People whose lives seem to be emotional roller coasters tend to see al-
most all of their experiences from the associated position. In contrast, peo-
ple who are detached and without emotion tend to see most events from a
dissociated position. Nobody’s life is perfect. Use this simple method of
choosing the appropriate perception (associated for pleasant events and
dissociated for unpleasant ones), so that life is as enjoyable as possible
and so that you are freed from the negative past events that might prevent
effective action.From Struggle to Flow
Helplessness leads to power! This statement sounds ridiculous to
most people the first time they hear it because it does not conform
to the traditional intellectual logic or analytical thinking that we
learned in school and use every day. Nevertheless, it is highly logi-
cal in the emotional sense, as you will soon discover.
What would it be worth to you to give up struggle? How much of
your creative energy might you be wasting now on struggle?
In the 1980s, I (PL) lived in San Francisco. One New Year’s Eve,
I was pondering my choice of a resolution. I wanted to avoid the
usual ones we make and pick something that would truly make a
difference for me. After discarding a list of things I could do, I be-
gan to think about this differently, considering instead “What could
I give up?”
From the recesses of my mind came the answer, “struggle” loud
and clear. Immediately I noticed strong ambivalent feelings associ-
ated with the possibility of such an outcome.
“My life would be much better without it.”
“Will this turn out to be more struggle?”
These were just a few of the emotionally charged thoughts that
raced by.
I knew I had never done this or anything like it before. My previ-
ous goals had involved accomplishing something or getting some-
thing. Never before had I intentionally given up something. This
project would require a method different and more dramatic from
anything I had used in the past to accomplish goals related to gain-
ing something. I knew I required a method to alert my awareness as
fully as possible whenever struggle occurred. Here is the method I
decided on: Whenever I notice that I am struggling, I will lie down.
I thought this had a definite possibility of success, because it would
be virtually impossible for me to struggle while lying down.110 Stop Wasting Your Energy