Week 4: Core Wounds & personal limitations
Homework: Week 4
Core Wounds & Patterns:
Take your time and answer each of the questions consciously and with deep authenticity;
Self Enquiry.
- What lesson(s) keep repeating in your life. (Note all that you can think of)
- What is your greatest fear and why? (again maybe more than one thing will come up, so note them all).
- What behaviours do you wish to adjust/have more emotional control over and why?
- How do others perceive you that isn’t authentic to who you really are? (e.g. I was always told I was ‘sporty’ and ‘not arty’, but as it transpires I just never had the opportunity to explore art.
- Do you emotionally eat? If so how does it make you feel and how does it transpire?
- Is there constant ‘issues’ with others (family, partner, boss etc)? If yes, who is the issues with and what issues are they? (write down for everyone applicable)
- Do you generally attract the same type of people in your life? If yes, who are they, in what capacity do you have a connection (friends, lovers etc) and how do those relationships transpire for you?
- Do you have any addictions? If so what are they and when did you feel like you lost ‘control’.
- Do you procrastinate? If yes, why.
- Are you disorganised? If yes, why
- Do you find it hard to complete tasks and follow through on commitments? If so, why.
- A genie enters your life and he grants you three wishes for you to change yourself. What do you ask for and why?
- Do you trust yourself? If no, why not.
Weekly Task: Week 4
Do this as often as you remember. You don’t have to self enquire as its happening (although you can!), but sometimes it is easier to ask oneself these questions at a quiet time perhaps in the evening.
1. Use your feelings as a starting point and ask ‘why’?
One powerful way of uncovering your core wound is by using any negative emotion you feel in the moment as an anchor to draw you down inside of yourself. You can then examine what you are feeling, when it began, and why you feel the way you do.
The key to this method is simply continuing to ask the question, “Why?” In other words, why do you feel A, why do you feel B, and why do you feel C? If you keep going with your inquiry, you’ll discover some kind of “I am” statement. And all core wounds start with the words “I am …”
This technique can be applied to countless feelings, and after a while, you might find a pattern emerging that will allow you to discover the main thread of your major or central core wound.
2. Somatic/Bodily Mindfulness
Make this a purposeful part of your day to feel into your body and become aware of any feelings that you have. I suggest setting and alarm for 3 times each day and quietly observing what you think and feel in each instance.
Somatic mindfulness is basically the practice of stopping throughout the day and scanning your body for tension and illness.
For example, if I felt my heart pounding and my hands sweating in the presence of other people I might like to examine this feeling in the present moment, or later after the feeling has left.
I might discover that my pounding heart and sweating hands were a result of my nervousness around others. I might go deeper and ask why I feel that way and discover that I’m scared of what other people think of me. Still, I might go deeper and ask why I am so scared of what they think, and discover one (or all) of the following core beliefs:
- “I am stupid”
- “I am unacceptable”
- “I am embarrassing/shameful”
You can also use the breath work in the healing session in week 3 as an accompaniment to this practice.