Are our Patterns really Mental?

abuse aces addicition healing addiction recovery adverse childhood experiences allowing anxiety attachment trauma Dec 13, 2021

Most of our patterns are not mental

This is especially true with patterns that are frustrating, confusing, chaotic, painful or difficult for you to change (ahem…

t r a u m a)

There are mental COMPONENTS to patterns.

And indeed it helps to conceptualize them sometimes or to change our thinking about the pattern itself.

For example - if you have a pattern which you believe cannot change, it will help to slowly shift your idea to the possibility that it might or could potentially change.

But for the most part, our patterns live inside us in ways that are initially beyond our conscious control until we can get into the body to initiate an opening.

That’s why when you become aware of something it doesn’t immediately change.

Because there are physiological & biological (physical) as well as spiritual components to the patterns we carry with us - both good and bad.

When you’re wanting to change a pattern there are a couple things to look at:

1. How much do you know about the beginning of this pattern?

- for example, overeating

Did this begin at a young age, at a time of stress or joy, was this a family behaviour that you took on as your own etc etc.

The level of stress/pain/trauma that accompanies the behaviour will have a lot to do with how much the behaviour itself has been intertwined with other physical and spiritual processes within you.

2. What are the impulses surrounding the behaviour?

So, for example overeating - before you eat, during and after - what impulses arise? Is there a tuning out, a movement toward the kitchen, an image, a feeling inside, a body sensation, an inciting incident?

There’s lots more to this - but this can help you get started.

You can certainly shift things - very deeply and the shifts can be long lasting. But in order to do that - we have to start getting to the core (body, mind and spirit), otherwise it’s much harder and takes much longer, and doesn’t work as well.

Are our Patterns really Mental?

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