Through labeling and defining our experience, we lose our clear view of our world and ourselves. Through labeling and unlabeling we begin to cut through the distorting and obscuring filters of defining labels. In the moments when defining labels fall away we can gain direct experience and its attendent freedoms. Here are 3 labeling exercises. These three labeling exercises can be combined with any of the Emoclear clearers.
Labels can include single words and entire phrases.
Los Angeles is crummy. or Relationships are traps. Most labels tend to be overgeneralizations excluding many of the subject's positive, neutral, and negative qualities. When we practice a label often enough, the mere mention of that label can create an automatic emotional response. And labels can keep us from viewing the subject's other aspects and possibilities. We see negative examples of labeling in prejudicial name-calling and in psychiatric diagnosis.