Practice Overview

Perception Rebalancing is categorized into five distinct process:

• Rebalancing of emotions and thoughts
• Rebalancing through the Here and Now
• Rebalancing the Self
• Rebalancing through the Present
• Rebalancing through the World

Each process is the foundation of and builds upon the previous and is intended to be practiced in a consecutive and overlapping order, only moving on to the next if one has some experiences in the previous one. In the beginning, one should spend at least a few weeks practicing the first process before moving on to the next. It is important that we proceed to the next process only if we are familiar and comfortable with the practice and have some direct experience from the previous process.

The processes progresses from an individualized perspective to a unified perspective. We begin with self-acceptance by experiencing our own emotions and thoughts. Through acceptance of ourselves, we shift our focus outwards to our immediate surroundings to the here and now, or the present moment. This allows us to have a basic reference in time and space in this world. After which we focus inwardly again to experience the being of the self. At this point, we will have awareness of where and when the self is with reference to this world. Then, we shift our awareness outwards again by contemplating the concept of the entirety of space and time, or the present. This awareness helps to provide a grounding reference when we finally explore the experience of observing from the perspective of the world.
Basic Practice Guidelines

During the practice, one should try to avoid moving the body or engaging in other thoughts as much as possible. This helps to prevent us from using distraction to avoid focusing on the practice.

There are no strict requirements on posture and each should adapt according if there are physical limitations. One can be seated on a chair or mat or floor in a meditation posture such as the half lotus or the full lotus if possible. Place your hands on your lap or knees, palms can be facing up or down. Lying down is not suggested as one can get too sleepy unless that is the only possible position for you. Keep your eyes closed and do not focus on your breathing.

Perception rebalancing requires a certain degree of focus and directing your attention, thus it is recommended that the practice is done when we are not exhausted as we may end up daydreaming or spacing out.

The environment should be of relative calm and quietness where we are at least able to focus to some extent, no sounds or sights or stimulation that can cause a strong trigger or distraction within you during the session. It should be of low stimulant with low amount of noise or quiet, and without the five senses being over stimulated. The constant sound and noise that is often around us continuously stimulates our senses, preventing the body from going into a state of silence. The scene in front should not be cluttered and should be tidy if possible. There should also not be any objects which would invoke any strong emotions. A place of nature or a park is a good venue to practice. It is strongly recommended to avoid playing any music during the practice. This is to prevent one from becoming dependent on the presence and influence of music in order to be able to practice or using the music as a means of distraction. There is no need to enhance or accelerate the practice using tools.

Acceptance Exercise

The first step in perception balancing is to become more aware of ourselves through our thoughts and emotions. We allow ourselves to feel and experience our thoughts and emotions so that we can come face to face with them. And through acknowledging their existence, we are able to accept and release them.Many of us often suppress and ignore our emotions and thoughts which led to a limited awareness of ourselves. Some reasons may be due to fear in facing or experiencing them, or thinking that it is not “right” to experience them, or thinking that suppressing them will help to regulate our behavior so that they fit the general consensus in society.
There are two premises with regards to the rebalancing of emotions and thoughts – that we are meant to experience all our emotions and thoughts, good and bad, and that we are able to process through our emotions and thoughts by simply focusing on experiencing them.
This is based on the belief that our emotions and thoughts contain lessons and it is only through experiencing them as fully as possible that we are able to learn these lessons with the caveat that we should avoid manifesting a physical reaction while experiencing them. These are often subconscious lessons and the triggering emotions or thoughts will dissipate by itself when the lesson is complete. They are not to be directly comprehended but to be experienced. Conversely, if we keep ignoring and pushing them away, they may continue to remain with us until the lesson is learnt. They may not remain permanently, but they are also not as transient as we think they will be.
The second premise is that by focusing on experiencing our emotions and thoughts instead of analyzing them, we are still able to process through them, albeit in a less conscious and comprehensible manner. The exact mechanism is will not be probed, only the belief that one exists and that those who chose to practice Perception Rebalancing will be able to do so.

Acceptance Exercise

The intention is not to directly attempt to clear and remove the emotions and thoughts, this actually has a hint of non-acceptance, for if we truly accept them there is no need to change the status quo. The paradox is that by experiencing our emotions and thoughts and without impeding their flow through us, we are also accepting them and it is this acceptance that is part of the condition for the emotions and thoughts to clear on their own. When we experience it fully, we allow the lesson of this experience to become complete and thus there is no need for the emotions and thoughts to remain. The acceptance of our feelings and thoughts comes naturally and it is beyond our explicit control, there is no need explicitly focus on trying to accept or to force oneself to accept.

