Here’s how to change any unwanted feeling or mood!

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When you're in a more resourceful mood,

     then your Now and your Next can more easily agree.

 

Do you ever get stuck in feelings of

     animosity, anxiety, arrogance, bitchiness, bitterness, boredom,

     callousness, crankiness, cynicism, defensiveness, depression, envy, guilt, hatred, impatience,   

     indecisiveness, inflexibility, ingratitude, jealousy, laziness, obsessiveness, overwhelm, perfectionism,

     petulance, procrastination, rebelliousness, resentment, resignation, righteousness, rudeness,

     self-consciousness, shame, stress, stubbornness?

 

Do you find yourself stuck being

     over-protective or over-controlling,

     being too critical of yourself or others,

     blaming others, complaining, feeling betrayed,

     feeling dispirited, feeling disrespected, feeling foolish,

     feeling like a victim, feeling unloved, showing disrespect,

     lacking self-confidence or self-esteem, lying,

     nagging, suppressing yourself, or worrying?

 

Most of us get stuck

     in one or more of these feelings, moods,

     or thought/behavior patterns fairly often.

 

Sometimes, they pass quickly.

     Sometimes, they stick around much longer than we’d like,

     even becoming a chronic part of our life.

 

I have discovered a simple, easy technique

     that will help you dissolve

     most unwanted feelings or moods.

 

I call this technique “EnChanting.”

 

Let me tell you how I discovered it.

(If you want to go straight to the description of the technique,

     feel free to skip over the following example.)

 

On Valentine’s Day 1994,

     I was lying on my bed at 2:30 in the afternoon.

I was depressed.

     I had been depressed for over two months.

     I was barely getting by in my work.

         (I worked at home and for myself,

         so it was easier for me to hide my condition

         than it would be for most people.)

The only things I wanted to do were eat, watch TV, and sleep.

Everything else occurred to me as an overwhelming burden.

     Every time I would think of something I needed to do,

         the automatic response in my mind was,

         “So what? It’s all pointless anyway.”

I had had periodic bouts of depression before,

     but never one as long or severe as this one.

     I was beginning to get seriously concerned.

I started praying to God

     to show me something I was willing to do

     that would move me out of my depression.

Then, from my intuition,

     I started “EnChanting” (see explanation below).

     I EnChanted for three hours straight:

     the first hour while lying in my bed,

the second and third hours

     while walking along the canal bank (in Phoenix, Arizona).

     I would tone it down when I would pass people

         so they wouldn’t think I was crazy.

 

At the end of the three hours

     I was on cloud nine.

     I was feeling great!

     My mood was great!

The circumstances of my life were exactly as before.

     But, instead of feeling burdened and overwhelmed,

         I felt fully resourceful and excited

         about my life and its possibilities!

 

Since that day, I have had no significant bouts of depression.

     Whenever I begin to feel depression

     (or any other undesired feeling),

     I try a little EnChanting.

I have also shared this technique with hundreds of clients.

     The feedback reports range from

     “It’s a very powerful stress releaser” to

     “The results were miraculous!”

 

Here’s a description of the EnChanting process.

 

EnChanting is a means of gently focusing

     on the deep mood and feelings of a particular moment,

     allowing these feelings to resonate and bubble out

     into extemporaneous sounds/chanting.

These sounds are spontaneous,        

     nonsensical, and non-conceptual.

     The wrong way to do this is to try to do it right.

     There are no right sounds.

     The experience is one of ease and effortlessness,

         although you may feel a bit embarrassed or silly.

     Allow your feelings to lead the chanting to lead you.

 

Where do I EnChant?

EnChanting is done privately.

     For many people, the best place is their car,

     where they can allow themselves to really belt it out.

     Other good places are your house or apartment.

     EnChant for as long as possible. An hour or more is very good.

     EnChant until your mood or feeling changes.

 

What can I expect from EnChanting?

At the very least, EnChanting provides

     an immediate release of tension.

Fundamentally, EnChanting is a generic de-repressor,

     dissolving our resistance to ourselves and to our lives,

     allowing our true joy and aliveness

(which is always underneath the calcified shell of our

     protection)  

     to bubble forth.

