2. Trust the instruments to do the job

The second of the four Principles of Work is “Trust the instruments to do the job.” Seems simple, but the moment I think I understand it, suddenly it’s meaning gets lost. I interpret it as telling me to use the tools at my disposal, trust them. Trust the toothbrush to clean my teeth, trust the coffee maker to make coffee, trust this computer. And what if any of those should fail? Trust the thing I would use to fix them? I fight, probably more than I realize I do, with my advantages. And the mistake I make may start somewhere in my wrongly identifying what advantages I possess. Either I’m foggy today, or the interpretation of this principle is labyrinthine. I digress.   I humanized things when I was a kid. Talked to everything. It might have been my Grandfather’s fault, he worked with his hands all his life but his philosophy was in his method. He’d be on his back with a wrench looking up into some machine, toiling away, he’d peek at me from underneath and instruct me with a grin. “You gotta talk to it.” he’d say. 

He was an engineer trained by the United States Military in ordinance, or weapons. He could build you a tank from scratch, he even worked on the Manhattan Project. When he retired from the service he started to use the skills he’d been taught making machines of war to make the machines of his grandsons’ amusement. He made us light boxes, marble mazes, robots constructed from PVC pipe, shoe boxes and paper towel rolls… He was unmatched in imagination. It all happened here. (Look down two posts)

I think of him because of the relationship he had with whatever he was working on. He conversed with it, gave it a personality. Sometimes the project was stubborn, sometimes it was funny, sometimes it was kind… Whatever it was, he got to know it inside and out. In a manner of speaking, he built trust. 

I do something of the same. I enjoy building as an activity. The satisfaction is undeniable. And I still have a habit of humanizing, whether aloud or to myself. 

So let’s bring this back to Regression Therapy. How does it tie in? ”Instruments” can be interpreted a few different ways. In one sense, we are the instruments, our minds and emotions. More important though might be the element of trust. If trust does not exist between the therapist and client then there can be no real work accomplished. The only job until there is trust, is to build trust. How is that done? Well, you gotta talk to it. 

Before the first regression takes place with a new client I require at least an hour of conversation so we can get to know each other. In that time, I ask questions and hear about what we’ll be working on. Then I lay out what will take place during the regression, then we get down to work. In that short time, hopefully we have started the foundation for a lasting trust. Extended from that is a trust in said instruments. 

Looking at this in conjunction with the first principle we see this:

1. Attend to the working surface
2. Trust the instruments to do the job

To recap, first we prepare the space where the work will occur. Once we have done that we consider the necessary tools. There is a natural progression. Reminds me of a saying: 

Besides the noble art of getting things done, there is a nobler art of leaving things undone… The wisdom of life consists in the elimination of nonessentials.

I don’t know who said it, but I do know I’m easily distracted and those distractions are almost always nonessential. Here’s another: 

Everything should be made as simple as possible, but no simpler. 

That’s Einstein. These ideas might precede the second principle of work, instructing that the excess layers be stripped away, any unnecessary adornments cast off. Trust the instruments to do the job. Don’t judge them or qualify them. Strip all unnecessary thought away and do not accept or reject any feelings that might rise. Do this until you’re left only with a task, and the tools to do it with. 

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