Previous post/chapter in this series on fieldwork moving:
Well, after all that preparation, we’re ready for the preamble itself. Let’s take a look at an example of a complete, fully-articulated version first.
Whether you are delivering this framing for yourself or someone you’re facilitating, the “you” (including the implied “you” embedded in the “we” sprinkled throughout) is directed at the part of the self that is carrying out the moving process. It is the part of the self that represents the whole — more of a witness, an observer, or a director, for example — which will be interacting with the feeling state you’ve chosen to work with. If you’re working solo, this wording works fairly well even when directed at yourself. You can read it silently or out loud, or even record and play it for yourself if that seems helpful.
Prelimary Setup
Now we’re going to take a feeling that you’ve mapped and alter the virtual material properties as a way to transform the feeling itself. Return to your notes and drawing of the feeling state you mapped. Read through your notes and refresh your experience of the feeling state. If needed, intensify one or more of the parameters of the image in order to feel a visceral twinge from the tangible link between the properties you mapped and your feeling state.
Moving a feeling state is pretty straightforward but incredibly powerful. So before we start, make yourself comfortable. We want to set a few expectations for your experience before moving forward.
The Full Preamble
Before we begin, take a moment to confirm that you are holding this feeling state in your awareness, with all the qualities that were revealed in your mapping.
As we go through the moving process, this feeling state will change. The name you gave the state will no longer fit, and so we will be referring to “this part of you” as the feeling transforms. When we arrive at the new state, we’ll give that a new name.
As our next step, we want to make sure this part of you considers a few important frames as we get started. First, this part of you took on this current feeling state at some point in your life to serve you. At that time, this state was its best option to support your well-being. And even though it did not get the support it needed, it has persisted in trying to serve you in this way. We want to acknowledge this service, and to thank this part for its effort.
We also want to reassure this part of you that yes, we are going to move it today, and it will gain access to a new and very different feeling state. But at any time, from the moment after we finish through the rest of your life, if it ever needs to serve you in this same way again, it will be free to do so.
What that means is that it is safe to move the feeling state of this part. And because it is safe to move, we want to invite this part to really go for it. What could this part of you become in a perfect world, where all your needs are met, fully and completely, exactly the way you want them to be, and you know how to keep them that way? What could this part feel instead?
Now, this exploration today is hypothetical. We acknowledge that the perfect world may not exist, and it may not be appropriate for this ideal feeling state to stay active at all times. No. What we are going for is freedom, the freedom to respond to whatever shows up in life with sensitive awareness, to feel what is there to be felt while at the same time staying connected to this ideal state, so that this part’s response can serve you best. This is even more reason to really go for it as we explore moving this part.
Now, in mapping this current feeling state, you may have noticed other feeling states, other parts of you, connected to this one. Still more additional parts may make themselves known as we proceed. We want to acknowledge these other parts and invite them to participate in this process passively, as witnesses only, fully supporting this part of you in exploring the fullness of its ideal state, learning from this process what is possible for every part of you.
At the same time, if another part feels strongly that its needs are more important to be addressed, you may notice another feeling state coming strongly into the foreground. If that happens, we will pause, and decide whether to turn attention to that part instead.
Finally, in acknowledging the inter-relationship of this part with others, we also would like to affirm this part’s inherent wisdom about what is best for itself. Rather than bring in expectations or desires from other parts about what this part could or should become, we will trust that this part of you has its own compass, built into its own direct feeling experience. This compass points in the direction of what feels best, and in following it, we will support this part of you in tapping into its own deepest wisdom.
The Impact of Hearing This…
In almost every case of hearing this preamble before moving a feeling state, there is a softening of the part. It is hearing something that resonates with what it knows is true for itself, but which it has had to ignore because of the lack of support for this truth in the world it’s been inhabiting. Hearing this affirmation is healing in and of itself.
This is even more true after going through fieldwork and moving multiple states. Actually experiencing, vividly and tangibly, the truths of which the preamble speaks brings it even more alive as we enter each successive round of exploration.
Reminding ourselves of these key (re)frames usually helps the moving process go rather smoothly. The part goes smoothly through the process, winding up in a new state it most likely would not have predicted, and being quite pleased with its discovery as a result. Although we may emphasize over and over again that the part can always go back to its original state, once it discovers its ideal state, do you think it wants to? Usually not. It most likely will not remain fixed in the ideal state, but having been fully welcomed into and given the restorative medicine of your awareness, it is not likely to need to go back to the fully reactive state you started with. It will be free to express in feeling what is more true in the moment.
