“Stop thinking about it - deal with it when it comes…if it comes”. Super effective in theory, but in practice? How can I not think about it?
Cognitive Based Therapy tells me ‘Thoughts are just thoughts’. Mindfulness tells me ‘Stay with the thoughts, tune into the feeling, have no agenda, and they will dissolve, or at least soften.” Often these work for me, but last week they didn’t.
However, a person with far more serious difficulties had explained how she uses ‘boxing’. She puts the thought of her pending treatment results in a box and closes it: “I can’t do anything about it, close it, and I’ll open it later". Someone else with serious chronic pain told me the same thing, in his case putting it in a box, “I realise it’s not all that I am.”
Why am I telling you this? I needed to park loud thoughts this week and ‘boxing’ has been very helpful. From my experience it’s good to have a variety of ‘treatments’ in the tool-box.
Author: JD
Image by Pexels from Pixabay
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