Channelling your destructive side...

[Unseen_Abilities]

Hey guys, I was lying in bed last night, unable to sleep, and was pondering the notion of destruction. I was thinking that, in a sense, it is an essential part of nature - Things are born, they mature and exist for a period of time, and then they decay, their life is over.

 

I felt some powerful destructive emotions yesterday (that led to this train of thought) and was wondering how I can safely channel this destructive energy in a way that won't lead to myself and other people getting hurt in any way...It just seems to me that, if I am to strive to live in harmony with nature, then I can't deny or suppress this side of myself, lest it accumulate over time and manifest from my subconscious in negative ways.

 

How do you deal with your shadow? Your destructive side? How do you balance yin and yang in your life?

[Mokona]

The shadow is much more than your need to break things. It's your fears - also. Fear of becoming fat and lazy, unemployment, being alone, becoming a creep - any negative motivating emotion that changes your behavior.

 

Acceot that you have these emotions - and channel your energy into postive actions. It helps to realize that there are positive motivators such as being hella happy - for doing things, instead of being afraid of what will happen to you if you don't do something. Smile and relax and go to the gym. Laugh at work. Enjoy your college studies. Date for the love of meeting someone new and exciting, not for the fear of being alone.

 

Some of my friends deal with the "destructive" parts of their personality through physical work and rock music.

[Christian]

Meditate on the silliness of your thoughts. Is not creation also destruction? To make a wooden chair I need to cut down a tree, to make a car I need to tear at the heart of the earth. Creation, destruction, no different, why bother with either? Ignore both, save your energy, live a long life.

[spiraltao]

The shadow is much more than your need to break things. It's your fears - also. Fear of becoming fat and lazy, unemployment, being alone, becoming a creep - any negative motivating emotion that changes your behavior.

 

Acceot that you have these emotions - and channel your energy into postive actions. It helps to realize that there are positive motivators such as being hella happy - for doing things, instead of being afraid of what will happen to you if you don't do something. Smile and relax and go to the gym. Laugh at work. Enjoy your college studies. Date for the love of meeting someone new and exciting, not for the fear of being alone.

 

Some of my friends deal with the "destructive" parts of their personality through physical work and rock music.

 

Thanks SO MUCH for sharing! I have always known that I have used metal music to get out some destructive parts of my personality. Same with hard labor, a few weeks in the tobacco field is good for anyone!

 

 

 

I must admit, I have only been putting idea like these quoted in the last three years. I can say that I sure am happy with my life now! Don't think my happiness is all due to practicing these ideas, but are mos def a big part of it.

 

I often get TOO pumped after baguazhang and have since been meditating more...

Edited August 13, 2012 by jaysahnztao

[shaolin]

Destructive side is very powerful, natural and necessary.

 

Use it to destroy things that need to be destroyed but avoid using it against others. self destruction is a good place to start. Destroy all the things that harm you, but be objective and totally un emotional. after destroying then you can create. Destroy rotten, weak foundations and then build new ones to build everything else on.

 

Always follow destruction with creation. Be careful. Follow the natural way. Be who you are. Destruction is part of life and it leads to birth and the balance of nature.

[RiverSnake]

IME, when confronting the darker aspects of oneself i feel it is a very important and powerful technique to shower are darker aspects with LOVE. By showering the darkness within you both acknowledge its existence but at the same time dissolve the blockages that you have created for yourself.

 

Love is a very powerful dissolver, and a very useful tool on the path.

 

-My 2 cents, Peace

Edited August 13, 2012 by OldGreen

[RiverSnake]

Also....Glenn Morris would always talk about in his books how Martial Artists and meditators would learn to channel the Shadow side of there personalities in order to harmonize themselves and use it as a productive part of there life. Path Notes is a very good book You might find the chapter he has in their on meditation to be very helpful for you. http://www.amazon.com/Path-Notes-American-Ninja-Master/dp/1556431570/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&qid=1344878331&sr=8-1&keywords=path+notes+of+an+american+ninja+master

 

-My 2 cents, Peac

[Protector]

You need to let go/destroy things that are holding you down so you could build new good things that you want

That is the destructive side, creating hateful feelings, violence and things that require action is not

True destruction is emptiness, it's neither good nor bad and it destroys both

 

 

 

[Aetherous]

Funny, just yesterday I was feeling pretty raw as well, all day. Just one of those days...

