The Michel Variation of the Sedona Method

A seven-question adaptation of Lester Levenson’s Sedona Method. It keeps the four original release questions, re-phrases them in plainer American English, and adds three questions of its own — one that surfaces what release would require, one that returns to your own agency in the present moment, and one that lets you keep what helps you and discard what doesn’t.

References: The Sedona Method (official site) · Lester Levenson

How to use it

1. Name the feeling. Pick one feeling to work with.
2. Move through the questions in order, one through seven.
3. Stay on any question as long as you need. Each question has variations — ask them in turn until your answer feels settled, then move on.
4. Cycle. After question seven, return to question one and run the sequence again. Repeat as many cycles as you like, and stop when you’re ready to finish.

Lead with the primary (American English) phrasing. The original Sedona wording and other variations are listed underneath each one for when you want them.

The seven questions

Question one — Can I welcome this feeling?

• Am I capable of welcoming this feeling?
• Is it possible for me to welcome this feeling?
• Original (Sedona): Could I welcome this feeling?

Question two — Can I release this feeling?

• Am I capable of releasing this feeling?
• Is it possible for me to release this feeling?
• Original (Sedona): Could I release this feeling?

Question three — Am I willing to release this feeling?

• Would I be willing to release this feeling?
• Original (Sedona): Would I release this feeling?

Question four — When would I like to release this feeling?

• When might I like to release this feeling?

Question five — What would it take for me to release this feeling now?

Question six — What can I do to release this feeling now?

Question seven — Are there any parts of this feeling that you want to keep, and others you’d like to discard?

• What parts of this feeling would you like to discard, and what parts would you like to keep?

On the three added questions

Questions one through four work the way the original method does: they test whether you can welcome the feeling, whether you can release it, whether you’re willing, and on what timeline.

Question five asks what release would require. The honest answer often points outward — to the truth, an apology, the return of what’s yours, accountability. Naming those plainly is worth doing; they are real conditions, and seeing them clearly is not the same as accepting that they’ll never come. Releasing the charge a feeling holds in your body is one track. Continuing to pursue truth and justice is a separate track. The method works on the first and asks nothing of the second.

Question six brings it back to what is actually within reach right now — the small, ordinary things you can do today that loosen the feeling’s grip on your body, even while the larger questions stay open. This is the question that returns the power to you.

Question seven recognizes that a feeling is rarely all one thing. Anger can carry both a corrosive resentment you’d be glad to set down and a clear signal of injustice worth keeping. Grief can hold both a weight that flattens you and a love you would never want to release. This question lets you separate the two — to discard what only burdens you while keeping what informs, protects, or honors what matters. You are not forced to throw out the whole feeling to be free of the part that harms you.

Editor’s Note (for later revision)

Revisit the phrase “keep what serves you.” The “does it serve you?” model is unwanted — it frames the world as your servant. Consider replacing “serves” with “helps,” “heals,” or “supports.” Not yet edited; flagged for a future pass.