going to happen.” “Make the most of it, this isn’ t
going to last.” “Something bad always follows something good.” “I’m
feeling nervous  because good things don’ t usually happen to me.” “If
something feels too good to be true, you can bet it is.” These thoughts are
probably familiar to you, which proves they are just recordings from the
mind and they’re not unique to you.My teacher said, imagine if you answered the phone and there was a
recording on the other end saying: “This is a recorded message. T ransfer
all your money into this bank a ccount right now so we can keep it safe.”
W ould you do it? W ould you believe the recording? No, of course you
wouldn’ t believe it. But then why believe the recordings of the mind? Y our Beliefs Cause Y our Experience
“W e project our thoughts and beliefs and they return to us as our
experience.”
David Bingham
Y ou mus t experi ence whatever you believe, so it matters a great deal what
your beliefs are. Beliefs have w hat could be described as atomic power ,
because they will continually p roject themselves into your life and make
themselves true . It doesn’ t mat ter that they’re false; if you’ve  planted a
belief in the subconscious it will bear fruit. For example, you can’ t have th e belief that the only way you can receive
more money is t hrough working harder and longer hours, and th en receive
cash windfalls from multiple places you never expected. Y our belief
prevents money coming in from other sources. This is how much we limit
ourselves through our beliefs. When you have a belief about a person,
circumstance, or situation, you must experience it. Thought s have no
power of their own without the ener gy of your belief behind them. “There is only one cause of unhappiness: the false beliefs you h ave in your
head, be liefs so widespread, so commonly held, that it never occurs to you
to question them.”
Anthony de Mello, S.J., fr om  The W ay to Love
“Unhappiness is caused only by false beliefs about what Life really is.”
Peter Dziuban, fr om  Simply NoticeW e can also become very attach ed to our beliefs, even when they cause us
real stress and suf fering and imp rison us in misery . Our beliefs can keep us
poor , make us sick, fill us with fear , and damage or destroy our
relationships. They are really nothing to treasure or hold on to. Whatever circumstances are appearing in your life currently  are being
generated by your belief system in your subconscious mind. “By changing the beliefs we are holding, we can amend the experiences we
are having.”
David Bingham
“Many o f our ideas and beliefs about ourselves and the world are so deeply
ingrained that we are unaware that they are beliefs and take them, without
questioning, for the absolute truth.”
Rupert Spira, fr om  The T ransparency of Things
From the late Dr . David R. Hawkins:
“It i s oft en beneficial to look at some commonly held beliefs and let go of
them right in the beginning such as:
1. W e only des erve things through hard work, struggle, sacrifice, and
ef fort. 2. Suf fering is beneficial and good for us. 3. W e don’ t get anything for nothing. 4.
thegreatestsecretbyrhondabyrne-220221200112.txt
Summarize the following text section accurately and concisely. Maintain specific details and numerical information, and use anti-repetition mechanisms:

        They are the expression of joy and take us
back to joy, which is our true nature. Just enjoy them; be one with them. ”
Francis Lucille, fr om  The Perfume of SilencePositive and good feelings are a result of saying “Y es” to what is  happening in
life. Positive feelings come from “Y es, I want that,” “Y es, that would be nice,”
“Y es, that’ s good,” “Y es, I love this,” or “Y es, that sounds great. ”
There’ s not a p roblem with positive or good feelings. Happin ess and good
feelings, after all, come from A wareness. Bask in good feeling s, milk them,
and fall in love with them. Negative Feelings
Negative feelin gs are a result of you thinking or saying “No. ” about
something that’ s happening. Negative feelings come from “No, I don’ t want
this. ” It could be something hurtful a person said or did; someon e disagreeing
with you ; or a circumstance, big  or small, that didn’ t go the wa y you wanted,
such as having an ar gument; running late; a health issue; a relationship
breakup; mount ing debt; losing your phone; heavy traf fic; late deliveries;
items o ut of stock; the weat her too hot or too cold; issues with the
