This correspondence is adapted from an exchange I had recently with a student of the Sacred Attention Therapy Online Training Course Level 1, called Sonia. Character Strategies and the Central Character Dynamic are two of the seven core elements in the training that is aimed at dismantling the early childhood defenses and strategies for self-protection.

Dear Richard

I started to dive into the Character Strategies and it helped me a lot to identify and understand what is going on inside me. However, I don't see or understand what is the way to go beyond them? What can I do to get in touch with my needs and emotions, for example? How can I get from the 'I can't' to the 'I can'?

Dear Sonia

Although a simple awareness of any of the seven core elements in SAT may result in changes, the presiding principle for transformation is awareness... and deepening awareness of them all. As a sincere seeker after transformation you must bear the character defenses until your Central Character Dynamic appears. This is the point of lasting change or choice, because the Central Character Dynamic brings you to the axis of your defensive strategies. This is when you become empowered to get from ‘I can't’ to ‘I can.’

Dear Richard

Thank you for the answer. Right now it feels very difficult to bear. Now that I see that it is everywhere, I just don't want it to be present anymore... the little girl in me was hoping for a magic trick. And to just to check -- revealing the Central Character Dynamic is not something I can decide and then do? I have to be patient that it will be revealed when it is time? Can you give me something to hold on?

Dear Sonia

More than anything I would ask you to consider this: the business of transcending the contracting ego-forces based on early childhood conditioning takes great courage and consistent effort. It is unusual to even hear about this truth, let alone act on it. This means that out of seven and a half billion people on the planet you are among the rare ones who just may transcend your conditioned self and in time -- who knows? -- go even further in realizing yourself as a human being... and later perhaps as a spiritual-Divine being. For this situation you should cultivate humility and gratitude. These are most important. Once you practice these -- humility and gratitude -- you can hand over the progress to the Divine.

Dear Richard

Thank you very much for these words. I do hear them! I’m considering them... on every level.

I wrote to you, because I reached a point where I felt it to be very painful to experience and be aware of how much I’m restricted by my patterns, how all my decisions are rooted in them, even those ones I considered were truly mine -- it is literally painful. And I can't bear pain too much; there is an immediate 'flight response’ to it, hence my desperate question, if there is hope for ending it. Also, the more I’m aware, the more I see it in others who are not aware at all and it increases my feeling of loneliness. But I will look at it as you said. It is just hard and I needed to express it. I can feel humility, I'm familiar with it, but I tend to forget and need the reminder from time to time. Gratitude I need much more practice with. Thank you for your help.

(For information about the Sacred Attention Therapy Online Training Course Level 1 see http://www.sacredattentiontherapy.com/SAT-Online-Training-Level-1.html)

BLOG entry #55