All emotional responses are the effect of the ninety percent enacted by conditioned reactions and responses. For optimum growth, the ten percent must be able to understand what is occurring and confront it and upgrade where needed. One method of self confrontation is ‘The Intervention Gesture’, which is touching the tips of all four fingers with the thumb, with the fingers pointing upward. Note: it is necessary to look at the hand while doing the gesture so that the unconscious processes with recognize the importance of the occurrence. This gesture is the pause button for the mental program that is running. This gesture is used to interrupt the flow of habit pattern emotions and reactions. Doing the intervention gesture is a technique you can use to discover how and when you adopted your automatic, habitual emotional responses, which are activated by your survival instinct. When you recognize that you are having an emotional reaction, make the intervention gesture. While looking at your hand, say to yourself “why am I feeling like this?” Into your mind will appear an answer. At first, you may only be able to get back just the situation of the moment. The message may be “She said that.” After some practice with this method, you will be able to take it one level farther and get what was really meant or implied by the statement “She” made. After more practice you can get to the real deal. She said that and implied this and it caused me to feel inadequate, or ineffective, or offended or disappointed. That third level is the real reason you are reacting. The feeling connected to that experience is what triggered your emotional response. At this point you would open you hand and, while looking at you palm, say “Where did I learn this behavior?” This is the discovery gesture. Take the first impression that comes to your mind. It is quite interesting how far back you will go in your life, getting to the initial experience that created the reaction prototype and formed all subsequent reactions to similar conditions. When you begin to use these gestures, you will see how much your family helped form who you are today. So, now that you can see why you are reacting and where and when you learned that tactic, it is time to use the upgrade gesture. The upgrade gesture is touching your index or pointing finger to your thumb about eye level in front of you. The first statement is “That was then.” Now move the hand in a small arc to one side or the other, it doesn’t matter which. As you complete the arc, say aloud “This is now.” Then, moving the hand a little farther, with a flicking of your fingers, as if flipping off some water, you say “And everything has changed.” By looking at your hand when doing the gestures, and saying the words aloud, you activate the portion of your mind that processes important input.
If we can think about things that are painful to us without judgment, such as right or wrong or good or bad, they lose their power to be painful. If your holistic self is in accord with your motives and methods as well as your goals, then you are operating at full strength in the greater part of life. Looking at the impressions we feel and circumstances we create, with complete self honestly, can be very difficult and yet very rewarding. The benefit of encountering yourself in a non-judgmental state allows you more access to your memories and the reasons why you do and feel the things you do. One method of doing self examination is to use double standards as the side door in. Look for places in your life where it is okay for you to do something but not okay for anyone else. Why is that okay for you?? Complete self honesty is necessary.
