By RUTH WOUDSTRA
Very often, we spend our lives looking for an answer. When we find the answer (for example, “Ah, I now know how to live right,”) we close off possibilities by setting the solution in stone.
Access Consciousness Bars (ACB) is a worldwide movement in which people are encouraged to find value in asking questions, rather than deciding on answers, as there is seldom one right answer to any given question.
Janet Leslie, a local ACB practitioner, says that when you have a point of view about a situation, you often close the doors of potentialities. “If you can stay in the present moment and have the willingness to see possibilities, there is a good chance of finding a creative solutions to a situation.”
“If you keep asking a question, you open doors of possibility. If you make a conclusion, you close doors,” she says. “In an Access Consciousness Bars session, you will be asked to notice the thoughts passing through your mind, but not to hold onto them. Things that we believe to be ‘good’ are just as inhibiting to our creative process as negative mind material, because we are not staying open to possibility. Just notice the thoughts and let them go. Keep asking a question that looks for creative possibilities,” she says.
A concrete example of this is that the thought, “Nothing is going to change in my life,” can be transformed into the question, “What else is there that I’ve never considered possible?”
On a practical level, an ACB session involves being ‘held’ by a practitioner, who guides the process by non-evasively touching particular points on the head and body which can help the client to exit the state of the monkey mind and shift from a stuck place.
We also naturally hold our heads when we have a headache, or place our hands on an area of discomfort in the body. According to Leslie, the innate wisdom of the body leads us to ‘healing holds’, and all that is required of us is to bring awareness to the process.
Although ACB might sound abstract, it can have a very real effect on one’s mental patterning. As with many other healing techniques, raising consciousness in both the body and in mind can open the door to a cure.
So next time you experience physical or mental unease, consider what questions can be asked about it. Your solution(s) may well exist in your questions.
