CONSCIOUSNESS PLAYGROUND RECORDING TRANSCRIPT'GOT A PROBLEM? DO THE SPACEMAN!'

By Wendy Down, M.Ed.

Hi again.

This is Wendy Down with your Consciousness Playground recording for Tuesday, September 17th 2013. My mom's birthday...

This recording is called "Got a Problem? Do the Spaceman!"

And on this recording I want to share with you the single most useful technique I have ever learned to bring yourself out of the grip of a problem, no matter what it is.

Because it addresses the two aspects of a situation that make it a problem: The idea of something being a ‘problem’ and also the idea that ‘I’ am having a problem.

So, if you can see it in front of you, on the page where this recording is, I have a photograph of the earth as seen from space.

I want you to have this image in mind as I talk about this technique, which I am playfully calling 'The Spaceman', because it's extremely useful.

Any time when we are in the midst of a problem we are experiencing it ‘as a problem’ because we're up or too up-close and personal with it. We don't have a broad enough perspective to feel distanced from it. To see options about it and to pull ourselves out of the gravity of the thoughts and emotions that grip us when we're in a problem.

This applies to any problem, no matter if it's a recent one, no matter if it's a long-standing one, a life-long problem, a relationship, a health problem.

This technique will allow you to show yourself how to be outside the grip of that problem and therefore have way more range and broadsightedness from which

“Got a Problem? Do the Spaceman!” Recording Transcript © Wendy Down, 2013

to address it.

Also from a distance of great space and peace.

And from a perspective it which it appears so much smaller than the space around that problem.

So, let's go straight to it.

Start by choosing a problem you currently have.

Maybe not the worst problem you've ever had in your life, but something that right now is on your mind, it's on your heart. It seems like you can't get away from it.

Something so present.It's so pervasive.It's causing distress or upset.It's causing repetitive thoughts.And you can't find your way out of it.

And I want you to imagine, once you’ve brought that situation to mind, that you’ve found yourself on some area of the landscape on your inner planet.

And you can kind of identify where that would be. Perhaps at the bottom of an abyss where you can't see your way out. Or you're in the ocean and struggling and can't reach land.

Just let yourself bring to mind an image of where, what it feels like to be in this problem that you're in.

And as you do that, really allow the feelings that you have regarding it to surface.

The turbulence.The frustration perhaps.The fear.Let all of that come to the forefront of your awareness.

“Got a Problem? Do the Spaceman!” Recording Transcript © Wendy Down, 2013

And notice how absolutely all-encompassing the experience is when you put your attention there.

For the most part, this is how we go through our day-to-day life; as though we are that small person swimming in a big turbulent experience on planet Earth.

But I want to show you with this exercise that you are so much more than the human being that's having that experience.

That you are, in fact, the entire Universe within which not only that experience is happening, but within which the entire planet exists!

And this technique, if you're doing it for the first time, it takes a little bit of practice and you may not get it the first time.

But I promise, if you try it repeatedly, eventually you will discover that it becomes easier and easier to get tremendous latitude and distance from whatever problematic situation is going on in your life, so you can see it from great distance and vantage point.

And I don't just mean distance visually, but also emotionally, you can be a great distance from the gravity force field of the thoughts in human experience that creates situations to be a problem.

So... there you are right now, in the thoughts and the emotions of the problem.

And to do the Spaceman, from the human experience is almost literally like leaving planet Earth. Because there is so much gravitational force, so much energy, so much momentum that keeps us locked into the experience of a problem.

But I want to show you how to break free of the force field of that experience in the exact same way that astronauts break free of the force field of gravity when they launch themselves off the planet.

And what this will show you is that truly truly, as you've probably heard, you are not a human having a spiritual experience, you are a spiritual being

“Got a Problem? Do the Spaceman!” Recording Transcript © Wendy Down, 2013

having a human experience.

So, we begin just by noticing the environment that you're in.

Noticing the feelings and noticing the thoughts.

