The concept of a “treasure hunt”

[Vyana]

Yesterday I listened to a presentation which actually did resonate strongly with my own experiences of yoga and FST. What his lady said was basically and in short that we were born with what could be translated as unconditional love for ourselves and everything around us. Then there was great joy in life and we wanted to explore. But when we did, we made negative experiences. Such a negative experience made us separate a part of our self from the core and to create a third part of our selves to monitor and control that separated part. As a part of this process conditional love was born and we stopped loving our selves and everything around us totally and unconditionally. Instead we learned to live up to the perceived conditions for love. Eg, if a girl learned that she was loved when she was pretty (or nice, or helpful or whatever), she could live her whole life trying to be pretty (nice etc).

Such decisions we made when we were a little kid might even interfere severely with our life as an adult. This lady told us a story about another lady who run a very successful business, but still only lost money. She was just unable to handle money. During therapy she discovered that once when she was a little kid her grandmother had sent her to a shop to buy something, but she had lost the money. When she got back, her mother was visiting her grandmother and although her grandmother was not upset with the girl, the mother was very upset with the grandmother and barked at her for sending the girl to the shop all alone. That little girl then decided not ever to handle money again. Therefore she couldn't do that after growing up, until she had integrated this little girl and the part of her monitoring and controlling her behaviors when it came to money.

Now, this lady's advice is to go for a "treasure hunt" inside of us to integrate the parts of us that were separated from the center when we were little kids and thus regain the obvious joy in life, presence and spontaneity of the inner child, so that the trust, creativity and energy may once more go hand in hand in our adult life. In this process we invite the separated parts and listen to them to set them free and integrate them.

Now, this same process of getting up suppressed emotions has of course been described in so many ways by so many people and most of those descriptions are good and adequate. But what really applies to me here is the focus on the positive side. As I have always known all about how terrible I was (or rather thought I was) and almost all upcoming insights have been to the contrary, the concept of a shadow hiding ugly truths never resonated as adequate to me (rather it is terrifying, because if things were to be even worse than I thought they were – although they were not – they would be terrifying indeed). A treasure hunt is a much more adequate description of what yoga and FST has been like to me. The focus on the positive emotions and energy also makes the path easier and more joyful.

[Mystress]

  Yes, the ideas of that presentation are completely resonant with FST. 

  I'm surprised you did not see the positive side before.  The positive messages are all through FST, look for the silver linings, the gifts within the appearance of a problem. Give love to the shadow, so it reveals its hidden treasures which are insights into yourself. The shadow includes, not only the things you dislike about other people, but also the qualities you admire in other people, are a reflection of yourself.  The tendency to focus on the negative, is your own. 

  The important thing is, you found a perspective from which to move forward and let go of resistance.  Bravo! on with the treasure hunt!

  Blessings...