I’ve been facilitating Parts Noting at least once a week for around 10 months now, starting with the IFS version that Sholom created in the beginning and slowly decoupling it from IFS and experimenting with my own versions, first by myself and then with others as well.
The latest iteration is including Deity Yoga practice at the end of it which we’ll test tomorrow, inspired from the third phase of Topi’s Positive Self-Esteem Mapping. I feel it would be a very good addition, but the practice has to be 2h in order to have time for it as well.
I know number of people have already experienced my facilitation of PN and I was wondering
What do you think about this practice having practiced it for a while? What effect has it had on you?
How is my facilitation of it? What am I doing well? How can I improve?
Any other comments or suggestions are welcome as well.
The Deity Yoga part of the PN on Friday (and subsequently on Sunday as well) turned out to be extremely good, but not feel exactly like Deity Yoga.
The name that most comes to mind when I did it was
“Being delighted in“
The image that is delighting in us could be a deity or some other image or even just an empty presence.
It’s a very good addition to the Parts Noting, because PN can get somewhat dysregulating and move us towards negativity. 10 mins of “Being delighted in” at the end counterbalances that very well.
I also feel that (at lest for me) more than 10 mins stops cultivating positivity and starts going into purification territory. Which is cool, but misses the point.
An idea came up to do a longer BDI session and have the “Parts Noting“ as an option. I’ll probably try it out very soon.
After doing PN for a few months I definitely feel a strengthening of equanimity towards unpleasant sensations. I noticed that sometimes distraction happens automatically for me as a way to subconsciously move away from discomfort, and I’ve noticed that now I have less distracted moments and can be with unpleasant sensations through their entire duration more often. There is less fear of being pulled into an unpleasant feeling and not being able to emerge from it.
Something I’ve been playing with is replacing the “May loving awareness arise” section with IPF phrases, like your phrase above, “Being delighted in”. I’m not sure if it works better to do before or after the PN but it does make me feel a lot more resourced.
You haven’t joined the weekly PN lately, but I’ve changed the “May loving awareness arise” with “Noting in loving awareness”. I find it’s much more efficient in cultivating positive mind states (Loving Awareness in this case) and releasing activation. It’s perfect for before / after a PN practice.
The “Being delighted in“ is not a phrase, but a practice format. It’s when you imagine a deity or Ideal Parent delighting in you and note from that place. It’s a very good practice, which can go into purification at some point.
What are some specific phrases that you’d like to work with?