Responding to psychic greeting

[Ali Quadir]

Ali, the horse and fish hook analogies are very helpful to me. Thank you so much! It really helps me learn when I can visualize a storyline. If I can get a start at a picture, sometimes my imagination can give me an instant summary of the rest of the story.

Same here. I visualize the human being as a human riding an animal guided by an angel. We really are three fold. Think of them as you think of your mind and body, they are literally part of you.

I like your suggestion that I can think of the unconscious emotional reaction as like a horse that gets spooked. Instead of getting spooked, the horse needs to learn that it is safe now. Then it won't flee but will be ready to ride. I think of talking kindly to the scared, startled animal, until it finds calm and peace in the moment. Then I think of talking to the scared, startled part of myself with that same gentle kindness and patience.

It helps, but in my experience that creature isn't half as scared as you are a lot of the time. If you are pushed to your limits eventually it will burst out and set things "right".. You revert to your animal survival instinct and do things you consider to be almost impossible. This animal is pretty much raw power. But it needs a lot of guidance and is severely repressed in our society. I believe this is the origin of the werewolf and vampire fantasies. The beast within, raw power balanced only by a thin layer of civilized humanity. It's what happens if you don't fully repress the animal within and don't learn to live as one with it either.

Since I don't have much experience with horses I can also think of how Ceser Milan calms upset dogs. This picture of loving kindness almost brings tears of joy and relief. It is sure a lot easier than trying to pull harder at the rope while the horse digs in its feet, afraid it's being taken back to the scene of an old injury.

Thinking of a giant with the mind of a child also helps

I also like the fish hook metaphor.

This one is actually from the behavioral psychologists. The basic idea is that there's a reinforcing cycle. Starting with a stimulus (fish hook), leading to a response (Your behavior) and then being reinforced by the outcome of your behavior. We originally just bite at whatever hook comes in front of us. It's really a continuing effort to not bite. It's not hard to not bite, but you have to remain aware, forget your intent for a moment and chomp!