Pure Circumstance

You can pause the commentary without giving up the life you want to create.

I love yoga, meditation, and being present. I also love business, ambition, making money, and creating things in the world.

For a long time, I felt a tension between those interests. Some of the messages I heard about presence seemed to suggest that I should stay there, stop thinking so much about the future, and be content with existence.

I did not want to give up creating. I wanted to understand how presence and creation could work together in a way that felt authentic to me.

That led me to a concept I call pure circumstance.

Begin with the Model you already know

The self-coaching Model includes circumstances, thoughts, feelings, actions, and results. We describe circumstances as the facts of the world and thoughts as our interpretations of those facts.

Those thoughts create feelings. Feelings drive actions, which create results.

One of the most useful pieces of the work is learning to make the circumstance line neutral. You can describe a conversation instead of calling it a fight. You can separate what was said from your judgment about it.

That practice remains important. Pure circumstance is not a reason to stop doing ordinary Models. It is an additional way to explore the difference between an experience and the language you use to describe it.

Even a factual sentence uses words

You can write that you ate dinner, had a conversation with your sister, or graduated from college. Those can be factual statements suitable for the circumstance line.

But they are still statements. You are using language to represent an experience.

There is a difference between petting your dog and having the thought that you are petting your dog. One is the direct experience. The other is your mind describing it.

Pure circumstance is the direct experience without that description. For a moment, you release the words, labels, and sentences instead of finding a more neutral sentence.

It is a blank circumstance line rather than a written account of what happened.

Notice the commentary

Ask what this moment would be like without language.

Not without the world. Not without your body. Without the commentary in your mind that names and interprets what you are experiencing.

You may immediately describe it as being a human, being here, or having a conversation. Notice that those are words, too.

Imagine watching a movie with no sound and no subtitles. You are exploring the experience without the accompanying explanation.

This may feel difficult to grasp. You do not need to force an immediate understanding. Let yourself work with the distinction long enough to notice it in your own experience.

Observe thinking without judging it

Trying not to think can lead to more thinking. You try to stop, then think about how you have not stopped.

Another way to approach it is to become the observer. You can watch thoughts appear without judging them.

Some of you have experienced that while doing Models. You step outside the thought enough to see yourself thinking it. You do not have to remain completely inside the interpretation.

You can be experiencing anxiety or stress and, for a moment, observe the experience from a neutral place.

That is part of what I want you to practice: recognizing that you can be present without continually adding more language to what is happening.

Separate sensation from interpretation

In my work on body thoughts, I describe the difference between thinking about your body and experiencing it from within.

You can have judgments about your thigh, or you can focus on the sensation of being in that part of your body. Those are not the same experience.

With pure circumstance, you practice releasing the words about the sensation rather than evaluating it as good or bad.

The language is where the interpretation happens. In this exercise, you are temporarily allowing a direct experience without building an emotional story around it.

You do not need to make the experience positive. Pure circumstance is not a new compliment or a better description. It is the space before those descriptions.

I practiced this with my dog

My dog had a painful problem with his eye, and I found myself extremely upset. I did not want him to be in pain.

I began practicing being present with him without repeating all my thoughts about what should be happening. I noticed the words about pain, the thought that it should not be this way, and the thought that I needed to fix it.

For a moment, I let those sentences go and simply stayed with him.

The situation had not changed. What changed was the language I was adding to my experience. I could rest at neutral instead of continually producing the same distress with my thoughts.

Even a factual sentence about his eye could feel loaded with emotion for me. Releasing the words was different from trying to make that sentence sound better.

A positive thought does not have to fight a negative one

When people first learn the Model, they sometimes use an intentional thought to push against an unintentional thought.

The negative thought remains, and the positive thought becomes its opponent. Instead of creating from the new thought, they spend their energy fighting the old one.

I want you to consider a space between those Models.

You can recognize the negative thought and allow the emotion it creates. Then you can practice releasing the language and entering pure circumstance for a moment.

From there, you can choose the next thought without requiring it to defeat the previous one. The positive energy can go toward creation rather than continually resisting the negative.

This is a place to pass through

I do not want to live without words or judgment all the time. I do not want to stay in a neutral state and stop creating.

I want to know I can go there.

Pure circumstance gives me a place to pass through between suffering and the next Model I want to create. It can be a respite from a painful thought loop.

I can release the sentences, be present, and then return to language deliberately. I can choose thoughts of possibility, love, or compassion instead of trying to drag them into a fight with the old thoughts.

Presence and ambition do not have to compete. I can use presence as part of the way I create.

Practice a moment without the words

Imagine being in an argument. What would the moment be like if, for a moment, you released the words and sentences in your mind?

The other person may still be speaking. You are noticing the difference between being there and adding your own running interpretation.

You can also practice with your body or with an ordinary direct experience. Notice the labels that come up. Let them go and see what is there without immediately naming it again.

This is an introductory practice. If it feels confusing, return to the foundation of the Model and try the distinction again.

You do not have to stay without language. You can learn what it is like to release it temporarily, then choose how you want to use it to create your next experience.