I’ve been contemplating how to work with distortions, attachments etc. Especially when either its not obvious what the distortion is (and how to approach it), or when it feels very ‘deep’ or subtle.

It seems to be that a big step is to acknowledge and allow that they’re there. For one thing it may not always be obvious when they’re being engaged, especially if they’re quite deep/ingrained. It seems a (sometimes) effective way of noticing them is to bring more awareness to being the observer of ourselves, actions etc, and then notice if we’re getting ‘tight’ or tense or not feeling centred. Then we can look to see why. It seems usually its because there’s some kind of distortion, attachment etc in play. Even if the stimulus seems to be from ‘outside’ of us, we wouldn’t be getting tight if there wasn’t a distortion or similar leading to identifying with the situation. Sometimes it can feel very subtle.

So even if we don’t know what the distortion is, we might be aware that its there.

Then the question arises how to work with them authentitically. We may feel to look more closely at it, or it may not feel the right time to do that.

One thing that’s come to me recently is that these things are not separate from me, or us. They are a part of us. and they’re there to show us something that’s hidden. In feeling this more clearly I feel there’s actually a possibility of really accepting them. And it feels to me that’s a really big part of resolving them. If we look to deny, label or control them as soon as we see them it feels like there’s the possibility that we’re just denying, controlling and labelling ourselves. If we can observe them honestly, and accept them as a part of us, then they have less hold already. We’re not fighting ourselves.

Then we can look at what the mirror's showing us, and how we feel to be in that...