Handout
We’ll start with the shortened version of The Eleven Stepper. Once again, if you have used the longer form of The Eleven Stepper and have been successful to some degree, now would be the time to use the shorter exercise with the same issue.
It goes like this: Close your eyes and feel the physical discomfort and remember one or two not working well thoughts. Invite Focker to Center. Begin to feel the release of the physical discomfort. Think a couple of Centered thoughts. Now rehearse the situation from Center. Then think or say, ‘I can do this’ and be confident that you can do it. Open your eyes.
Notice that before you can use the shortened form of the exercise that you must have a lot of information at your fingertips.
1. Remember not working well thoughts.
2. Feel the physical discomfort.
3. Invite Focker to Center.
4. Feel the release of physical discomfort.
5. Think a couple of Centered thoughts.
6. Rehearse the situation.
7. Believe you can do it.
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When you look at the shortened form on paper, it doesn’t look a lot shorter than the longer form. You are getting more accustomed to being Centered so you can just get Centered as opposed to going to Center and hanging out there and feeling what it’s like. The steps on the longer form take more time because when you first begin working with a situation, you’re trying to figure out what is the physical discomfort and what’s the content of Focker’s “not working well” thoughts. Then you are taking time to feel what it’s like to release the physical discomfort and on and on. Once you have all that information and you can quickly recall it, the long process can be made into a much shorter process.
When doing the shorter form, please pay particular attention to the physical discomfort. At Center with the aid of the deep breathing, there can be such a profound release of the physical symptoms and it’s important to experience that release.
I want you to break down in pairs and do the following. One person will pick a situation to work on. Go through The Eleven Stepper process and take your partner with you explaining out loud what you are doing. Remember, we did that last week. Once you have finished The Eleven Stepper, go through the shortened process with the same situation again, talking out loud so your partner can follow you. Look at the handout on the shortened form until you have it memorize. Repeat the short process two more times using the same situation. Then switch over.
(Following the exercise, group discussion)
With The Nine Stepper exercise, we have been working on reducing the intensity of traumatic memories. Again, one more time, I am encouraging each of you to stay with the exercise by the numbers. Once you believe you have become proficient in using The Nine Stepper and are having fewer issues with those memories, you can also do a shorter exercise to further help you let go.
In The Eleven Stepper, the shortened form was very similar to the long form with a few less steps. With The Nine Stepper, this is not the case. This one will be something a little different because in this exercise, you have graduated to the awareness that memories cannot exist at Center. There is no past or future at Center. There is only the now.