Posted by partlycloudy on January 25, 2005, at 7:08:15
In reply to Re: an assignment like my therapist would give me » Dr. Bob, posted by Angel Girl on January 25, 2005, at 6:34:51
I am so glad you're still here, Angel Girl.
I want to ask you about the next step after acknowledging the hurt you express as anger (as do I). What do you do with that hurt? What can you do to help heal yourself? One of the things that has helped me is to take "myself" out of the equation. That is, if I feel that someone's actions or words has hurt me, I examine the exchange and think of how it might have gone if it had happened to someone else. Would there have been the same reaction from someone else? What I find is that I can easily become hypersensitive - OK, let's call it paranoid (because that's what *I* think it is) - and my reactions are always, in my case, way out of proportion to what's actually taken place.
My latest attempt at reigning in this behaviour is to sit on my hands. When I get hurt or upset, instead of expressing myself immediately, I give the whole thing 24 hours. For me to digest. For me to process what happened. For me to forget. I can't think of an instance since I started doing this that my mountain hasn't shrunk to a molehill.
I'm not at all sure it's the healthiest way to cope with my emotions, but it's making my life more peaceful.
partlycloudy
poster:partlycloudy
thread:447246
URL: http://www.dr-bob.org/babble/psycho/20050122/msgs/447280.html