What you're describing, lover, contains many of the things I had trouble with.
The way I dealt with it is simply to feel. That's it. Just feel and be with whatever you are feeling. You label it this, you label it that. Whatever.
I didn't feel a compulsion to do exactly what Paul said to do in a way I figured he wanted me to do it. I find him, often, to be coming from a belief system that is inherently contradictory upon examination.
I figured there was some value to the exercise, so I simply did it. If I had trouble noticing the energy or shape or whatever of a feeling or appreciating the feeling as a manifestation of my being without labels (which, if I were to, would be labeling the feeling as something I had manifested, see the contradiction?) ... I'd just go, "to hell with it" and simply feel what I was feeling, simply be with it.
Basically, I think here you are activating your feeling intelligence to bring yourself into the moment and get yourself out of verbal loops and traditional, compulsive approaches to problem solving (trances).
You find yourself, after a while, no longer involved in running around like a rat in a maze, no longer trying to solve feelings as if they were problems, and begin living in the moment. Your body begins to realize that, hey, this is ok. You eventually begin to learn more on a level deeper than linguistic thinking.
So, yeah, the course content IS self-contradictory. A lot of LSC stuff is. But, beyond explanations and points of view that I do not agree with, there are things of value in the course.
If you do the exercises, you are bound to learn something. Don't let yourself be swayed too much by the activity of your mind in terms of trying to explain things and to be logical. That isn't, I think, what the exercise is about. And you don't have to buy Paul's explanation for it. You can find out for yourself and come to your own conclusions.
I guess the best way to do it is to shift your attention from labeling to feeling. You are going to label. That's what the conscious mind does. You're always going to have a conscious mind. So let it label. Put your attention on feeling and being with the feeling, appreciating the feeling.
I, personally, do believe that feelings can be experienced as having shapes, colors, vibrations, etc. Do they *really* have these attributes? I don't know. Who cares? I think it can be helpful to know them in such a way. If you aren't getting a sense of it, just do what you're best at for now, and maybe something will pop up later?
And there is always acting as if you could (which is what I've done on many occasions) and just going with whatever happens.
Good luck.
[This message has been edited by babayada (edited July 17, 2004).]