 

I think sitting with the negativity is a good thing to practice. Like Bruce Frantzis' dissolving methods. Develops acceptance rather than aversion; love rather than hatred. In terms of who we are, action is more important than reaction. So action would be accepting and loving something that is hard to accept...just sitting with it...the action makes you more accepting and loving, rather than making you more negative as we assume. Reaction would be just reflecting the negativity, and it doesn't make you more accepting and loving at all. Running away from things is not virtue...then those things chase you and you're weakened. If you can stand in the middle of hell, and be worthy of heaven...that means you have taken action within. You have absolutely gone against the current, and have changed through willpower. The lotus blooms in the swamp.

 

When it's 'just one of those days'...it doesn't mean that the day has to affect who you are.

 

Anyway, seems to me that spiritual people tend to be really hard on themselves and like to micromanage things that don't ultimately matter. If you're having a bad day, that's normal. Don't beat yourself up over it, saying that your path isn't good enough, that you MUST balance your feelings or else all hell will break loose. Everyone has bad feelings sometimes. In fact, if you just let it go and forgot about it, I bet the feelings would resolve much quicker than if you're "dealing with" them through various means. So maybe having an attitude of, "Oh yeah, just having bad feelings, fuck it" is much better than "I must make myself pure and good and feel positive always". Accept and love yourself.

 

I don't think that we should try to maintain balance between light and dark. Things balance of their own accord. Cultivate good. If you react badly to the bad, it just creates more bad.

 

Oh yeah, also...some say that the nature of awareness itself is pure love and acceptance. So if you can't feel those things while being aware of overwhelming negativity, at least know that shining your light on it has a positive effect. Breathing can also help.

[johndoe2012]

How Am I Experiencing This Moment Of Being Alive?

 

http://thehamiltonproject.blogspot.com/2012/05/yogi-toolbox-haietmoba.html

 

Bhante G: "When you first become aware of something, there is a fleeting instant of pure awareness just before you conceptualize the thing, before you identify it. That is a stage of Mindfulness. Ordinarily, this stage is very short. It is that flashing split second just as you focus your eyes on the thing, just as you focus your mind on the thing, just before you objectify it, clamp down on it mentally and segregate it from the rest of existence. It takes place just before you start thinking about it--before your mind says, "Oh, it's a dog." That flowing, soft-focused moment of pure awareness is Mindfulness. In that brief flashing mind-moment you experience a thing as an un-thing. You experience a softly flowing moment of pure experience that is interlocked with the rest of reality, not separate from it.

 

I sometimes use this to enlargen my view from a microscopic perspective to a broader one.

[Clarity]

A hobby can be a good source for channeling both creative and destructive energy.

[joeblast]

just so long as we're not talking random, wanton, useless destruction - that's just asinine but creative destruction is an entirely different concept. how it is expressed is up to the individual and his application to the situation.

[spiraltao]

just so long as we're not talking random, wanton, useless destruction - that's just asinine but creative destruction is an entirely different concept. how it is expressed is up to the individual and his application to the situation.

 

;;;uhhhh, of course creative destruction! :D

[joeblast]

aint nothing wrong with putting an m80 under a garbage can, so long as proper precautions are taken. an old metal one of course

Edited August 14, 2012 by joeblast

[Unseen_Abilities]

Some great replies here, good advice, and lots to think about.

 

Thanks

 

[Humble]

However you use it, dont yell "Hulk SMASH!" , instead yell; " Hulk CONTEMPLATE!"