My BreakThrough Journey

Oct 28, 2011

By Submitted by Ben Manalo, LMT,CBI, BAT, BrTI, CBP, Parama BP, AdvCBP

"Isn't that cool!" she said, looking at me with a big smile, sparkling eyes and excitement in her voice.

"I have no idea what just happened," I thought to myself as I sat across from her in the hotel room. I felt like I'd been dropped in the middle of nowhere.

I was attending my very first IBA Instructors conference in Sarasota, Florida and Brenda Miller had just led me through my first BreakThrough Steps. I'd learned BodyTalk a few years earlier from John (Veltheim), and when I took (Mod 3) BodyTalk: Principles of Consciousness with him, he talked about this other system called BreakThrough which his then wife, Esther, had developed. From what I understood at the time, it evolved out of her own need to understand herself. And what I understand now for myself after attending several BreakThrough classes with Esther and other instructors as well as training and finally graduating as a BreakThrough Instructor this past summer, is that it's a system that cuts to the core of your dis-ease in a way like no other.

So often I hear people explain away their aches, pains and dis-eases with, "Oh, it's stress." "I know it's stress." "It's because work/home/relationship/family is really stressful." As if the diagnosis of "stress" answers everything. What many people seem to miss is that at the core of every stress is an internal conflict – a conflict with yourself. And BreakThrough offers you the opportunity to transmute this conflict into the very remedy your bodymind is seeking to heal its wounds.

Well, that first Principles of Consciousness class opened my eyes so wide and inspired me so much that I started devouring everything I could get my hands on about these concepts. Writings by Indian sages like Ramana Maharishi, Ramesh Balsekar, Nisargadatta Maharaj, Shankaracarya, Maharishi Mahesh Yogi. I was inspired by a great book by Berthold Madhukar Thompson, The Odyssey of Enlightenment. I started reading passages from the Bible, the Koran, the Bhagavad Gita. And I ordered Esther's books from the IBA: Beyond Concepts – The Investigation of Who You Are Not and Who Am I? – The Seekers Guide to Nowhere, as well as the cassette tapes called This is Satsang. (You remember cassette tapes, don't you?)

I remember sleeping with her books under my pillow to absorb their wisdom through osmosis. I remember going to bed for the evening listening to her Satsang tapes on auto-loop, falling asleep & waking up to her voice in the middle of the night. Little did I know that I'd become what in spiritual circles was called a seeker – someone seeking the Truth...seeking to know Self. Seeking to answer that question, "Who am I?" In BodyTalk terms, we'd call it the Individuation process.

As John later said to me, "You're head is in the tiger's mouth."

There was no turning back.

When I look back on my life, I guess I'd been seeking to know who I am since I was 11-12 years old. This is when I remember becoming more self-aware. I became more aware of my body. I became more aware of my feelings. I became more aware of my sexuality. I became more aware of my surroundings. And, as strange as it may sound to some, I became aware that I wasn't white. Interestingly enough, all these awarenesses which were activated in adolescence have been the source for much of my life's stress & internal conflict. And if it weren't for these conflicts, I would never have been driven to question what I had learned and assumed to be true.

I can't remember exactly when I took my first BreakThrough class. I'm sure it was with Esther. And though I can't remember much about that first class, I think it's safe to say that it made enough of an impression for me not to give up on it. And I'm glad I didn't. Each time I monitored the class more and more light bulbs lit up in my head. Each time I saw more and more clearly the intimate connection between BreakThrough and BodyTalk – how BreakThrough does the exact same thing that BodyTalk does...simply in a different form. Each time the class shed more light on the beliefs hidden below the tip of the iceberg.

Each time the class helped me to break through belief systems that were armoring my heart.

Over the past few weeks I've watched a couple of TV shows and movies which brought me to tears. And as I thought about what it was that moved me, I realized the common theme was that each featured a character who ended up following his or her heart. Then, as I sat with that a few moments, the thought came, "Was what moved me the fact that the characters followed their hearts? Or was what moved me the fact that they were able to break through the beliefs and conditioning that were holding them back from following their heart?" I'm sure it was the latter. After all, if it were that easy to follow your heart...to just be yourself...to live each moment fully...everyone would be doing it, right? But it's breaking free of the beliefs that bind you that requires the most strength and courage.

During one of the last classes I took with John, he commented that BodyTalkers' sessions are only about 40-60% as effective as they could be if they don't have an understanding of the principles explored in BreakThrough. And I can see why. BreakThrough, without a doubt, has been one of the most significant and transformative courses of study I've ever embarked upon. It's taken my BodyTalk practice to a whole new level in so many ways – not the least of which is by shedding light on the beliefs that were limiting my ability to think outside the box and helping me to be more present and in the zone. It's given me such deeper insights and understandings into almost every part of the BodyTalk Protocol: Permissions, 5 Senses; General, Pathological and Natural Consciousness; Emotions, General Environment, Primary Matrixes, Secondary Matrixes, Active Memory, Reciprocals, MuSk, BodyGenics: Emotional Release and PaRama Unit 1&2 applications.

As we teach in BodyTalk Fundamentals, the biggest obstacle to being an effective practitioner is you...the subconscious attitudes and beliefs that are influencing you to think and act in certain ways. The subconscious beliefs that are convincing you that you're someone you're not.

BreakThrough has offered me a very simple and extremely effective method for realizing that every button that gets pushed is simply a wake up call to Self. In helping me to see time and time again the healing nature of conflict, the BreakThrough Steps process has helped me to be more in touch with what comes naturally for me. And for that, I'm forever thankful.

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