Latest / AWAKEN with Dylan Ayaloo: Inner Work, Healing, Yoga & Meditation / [EP71] How to catch a pattern before it takes over (and why it takes a few rounds to see it)

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[EP71] How to catch a pattern before it takes over (and why it takes a few rounds to see it) · AWAKEN with Dylan Ayaloo: Inner Work, Healing, Yoga & Meditation

• 0:00
  So when we are in the pattern, it's always harder to see it.
• 0:07
  And when it happens, you know, when it has happened a few times,
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  then there's a better chance of us seeing it because, you know,
• 0:16
  it's repeated itself and you start to see like, hang on,
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  this has happened before or I've been here before or this is, you know,
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  this feeling or this sensation or this, you know, repercussion,
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  seem to have come across this before so therefore we start to have some clues
• 0:34
  perhaps so then we can start to identify like okay seems like there's some kind
• 0:38
  of a pattern here so I think that's the first part of becoming aware of it so
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  the fact that you're actually asking the question shows that you already have
• 0:47
  some awareness of it and already able to I want to say see it right like be
• 0:54
  aware of it and track it so how do you become aware of it before it takes over
• 1:05
  I think the simple answer which I don't think it's that simple but I'll give the simple answer
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  the simple answer is to start to pay attention and the more we are able to pay attention which
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  is what you know practices like meditation teach us the better the chance we have right like the
• 1:24
  to pay attention no matter which chance we have to realize it to see it to see it in effect you
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  know like it taking its course but I think that's you know probably too simple an answer or at least
• 1:41
  for me it might be unfortunately I think you know sometimes we have to go through it several times
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  you know sometimes like we just have to go through it several times before we can start to see it
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  okay it's starting to show up you can start to see it um you know so that means like you have
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  a bit more of an awareness of it the first time maybe we are really unaware the second time
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  you know it's like hang on i feel like i've been here before and then it's like third fourth you
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  know more times this has actually happened several times now and you can start to you know track more
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  of it so I think unfortunately you know unless we have really heightened a
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  level of awareness it's really hard to see and catch the pattern before it
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  starts to let's say take over right like and run the show run our lives so
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  unfortunately I think the answer is like you just have to go through it several
• 2:46
  times for most of us and when you start to see certain patterns like like you're saying here
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  about your back right like okay so there's certain clues there's certain things that happen
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  every time right so physically or maybe emotionally or maybe situation right like
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  there's a certain response that we get from the people around us who are involved in that
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  dynamic, that pattern, that round.
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  Or maybe consistently we get a certain response or reaction
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  from a person or people. So therefore there's these
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  clues for us to track it and start to realize that hang on
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  this has happened more than once and what's actually going on here.
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  Then as you start to pay attention to it
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  I think it starts from more a surface level awareness
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  all of us and then we start to go deeper and start to explore like okay what is actually
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  in play here what is actually going on right like what's running what's underneath it
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  um and so that's more from like surface down i'm going under there under that and starting to look
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  at the layers underneath it i think the other answer is like you know if you've been doing
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  the kind of work that we do the practices that we do um then you start to have some awareness of
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  the story, the narrative that is running, right?
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  Like in the mind and really running our lives.
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  And most of the time,
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  almost everything is just another variation,
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  like a clever variation I find anyway in my life.
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  It's just another clever variation of the same story
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  or the core story,
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  the narrative that's been running itself in my life.
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  But the mind has come up with a clever version.
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  So it looks different or it feels different.
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  or maybe it's just like another layer of it like a deeper layer of it or a variation of it so either
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  way it is more awareness work like it's more paying attention to whatever let's say clues we
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  have so emotions you know and the minds and the the the you know the the conversation that the
• 5:05
  mind is having around it and i'm not just talking about the noise it makes but underneath it you
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  fundamentally when like talking about story work it's in it's in the language
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  of normally like a young innocent child you know which is a lot of times we can
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  trace it back in our timeline in our story work as somewhere in our earlier
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  years so that generally the language around it when we go deep enough it
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  comes down to that you know I am there so I'm not this or I'm not enough or I'm
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  not level you know like that kind of language very simple language not too clever like adult
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  complex language if we pay enough attention it comes down to that and therefore you know we
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  are hitting kind of um i just had a visual of a like a tooth right like the the the nerve we're
• 5:59
  hitting the nerve we're getting down to the depth of it so then it's like oh okay there's something
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  here that's like a jolt.
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  You know, some kind of emotion.
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  Maybe there's some kind of sensation.
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  Like, you know, you're talking about your back.
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  And so therefore, you're onto something
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  because there's some emotional charge.
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  There's some energy there underneath it.
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  So I think these are all clues of
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  like when I'm actually getting to,
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  like getting somewhere with the story.
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  Like, you know, I speak for myself.
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  And these are all practices of, you know,
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  getting underneath it, becoming more aware of it.
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  And sometimes, you know, the answer is just that
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  there's no insurance policy, you know,
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  in having so much awareness that we don't actually hit the pattern.
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  A lot of times, for most of us, I think we are mortals,
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  we hit the patterns and then we hit it more than once or several times.
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  And then we just get more skilled at noticing the patterns before we hit it.
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  So whether it's in the body, whether it's in our emotions, you know, most of the time, like it's internal, you know, or whether it's like the narrative, the voice in the head, or maybe it starts external and then starts like we start to have more of an awareness of internal landscape and what's going on.
• 7:18
  So therefore, we can track it better, you know, like we are able to see it or catch it before, let's say, it catches you, like the story is running your life and you find yourself in a pattern and you're like, well, how do I get here?