And actually these two things, the thoughts that you're having about the situation that you're thinking about and the feelings that you're having about it are two separate things.

But together they create a, like I said, a force field or a magnetic field that attracts more of each other to themselves.

This it what we want to break free off initially to get that latitude outside of the problem, so you can see and feel it from an entirely different perspective.

Generally the two parts of a problem are the sensation or the emotion that we feel, like I said, and the thoughts or the story that we tell about it.

We tend to collapse these two things together and experience them as though they're one, but they are not. They are two separate things.

One is the charge that exists in our emotional system and the other are the thoughts or the story that exists in our mental system.

And, so to distinguish those right now... to gently notice that there is a distinction between the two, turn your attention to the sensation in your body.

I know with many many Consciousness Playground recordings I've had you pay attention to sensation in your body.

Right now, to the best of your ability, imagine that you weren't able to think any thoughts or you didn't remember any stories or any history. You weren't able to add words to the experience that you're having.

But right now you're just in the sea of emotion, sensation.

You're experiencing this as though you're simply your body feeling this on the

“Got a Problem? Do the Spaceman!” Recording Transcript © Wendy Down, 2013

emotional level as though you're experiencing your body without the ability of your mind to add a script, add language over top of it.

Simply feel the sensation.

And you'll notice first of all that it's located most focused in a particular area of your body.

Find out where that is.

Already by doing that, by finding the sensation inside your body, it's like you've zoomed out beyond the grip of that story and emotion.

And you're now outside it. You're in the space outside of that feeling or sensation.

Because you have to be outside of it in order to distinguish that it exists from everything else that you are.

Notice that that sensation in your body that's associated with the situation you're thinking about.

It has motion to it, it has sensation to it, it probably has discomfort to it.

In the past, when you've used words to describe it, you might have used a whole bunch of different words.

And that's o.k..

It doesn't have to be one emotion.It doesn't have to be one feeling.It can be a whole mess of things.It's just sensation.

And this is the ‘charge’ that keeps us locked into a problem, focusing on a problem.

Because it's so pervasive.

“Got a Problem? Do the Spaceman!” Recording Transcript © Wendy Down, 2013

It's so present.It's hard for us to get away from it.

For now just notice how interesting that is to experience the problem you identified purely as sensation that has a location in your body, that has space around it.

And you can even feel for the space that exists outside that emotion.

In other words, that emotion or that feeling, that sensation doesn't fill you.

It only occupies a certain part of your body and your emotional field.

In the same way that a bruise on your knee, say, only occupies your knee. It doesn't fill your whole body.In the same way this bruise in your emotional system doesn't fill your whole emotional system.It's just a painful spot in one part of your emotional system.

And there's a funny thing we do with emotions is, we identify with them.'I am sad.''I am angry.''I am hurt.'We think we are our emotions.

Which is not something we do with physical pain.We don't say 'I am kidney stone.' Í am bruised knee.''I am headache.'

We say:'I have a headache.''I have a sore back.'

And this is a realization you can actually use too to gain distance from emotional charges.'I have hurt.''I have sadness.'

“Got a Problem? Do the Spaceman!” Recording Transcript © Wendy Down, 2013

Not 'I am...'.You can try that out, just to gain a little bit of different perspective on the situation that you're dealing with.

But I want to take it far beyond that.

So right now you've isolated the sensation, the charge, the feeling.

It's actually because of this feeling that you're calling the situation that you're thinking about 'a problem'.

The only thing that makes a situation a problem is how we feel about it.

Somebody else might be in the same situation and feel differently.

And you can actually feel differently in this same situation.That's what I want to show you how to do.

Because once you gain flexibility in how you feel, you start to gain tremendous control over your day-to-day life. And you can actually stop having problems.

Because problems are not situations, problems are the feelings and really over-identifying with the experience of those feelings.

So the next piece we're going to work on is the idea that 'I' am having a problem.

Because you're much more than the thoughts that you're having about this situation.

