Using The Sedona Method

I think last week I promised to write a review of the Sedona Method, or talk about how I use it. After five days when I’ve been using it very intensively, I finally feel up to the job of writing about it.

I was first introduced to the Sedona Method in March last year, by a hypnotherapist. I was given a card with the five magic questions on it, which I dutifully put in my pocket and then promptly lost. The next time I saw her I had to ask for another card, which I then kept on my desk at work to remind me. The basis of the Sedona Method is that we all have a natural ability to let go of emotions and limiting beliefs, and re-learning that ability frees us to do what we want in life. I recall reading an online review where the writer scoffed that you can’t be “free of your emotions” and that the Sedona Method and similar techniques are promising something that can’t possibly happen. These techniques (The Works, EFT, Release Technique and others all seem to be suggesting the same basic idea) don’t actually promise that you won’t have or experience emotions you’d rather avoid. What they claim is that you’ll be able to deal with those emotions in a more positive and constructive manner.  It reminded me very much of the story of the Buddha under the Bodhi Tree, and that perhaps enlightenment isn’t about losing all emotion but simply allowing it to be and not being overly affected by it.

Having spent many years living with depression, it isn’t surprising that the sparkling results promised on the website and in the book didn’t materialise. Even Hale Dwoskin himself admits that for the first year or so he could only release from “the head up”, because he was so used to thinking first and feeling later. I struggled to let go of my emotions and then became wrapped up in a failure debate about it. Eventually, I abandoned it altogether except for times when I really couldn’t sleep. The audio course, by the way, is an excellent cure for insomnia. It really does send me off to sleep listening to that calm voice.

In the middle of January, for some reason, I suddenly took it back up again quite seriously. I think for the most part I was very attached to my negative thinking and feeling, that it somehow defined me, and letting go of it was impossible. I had to be “ready” to let go, and when I was, suddenly I found the method began to work. I started digging through long-held and unfelt emotions I’d never encountered before, but rather than getting caught up in a whirlwind and feeling deeply unhappy, I was able to release them. I gave myself the patience and the time to resist if I needed to, and something clicked in my mind that this could actually work.

The last five days have been the most profound, as I’ve released things I never knew I’d still been holding on to. It’s incredibly liberating but at the same time, quite a strange feeling. I’m so familiar with having this old negativity around me that its absence is a little confusing. It’s rather like coming back from an outing to discover random items of furniture missing from your apartment. My mind goes on little escapades to find new sources of negativity, because it’s comforting and familiar, and the mind will go for what’s comforting and familiar, no matter how horrible it actually feels in the experience of it.  Releasing on that has been interesting. What I’ve noticed is that releasing opens up a space inside you, and more emotions come up that you can then release, and so on. Eventually, the feeling is one of great lightness.

I have recommended it to a few people but with the same warning as I apply to Holosync. There’s a tendency to read the hype and expect a miracle solution that works within minutes. The truth is, it takes time and patience to treat yourself in a different, more compassionate manner and be prepared to “settle in” with the Sedona Method. I’ve found it very effective for dealing with the stress I’m under now, as well as improving personal relationships. If you’re prepared to take time over it, I highly recommend it.