Introduction
Thoughts are often how we speak to ourselves. It seems we
learn to think in childhood when people might tell us things, e.g. look three
times before crossing the road and to remember this, we might say this out loud
to ourselves a few times then after a while we don’t say it out loud but we
still stay it to ourselves and this seems the origin of thinking.
In a thought then we are both speaker and listener and we
are in relation to ourselves, in the same way as when you were started
thinking, by someone telling you something.
As you work through these questions if you find it difficult
to think of the answer, you might also ask yourself what would it be like if
someone else was saying this to me.
The exercise has two parts, one to understand the thought,
which can be helpful in itself and one to generate a helpful response.
Understanding
1.
Thought
a.
Choose a thought that you’d like to work on. If
it’s a question e.g. what if I’m late tomorrow, turn it into a statement. I
think I will be late tomorrow which means my boss will be annoyed
2.
Trigger
a.
What type of thing happens for you to have this
thought? Is it something you do or something you experience?
i.
So when x
type of thing happens I have this thought
b.
When this trigger happens how do you feel
emotionally before you have this thought?
3.
Helpful Intention
a.
What are you trying to do and how by saying this
thought to yourself?
i.
So
when you think you are effectively speaking to yourself. As you speak you are
acting, for instance you might be comforting, warning, joking, criticising etc.
As you are acting you are doing this for a certain reason. So you might say in saying this to myself I
am joking to amuse myself, or I am warning myself of danger to protect myself
4.
Effects
a.
What are the effects of this thought? When you
say this to yourself and you hear it, how does it affect you?
i.
Emotionally
ii.
How does it make you act afterwards?
iii.
How does it make you see the world and yourself?
5.
History
a.
Have there been any influences to either this
thought, or this way of speaking to yourself
i.
People?
ii.
Events?
6.
Personification
a.
If you imagined a type of person who was saying
this thought or type of thought to you, how would you describe them?
7.
Summary
a.
You may want to summarise you above answers
i.
When x
happens
ii.
It
makes me feel y
iii.
Then I
say z to myself
iv.
As I
say this to myself I’m doing x to myself in order to do y
v.
The
effects of this are z
vi.
Its
understandable that I might do this due to the following influences
Sometimes before trying to generate helpful responses it can
be useful to generate some feelings of calm, safety and compassion.
If this is something you’d like to do, then see the appendix:
Calm=Soothing Breathing
Safety=Creating a safe place
Compassion=Creating a
compassionate ideal
You may want to choose all or none of these, whatever you
find helpful.
As you work through this exercise, as you think to yourself
you might want to use a kind, supportive tone to yourself, or if you decide to
write instead again you might like to write in a kind supportive way to
yourself.
1.
Validation
a.
When the trigger happened, what was the emotion
you felt that you wrote above
2.
Kindly offer alternative thoughts
a.
Interpreting the situation
a.
Thinking about facts
i.
How would I think about the situation, if I
wasn’t feeling the feeling I was feeling?
ii.
How does my current emotional state change how I
am seeing things?
iii.
Are there any other ways of thinking about the
present situation
iv.
How will I feel about this event in 3 years’
time?
b.
Thinking about my response
a.
Have I managed setbacks before?
c.
Thinking about my rules
b.
Am I making unreasonable demands on the world
and people
d.
Being supportive
c.
What would I say to support a friend in a
similar position?
e.
Being empathic
d.
f the trigger situation involves someone else,
then how can I understand how the others behaviour is reasonable for them?
Summary
You may find it helpful to write a summary of your thoughts,
such that should this thought arise again in this situation you may think about
it differently
Appendix
(The following exercises come from Paul Gilbert's Compassion based therapy)
Creating a Safe Place
In this imagery
we are going to try to create a place
in our mind – a place that could give you the feeling of safeness, calmness. If you are depressed or distressed
those might be difficult feelings to generate, but the act of trying, and the
sense of it being the sort of place you would like to be, is the important
thing. So remember, it is the act of trying the practice that is important,
feelings may follow later.
