"What is often perceived as failure, is simply a matter of lack of specialized education. Emotional & thought management fall into this group".....Elizabeth Bohorquez, RN, C.Ht
AWAKENING
Coming out of the closet with a collection of perceived failures & a list of personal short-comings takes courage. I remember Aida telling me that she felt "nude." As she explained it, "I never shown these things to anyone before & quite honestly, I've never wanted to look at them. In fact, I really don't want to look at them now. The idea of giving them up is also frightening to me, because who will I be without them?"
Aida hasn't been able to separate her mature, adult-self from that of her disorderly eating issues. In fact, she still isn't aware that she has two separate kinds of eating disorders & that she, in her mature, adult form, will be managing both of them. As she learns the practice of heightened awareness, the divisions will become clearer & in so doing, it will become easier for her to manage the different facets.
Aida has lots of personal power, or resilience to bank on. Just for starters, she is a successful business woman, as well as a great mother, daughter & friend. She is NOT her eating disorders, nor is she her body, nor her mind. These all stand apart from the "authentic Aida" & as she comes to awareness of this, she will be able to relax into the process of creative healing.
Aida will learn to build mind bridges to her resilience or resources & in so doing, she will uncover more & more, perhaps some going way back to the time when she was just a baby. Interactive Self-Hypnosis is a powerful awakening tool that she & I will utilize for this part of her work. Few of us have taken the time to participate in this kind of mind work. It's really quite easy & everyone can learn to do it.
MIND EXERCISE
I'm going to ask Aida to relax deeply into the moment. She has already worked with me & has reinforced her ability to relax utilizing an mp3 for this purpose. Because of her preparation, she can be in a ready mind & body state in just about 30 seconds. Within a week or so, she will be able to do this in any moment she chooses. She will close her eyes gently & follow my suggestions, first locating a path that will take her back to earlier times.
Aida is in her adult, mature mindstate & is carrying a basket to hold her past resources. This is an embedded suggestion to her subconscious mind. It's one of positive expectation & will ready the mind for releasing her memories of earlier power. Earlier adult-selves & children of all ages come to greet her, all carrying gifts for the basket. Each is clearly labeled with a picture or words describing her inner power.
While Aida may not be able to read these during this time of deep relaxation, more than likely she will have many break-through memories later in the day. She also realizes that many gifts come from areas of her life where she may have perceived failure in the past, as our greatest strengths are located within these experiences. This is indeed good new for Aida who has been battling weight issues for a good part of her life.
SCHOOL IN THE MIND
I like to teach in self-hypnotic trance & this is quite easy to do, whether I'm using the written word or the spoken word. Metaphor or specialized imagery is my vehicle for this. The school-house is one of my favorite over-arching images. Most of us can think or visualize an old-fashioned school house, complete with bell & playground. The teacher inside this school house is the Higher or Mature Self, thereby giving Aida the opportunity to work on knowing this part of her, her main player & power source. Sitting inside the classroom are her child emotional states, each wearing a teeshirt with their names on the front. Some of these emotions are quite big & have been around a long time, but they are still children. In the past, Aida was afraid of them & that is why they were hidden, but no longer. Now they are in school & ready to learn new, healthy disciplines.
As the mature, adult Aida presents the new "game plan & rules", she will get a sense of her own power & for her, this is completely new in managing her eating issues, although she has been successful with this in other parts of her life. The reslience that she gathered in her basket, sits in testimony to this. In fact, the bigger eating disorder emotions are busy looking at that power right now.
While this may seem like child's play, it is far from that. The subconscious mind is the creative-child mind & responds well to these types of images & metaphors. In fact, once the mind engages, it will want to detail the imaginology even more & in so doing, bring forth the needed changes & motivation for Aida to change course.
THOUGHTS ARE THINGS
Aida had never thought or her thoughts as "things." In fact, she rarely thought about her thoughts at all, other than to react to them & to follow their directions. Never once did she consider that she could actually change all of them IF she wanted to do. As far as she was concerned, there was little choice, but as we discussed this further, she had to admit that she didn't follow the direction of her thoughts in all parts of her life. In fact, in her business life & in her parenting life, she dismissed many a thought. This awareness will help her to know that she can & will do the same in her eating disordered department.
In the school-house Aida asked her emotions to give her any & all thoughts that were not in keeping with the new, healthy disciplines we were designing. As Aida tells it, "My goodness. I never realized there were so many. I imagined that these kids were emptying their pockets onto my desk & while it looked like a bunch of paper clips, rubber bands & even a few worms, I knew that these were the thoughts!"
MIND EXERCISE
I asked Aida to relax deeply into the moment inside the school house & to have all of the emotional kids do the same. When everyone was quiet & peaceful, she simply pointed to them & a golden circle was placed around each one. She came to understand that this was a healing circle & the presence of all of this inner healing could be felt in her own body. Change was on the way....
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