will beswick
05-10-11, 13:30
Hi all - I just thought I would take a little time here (Hi Nicky!) to put my thoughts down and see if I can help people. Some of you may be aware of my work - but all I will say is that 'whilst' you may be an intense individual (as most panic/anxiety sufferers are), there IS a way round this problem. It is NOT a quick fix and I know you wouldnt expect me to say this, but reading what I have on here and on other blogs/sites just makes me feel maybe what I have to say could help. I will start off with an advice column session with an American Lady Sara - big doubts about relationships but in this piece - I tell her about the importance of 'realising' that we 'can' have the temptation to panic - as this is 'actually' our mind cutting off from a particlualry stressful thought....we just don't 'have' to follow it up...
...The ‘answer’ to our plight ‘when’ we feel compromised is quite simply ‘not to’ do anything. My cut-off analogy simply shows us that ‘by the time’ we are ready to challenge our thoughts, this is actually when process 2 (our cut-offs/letting go of our thoughts) has JUST happened. Any further thought ‘investigation’ here is pointless – as we are ‘going back’ into thoughts/feelings that have just GONE. This is what catches so many of us out – we ‘think’ we need to investigate bad thoughts/feelings further when we ‘don’t’. We tense up to try to dig back to control/make sense of those now bygone thoughts and end up in a vicious circle of thought retrospection – trapped in a world of mind-racing + desperation...
Re Advice Column with Sara ''So in answer to this one - what I am saying is that I 'do not' follow up this temptation/cut-off point with tensing. That is our panic - and actually follows on very quickly 'after' our temptation. So, it is very much an awareness thing - that you just 'know' 'if' you have the temptation, there's no need to follow it up with panic 'tensing', as this takes more effort and 'is' forced…though like you say it is all 'mixed' in at the moment because you can't quite 'see' the separate processes at work. You will then just flow 'on' rather than stalling any 'longer'...so, a brief stall IS ok (as this is us ‘cutting off’ from our stressed predicament)...but I say brief, because otherwise you would then be going into that deliberate, though inadvertent ‘follow-on’ tensing and forcing yourself to retrospect back into things like ''why do I feel this way/I’m not normal'' etc. This is why I stress the importance of understanding Process 2, as it's the source of much confusion and actually the 'catalyst' for so much of our panic - we 'have' the temptation and 'think' we then 'have' to panic. Choice 'point', therefore, is 'when' we are actually letting go/cutting off from our thoughts - as we also 'see' this as our temptation point. Choice is ...do we do 'more' here by tensing up, or do we do 'nothing' and allow ourselves to flow on''
:)
...The ‘answer’ to our plight ‘when’ we feel compromised is quite simply ‘not to’ do anything. My cut-off analogy simply shows us that ‘by the time’ we are ready to challenge our thoughts, this is actually when process 2 (our cut-offs/letting go of our thoughts) has JUST happened. Any further thought ‘investigation’ here is pointless – as we are ‘going back’ into thoughts/feelings that have just GONE. This is what catches so many of us out – we ‘think’ we need to investigate bad thoughts/feelings further when we ‘don’t’. We tense up to try to dig back to control/make sense of those now bygone thoughts and end up in a vicious circle of thought retrospection – trapped in a world of mind-racing + desperation...
Re Advice Column with Sara ''So in answer to this one - what I am saying is that I 'do not' follow up this temptation/cut-off point with tensing. That is our panic - and actually follows on very quickly 'after' our temptation. So, it is very much an awareness thing - that you just 'know' 'if' you have the temptation, there's no need to follow it up with panic 'tensing', as this takes more effort and 'is' forced…though like you say it is all 'mixed' in at the moment because you can't quite 'see' the separate processes at work. You will then just flow 'on' rather than stalling any 'longer'...so, a brief stall IS ok (as this is us ‘cutting off’ from our stressed predicament)...but I say brief, because otherwise you would then be going into that deliberate, though inadvertent ‘follow-on’ tensing and forcing yourself to retrospect back into things like ''why do I feel this way/I’m not normal'' etc. This is why I stress the importance of understanding Process 2, as it's the source of much confusion and actually the 'catalyst' for so much of our panic - we 'have' the temptation and 'think' we then 'have' to panic. Choice 'point', therefore, is 'when' we are actually letting go/cutting off from our thoughts - as we also 'see' this as our temptation point. Choice is ...do we do 'more' here by tensing up, or do we do 'nothing' and allow ourselves to flow on''
:)