My Digs:

Just like a archaeological dig site, hold everything within this Dig as sacred. Creating a Sacred Space surrounding yourself with unconditional love means no conditions or judgments. We are not broken. We do not need to be fixed. We simply need to be uncovered.
This may not be easy at first because The Wound is all about conditions and judgments. But the energy of unconditional love that accepts us as we are, opens our hearts and minds, allowing our pain to be revealed within the context of compassion. We quiet our minds and relax into knowing that the power of deep healing is the energy of unconditional love that emanates from Divine Love with us. As it shines through the stained glass to open and illuminate our human consciousness we begin to feel love within the emotional pain body.
It is not necessary for us to intellectually understand how The Dig works, nor is it important for us to believe in it. The Dig surpasses both the intellectual grasp and the concept of belief. It relies on the genuine desire to have our next layer of pain revealed and healed. This is the beginning and as we grow in our experience, our awareness will Reveal the Divine within us.

Examples:

Yes. I will allow myself to have a non-judgemental perspective about myself as I explore my wound, I want Divine Presence to be uncovered.
No. I am not ready for this. See ya.
That would be great, but I don't know if i can, but I'll begin anyway.

The main intention of The Dig is the personal experience of the Divine presence within us as Divine Love and to become this love in increasing measure. The secondary intention is to heal our pain. We don't want to just uncover pain but want to turn the emotional pain into love. No matter our beliefs, spiritual path or life's circumstances, we can all equally begin this journey by doing one dig at a time.
The removal of the hidden layers of pain and false perceptions begins to reveal an entirely different experience of life, one of peace and love. We begin to feel unconditional love as a way of life rather than reacting to our pain unconsciously. Our thoughts, behaviors and situations begin to change as we are transformed from the inside out.

You are telling The Story to yourself, do not consider how others view it or you'll modify your answer.
The Story is almost immediately formed after a painful event based on our limited perception and previously unresolved pain. If our story lacks the energy of Divine Love, the seed of pain is watered, causing roots to sprout into the soil of our psyche. This forms The Story, allowing the formation of a new layer of pain to be piled on top of preexisting layers.
Emotional Pain, in its raw form, is neither good or bad, it simply exists as energy within our psyche. It is during The Story Stage where our limited false perceptions turn the neutral energy of pain into emotional suffering. We write the story based on the sum total of our human consciousness at the time of the event. Then, we usually embellish or alter the original version.
Make no mistake, that even if someone treats us in a hurtful manner based on their own pain, it is we who formulate our story that allows the emotional pain to become an ongoing part of our life. It should be obvious to us, but when pain is involved, we become blinded.
Two things we usually overlook: first, anyone causing pain is in pain. Second, we have caused someone else pain because of the pain that is in us as well.
It's hard to experience what we've done to others.

Our emotional reactions to dramatic conflict are not obstacles, but revelations. The fear, anger, or grief that rise up are signals pointing to what lies beneath the struggle—old wounds, unmet needs, or false beliefs. By paying attention to these reactions, we uncover what is truly behind the conflict, and in seeing it clearly, we open the doorway to healing.
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Fear: The Anticipation of Pain.
Fear of touching our pain is automatically created as our first line of defense. It heightens our sensitivity to pain's existence and begins to extend outward into the world, protecting itself from the possibility of similar pain. We may find ourselves becoming cautious towards circumstances that appear similar or have the ability to touch our pain. From the perspective that fear is a response emotion rather than a root one, if we focus on the fear we miss the root cause and are bound to spend our days trying to manage our fear. The focus of fear is primarily internal.
Fear is a defense mechanism that pulls us inward, trying to protect us by avoiding further hurt. Shaping how we respond to the dramatic conflict and masking the deeper wound that longs to be healed. Fear keeps us from touching our pain.
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Anger: The Expression of Pain – Pain’s Revenge
Anger forcefully turns away from the pain and focuses outward as it fixates on an object, usually the source of the painful event. The energy of anger requires an outlet; it cannot remain calm or stagnant for it is the antithesis of peace. Anger must control; it is a part of its inherent energetic nature and when that is threatened, it exerts itself more forcefully. Responding to any of life's situations with outbursts of anger simply means we are in great pain just below the surface.
Anger is another defense mechanism pushing us outward, trying to shield our pain through control or resistance. Anger derives satisfaction from inflicting pain onto others and is a powerful misdirection away from our pain that longs to be healed.
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Now we go deeper toward the cause of fear and anger... Emotional Pain. Begin the process of describing the pain itself, not the story about the painful event. What is the pain? How does it feel within the gut?
Think back through your life, even to childhood. Recall and describe the first time you felt this type of pain that relates to this Journey Map. How old were you? Find the thread.

