I'm continually delighted by the fact that my job as a mental health paraprofessional so often dovetails with my own desire for personal growth. On Saturday I used a Books-A-Million gift card which I procured from my girlfriend's parents at Christmas to buy a couple of therapy books which have already proven to be very useful. One of these - The Relaxation & Stress Reduction Workbook by Davis, Eshelman and McKay (sixth edition) - has a whole chapter on focusing, which in the book's therapeutic context is a kind of present awareness of where one's feelings are along with being able to articulate them. I guess it's pointing toward the classic therapy thing about getting in touch with your feelings and so forth. Anyway, Exercise 1 on page 119 is called "The Shy Animal at the Edge of the Woods". It's so simple yet so profound... Basically, it asks you to imagine that you are taking a walk on a beautiful day and happen to spot a wild animal looking back at you from a woodsy grove. You want to continue to watch the creature so you become as still as possible. The final question is "What are the qualities or attitudes you would embody so the animal won't get scared and run away?" I just love that analogy, because the inner landscape is exactly that delicate and tenuous. So often we lose touch with ourselves and pay no heed to the mind-body connection. This kind of redirection of focus hinted at in the above exercise allows one to get to a place where overwhelming emotions no longer override our judgment.
Monday, January 11, 2010
Presence
I'm continually delighted by the fact that my job as a mental health paraprofessional so often dovetails with my own desire for personal growth. On Saturday I used a Books-A-Million gift card which I procured from my girlfriend's parents at Christmas to buy a couple of therapy books which have already proven to be very useful. One of these - The Relaxation & Stress Reduction Workbook by Davis, Eshelman and McKay (sixth edition) - has a whole chapter on focusing, which in the book's therapeutic context is a kind of present awareness of where one's feelings are along with being able to articulate them. I guess it's pointing toward the classic therapy thing about getting in touch with your feelings and so forth. Anyway, Exercise 1 on page 119 is called "The Shy Animal at the Edge of the Woods". It's so simple yet so profound... Basically, it asks you to imagine that you are taking a walk on a beautiful day and happen to spot a wild animal looking back at you from a woodsy grove. You want to continue to watch the creature so you become as still as possible. The final question is "What are the qualities or attitudes you would embody so the animal won't get scared and run away?" I just love that analogy, because the inner landscape is exactly that delicate and tenuous. So often we lose touch with ourselves and pay no heed to the mind-body connection. This kind of redirection of focus hinted at in the above exercise allows one to get to a place where overwhelming emotions no longer override our judgment.
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