The Haunting Past
Regrets for what you did not do, and lamentations for what you did without emotional elegance, are unfinished business waiting for resolution in the domain of empowerment. But If you adhere to a model of merit as the only path to good fortune, then misdeeds become fuel for self-punishment. Alternatively, if you shift from disciple of pain to master of abundance, the helplessness of misdeeds from the past, can be transformed to empowering deeds in the present.
MindBody Alchemy Resolutions
When you distill regrets and lamentation, you will find they are grounded in one or more archetypal wounds: abandonment, shame, betrayal, against self or others.
The antidotes for archetypal wounds are: commitment for abandonment, honor for shame, and loyalty for betrayal.
1. Identify a regret or lamentation that has haunted you, and the archetypal wound that surfaces – replay the circumstances in your mind and observe how they manifest in your body as sensations and emotions.
2. Observe the process without attachment as if it were clouds passing your awareness.
3. Bring a memory of the corresponding antidote for your identified wound. For example, if the wound to self or others is shame, bring a memory of when you acted honorably in your life. It does not need to be related to the misdeed: simply – any time you acted honorably in your life.
4. Replay the circumstances in your mind and observe how they manifest in your body as sensations and emotions.
5. Observe the process with attachment as if it were clouds engulfing your awareness.
6. Resolve that every time a regret or lamentation from the past surfaces to haunt you with their archetypal wounds, you will transform them with the mindbody alchemy you learned here.
7. But since the brain needs evidence to change neuromaps of haunting memories, resolve to live in antidote consciousness as much as you can to transform punitive memories to healing guides. MindBody alchemy will elevate you to a mindfulness of emotional elegance. And what is emotional elegance? I use a German term to describe it: aus andstand – for decency – deeds, as acts of decency. *
*When Marlene Dietrich, famous german actress and singer, was asked why she risked her life to entertain US troops in the front lines during WW II, she simply responded: “Aus andstand.”
Mario Martinez
The Phoenix Self: In Search of Methuselah
(Book in progress)