And this is, again, where we get stuck on planet Human, planet Earth, are when we think we are the thoughts we're having.

This is why so many people are finding a practice like meditation so helpful, because meditation allows you to break free of the thoughts that run for many of us constantly through our minds and we identify who we are are as those thoughts.

“Got a Problem? Do the Spaceman!” Recording Transcript © Wendy Down, 2013

But for now I want to just give you a taste for what it is like to experience yourself as more than the thoughts that pass through your mind.

So right now in your body is a sensation - I am assuming it's still there - that gives you the experience of being in a turbulent or difficult, challenging experience on the planet, on planet Human, on planet Earth.

Like I said, in the ocean or in a crevasse. Or on a mountain top.

It's the emotion, the charge, that gives you the experience of being in a challenging place.

Now as you sit in that emotion, watch the thoughts that pass through your mind now in relationship to that problem.

And imagine them as clouds that are passing across the sky.

There you are stuck on the planet in this very difficult situation and the thoughts that go through your mind related to it appear as clouds.

You might even be able to see them or sense them as sentences.

So I will be quiet, just for a moment, as you observe the sentences or phrases or thoughts that pass through your mind in relationship to this problem that you're thinking about.

You may notice that the clouds come in such quick succession that there's no space between them.

In other words there’s your sky completely filled up with thoughts with no break between the thoughts.

If that's the case just notice it.

Notice how the thoughts related to the situation fill the entire landscape of your mind, the sky and cloud it.

Completely occluding whatever is beyond.

“Got a Problem? Do the Spaceman!” Recording Transcript © Wendy Down, 2013

And this is really the essence of what it's like to be caught in the grip of a problem, where we're deeply immersed in the emotion of a situation and our minds are clouded by thoughts related to it.

And we have no ability to see beyond or experience beyond that.

And this actually is the common, most common state of human experience.

And it's painful.

What we tend to do, because the emotion gets so intense, is that we keep going to the clouds, the thoughts, to find a thought that will help relieve the pain or the challenge of the emotion that we're in.

Except that because the nature of the emotion attracts certain types of thoughts, the thoughts are not useful ones. They are the same ones we've thought over and over again.

So it gets to be a tremendously difficult cycle, which creates the gravity and the intensity of a problem.

Which over time, if it lasts long enough actually becomes the basis for physical problems in our bodies.

Because that energy gets caught up endlessly in that loop.

But there are absolutely ways out and I am going to show you them.

One you may actually been noticing, and if you've done some work with me in the Consciousness Playground before or other places, you'll know that as you simply allow yourself to sense the sensation of that charge, that emotional bruise in your body, as you sense it, it starts to change.

Taking your presence directly there heals it.

In the same way that, you know, blood flow brought to a wound in your physical body brings healing.

“Got a Problem? Do the Spaceman!” Recording Transcript © Wendy Down, 2013

Your presence, feeling that feeling, transforms it.

Because the simplest thing is so true, it's just that that is a feeling and feelings want to be felt.And when you thoroughly felt it, it won't be any of it left to feel.It's so simple.

The problem is that we identify, as I said earlier, with that feeling and we think we are it.

And so the thoughts that we have about the feeling continually perpetuate it.

Over and over and over again we think “I feel this way. I feel this way, I feel this way. I feel this way.”

And because we don't want to not exist, we don't want that feeling to go away.

This isn't conscious. It's completely unconscious.

So let me show you how to break free of the idea that you are those feelings.

And break free of being so closely identified with the experience of those feelings in your body that there is a part of you that is afraid of letting them go, because if that's who you are and they were gone, who would you be?

The idea of not recognizing yourself is terrifying.

So, back to the clouds, the thoughts.

Notice them passing through your mind and possibly they were going quite rapidly only a moment ago because I was giving you some pretty big thoughts to think about.

Or at this point you may be actually off in Lalaland, simply bathing in the background peace that you may have gotten in touch with by now.

