Bill
16-11-08, 02:39
This is something I was taught which I've found has helped me overcome fears.
Imagine you are walking along without a care in the world tackling every obstacle that stands in your way. However, with each obstacle you tackle, a small part sticks to your body until one day the weight becomes too much and you fall over.
You find it too much to pick yourself up as the weight is too heavy and it makes you breathless to attempt it but somehow you stagger back to your feet still carrying the weight that made you fall.
However, instead of the path still flat as before, you now see a hill but you now find it near impossible to climb it. However, at the top of a hill is a tree full of fruit and you are starving so you have to find a way to climb the hill.
You already feel too anxious after your fall but you have no choice than to climb this hill. With every step you take with your heavy load, you become more and more breathless but eventually you reach the top and feed.
However, your body is now exhausted and when you look down the other side of the hill you feel terrified but the fear of staying where you are is greater because you feel so breathless. Therefore, despite your exhaustion, you decide to run down the other side of the hill as fast as you can.
You reach the bottom and feel safer but you want to collapse because the ordeal has been too much to bear. After a while your body has relaxed but you still carry your heavy weight. You begin to feel hungry again but after the ordeal that you've just suffered, you feel you just can't face climbing the next hill for more food.
However, you know that if you don't attempt the climb you'll starve so once again you go through the same ordeal and lay exhausted once more after running down the next hill.
One day though you meet someone else on your path and together you climb the next hill. You sit together at the top of the hill, talking, eating and enjoying the view. During this time you feel the urge to run down the hill again so with this person you both leave.
However, for some reason the next hill doesn't feel so difficult to climb and you feel you're carrying less weight. You climb it together and you find you're able to stay a little longer before having to run back down again.
Gradually, the weight becomes much lighter and the fear of climbing the next hill becomes less. You find that you're able to stay at the top of the hill, even without the support of this person you met. Instead of running down the hill, you take a slow walk as you're enjoying the scenery.
The moral of the story -
The heavy weight is stress that gradually builds up on us without realising it until we break down under the weight which then causes panics every time we try to pick ourselves up again.
Imagine a graph with tall peaks and deep troughs. When we attempt to do something we're afraid of, our anxiety "peaks" which frightens us so we "run away" from our fear which then causes a "trough" because we feel so low from the fear and the effort it took. These create our hills.
If though we stay at the top of the hill, the anxiety Always gradually declines. As it declines our confidence builds, the fear subsides and gradually the heavy weight (stress) falls off so that our hills become easier to climb until once more they become a flat path.
Once the path becomes flat again, we learn that if we tackle too many obstacles, our weight will become too much again which will make us liable to fall again so as a result we learn our limits and how not to take on too much.
As for the person we meet after our fall - the cbt therapist.:hugs:
Imagine you are walking along without a care in the world tackling every obstacle that stands in your way. However, with each obstacle you tackle, a small part sticks to your body until one day the weight becomes too much and you fall over.
You find it too much to pick yourself up as the weight is too heavy and it makes you breathless to attempt it but somehow you stagger back to your feet still carrying the weight that made you fall.
However, instead of the path still flat as before, you now see a hill but you now find it near impossible to climb it. However, at the top of a hill is a tree full of fruit and you are starving so you have to find a way to climb the hill.
You already feel too anxious after your fall but you have no choice than to climb this hill. With every step you take with your heavy load, you become more and more breathless but eventually you reach the top and feed.
However, your body is now exhausted and when you look down the other side of the hill you feel terrified but the fear of staying where you are is greater because you feel so breathless. Therefore, despite your exhaustion, you decide to run down the other side of the hill as fast as you can.
You reach the bottom and feel safer but you want to collapse because the ordeal has been too much to bear. After a while your body has relaxed but you still carry your heavy weight. You begin to feel hungry again but after the ordeal that you've just suffered, you feel you just can't face climbing the next hill for more food.
However, you know that if you don't attempt the climb you'll starve so once again you go through the same ordeal and lay exhausted once more after running down the next hill.
One day though you meet someone else on your path and together you climb the next hill. You sit together at the top of the hill, talking, eating and enjoying the view. During this time you feel the urge to run down the hill again so with this person you both leave.
However, for some reason the next hill doesn't feel so difficult to climb and you feel you're carrying less weight. You climb it together and you find you're able to stay a little longer before having to run back down again.
Gradually, the weight becomes much lighter and the fear of climbing the next hill becomes less. You find that you're able to stay at the top of the hill, even without the support of this person you met. Instead of running down the hill, you take a slow walk as you're enjoying the scenery.
The moral of the story -
The heavy weight is stress that gradually builds up on us without realising it until we break down under the weight which then causes panics every time we try to pick ourselves up again.
Imagine a graph with tall peaks and deep troughs. When we attempt to do something we're afraid of, our anxiety "peaks" which frightens us so we "run away" from our fear which then causes a "trough" because we feel so low from the fear and the effort it took. These create our hills.
If though we stay at the top of the hill, the anxiety Always gradually declines. As it declines our confidence builds, the fear subsides and gradually the heavy weight (stress) falls off so that our hills become easier to climb until once more they become a flat path.
Once the path becomes flat again, we learn that if we tackle too many obstacles, our weight will become too much again which will make us liable to fall again so as a result we learn our limits and how not to take on too much.
As for the person we meet after our fall - the cbt therapist.:hugs: