Catharsis

A pre-requisite to changing your subconscious programming.

Imagine there exists a magic lamp that can grant your wishes. Whatever changes you want to bring about in your behavior can be done by this lamp. Seems magical, isn’t it? There is indeed such a magic lamp within all of us, but the only thing is that we need to fight to take possession of it. This fight is termed as ‘Catharsis’.

Snakes guarding the lamp

I am not sure whether in Aladdin’s story snakes were guarding the lamp but this article hypothetically considers it to be the case. In order to get to the lamp, Aladdin has to fight these snakes, and only then can he have possession of the lamp. Once he has possession of the lamp, he can get any of his wishes to come true.

Similarly, whenever we want to change our behavior we first need to fight with the emotional charges and completely remove them from our system. Only then we can reach the magical lamp. This magical lamp is analogous to the state of emptiness where old belief can be very easily be replaced with a new and better belief.

“Till the time we do not release the emotional charge guarding the old belief, internalizing new belief may not become a reality”

Catharsis is like fighting the snakes

Whenever we are in anxiety, there has to be a reason behind it.

“Most of the time it is some stimulus creating a chain of thoughts leading us to incidents from our past where we were fearful.”

“Every event from the past that is associated with fear, has a false belief associated with it”

We need to get to the false belief but the emotional charge associated with various events are the blockers in the path. They will not allow us to get to the root of the problem.

“Catharsis is the process of getting fully identified with the emotional charge and letting the body respond autonomously to release it.”

Various forms of catharsis

Believe it or not, most people do one or the other form of catharsis. Below are some common ways of doing catharsis:

• Aggressively speaking to your friend regarding the unwanted comment made by a colleague.
• Listening to hard rock music when you are feeling anxiety.
• Going for a run when you have restlessness.

“In all the above cases it is the turmoil in the mind that finds an outlet through these means”

Our body needs to process the incidents from our past and since dedicated catharsis is not a mainstream idea hence these forms of catharsis are commonly followed by people.

Dedicated catharsis

In dedicated catharsis, a person closes his eyes and gets fully immersed in the experience he had in the past that is associated with some form of fear. The body shall then start to respond in its own way to release the emotional charge. Some common ways in which the body achieves it is through making spasmodic movements, hissing sounds, etc.

One should just allow the body to make the various moves and release the emotional charge. Sometimes when there is resistance in the mind to re-experience the negative emotion, it is advisable to make body movements.

“The artificially generated bodily movements also has an effect of forcing the mind to get immersed in the negative emotion that it previously avoided”

Normally a person doing catharsis shall find his heart rate to increase. One should know that it is quite normal and is an indication that the mind is able to process the emotional charge.

Upon completion of catharsis, a person reaches a state where he can logically analyze the incident responsible for the negative emotion in the first place. With an evolved understanding of life based on his experience, the person can identify the false belief and replace it with a new belief.

“Internalizing new belief is possible only when one has created an empty space through the process of catharsis”

It is similar to making wishes to an ordinary lamp versus the magical lamp.

“Only when one does catharsis can he possess the magical lamp and his wishes can come true.”

The above figure shows the stress level before and after doing a session of catharsis. There indeed is a significant drop in stress levels. But it just doesn’t stop here, there is a permanent change in behavior as a result of this session.

Example: Shyam feels anxiety while giving a presentation. His heart rate increases and he starts sweating during presentation making him unable to enjoy the process. Ram is a friend of Shyam and advised him to go for catharsis.

Shyam closed his eyes and immediately was presented with an incident from his school days where he was supposed to address the students in the school assembly. He remembered that he felt immense nervousness and could not remember his piece. He became silent and then pulled out a paper from his pocket and just read it. After the incident, some of his friends made fun of him that further aggravated Shyam.

In catharsis, Shyam fully relived the experience. He allowed his body to make spasmodic movements to take off feelings of fear when he forgot his words while standing silent in front of his audience. He made hissing sounds to get rid of the emotions related to his friends making fun of him.

After the mind completely processed the emotional charge, Shyam reached a state of emptiness where he could analyze the incident more logically. He found that he wanted to impress his school principal and his father as he longed for their approval. If he didn’t address the students properly then maybe both of them would be offended.

With an evolved sense of understanding that he now has, Shyam was able to replace his old belief with a new one that one should yearn for approval only from himself and not look for approval from others.

After removing the emotional charge and consequently changing the older belief, Shyam felt a sense of ecstasy. He felt victorious. He waited for the next presentation and when the opportunity came he saw his behavior to be completely changed. He was relaxed before and during the presentation. There was no increase in heart rate and his voice was also devoid of any aggression.

Conclusion

Everyone wants a magical lamp to get their wishes fulfilled but one should know that he has to tread the treacherous path of catharsis to achieve it. Like the snakes guarding the magical lamp, our past incidents associated with emotional charge block our path to reach a state where our desire can become a reality.

Dedicated catharsis is not a mainstream idea and hence people try alternate ways of achieving the result but I believe they are not that effective. I hope with time dedicated catharsis becomes a mainstream idea and people do it on regular basis and achieve the desired state of mind and become happy.