05/23/2022
AAIT Principle #4: Resolving reactivity can reveal higher states of consciousness
People often start therapy because they are having strong painful emotional reactions such as attacks of anger or anxiety that feel out of control. Sometimes the reactions occur during a typical time or from a typical trigger; for instance, parents who are stressed about getting to work on time and trying to get everyone out the door to school might find themselves regularly yelling at their kids in the mornings.
I ask about these reactive emotional situations early in my work with clients so that the client can work on integrating them. I’ll ask for a specific example of a moment the anger was triggered, and get details on the thoughts, mental images, emotions and body sensations that occurred in that particular moment. I will then direct the client’s attention to these thoughts and sensations, inviting them to reoccur right there in the therapy session. As the client allows her/himself to re-experience the moment, accepting the feelings, I will direct the client to lightly press on several meridian points around the eyes, and continue to direct the attention to the breath and to the emotion and the ways in which it either dissolves or evolves into something else. There is often an experience of diving down into the emotions, and other times an experience of moving up and out. Either way, the reactive emotional knot is loosened and unwound, creating a sense of internal spaciousness. The emotions fade. Sometimes there is also insight into older, related issues. At other times there is simply a sense of relaxation.
Clients have reported to me that once they engage in these practices, their reactivity to the previously-triggering event reduces and often vanishes. They realize they have a choice about how to respond. For instance, instead of automatic anger/stress at the kids taking too much time to get ready for school in the morning, the parent now experiences an inner spaciousness in response to this trigger in which h/she can choose to respond with something humorous, or a firm yet neutral reminder, or some other response that s/he feels good about. The reactivity, having been resolved, allows the presence of mind to make better choices about how to behave and what to do.
