By Jack Bodger

Several Pathwork lectures refer to ‘expressing’ and ‘impressing’ as two fundamental approaches to assist a person in developing the real self. Both are equally necessary. Lecture 131 describes these methods in detail.

‘Expressing’ is defined as … “finding … and emptying out what is within you so that it can be reexamined as to its truthfulness and reality.” … the process of… “examining your unconscious thoughts and reactions.”

‘Impressing’ is defined as … “molding and directing the powers within yourself so as to create favorable, or more favorable, circumstances.”

“In order to live meaningfully and dynamically, an interrelationship between these two approaches is necessary…an interplay between expressing and impressing, between emptying out and putting in truth.”

With expressing, one of the most important aspects of your struggle to resolve problems is that they are built on false premises. “When you build defenses against a nonexistent problem, no matter how you struggle, no matter how you defend yourself, you must entangle yourself deeper into a web of confusion.”

The lecture offers us an example of struggling against a problem that does not exist. Each of us is constantly afraid in one way or another of being inadequate, of being rejected, of not being enough, of not being taken seriously.

The lecture states, “others are not out to reject or diminish you as you so often emotionally perceive. To defend yourself against this dreaded happening, an elaborate [defense] structure is built.” Part of the dismantling of our defenses must include the realization that our ‘reason’ for constructing these defenses is not true; it is a faulty assumption, an imagination, an ‘image’, that people are trying to reject or diminish us. When we realize this, it is much easier to let go of our defenses.

With impressing, … you must replace the untruth, the faulty assumption, with the true concept or understanding. However, to simply try to impress ourselves with true concepts is ineffective without understanding what our particular untruthful concept is. As long as we are confused and don’t understand we are acting on an untruthful concept, we cannot impress within us the truthful idea or concept.

Even at the beginning of our self-search, we must impress the self with certain truthful statements. This has the effect of gathering the inner forces and directing them into the proper channels. Our intent must be clearly formulated to activate the necessary inner powers.

So in reality, impressing has two distinct  aspects. One helps to overcome resistance to expressing. The other reorients and rebuilds the inner personality by deliberately formulating truth.

This interaction between the outer mind and the innermost self, and finding the proper rhythm and balance between impressing and expressing, is a primary tool used in the practice of Pathwork. When you meditate, listen into your soul movements. Instruct the deepest strata of your psyche that you want to properly express the unconscious thoughts and reaction, and that you also ask that you become aware of when the methods of impression and expression are to be used. Ask to know when to use the outer mind and when to let go of it and allow the inner soul movements to express from deep within. As this process becomes established, you will be able to trust the interplay of these approaches according to the guidance of your innermost self.

“For then the forces, the creativity, the positive elements, which could not truly express heretofore, will more and more guide you towards the light you seek.”