***Avoid = Avoiding

Think about an Attachment and we may experience a nice warm-fuzzy feeling. We are of course attached to our family, our homes, our relationships, money, our beautiful stuff, and so forth. Think about an Aversion and what happens – instantly we are facing some resistance. If you are paying attention you’ll instantly notice a clutch indicating that there is something needing our attention. Larry Crane and the staff refer to “the clutch” as a pocket of negativity, ringing like a doorbell to get our attention. Congratulations for noticing the clutch on both the attachment/aversion sides of your topic!

By releasing, we know that we have both Attachments and Aversions to the same topics. We love our spouses, children, parents, and yet sometimes we would like to be separate from them. Perhaps that is why parents enthusiastically look forward to the first day of school. We love our homes, although resist yard work or cleaning out the gutters especially when we could be doing other things. Many of us have experienced resistance when we think about our jobs which may be a reason why we complain about our boss or co-workers, the rate of pay, the benefits, and what so-and-so did. Hmmm… By examining our resistance and looking at those topics that we haven’t gotten to is showing us exactly where we are holding onto unnecessary resistance. Whatever caused you to clutch is something coming up to be released. When we move up into courageousness and admit to ourselves that NOW is the perfect time to work on family matters, certain relationships, our employment, we are moving towards positive and higher levels of freedom. Any time we avoid working on an “off-limit” topic, we are allowing our ego to keep us wanting which keeps us miserable. Making the decision to avoid something is choosing resistance over being free. Let’s face it, avoidance is a decision. So in a single moment, our egos convinced us to limit ourselves all because we chose to avoid something more than we chose FREEDOM.

Right now check and see if there is some subject that you have avoided working on. Let’s see if relationships are a concern or maybe the economy has you tied up in knots. Perhaps speaking with your boss about a raise may cause you to have a clutch. Maybe you have avoided working on quitting smoking or some other bad habit. If you believe that something should be avoided, it’s only because of fear and resistance. Maybe there are a couple of folks in your life that there is no way you’re ever going to work on because of what they did to you. Well the good news is that’s the stuff that is keeping you from going totally FREE. The time to work on these “off-limit” subjects is NOW! Why wait? There is no advantage to putting off releasing on these topics. Eventually you’re going to have to face these “off-limit” subjects if you truly want freedom more than anything else.

When we avoid releasing on certain topics it’s because we don’t want to take responsibility for those unpleasant memories. By electing to work on our Attachments and Aversions on any subject, we are deciding “I’m the Boss! I’m in Charge! I can overcome these obstacles!” By cleaning things up on both sides of these stories, we are gaining freedom and mastery over that limitation. A great suggestion is to work on your #1 concern at an upcoming workshop or retreat. Plan to have an intention to work on your “off-limit” subject, no matter what. Plan to have a positive resolution for the situation for the highest good of all.

We’d like to forget that we are the story writers who put in the limitations and are pretending that someone did these terrible things to us. Remember, each time we blame another for how we feel, we are empowering our ego. By avoiding, we are not releasing. In learning to release, we also have the skills and tools available to work on these difficult subjects.

Whenever we work on our aversion topics and those opposing us, we are taking responsibility for what we created. We are aligning ourselves in Beingness. We are letting go of protecting ourselves with fear. Why do we avoid certain subjects? Simply… it’s because we have a FEAR and LOTS of it. Our fear, and perhaps our pride, is what are stopping us from working on these difficult subjects. Take a moment and notice that your ego is REALLY uncomfortable just thinking about your “off-limit” subject topics. If we choose to be loving and positive, we can help these uncomfortable feelings to leave. Welcome ALL feelings!

Each time we avoid working on subjects that we deemed “OFF-LIMITS”, is because we are resisting and trying to escape. By avoiding dealing with aversion topics is doing things the hard way. Remember, “How we do anything, is how we do everything!” By letting go of avoidance, we are strengthening our ability to release and also removing some of the hold that our ego has over us. Moving past our aversion topics is a decision. By making the decision to work on your “off-limit” topics will certainly help you to get unstuck and gain confidence in all areas of your life. Avoiding creates a void. Releasing creates results and helps us to move forward.