I prefer public ones to avoid the repetition, one reason I did the Robot thing in the first place:
.
1. Does Rub & Yawn work for you? You can test this without even reading up on any theory, but you have to DO this: vigorously rub your body for a few minutes, chest, arms, legs, rub your hands together, rub (stockinged) feet on the carpet. This action should produce some kind of visible bodily discharge like yawns, sighing, twitching, stretching like when you're tired or just got up in the morning; the stretching is voluntary but the yawns/sighs etc are involuntary.
If this doesn't work -- and you actually DID rub vigorously for a few minutes by the clock -- then check out these external articles on letting go of stress linked from this PaulsRobot3
Rub & Yawn page section. They should contain the solution, but it isn't instant.
If Rub & Yawn doesn't work for you, then there's no point in trying any of these later steps as
they won't work.
2. Have you ever had a successful Rub & Yawn session? Probably the easiest starting point is this video below. Again, you have to DO exactly what it says. If you treat it like watching an exercise video while sprawled on the couch drinking beer it's not going to work. It has proper uploaded subtitles you can turn on.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=CUGCXzY74aI
3. Have you read the theory at
PaulsRobot (not PaulsRobot
2)? You don't need to have a 100% understanding of all this, but the more the better.
4. Are the pre-session (sessionability) points in hand? This isn't an absolute, but to the extent that they're out the session will tend to fail. Like if you slept two hours last night, just smoked some weed, haven't eaten since yesterday, the TV is blaring, the kids and dogs are all over you, and you aren't willing to follow the instructions anyway, the session isn't going to go anywhere.
5. Are you ABLE to read and follow the instructions? This isn't meant to be an insult, but if your comprehension of written English is poor, and/or you generally prefer to ignore instructions and "find your own way" with things, then it isn't likely to work out well. This includes assuming it's like what you studied in Psych 101 or it's Scientology and you're a classed auditor and know it all anyway.
6. Have you had successful sessions with PaulsRobot (at
www.paulsrobot.com) and are pretty familiar with the flow of how the (Trio) Reach & Withdraw, 6-Direction, Rogerian commands work, how to switch between them via the Main Options screen, where Rub & Yawn fits in, how to rapidly fix "shutting down" (= anaten, boil-off, dope-off, suddenly going to sleep), when to stop doing any particular procedure, and when to end the session? Are you familiar with what should get written on a session report? (You can see examples at
http://paulsrobot3.com/1st/sample-sessions.htm but they will look like gibberish if you're not familiar with the underlying session procedures). Have you successfully written a session report while the session is ongoing (not afterwards), and been able to keep going with the session actions without getting distracted much?
7. Onto Iconic at
PaulsRobot2. Click around, get familiar with the thing, especially get familiar with what the icons mean ("?") and do. The session procedure is meant to be identical to that at PaulsRobot.com, apart from the addition of keeping a session report as the session progresses, but the presentation of options is via icon links rather than word links.
8. Well, OK. Once you've done steps 1-7 it won't be a waste of time to give PaulsRobot Iconic a serious try.
Now, you don't have to do all steps 1-7 to visit PaulsRobot2 and click around and get thoroughly confused while admiring the niftiness of it all, but steps 1-7 is pretty much what it takes to have good sessions with Iconic.