And the truth in this moment is quite likely to be more supportive of your thriving than the original conditions which led to the locking in of the reactive configuration of states. You are older and wiser. You have more resources and capacities available to you. You have better support available to you and more agency in accessing that support. And lots more. Enjoy that, and appreciate where you have arrived.
The Preamble in the Context of More Extensive Fieldwork
As you become more familiar with the preamble, and with fieldwork in general, you may begin to encounter parts / states that already “get it” and don’t need to hear the full script. Feel free to condense and simplify to the extent that seems appropriate for each state. Make sure, though, to leave open the possibility that even after you’ve become fully accustomed to this framework, some states you encounter will have been buried so deeply and for so long that they will still benefit from hearing the full version.
First, this part took on this feeling state form in order to serve you. You’re going to move this feeling state, but you can always put it back if that is what is needed. Therefore, it is safe to move.
Second, because it is safe to move, you might as well go for it. What could this part of you be in an absolutely perfect world, where all your needs are met, fully and completely?
Third, this part of you is connected to other parts. We invite these other parts of you to participate in this process passively, as witnesses only, learning from the process what is possible for all parts of you, all feeling states.
Also, there is a different longer version available in Volume 1, FO-2: Try It — Your First Time Through. You might read through that one to compare with this one and get a sense of how much flexibility is available to you in delivering this. Feel free to experiment to make it more your own while fully supporting your own or your explorer’s process. In the Substack post, that one also comes with an audio file of me delivering the whole process, so that could be helpful for other reasons as well.
Wrapping Up the Preamble, Looking Forward to the Questions
Well, we made it. Now that we’ve got the preamble handled, and we’ve looked at all that’s packed into it to get a sense of what we’re really up to here, we can move ahead to examine the moving questions themselves. Yes!
Another Example of What You Have to Look Forward To
To support your anticipation for what is to come in this adventure, I am offering before/after examples of feeling states my client Ruby gave me permission to share.
Guilt/Shame
Originally mapped as Guilt: About not practicing as much as I “Should.”
I feel guilty because I didn’t do all the things I was supposed to do, wasted time, etc. Feeds into Overwhelmed and Beating Myself Up.
In my stomach. Size of a canteloupe. Has a protective skin layer with a different substance inside. Kind of solid, but not impenetrable. The skin: rough and dark, brownish black; cold. The inside: more fleshy, dark red; warmer than body temp. The center: seeds of guilt that could be planted; seeds are orange. The weight of the object is pulling down on me. No sound/voice.
The top, the “vine,” goes up through the center of my body, up by my neck, all the way up and connects to the back of my head.
Related to Self Doubt: the vine could actually wrap around the rope. It actually could, instead of going up to the top of my head, be connected to the top, chest part of Self Doubt. Soft of feels like a question again, “Why do you keep doing this? Why are you not doing the things you need to be doing? You know these things are important. You’re wasting time.” etc.
Then, revisited a couple months later and mapped as Guilt/Shame: It’s weird because right now it feels like it’s something that’s wrapped around me and constricting me, from my neck to my knees. Practically solid, black slabs that you could imagine big huge tire inner tubes, some stretch to it, pulled pretty tight around me. Cold. Black, shiny. Sometimes they pull tighter. Sound: like a screeching, some kind of sound you would hear when material is being pulled, an unpleasant sound, not that loud. Like ripping tape off.
Just like the Sadness was a reaction from the Self-Doubt, this one seems to be a reaction to my lack of trust and confidence in myself (Untrusted Self, coming next week).
I think about the last two weeks and how these things have been coming up. It says, “You shouldn’t make decisions. I don’t want you to mess up. What if you make the wrong decision?”
The New Way
⟹ Warmer, 75 degrees; looser, lighter, softer, an energy cloud; silvery white, translucent, luminescent. I see this being connected to the Untrusted Self. Instead of constricting it, it wants to lift it up and help it. (Moved Untrusted Self.)
Wants to be doing something, moving around inside me; more like the Vibrancy Comet, shifting around inside the purple light of Inner Source. Moves within the whole space of the purple energy.
I saw it as a cloud I was standing in or on, but now it seems more connected to the Inner Source. Before it was restricting that source, now it’s helping it. In my body, moving all through the purple energy, rippling and spreading through the whole area. Sound of a breeze.
Similar to Inner Source. It wants me to remember to go to my source for my problems. And it wants to help the source be strong enough to provide answers or support. “You don’t have to live from the past any more. You get to create a new way of living your life.”
Next post/chapter in this series on fieldwork moving: (coming)
