The Three Principles Discussion Thread

[kuya]

Another current practitioner is Judith Sedgeman.

Here is her introductions to 3Ps

The Three Principles - YouTube

The Principle of Mind - YouTube

The Principle of Thought - YouTube

The Principle of Consciousness - YouTube

You will all have noticed that everyone has to TRY and point to a concept that is hard to put into words...simply because it requires thought to describe thought!

That is why the feeling of 'I get this' comes and goes for a while. It also helps to hear many different people describe it until one resonates with you.

[starty]

These are fabulous. Thank you Kuya!!

[kuya]

Just had to share this insight from yesterday.

I had a stressful day as my nurse, who is also my DIL, didn't come to work. She and my son are going through difficulties and I feel for them as they are quite lost as to what to do but so far are not seeing that it relates to their overuse of weed.

My 16 year old daughter helps me part time but is not very useful as she isn't very suited to the work and is, well, a teenager!

She helped me with some office work but then became impatient with me when I asked a dumb question. I started to have a mini-meltdown (nothing extreme) and walked out.

Now here is what was odd, and so very different. I clearly SAW myself creating a little drama, being a child wanting a hug. I was hurt and frustrated with the entire situation, but it wasn't my daughter's doing.
As soon as I saw my thinking I could no longer continue the drama (I actually felt a little foolish tbh)

Instead of exploding this moment into even more drama (which I often do---- the victim stories usually get played at this point to cover my embarrassment) I just sat quietly and let it pass.

[NoSugar]

Thanks for telling us about your day, Kuya. I think it would help if we share examples with one another. The ones I've experienced seem kind of puny but they mean something to me.

Today I was questioned on my travel expense report. Given that I spent very little $ each day, having skipped some meals and being treated to others, it hadn't really occurred to me that the fact that I didn't have a paper receipt for every cup of coffee or bottle of water would be a crisis. Apparently it is and when questioned, I immediately felt defensive and angry and judged. My first inclination was to fire back an e-mail justifying pretty much everything about myself but one thing I have heard from these 3P talks is that thinking accompanied by those types of feelings shouldn't be trusted. Those feelings are "warnings" that something isn't right about how we're seeing the world.

I left work, ran some errands, and have thought about how the person who questioned me is one of the most i-dotting, t-crossing retentive individuals I've ever known. An unreconciled expense report is probably intolerable to him. I bet he wasn't even thinking I was padding expenses or whatever it was I was reacting to. He just wants for everything to add up and be right. So, now I've written to him, explained why some receipts are missing, and it's all fine, at least with me (I haven't heard back). Like all the 3P people talk about, we don't need to take our thoughts and feelings so seriously - we made them up in the first place and can let them go.

[Byrdlady]

Great example, NS.
If we get a drink out of the vending machine, we have to practically staple the can to our reports to get reimbursed! You are right, he wasn't calling your integrity into question, but that's the way it seems when questioned about an expense. He has a job to do also. B

[NoSugar]

The 3Ps, which are really just a description of how our brains work (not a prescription of what we should be doing) have sort of been making me feel like I've been wasting my time and energy with all of the different (prescribed) activities and practices I've explored on my path to trying to be a happy, positive person with no regrets. Or at least a peaceful, content person who does the best she can.

I'll put out here what I've been thinking so far - I'm very open to comments and discussion!

Some of the things I tried didn't work at all for me such as EFT so I dropped it quickly but other things seemed to work at least some of the time - when I got out in nature, exercised hard, did things for other people, practiced yoga, or meditated, I often felt pretty good. Why they didn't work consistently, and why, if indeed they were at least sometimes giving me what I was looking for, I didn't stick with them, has always confused me. I think I'm getting glimpses of the answer from these 3P talks and readings.

I think that when I'm only paying attention to the thoughts consistent with what I want my life to be, and let the others float by because they're not real anyway, I feel positive and good. From that happy place, I want to do rewarding things like exercise or help other people. I don't feel good because I'm helping others or exercising (other than in an "I'm glad I did that instead of just moping around sort of way"); I'm doing those things because I feel good enough to do them and so reap their many benefits. So when they seemed to work in the past, it was because everything was set in place for them to appear to do the job. And when they didn't work, it was because they couldn't - my thinking (and corresponding feelings) wouldn't allow it. The fact that thought and feeling are essentially simultaneous makes it really hard to distinguish cause and effect.

The 3Ps kind of seem like a good excuse to be lazy :wink: but really, I think they give us permission to do all of the "good" things for their own sake and for any other benefits they offer.

[kuya]

This is not puny... This everyday stuff is lifechanging!


All these little moments add up in a person's day, and guess where they used to lead?

Yep... drug taking to escape a reality WE MADE UP!

As to your further points about 3Ps seeming too easy, you are now seeing the effect of this knowledge.

The point is made that yoga, meditation, EFT etc are APPLICATIONS.

3Ps are IMPLICATIONS.

To simply understand them is to change your life at a core level.

[hoping4better]

Hey all,

I just returned from a rehab that is based on the 3 P's. I learned so much. Haven't had a chance to look through the comments here yet, but I'm glad to see the topic!!!!
One of my favorite Sidney Banks quotes is "Don't believe everything you think."

