Put the distress on a shelf. Put it in a box. Push it away. This doesn’t mean that you’re going to lock away your pain and throw away the key, but it does mean that you’re going to put it temporarily on hold.
Call up the image in your mind’s eye of a deep basement dungeon with lots of shelves. Picture yourself walking down the damp stone steps. Reach inside yourself, pull out all of the darkness and pain and put it up onto the shelves. Tell it to stay there for a while. Then walk out of the dungeon, close the door and climb up the steps. You will come back to it; you will work on it with your therapist. Right now, push it away. This is a way to give yourself a break from the pain until you can return to Wise Mind. A Wise Mind knows that the “24/7 All Pain TV Channel” isn’t going to help you at all. Time to turn off the tv, push it away and wait until you can return to work on it again. |
This technique encourages us to visualize whatever uncomfortable emotional states we are experiencing as shifting. If you are feeling small and powerless, push that image away by visualizing yourself getting stronger and more powerful. If you are feeling anger at a particular person, visualize that person as shrinking away. Remember that none of these techniques are designed to invalidate or deny your current emotional experience – simply to transform powerful emotions until you are in a better state of mind to effectively process them.
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Distract by Pushing Away – Imagine yourself pushing the stressful situation away from yourself as hard as you can, and then building a wall around yourself.
Imagine putting the emotional pain in a box, with a lock, on a shelf. When the thought tries to return, refuse to let it. Direct your concentration to other, more positive thoughts. Note: This method doesn’t resolve the problem, but it gives you temporary respite from the distress |