The place may be
a beautiful wood where the leaves of the trees dance gently in the breeze.
Powerful shafts of light caress the ground with brightness. Imagine a wind
gently on your face and a sense of the light dancing in front of you. Hear the
rustle of the leaves on the trees; imagine a smell of woodiness or a sweetness
of the air. Your place may be a beautiful beach with a crystal blue sea
stretching out to the horizon where it meets the ice blue sky. Under foot is soft,
white, fine sand that is silky to the touch.
You can hear the gentle hushing of the waves on the sand. Imagine the sun on your face, sense the light
dancing in diamond spectacles on the water, imagine the soft sand under your
feet as your toes dig into it and feel a light breeze gently touch your face.
Your safe place may be by a log fire where you can hear the crackle of the logs
burning and the smell of wood smoke. These are examples of possible pleasant
places that will bring a sense of pleasure to you, which is good, but the key
focus is on a feeling of safeness for you. These examples are only suggestions
and yours might be different to these.
It helps your
attention if you practice focusing on each of your senses; what you can imagine
seeing, feeling, hearing and any other sensory aspect. When you bring your safe
place to mind allow your body to relax. Think about your facial expression;
allow it to have a soft smile of pleasure at being there.
It is also
useful to imagine that as this is your own unique safe place, created by you so
the place itself takes joy in you being
here. Allow yourself to feel how your safe place has pleasure
in you being here. Explore your feelings when you imagine this place is happy
with you being there.
Creating a compassionate Ideal
First, engage
with your soothing breathing rhythm and compassionate expression; bring to mind
your safe place, the sounds, the feel, and the sights. Remind yourself that
this is your place and it delights in you being here. This may now be the place
where you wish to create and meet your compassionate image. You can imagine
your image being created out of a mist in front of you, for example or just
appearing. The image may be walking towards you. [Note: In Buddhist practice the student imagines a clear blue sky from which
various images emerge].
This exercise is
to help you build up a compassionate
image, for you to work with and develop (you can have more than one if you
wish, and they can change over time). Whatever image comes to mind or you
choose to work with, note that it is your
creation and therefore your own personal ideal - what you would really like
from feeling cared for/about. However, in this practice it is important that
you try to give your image certain qualities. These are
superhuman – complete and perfect compassionate qualities that are there for
you to practice creating and bringing to mind. They include:
A deep commitment to you – a desire to help you cope
with and relieve your suffering, and take joy in your happiness. (Note: This is
key from the evolutionary point of view)
Strength of mind – it
is not overwhelmed by your pain or distress, but remains present, enduring it
with you.
Wisdom - gained through experience - it truly understands the
struggles we go through in life. We all ‘just find ourselves here’ doing the
best we can.
Warmth - conveyed by kindness, gentleness, caring and openness.
Acceptance - it is never judgemental or critical, it understands your
struggles and accepts you as you are. However remember too that it is deeply
committed to help you and support you.
Please don’t worry about
remembering all of these qualities and emotions because you will be guided
through them again when we do the imagery.
Here are some questions
that might help people build an image:
·
Would you want your
ideal compassionate image to feel/look/seem old or young; to be male or female
(or non-human looking e.g. an animal, sea or light)?
·
What colours and
sounds are associated with the qualities of wisdom, strength, warmth and non-judgement?
·
What would help you
sense their commitment and kindness for you?
One
of the key experiences is that your image really
wants for you to be free of suffering, and/or to be able to deal with the
difficulties, and to flourish. It knows that we all just find ourselves here,
living as we do, trying the make the best of our minds and lives. It
understands that our minds are difficult, that emotions can run riot in us and
this is not our fault.
Practice
experiencing what it's like to focus on the feeling that another mind really
values you and cares about you unconditionally. Now focus on the idea that your
compassionate ideal is looking at you with great warmth. Imagine that they have
the following deep desires for you:
·
That you be well
·
That you be happy
·
That you be free of suffering
The key to the exercise is not the visual clarity. Indeed some people don't really see
their images in any clear way at all. The key to the exercise is the focus and
practice on the compassionate desires coming into you. Here the practice is to
imagine another mind wishing for you to flourish.