“Got a Problem? Do the Spaceman!” Recording Transcript © Wendy Down, 2013

But if not, notice the thoughts as they pass through your mind.

And notice actually that each thought is separate onto itself.

A thought starts – like a sentence – and stops.

And there is actually a gap between each thought.

Look for that.

This may take some practice, but you can start to expand the space or create a greater gap between each thought.

And as you create the gap, you create space, you access peace and you allow yourself to expand into the broader view that will allow you to see this whole problem from a tremendous distance - from outer space.

And this, like I said, takes some practice.

Because as you allow the space to open up between each thought, what you access is Nothingness.Absence, Pure Awareness.Consciousness.The background state within which all thought, all experience and all emotion exists.

From there your consciousness will snap like gravity back down into the experience of a problem, because the thoughts, the emotions are so compelling.

And this is why it takes so much practice.

Just like an astronaut, there's so much gravity to keep you locked down on Earth, in that crevasse of that problem with all the thoughts clouding clarity.

But you can take all of your determination to break free of this problem, take that focus, pour that determination into finding the space between the thoughts.

“Got a Problem? Do the Spaceman!” Recording Transcript © Wendy Down, 2013

And suddenly, you'll notice that there are a few milliseconds at first, in which you are conscious, fully awake, fully alert, with no thought present.

And again, this takes some practice.

But suddenly, in a moment, you'll notice that you're more aware of the background, the sky, the atmosphere behind the clouds, the thoughts.And the thoughts start to pass through the sky of your awareness.

And even though the clouds relate to a charge that still exists in your body as emotion, at the same time, strangely, there's peace as well.

And exhilaration, because you've just broken free.

And with practice you'll discover that like a Spaceman, the situation can exist on planet Earth, planet Human, the charge can be there.The landscape can still be down there.The thoughts can still be there.But you're outside them all.

Or in other words they exist inside you and you're the space, the vast boundless, limitless space within which emotion occurs, experience occurs, thought occurs.

Exactly as though you were a Spaceman, way in outer space, beyond sound, beyond the oceans, beyond the winds, beyond whatever happens on the earth, consciously observing from a distance.

And from there you have incredible range to see more broadly than you could see before.To know that, out here, you are o.k. No matter what happens way off there.

And the beautiful thing about being a human is that you're both in the experience of planet earth, in that situation - and beyond it.

You are able to be in a situation, but have the point of view, the perspective from way, way, way, way outside it at the same time.

“Got a Problem? Do the Spaceman!” Recording Transcript © Wendy Down, 2013

And so you can be in your life, in any situation and be safe and be clear-minded, unaffected, but still deeply involved and bringing the wisdom and the perspective from way outside whatever is going on right into apply it.

And from that outside perspective you actually feel the emotion itself is so much smaller, the grip of all that inner turmoil or drama, uncertainty – it's so small in comparison to the space that you are.

And with practice this can be your moment-by-moment experience as you move through your days.

And it's a practice of mastery, for sure.But it's actually your birthright. It's how you are designed.

And this recording shares with you this practice, doing the Spaceman, because by far it's my favorite.

And the most powerful and the most simple once you get the gist of it.

It’s the most simple and most direct route of being able to see any problem from way outside of it, still in touch with it, by way, way outside of it.

And it doesn't matter, if you flip back and forth between the perspective of being in the problem and way outside the problem.

That's part of the learning.

But I give that to you today because it's just been so helpful for me.

And I know with practice, and you can listen to this over and over, it will be for you as well.

Bye for now!

“Got a Problem? Do the Spaceman!” Recording Transcript © Wendy Down, 2013

PS. If you enjoyed this recording and are new to working with quantum concepts, you might enjoy the Consciousness Playground Quantum Basics 101 Course in which I introduce you to the 14 quantum leaps of insight that will reinvent your life.

Or consider working with me one-to-one.

Or through a Remote Session with Ken Graydon and I.

Your options are limitless :-)

“Got a Problem? Do the Spaceman!” Recording Transcript © Wendy Down, 2013