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  how do you become conscious of that before it takes over?
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  I want to equate it to something like,
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  something that we can relate to,
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  which is, let's say like in a yoga pose,
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  I think the level of awareness
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  becomes developed around the pattern.
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  So our ability to become aware of it.
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  So therefore, like in a yoga pose,
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  you do it enough times.
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  and if something doesn't feel right,
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  like the knees,
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  there's this electric kind of sensation
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  or the back,
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  there's something there
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  that there's almost like a warning
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  or like a pre-warning
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  that the body gives.
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  So the body is a bit more tangible that way.
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  But with the patterns,
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  like this stuff that's running our lives,
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  it's kind of like that in a way as well.
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  We just get more skilled at picking up.
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  Like, okay,
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  I think I can guess where this is going.
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  Because I've gone down this path several times.
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  So therefore, not getting paranoid about it and just, you know, like assuming that is what it is.
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  But starting to become aware and starting to pay attention to the point of like, okay, let me start to notice this.
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  Let me start to, you know, watch this pattern as it's starting to unravel itself and show itself.
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  And even if it's cleverer and showing you a different variation of it, you start to go underneath it.
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  It's the same structure, it's the same kind of pattern.
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  So we get better at tracking it,
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  which is kind of what you're asking.
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  So I think, yeah, the short answer,
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  which sounds like I'm cheating with the answer
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  is to pay more attention.
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  And as we get better at paying attention,
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  we're able to become aware, let's say earlier and earlier,
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  so that we can almost not predict it,
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  but preempt it before it starts to play out.
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  You know, it's like, oh, there's step one,
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  or like step minus three, minus two, minus one.
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  Oh, we're getting to zero.
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  Oh, we're getting to one.
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  And it's like, okay, now the pattern's starting to unravel.
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  And I've been through it several times now.
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  You know, even though it looks different on the outside,
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  the inside, the structure of it seems to be the same.
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  It seems to be the same steps.
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  You know, it's unraveling itself.
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  So therefore, let me start to like interrupt it.
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  when you start to pause, take a breath, you know, switch
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  on a physical level there, you know, we switch.
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  But the breaking free from the story,
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  and I think this is the essence of liberation of the mind
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  or enlightenment, is not that the mind doesn't have thoughts,
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  you know, and that we are free from thinking.
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  thinking is going to happen thoughts are going to be there this machine the thinking machine is
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  going to produce thoughts right it's going to do thinking but it's our relationship to thinking
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  it's our relationship to the thoughts that that can shift so even in meditation for example
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  the mind is doing this thing called thinking but it's almost like just the voice
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  that you know very very close and like we're in it can feel i want to say disassociated but i'm
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  it's just that it feels more distant and you know eventually the voice can feel like it's in another
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  room the voice of the mind so therefore our relationship to it it goes from one off completely
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  immersed in it and it's running your life to oh i can see this thing you know i am the awareness
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  that can witness this thing this thought this pattern so as we start to pay attention as we
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  start to develop our awareness um we get better at tracking it and also we get better at
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  say interrupt like preempting it and interrupting the pattern and then you know being free from it
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  so you can see it and you can breathe free from it and therefore you can make different choices
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  it's not got a grip on you and it doesn't feel like you have no choice like you're just going
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  to have to go down that path again right like the freedom the liberation i think and you know the
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  the they call enlightenment is like is this the shift in the relationship with thinking
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  from that the free freedom from that is that okay i can see it but i'm i can now i've got enough
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  space now to choose differently and go down a different path you know and that's i think that's
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  the essence of transformation and i think that's what in the spiritual text you know like the
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  greats are trying to teach us you know and pass down um to us as well so that's what i would
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  suggests and I mean it's really not that different to what I've said before it's just put in context
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  in like what we're talking you know you've you've asked here in your question so you've already got
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  the awareness of it you can see the pattern it's clear you know it's happened before you've gone
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  through it before whenever this particular challenge comes into my life I seem to lose
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  myself in it so you have an awareness that you lose yourself in it and but you know like you
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  This is where like you're immersed in it,
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  you know, like you jump in the river
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  and like you're drowning, you can see yourself drowning
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  or being submerged, right, under the current, the waves.
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  And you're like, what do I do about it?
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  So you're starting to develop that awareness.
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  And you also have the awareness of like, okay,
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  but every time it happens, I get submerged, right?
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  So in the submerging of it is what you're saying here,
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  you carry the weight of it, and then you crumble under it.
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  And then the body just reflects that.
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  So what's been going on in your back,
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  like just reflects that, you know,
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  in any other area of the body it's the same patterns it's going to keep coming back so you
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  can address it on a physical level you can address it on an emotional level you can address it on an
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  energetic level you can address it on a mind's level like thoughts right like story level so
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  you can go at it in any one of these levels or multiple levels and it's all going to give you
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  some uh freedom from it like a breakthrough from it um and therefore you know like you you're going
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  to get more and more awareness and more skill that actually navigating this and not jumping
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  in next time or you didn't even choose to jump in but you just find yourself in it and
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  you're like well shit how did this happen um so then making different choices that's
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  how you interrupt you know and i think so awareness is one part and then like interrupting
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  the pattern so that you don't you know you don't find yourself immersed in it again um
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  and then making different choices and i think that's where the breakthrough is when we are
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  enough space between you and the thoughtless story and that you're able to choose differently
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  and act you know make different choices act differently so therefore you get a different
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  result and it doesn't run you anymore