A common problem for some people doing Integral Deep Listening interviews is that some find that they indeed experience more lucidity and move toward waking up when they do the interviews, but afterward, it is normal to lose the experience and the motivation to return to the expanded states of awareness associated with them. What to do?
Here are some recommendations from a young man who has been doing IDL interviewing for several years, modified a little for ease of reading:
“What I do to not get back into drama after the delight of a good interview is to read it over everyday.
In the circumstances in which the character told me I would most benefit, to view the world like him and (how not to ignore his advice), I need to do three things:
1. I need to read the whole interview.
2. I need to imagine I am the character and view the world from his perspective.
3. I need to question everything and re-think everything from the interview as myself and ask myself: is that true? Could this be helpful?
It takes discipline and patience to do remember to get into the role of the character in a moment when I am feeling angry or hurried.
I find it helpful to write down my goals and the daily routines I need to do in order to accomplish them.
I read them through in the morning right after meditation. I think the principle behind doing so is called “primacy effect” in psychology. The first information we grasp is most likely the part we remember the best. (So I am most likely to remember my goals if I review them when my mind is fresh, first thing in the morning.)
Assuming I have good, healthy goals, this is a good way to start the day and to get enough motivation to read the IDL interview again when the time comes.
I have found it takes discipline and at least a few months until this reading of goals every morning becomes an effortless ritual.
Also, there is the danger of just reading them superficially and getting dragged down by them. Some people would resist this exercise for that reason.
I think a way for some others who have resistance to incorporate healthy IDL characters into their everyday life could probably be to choose the most epic, powerful and somehow heroic ones, like Batman, an archangel, a dementor from Harry Potter, or a magnificent lion like the one in the picture above.
The more powerful or fascinating a character is, the more likely we are to be attracted to it, or want to be like it. We might see it as an epic friend, muse, or guardian spirit or totem animal or something.
So maybe one could point out the romantic, fantastic, powerful aspects of the characters…
Applying this to ourselves, you might find that you can develop these habits more quickly and easily if you first choose to work with those characters that you are most drawn to, and then expand from there.
More on IDL interviewing can be found in Integral Deep Listening Interviewing Techniques.
