Steps 1-2-3-4-5
Below are some very simple steps all healing goes through.
1) Determine to free yourself — “I am willing to see this differently.”
Healing cannot be forced upon you. It needs to be invited before it comes to help.
2) Assure yourself that you are safe here & now…
Look around you, make sure that you are safe, here and now. Assure yourself that your story happened in the past and the past is gone. Breathe into any tension or tightness, bodily sensations, you notice. Let the breath massage all the fear and tension out of you.
3) Tell or write your story in the first person, or as if it is happening to someone else…
When you tell and write your story, it’s easier to get a handle on the core issue involved and to see how it describes an encounter with fear. So please tell your story to a trusted other, or write it down on paper. You can keep it or throw it away. You can keep your story short and sweet or you can develop it, modify and add to it as you remember more details. Filling in blanks in the story will bring more clarity. Writing it over and over again helps to distance yourself from it.
Truman Capote, author of the non-fiction novel In Cold Blood, said that he wrote about his painful childhood over and over again until his angst was on the paper and out of him.
4) As you write, observe your thoughts, attitudes & bodily sensations…
If you haven’t yet, please watch the short videos, “The body is your roadmap for healing” and Healing ABC 123.
Trauma lodges in the body. As you write and read and rewrite your story, identify the location of the bodily sensations that come up as you write and describe them in terms of position, size, color, shape, texture. If you have words for the sensations, then use them too — anger, sorrow, guilt, terror, boredom, grief, etc. The sensations might shift from one part of the body to another. Follow them wherever they go. Pay close attention to them and take careful note of them. They are calling for your attention – that is often all they need.
5) Focus and breathe and watch them disappear…
Focus all your awareness on them. Tell yourself you are safe here and now. Breathe into them and often they simply evaporate.
Remember…
All healing is essentially the release from fear.
Healing is always certain.