government; lat e or canceled fl ights; no parking spaces; or lon g lines at the
supermarket, bank, or airport. When you think or say, “No. I don’ t want this,” it immediately causes
resistance in you, and it’ s the resistance that produces the bad feelings. And
then, as if it isn’ t enough that w e resist a situation, we go ahead an d resist  the
bad feel ings as well. W e find ourselves feeling even worse, trapped in a web
of b ad feelings caused not act ually by anything happening in the outside
world, but by ou r own reactions. Our resistance to what is happening and our
negative feelings not only hold the situation we don’ t want firmly to us, but
also drain our body of ener gy and even impact our immune system. “Feeling sad about anything is h olding on to it. Say, ‘This is som ething I have
to let go of,’ and immediately you will feel better. ”
Lester Levenson, fr om  Happiness Is Free, volumes 1–5
Positive feelings  are completely ef fortless because they’re the true nature of
A wareness. W e are made of positive feelings; we are made of j oy, happiness,
and love. Negati ve feelings require a huge amount of ener gy to maintain, and
it’ s the reason w hy we’re exhausted if we lose it during the day. A bout of
negative emotion such as when we lose our temper will wipe u s out, because
it has taken so much ef fort and ener gy to build it up and sustain it. It takes
ef fort be cause it’ s not who we are; when we feel any negative fe elings, in that
moment we are fighting against who we are. “‘Me’ maintenance takes a lot of ener gy. ”
Peter Lawry
“It takes a lot of ener gy to be a person. It takes no ener gy to be yourself. ”
Mooji
“After you let go of enough ego, you naturally feel the peace an d joy of your
Self. ”
Lester Levenson, fr om  Happiness Is Free, volumes 1–5Positive, good feelings occur n aturally in the absence of neg ative feelings. Y ou don’ t have to make any ef fort to have positive feelings. All you have to
do i s let go of bad feelings, an d then you’ll naturally feel hap py and really
good. “Love is ef fortless, and hate requires much ef fort. ”
Lester Levenson, fr om  Happiness Is Free, volumes 1–5
Buried Feelings
“Much o f the emotional burden  you now carry began life as a  pushed-away
feeling. ”
Jan Frazier, fr om  The Freedom of Being
From the time w e were young children, we have unconsciously suppressed
countless bad feelings, which a re now stored in our subconscio us mind. The
bad feelings remain buried in th e subconscious mind, diminishi ng our ener gy
and our life. All of that ener gy  is trapped in the body, and it’ s this trapped
ener gy that plays havoc on the body’ s health and on the circumstances of our
life. Bad feel ings or negative feeling s are the only feelings we suppress and bury,
and so suppressed feelings and negative feelings are actually th e same thing. The anger that y ou feel when yo u get angry is the very same suppressed anger
coming from deep inside you. In addition, suppressed negative feelings have many negative thoughts
attached to them, which are th e thoughts that made us feel bad in the first
place as well as all the thoughts we’ve had ever since tha t are connected to the
negative feeling. The thoughts that are attached to the suppre ssed negative
feeling keep us trapped in the  mind by continually recycling themselves,
detrimentally af fecting our life and preventing us from realizing our true self. Babies and children under abou t three years of age don’ t suppress emotions
because they’re naturally living in their true nature of A ware ness, so they
automatically le t go of emotio ns. It’ s the reason why you see babies and
toddlers go from tears to smiles  and laughter in seconds; they don’ t resist any
emotion. “By the time we  are labeled adu lts, we are so good at suppressing that most of
the time it is totally second nature. W e become as good or better at
suppressing as we originally were at letting go. In fact, we have suppressed so
much of  our emotional ener gy th at we are all a little like walkin g time bombs. Often, w e don’ t even know th at we have suppressed our true emotional
reactions until it is too late: our  body shows signs of stress-rel ated illnesses,
our shou lders are stuck in our ears, our stomach is in knots, or we have
exploded and said or done something that we now regret. ”
Hale Dwoskin, fr om  The Sedona Method
When yo u have a negative experience that causes bad feelings, unless you let
go of the bad feeling compl etely, it ends up being pushe d down andsuppressed inside you. Even when you might think that you got something of f your chest, or that the
situation that upset you was resolved, unless you specifically let go of the
negative feeling, it will remain with you, suppressed in your subconscious
mind. “The expression of negative feelings allows just enough of the inner pressure
to be let out so that the remainder can then be suppressed. T his is a very
important point to understand, for many people in society toda y believe that
expressing their feelings frees them from the feelings. The facts are to the
contrary. ”
Dr. David R. Hawkins, fr om  Letting Go
So, letti ng of f steam or ventin g isn’ t the answer. That will just add more
ener gy to our already suppressed emotion, because expressed feelings get
suppressed too. Sometimes we also deliberately  repress our bad feelings, and they also are
pushed down into the subcons cious. W e deliberately repress our emotions
when we push aside feelings that make us uncomfortable, like grief and
sadness, or when we stifle feelings like anger. “Suppression is keeping a lid on our emotions, pushing them  back down,
denying them, repressing them  and pretending that they don ’ t exist. Any
emotion that comes into awaren ess that is not let go of is automatically stored
in a part of our mind called the subconscious. A big part of how we suppress
our emotions is by escaping them. ”
Hale Dwoskin, fr om  The Sedona Method
Imagine you have a disappointin g experience with a family member or friend. Y our opinion is that the person let you down, and you’re di sappointed in
them. That feeling of disappoin tment remains suppressed withi n you, and the
pressure of the trapped emotional ener gy builds up until some of it has to be
released. The suppressed disapp ointment has to find an outlet to take some
pressure of f the body, so it will find people, circumstances, or e vents that will
disappoint you, enabling some  of its built-up ener gy to be released. This
applies to every negative feelin g that you have ever suppressed, and most of
us have suppres sed the whole gamut of negative feelings. If you’ve felt it,
you’ve suppressed it. If y ou ever fe el annoyed, then you know that annoyance  was already
suppressed inside you. If you didn’ t have it suppressed inside you already, you
wouldn’ t be able to feel annoyed about anything. So, any time you feel
annoyed it’ s the original annoya nce that you felt and suppressed  that’ s coming
out. And it’ s th e case with ev ery negative feeling, whether that be anger,
frustration, irritation, revenge, hate, depression, grief, despair, jealousy, guilt,
shame, impatience, disillusionment, disappointment, aggravation, or being
overwhelmed. U nfortunately, we suppressed many negative feelings as
children because in our innocence they were too hurtful for us to handle, and
then as life went on, it became a habit to push our feelings aw ay instead ofletting them be. So, we’ve likely all had a lifetime of s uppressing or
repressing bad feelings. Y our mind will c over up the true  cause of a bad feeling by using projection to
convince you that your feeling was caused by something in the world. “[The mind] blames events or other people for ‘causing’ a feeling and views
itself as  the helpless innocent victim of external causes. ‘Th ey made me
angry,’ ‘He got me upset,’ ‘It scared me,’ ‘W orld events are the cause of my
anxiety. ’ Actually, it’ s the exact opposite. The suppressed and repressed
feelings seek an outlet and utili ze the events as triggers and excuses to vent
themselves. W e  are like pressure-cookers ready to release steam when the
opportunity aris es. Our triggers are set and ready to go of f. In psychiatry this
mechanism is called displacem ent. It is because we are angry that events
‘make’ us angry.
Negative feelings are a result of resisting or saying "No!" to something that is happening in life.
According to the text, what is the source of negative feelings?
Welcoming (welcoming is the opposite of resisting)
What is the opposite of resistance, according to the text?
The belief that we are a separate person.
What is the author saying is the root cause of all the suffering in the world?
Welcoming and staying as Awareness (awareness)
What is the author suggesting is the key to dissolving negative feelings?
Our thoughts create our feelings.
According to the text, what is the relationship between our thoughts and feelings?