Now, you might have thought ‘yes but this is not
real, I want somebody real to care for me’. That is, of course, very
understandable and even doing this exercise could make you feel sad. That is
because your intuitive wisdom recognises seeking for connectedness. The point
to remember is that what we are trying to tackle is your own attitudes towards
yourself, particularly feelings of shame or self-criticism. While it may indeed
be desirable to find people who are caring, it's also very desirable that you
create these feelings within you - so that you gradually learn to focus on
compassion for yourself, rather than self-criticism. So try not to see it as an
‘either/all’, but as quite different processes between the compassion you give
to yourself, and the compassion you'd like other people to give to you.
Soothing Breathing
Okay, to start with, find a place where you can sit
comfortably and won’t be disturbed. Keeping your back straight, place both feet
flat on the floor about shoulder width apart and rest your hands comfortably on
your knees or in your lap. If you’re sitting on the floor or on a small
meditation stool, you may like to have your legs crossed. Try and find a
position that’s comfortable for you but don’t slouch – your back should be
straight. Sometimes lying flat on the floor can be helpful if that’s the most
comfortable position for you to start your work. The idea is not to relax so
much that you become sleepy but to develop a certain type of alert focus and
awareness. Now just gently focus on your breathing. Breathe through your nose,
and as you breathe in, let the air reach down to your diaphragm – that’s just
at the bottom of your rib cage, in the upside-down ‘V’. Place a hand on your
diaphragm with the thumb pointing upwards and notice how your hand lifts and
falls with your breath. Feel your diaphragm (i.e. the area just below your
ribs) move as you breathe in and out. Do this for a few breaths until you feel
comfortable with it and it seems natural and easy to you. Next, place your
hands on either side of your rib cage. This is slightly more awkward because
your elbows will be pointing outwards. Now breathe gently. Notice how your rib
cage expands out against your hands, your lungs acting like bellows. This is
the movement of the breathing you’re interested in – you feel your lungs
expanding around you. So basically you want a breath to come in and down while
expanding your rib cage at the sides. Your breathing should feel comfortable to
you and not forced. As a rough guide, it’s about three seconds on the
in-breath, a slight pause, then three seconds on the out-breath. But you must
find the rhythm that suits you. As you practise, try to replenish the air in
your lungs but not in a forced way.
Now just notice your breathing and experiment with it.
Breathe a little faster or a little slower until you find a pattern that, for
you, seems to be your own soothing rhythm, which feels natural to you. As you
engage with it, you’ll feel your body slowing down. It’s as if you’re checking
into and linking up with the rhythm. You’re letting your body set the rhythm,
breathe for you, and you’re paying attention to it. Rest your eyes so that
they’re looking down at an angle of about 45 degrees. You may wish to close
them but be careful – you may become very sleepy. Now spend 30 seconds or so
focusing on your breathing, just noticing the breath coming through your nose,
down into your diaphragm, your diaphragm lifting, your ribs gently expanding
sideways, and then the air moving out, through your nose. You can check on this
by, first, putting a hand on your diaphragm and feeling it lifting and falling
with your breathing. Next, put your hands on each side of your lower ribs and
feel them being pushed apart as you breathe. Notice the difference. It’s an
‘all-round experience’ of the breath coming into your lungs and expanding them.
Notice the sensations in your body as the air flows in and out through your
nose. Just focus on that for 30 seconds (longer if you like) and sense a slight
slowing of your breathing . . . Feel your body slowing down as you find and
slip into your soothing rhythm. The important thing is to find your own rhythm
rather than impose one. As for a focus for your attention, once you’re
comfortable with your breathing, you can bring your attention to the inside of
the tip of your nose. Try it and see how useful it is as a focal point for you.
Gilbert, Paul. The Compassionate Mind (Compassion Focused
Therapy) (p. 226). Little, Brown Book Group. Kindle Edition.
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