Today we introduce a new category on the blog, Technique of the Month. This is a place to learn new techniques, to expand your awareness and generate change.
This month, we focus on the first step of the ”change formula” offered by Lazaris. It is a four-step process for taking responsibility for anything you want to change in your life. The steps are:
Recognize- an intellectual awareness of the situation… understanding, noticing, seeing, perceiving, the whole realm of insight and perception. (I see what I am doing.)
Acknowledge- feeling the impact of your emotions, behavior and choices, both the impact on you and on others (I feel what I am doing.)
Forgive - I love and forgive myself. I may not like what I am doing but I understand why I do it and I choose to forgive. I give myself the space to learn and to accept that I do have negative impact. Part of the process of being human and choosing to be physical includes the permission to learn and make mistakes, and to hold ourselves with compassionate understanding and forgiveness. (I accept and forgive what I am doing.)
Change- to take the action of implementing change, holding the focus on the change you choose to make and staying committed. This requires a willingness to be different and to courageously express more of your authentic self. (I do something different.)
This month, we invite you to work with step one: recognize. Choose something in your life that you wish to change. For this month, open your awareness to recognize everything you can about yourself in this area.
Recognize the thoughts you think. Recognize the attitudes you hold. Recognize the choices you make, the habits you have, the actions you take. Do not try to move beyond this first step. However; as you genuinely spend time on recognition, you may find Step Two beginning to happen naturally. You may find yourself feeling a range of things about what you recognize. Simply recognize the emotions as they come up. Give yourself the time to slow things down and stay with the step of recognize for whatever duration is right for you– a few days, a week, or the whole month. There is power in the simple act of recognition.
You may find yourself already beginning to create change out of the act of recognition alone. Next month we will focus on the step of Acknowledgment.