Shaking—the Best Way to Keep Thinking
It’s occurred to me many times that the best way to keep thinking is to shake. I saw it in a demonstration with Harvey1 recently on a DVD and was pleasantly reminded.
Since I woke up this morning at 4:00, I’ve been trying it. It’s been fun! It reminds me of the way Harvey talked about understatements2—that people can discharge on their own and think through things and skip through their day with their attention off distress by reciting an understatement to themselves. I’ve been continually shaking for the past half an hour and just feeling lighter and lighter. I’m pleased to have my sense of humor back. I’m getting closer and closer to feeling safe. Shaking really does remove terror, whether it seems useful to me or not.
I suppose the terror will guard itself from being discharged and trick me into thinking that shaking is not helpful. But ha ha! Who has the last laugh?! Not terror. Ha ha!
Benjamin Altman
Flushing, New York, USA
1Harvey Jackins
2An understatement is a subtle way of contradicting distress that often works better than a more direct approach. For example, instead of saying, “I’m liked,” or “People like me,” someone could say, “It sometimes happens that someone likes somebody.”