Translate a reaction back to its original form

Use the book's translation chart to turn a third-person reaction, like "nobody likes me", back into the first-person impulse it may hide.

Perché funziona

Integral Life Practice's Shadow chapter includes a chart (Figure 4.1) of secondary reactions paired with the first-person forms they can come from. The chart's pairs include feeling that nobody likes me alongside "I reject them", "I have to" alongside "I want to", and "I can't" alongside "I won't". The idea is that a disowned impulse comes back as something that seems to happen to you; translating it back puts the impulse where it started, in the first person, where you can work with it.

Come farlo

1. Notice a reaction that seems to come from outside you: pressure, guilt, "nobody likes me", "I have to", "I can't".
2. Write it down in the words you would use, then write the first-person form it might be translating: "I reject them", "I want to", "I won't".
3. Say the first-person version out loud and notice whether it fits, partly fits or does not fit at all.
4. If it fits, take the first-person version through the face, talk and be steps; if it does not, let it go.

Prove scientifiche

The translation chart is Figure 4.1 in Integral Life Practice's Shadow chapter, presented as a reference guide for translating a third-person reaction back into its original first-person form. It is a practitioner heuristic; the pairings have not been tested. (anecdotal)

The chart lists common patterns, not rules. Many feelings of guilt, pressure or rejection are accurate readings of a real situation; use the translation as a question, never as a way to dismiss what you feel.

Fonti

• Wilber, K., Patten, T., Leonard, A., & Morelli, M. (2008). Integral Life Practice: A 21st-Century Blueprint for Physical Health, Emotional Balance, Mental Clarity, and Spiritual Awakening. Integral Books.

Errore comune

Applying the chart to someone else ("you are not anxious, you are excited"). It is a tool for checking your own reactions, and only you can tell whether a translation fits.