[NoSugar]

I found this blogpost illuminating and helpful:

I’m finding that “dropping thought” is easier said than done. Am I missing something?

POSTED ON: September 19, 2011
POSTED BY: Erika Bugbee
QUESTION: ”I have spent a great deal of time just being frustrated because so many
articles and videos about the principles refer to “dropping the thought” as if it is an
effortless fait accompli. I have found instead that the more distressing the
thought, the less likely it is that it will drop and instead plays over and
over in my head no matter how aware I am that it is just a thought and not
reality.
I found the following comment on your recent blog entry particularly comforting on this issue:
“Yet quite often, realizing we’re stuck in our own thinking doesn’t give us
any way out and we’re stuck with feeling tired or upset or closed-minded
about someone. Speaking for myself personally, that’s more the rule than the
exception.”
As a newcomer to this area of study, I’m starting to come to the conclusion that there is
real value here, however it often seems oversold”.
ANSWER: I just wanted to say that your observation about the tendency for these principles to get oversold is a very astute observation. In the discovery of these principles, people are so commonly awestruck by the realization that a person could drop a thought, just like that, and feel completely differently about life, instantly, while the outside circumstances stay exactly the same. As each person has their own first-hand discovery of that phenomenon, the implications have been so exciting and have represented such a quantum leap for the field of psychology, mental health, and what we all thought was possible for humanity. And as a result, there can be a tendency for people to fixate and set their sights on those situations in which they’re able to completely drop a train of thought, and although it may happen and become a normal occurence in their everyday lives, for every thought we drop, there’s at least one, if not many, that we can’t. Effortlessly dropping a thought is not typically the most common by-product of learning this understanding. The most common by-product is that we see the illusory nature of the fear, anxiety, insecurity, etc so that even though we can’t seem to shake those feelings, the feelings now look 2-dimensional rather than 3-dimensional so they’re not so scary and we don’t think into them so much. So while they don’t go away instantly, they have a much shorter shelf-life, and since the experience looks more fictional than factual, it matters less and less that we go through those feelings. The content becomes less alarming and less of a big deal.That’s the common denominator.
It’s easy to come to the conclusion that we can drop or control our thinking, but with a better grasp comes the realization that thought is not something you can master, it’s not a system that can be beat. It was here long before we were born and our mental energy has a life of it’s own. So it can be understood, and that helps us navigate thought in a way that works out better for us, but that’s pretty much it. Trying to control it is just as ridiculous a notion as trying to control weather and makes for a lot of frustration, disappointment, and tension.

Pransky & Associates :: Blog

[NoSugar]

Hi, Hoping. Welcome back to MWO! I would love to hear about what you learned at rehab - I'm interested in how all of this fits in becoming and recovering from addiction. I hope you had a good experience and are feeling good. :hug:
PS - love the quote!

[kuya]

Hey all,

I just returned from a rehab that is based on the 3 P's. I learned so much. Haven't had a chance to look through the comments here yet, but I'm glad to see the topic!!!!
One of my favorite Sidney Banks quotes is "Don't believe everything you think."

LOL .... I just invited you over on your thread... so glad you found us already!

[kuya]

I found this blogpost illuminating and helpful:
Pransky & Associates :: Blog

Sometimes people misunderstand 3Ps as something that will STOP unpleasant thoughts/feelings whereas I just find i simply do not get STUCK in them for very long anymore.

i reset to default 'happy' far quicker and accept being in a shitty mood without trying to give it some great meaning

[starty]

I need tips to help with stress I feel from the work environment. I work in an incredibly stressful environment where we collect debt. I myself deal with complaints from customers. It seems that there is constantly someone being picked on for making mistakes (thankfully that is not me) and I am forever getting called in to assist the manager with meetings to either go over mistakes made by other team members or discipline them. I find this soooooooo uncomfortable and stressful. I know it is my thoughts that cause me the stress but I just cannot let it go. Any insights would be very helpful

[kuya]

I need tips to help with stress I feel from the work environment. I work in an incredibly stressful environment where we collect debt. I myself deal with complaints from customers. It seems that there is constantly someone being picked on for making mistakes (thankfully that is not me) and I am forever getting called in to assist the manager with meetings to either go over mistakes made by other team members or discipline them. I find this soooooooo uncomfortable and stressful. I know it is my thoughts that cause me the stress but I just cannot let it go. Any insights would be very helpful

Well I am reading between the lines here but it seems the problem is that people haven't been trained properly.

How would your manager take a suggestion that 30 minute refresher sessions happen every week? You could offer to run them.

Look to what in your thinking is causing you stress .... Sounds like you know your job and feel other workers will dislike you being teachers pet (I would feel that way)

A coach would not lead you with suggestions like this , but maybe your own wisdom will kick you up an answer.

[NoSugar]

Work stress gets me, too, Starty, and I don't even have a job that most people would consider stressful - the problem is my reaction to feeling like I have too much to do. Your job sounds more inherently stressful to me but then - is that possible? The stress only comes about in the minds of the people involved. I know a couple ER doctors who don't consider their jobs stressful ! The whole thing is so interesting. Anyway, here are links to the first parts of 2 talks on stress that I found useful when I was maxed out a week or so ago:

https://m.youtube.com/watch?v=ux3WSmjaxQA

https://m.youtube.com/watch?v=OmnvLnh3ieY