Oh geez can I relate with this stream of posts... Thank you Marye, Open and M....I was sharing on another thread the experience with the inner states. What you say M. about acceptance of the state... Not resisting and seeking to get out of it is so key... As is breaking through it... At times I find it challenging to feel where I am becoming identified with the state... Like I begin to accept the low so much that I believe it is me... That takes me into a downward spiral and the entire environment reflects that I am this distortion.... Or so it seems through the filter of the "mood".... And yet I do breakthrough it at some point =).

M, you mentioned compassion for self... And this is what is beginning to arise for me... In the depths of the muck I notice my hand comes to my heart or belly or forehead... A natural expression of self comfort... And as I allow the story to unfold in a real physical way through the body, being able to hold a space for myself with loving compassion feels so essential.

Being in it so fully allows it to be felt deeply and shown fully in the mirror... But there is a point for me where I lose perspective and merge with the distortion ... I am not so sure that is so useful for me... I can't tell yet... Seems that there is a moment to breakthrough it but instead I accept the lower reality.

Went for a bike ride today and noticed that every time I came close to the edge of the sidewalk I would go off into the grass or into the edge between the grass and the sidewalk. I realized that when I see the edge, all attention goes to the edge and of course it draws the bike right into it like a magnet... But if I instead notice the edge, feel and be aware of it but maintain attention on the path before me then the bike rides along the edge of the sidewalk and gradually comes back into center. Felt like a message for me in working with these "lows"... Being with it, feeling it's there but not just throwing all attention into the hole.