Feeling the Feelings Michael Singer Style

The method I use with myself and with clients I call ‘Dropping’ which I learned from a marvellous somatic mindfulness therapist Peter Strong some 10 years ago.

It involves closing the eyes, dropping out of the mind into the body and noticing the sensations being experienced. Usually we can sense into a tightness or contraction in the solar plexus area, in the throat or stomach.

Next we say to the feeling :

I notice you and I allow you to be here. There’s space for you here. You have my full attention. I welcome you.

No inner dialogue about it, no story or commentary – just stay with the feeling and keep saying

“I allow you to be here. You can stay as long as you like, I’m not going to try and ignore you or get rid of you, you can stay as long as you like”.

Michael Singer’s technique is very similar – while experiencing the disturbed feeling, simply lean back inside and allow the ‘storm’ to carry on while we relax and lean back inside.

Michael Singer’s Core Technique

(How to handle any disturbed energy – fear, anger, desire, jealousy, shame, anxiety, etc.)

1. Notice the disturbance

The moment you feel tightness, heat, contraction, or any uncomfortable energy in the body (most commonly in the heart area or solar plexus), you have caught it in the act.

2. Do NOT touch it

“Touching” means:

• Leaning into it (feeding it with attention, drama, story)

• Pushing it away (resisting or suppressing it)

• Analyzing it, fixing it, or trying to understand why it’s there

Any of these keeps the energy trapped inside you.

3. Instead: Relax & Lean Back (or “Fall Back Inside”)

• Physically relax your shoulders, face, chest, belly, let everything soften.

• Mentally lean away from the disturbed energy, exactly like leaning back in a chair instead of leaning forward towards a fire.

• Shift your center of awareness from being in front of the energy (identified with it) to being behind it (the witness).

This “leaning back” is the key movement: you are disidentifying from the energy and returning to the seat of pure awareness.

4. Let it pass through

When you neither feed it nor fight it, the blocked energy (Shakti he calls it) naturally releases and flows upward. You will literally feel it rise through the body and leave.

Michael Singer often says: “It came in, it will go out if you don’t touch it.”

5. Stay as the witness

Remain as the open, relaxed consciousness that simply watches thoughts, emotions, and energies come and go. Over time, this becomes effortless and constant.

Key phrases Michael Singer repeats thousands of times in his talks:

• “Don’t touch it. Just relax and lean away.”

• “Fall back inside and let it pass through.”

• “You are not the disturbance, you are the one who sees it.”

• “If you keep doing this every single time, the energy will never stay blocked again.”

Where the disturbance is felt

• Heart area → fear, hurt, jealousy, longing, grief

• Solar plexus → anger, anxiety, shame, power struggles

• The technique is identical regardless of location: relax, lean back, don’t touch.

Do this every single time something disturbs you, and according to Singer, the heart (and the entire energy system) will eventually stay open permanently.