by Susan Meadowcroft
Oh, I’m not suggesting not to feel. I am questioning where the “good” comes from. When we say, “That feels good,” we are usually responding from a predetermined pattern of thought which we have put on automatic.
Somewhere deep inside we have our own model by which we interpret everything. This is what we use to measure reality. Every conversation, event, situation–every experience–is compared with our model to see where we are in agreement and where we are in disagreement.
And when we agree, well, we say it feels good. And we are happy. We respond by acting in accord with what we say feels good.
When we disagree, well, there is another experience that feels bad, and we feel angry, frustrated or sad—and we avoid that experience or react against it. And we suffer.
These automatic labels pop up. Good. Bad. Ugly. Awful. Wrong. Right. They appear to be just part of us. Whenever we are confronted with different situations, events, people, places, conditions, ideas, these fixed labels appear attached to the feelings we are feeling.
One person sees a rose bush, smiles and is drawn to touch the petals, explore the color, and the fragrance. Another sees: thorns, Japanese beetles—even worse. And runs to the other side of the street.
What is happening here? Interpretation of experience—that’s all.
Imagine this for a second: You are standing on a busy street corner and you are pushed from behind. What is your reaction? Fear, anger, annoyance—outrage even?
What if you turn around and you find the person who pushed you is visually impaired or blind? Then what? Does your feeling for the situation change?
What changed was not your experience, but your interpretation of the experience. Same situation. Different feeling. Now you may even feel bad about your reaction—and that’s good! Or is it?
What we are actually saying is that we are continually making comparisons—judgments —between our model and our experiences of the world. We compare everything, and then say we are doing this or that because it feels good. Well, it feels good only in that it is now in alignment with our judgments about a given situation. When those judgments are no longer deliberate we experience pre-judgment, commonly called prejudice.
Prejudice or pre-judgment is simply the act of deciding on judgments that were previously made and stored away. Stored in our own model. We decided, put them on automatic, covered over the painful incident. Then when a similar incident or event occurs, our automatic response is triggered—and WHAM!
We respond. We react. We feel good. We feel bad. And the cycle continues. Each time we add additional proof to support our viewpoint, and we become more and more fixed in this pre-judgment. Our pre-judgments accumulate, we add them to our model and we lose our freedom to decide. We lose our ability to experience—we become stuck, blame, suffer and deny.
Yet now you have the opportunity to notice your own self-programming. And once you notice your own self-programming you have the opportunity to erase it! To change it! That’s freeing! That’s living life deliberately!
That’s what Avatar delivers. Living deliberately. Living beyond interpretations of feeling good and bad. Living instead as you decide—in the moment. Free.
With Avatar you learn the skills to recognize past patterns and the skills to erase what is there that you prefer not to have and create what you prefer—as you decide. You experience life and yourself with power, clarity and a sense of wonder which is beyond words, beyond judgment, beyond pre-judgment. And in this space you truly feel.
Susan Meadowcroft, Pittsburg, PA
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