Imagine your Pain Body as a ball of pain, like a thorn embedded in your psyche. Since your psyche is made of energy, this ball of pain is energetic as well. Describe the qualities of this ball of energy—its color, texture, weight, or movement. Now look inside and describe what energies you see and feel (ie: grief, sadness, anger, pain...)

Find the energies within the ball of pain that are missing. What energies (or feelings) are absent? Take your time and ask your higher self, your soul or Divine presence to reveal this to you as an epiphany.
Ultimately there is only one answer... Love. The energy of Divine and unconditional love. It's perceived absence within the Pain Body is why it hurts. The absence of the energy of love hurts.
Our attention is often drawn to the color of a stained glass window and not the white light shining behind it. The Pain Body, or ball of pain, is the colored glass. Love is the white light obscured by the color. Not a psychological or human love, but an Divine unconditional love.

Something is blocking or limiting our ability to perceive the presence of the energy of love. It's very difficult for us to realize that even though a painful event may have occurred, it is we who hold on to the pain long after it's over. From your perception, who or what is holding on to the pain?

The natural course of emotional pain can be seen in very young children who have not evolved into having effective defense mechanisms like fear and anger. The emotional pain hurts for a short while, then dissipates. As we grow, this process lengthens as we develop the coping systems designed to misdirect our attention away from the pain. If we enter the stage of "The Payoff", somehow deriving a benefit or pleasure from the pain, then we consciously (without considering it) begin repeating thought and behavior patterns in order to get the benefit.
We ask that we may see why we are choosing to consciously hold on to our pain while avoiding considering the impact it is having on our lives. Hopefully we will see we are gleaning some form of benefit that may take numerous forms like pleasure, victimization, anger, fear and a plethora of behavioral patterns.
Thought patterns arise from The Story, which is always a limited and thus false perception about the painful event. True it may hold elements of the truth but fails to include love or compassion. This is what allows repeating thought patterns to emerge that The Story may be replayed over and over. It is the concrete membrane surrounding our ball of pain.
Often we'll find that our response to the current painful event has it's roots in a similar event, even all the way back to childhood. The Theme of the pain can be discovered through the repeating thought patterns.
Once we have allowed ourselves to consider our pain and the pain of the ones who hurt us, we can admit how this pain shaped our thoughts and behaviors. We can shift from looking down on ourselves regarding our actions and shift into the compassionate eyes of Divine Love that knows how pain gives birth to more pain in the form of behaviors.
We follow the thread of pain through our life as if it were a movie and discover how it influenced us by shaping our lives. Feel the affects of pain without condemning yourself. Understand one extremely simply principle: when we transform the pain into love all the unwanted behaviors will also transform into love.
The Theme of the pain can be discovered through the repeating behavior patterns.
Pain begets pain. Whoever inflicts pain are in pain themselves. Ask how their pain is affecting their behavioral and if hurting you had its roots in their pain. The purpose of this is to open our hearts to feel compassion for them, understanding that pain begets pain and that we too have hurt others because of our pain, even if it was unintentional.
We must allow Divine Love to turn us away from our anger and fear towards the softness of heart that says, “The suffering in me has compassion for the suffering in you.”
When our mind fully opens we realize we are like the ones who hurt us, we are cut from the same human cloth, even if we express our pain differently. Love begets love.
It is hard to experience what we have done to others. We have all hurt someone out of our own pain.

Because we are the ones blocking the Divine Love energy from entering the pain, we are the only ones who can change that. This is all it takes, the desire to know Divine Love more than holding onto the pain. We can experience deep transformation through Divine energy that brings love into our being. This is the foundational basis of why The Dig works. To the degree Divine Love enters our pain is the degree the pain is healed.
But we should not feel bad if we are not ready to let it go at this moment, we can always come back to it in the future because it won't be going anywhere. And if our pain is motivating us to accomplish something important in our lives, we can choose to hold onto it until it no longer serves.