The four stages of logodrama are present-moment awareness, engagement, stepping back and expectant presence, or anticipation.
These are the same four stages you go through in any life situation, if and when your goal is to tap into your higher wisdom. They are not natural but something you can incorporate intentionally.
There is one difference, however. In real life the order is reversed. First, you step back to see the situation objectively, and then you engage, whereas in logodrama, because you are in a safe environment, you first engage and then step back.
One of the key revelations in present-moment awareness is awareness of your emotions. While awareness of emotions is an important first step, this does not allow you to see yourself objectively and to see the whole picture.
Something happens in between present-moment awareness and engagement.
Challenges make you feel disengaged from life. The sense of being provoked by something you don’t like brings up negative emotions, which leads to emotional reactivity. This keeps you stuck in your pain and in patterns of behavior that are no longer serving you.
In order to avoid emotional reactivity, or as Frankl put it to find the choice between stimulus and response, it’s necessary to short-circuit the automatic process. (Even positive emotions lead to an automatic response, which might not be the same as your most aware response.)
Stepping back allows you to see the situation objectively. Freed from the compulsion to follow one “voice” or another, and not needing to be tied down by the dictates of your emotions, the same situation looks and feels different from the way it did at first.
Engagement counters the instinct to run away, whether you’re running from your emotions, from a person or from a challenging situation.
A sign that you have not gotten past your impulse to run away is when you hang up the phone or turn your back on someone. People don’t talk to each other because they can’t find forgiveness in their heart for something that happened years ago. A sign that you’ve run away from life is when you complain bitterly about it, and the more you complain the worse you feel.
When you push through the resistance and engage with the person who hurt you, in spite of your hurt feelings, it is very gratifying. When you honor your emotions and use this awareness to clear things up with the person, instead of holding a grudge, the emotions serve to bond rather than tear apart.
Relationships are built on disagreement, not on everything going smoothly. In a healthy relationship two people are able to provoke one another and use their disagreement as a means to build even greater intimacy, to clarify their values and to grow spiritually.
Similarly, when you engage with God in spite of your pain, the pain is more easily lived with. As long as you don’t cut off the relationship, you can always register a complaint. At least there’s someone to talk to.
As a result of going through these stages, a different kind of presence comes to the fore: an “expectant” presence.
You begin to look for the meaning of what this situation is about in terms of values. You’re expectantly looking forward and excitedly anticipating positive change, because you are the one making change happen. How can I respond in a way that makes life worth living, in a way that enlivens me and blesses all those around me?