The more you EnChant, the more you will wake up.

     Use your judgment in deciding how fast you want to wake up.

 

Why does EnChanting work?

Consider this question:

     As a group, who are the most joyous,

         energetic, alive, present, creative,

         and curious people on earth?

     Young children.

And what do young children (typically those under six years old)

     consistently do that we adults don’t do?

Children freely and immediately express in sounds

     (often non-verbal sounds), with no censorship

     and with nothing held back,

     exactly what they are feeling when they are feeling it.

When a child cries for a long time, the child does not think,

     “My mother might not love me or take care of me

         if I continue to cry.”

When a child squeals and/or babbles with delight,

     sometimes for hours, the child does not think,

“They might decide I’m not a serious person if I’m too happy.”

But at a certain point a child starts to become an adult,

     and that is the point when the child begins to learn

         that certain verbal expressions are not acceptable.

     In fact, one way to make a child act like an adult faster

         is to give the child strong, consistent messages

         that certain verbal expressions

         of pain, fear, anger, joy, and/or pleasure

         will not be tolerated and/or will be frowned upon.

As adults we have no outlet to verbally express our feelings

     in any way that begins to approximate

     the outlet that children have.

     Even so-called outlets such as singing do not fit the bill,

         since when we sing, we have to do it “the right way.”

     Imagine the effects of trying

         to get a child to squeal “the right way.”

 

EnChanting offers

     the first easy-to-do methodology to express our feelings

     (without having to put words to them).

     It can usually be tailored to require no additional time.

For most of us, it can be combined with other activities

     such as walking, jogging, housecleaning, driving, etc.

Unlike meditation mantras or Buddhist chants,

     it allows/includes full flexibility and encouragement

     for the emanating sounds to flow freely

     and to be full expressions of the feelings/moods of the moment,

     just as the sounds that a child makes

     are full, unedited expressions of that child.

 

How is EnChanting distinct

     from other change-your-attitude techniques?

Has the average happy child learned how

     to focus h/is mind and think positively?

     No.

Does the average joyous child hear and/or read

     uplifting stories to inspire h/im during a bad day?

     No.

Does the average happy child meditate

     or engage in stress reduction techniques?

     No.

Does the average creative child spend hours in front of the TV

     to distract h/imself from life’s concerns?

     No.

Most of the ancient and modern-day

     techniques and approaches that adults use

     to attempt to manage our feelings

     (over the top of our calcified protections) are just that:

     an attempt at management on top of a calcification

     that prevents us from experiencing

     our innate joy, energy, and happiness.

 

EnChanting dissolves the years of calcification,

     allowing us to spontaneously express

     our birthright of joy, energy,

     happiness, aliveness, and creativity.

    

Here are some words that suggest

     the full range and expression of EnChanting:

 

baaing, babbling, bantering, barking, baying, bellowing, bewailing, bleating, booing, bubbling, cackling, chanting, cheeping, cheering, clucking, cooing, croaking, crooning, crying, displaying, exclaiming, expressing, groaning, growling, grumbling, gurgling, harping, heehawing, hissing, honking, hooting, howling, humming, intoning, jabbering, laughing, mewing, moaning, murmuring, muttering, neighing, non-conceptual verbalizing, making nonsense sounds, parroting, peeping, prattling, praying, preaching, purring, quacking, ranting, raving, razzing, resonating, rhyming, roaring, sassing, scolding, screaming, screeching, shouting, shrieking, singing, snarling, sobbing, sounding, speaking, squawking, squealing, stammering, stuttering, susurrating, talking, taunting, teasing, telling, toning, tweeting, ululating, uttering, verbalizing, voicing, vowing, wailing, warbling, whimpering, whining, whispering, yakking, yelling, yelping, yodeling, yowling.

 

Think of the maxim,

     “If I can’t, then EnChant”

     to remind you of this powerful tool.

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The above essay was extracted from "Courage: the Choice that Makes the Difference - Your Keys to a Thousand Doors."

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