Both thoughts and emotions are approached the same way - to experience them and allow them to flow through and dissipate at their own time. They will continue arise and dissipate and we should not hold on to them, but allow them to flow through and dissipate on their own. This exercise comprises of three main steps.

Firstly, to remind ourselves that our emotions and thoughts will arise and dissipate on a continual basis and we do not have direct control to this natural process.

Secondly, realizing that we do not have control over the process, we remind ourselves to give allowance for our emotions and thoughts to flow through us. This is purely an allowance and does not mean that we should actively will or force our emotions or thoughts to flow through us. An analogy is that of keeping the door open and allow our guests to choose when they want to leave instead of forcefully pushing them through the door. This allows us time to face our emotions and thoughts properly without the pressure of striving for a goal. There is no justification for letting it go, it does not matter what stories we tell ourselves, you can’t right a wrong, or chase justice or justification, or correct a wrong logic, or resign to fate or abuse. That is all in your head. By accepting it first, you gain the ability to choose a different path with a new state of mind.

Emotions may not always flow through even when you give them allowance, sometimes you have suppressed them for so long that you can let go of them immediately. That is alright, the important thing is you give them the allowance to flow through and remain aware of them and let them do so at their own pace.

The final step is to experience the full response brought on by our emotions and thoughts. We have to experience the body sensations and thoughts to our emotions, and the internal actions brought on our thoughts. The experience is internal without acting it out in the world. This exercise is not a form of catharsis, and one should not intentionally act out the emotions in the physical world by screaming or trashing things, or indulge or wallow in the emotions in the mind. One permissible action is to scream internally.

We don’t process the experience by using words as it is not a cognitive process. The experiencing is not simply thinking about our thoughts and sensations in the body but a wordless experience of awareness using our mind and body. An example is experiencing a cool morning breeze.

There is a difference between trying to experience our emotions and trying to observe and be aware of them. For in experiencing we take an active role and diving into our emotions and thoughts. However, when we talk about being aware of or observe them, there may be a tendency to simply focus on the cognitive awareness and reduce it to simply thinking in our head, we end up thinking about our emotions rather than feeling them. We focus on the thought
“My heart is beating quickly”, rather than the wordless feeling of the sensation. It is not what you think you are feeling but what are you really feeling? It is not a mental task of simply labeling the emotion and being detached towards it as if it is a separate object from us. It is also not a mental practice of thinking that we need to “accept our emotions” (for example by endlessly saying or thinking “I accept my emotions”), because we are not accepting our emotions if we simply talk about them without feeling them.

To put it bluntly, are you feeling the pain from the difficult emotions? Or are you stopping the pain and emotions from flowing through you and trying to discard them so that you can claim you have accepted them because you no longer feel them. The trick in the acceptance exercise is to always go towards the difficult emotions and thoughts, face your feelings and thoughts without running away from them.
Guided Steps

The steps can be summarized in the following guided steps. It should be done when you are not moving, preferably seated.

Experience my emotions, thoughts and body sensations fully,
And bring them into the heart area,
Love and forgive them (for being here) and myself (for choosing them).

A reminder that the only intention and action is to experience our thoughts and emotions as fully as we can. The notion of allowing them to flow through us is only a reminder, a passive idea as we have no control to their flow, but only to allow ourselves to keep ourselves open to them flowing out. This is complemented by the first statement that the nature of thoughts and emotions is to move continuously.

Experience of the Here and Now

The purpose of this process is to experience the here and now through our senses without thinking about what we observed. It aims to bring our attention from our inner dialogues out into the here and now through our surroundings. The here and now is the only point in space and time in this world in which we exist and can take action. And from a practical point of view, it can be experienced through our senses of the surroundings without using any tools. The here is where we are and determines the space that we can observe. We are not somewhere else but here where our body is. All that we can observe from our surroundings is as it is at this present moment. Our senses can neither perceive what has passed nor what is to come.

When focusing on our senses, we do not consciously try to identify what we have sensed, only that the senses show us what is the here and now. When seeing, we focus on the seeing and the awareness that we are looking a scene without identifying where we are or what are the objects that we saw. When hearing, we focus on the hearing and the awareness that we have heard something without working to identify what the sound or the source of the sound is. We do not care about the content of what we see and hear, only that they are in the here and now. In this manner, the approach is different from mindfulness practices which tend to put more focus on identifying and conceptualizing the content of what we observed.
Guided Steps

What I see is in the here and now
What I hear is in the here and now
What I feel is in the here and now
Sitting silently
Experience the here and now through my senses without thinking about what we observed