Body awareness
When I was seeing Bob, she asked me to complete a list of 10 things that I enjoyed involving the senses or activities. This exercise was aimed at improving my body awareness and giving options for distraction or grounding when I am stressed. I’m really struggling at the moment, so I thought this would be a good time to share my homework and remind myself of the options available to me… It also will force me to try and expand my lists in the hopes of eventually reach 10 items for at least one of the senses.
Increasing awareness of the body… |
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| Visual/Sight | Sound/Hearing | Activities | Touch | Smell |
| Rainbows | Listening to music | Feeding the ducks | Stroking our cat | Lavender |
| Ocean | Child’s laughter | Working | Warmth of the Sun | Roses |
| Flowers | Beach | Going to the movies/watching DVD’s | Soft toys | Beach |
| Beach | Forest | Playing computer games | Water | Forest |
| Forest | Birds | Reading | Soft plants | Fresh baking |
| Photography | Waterfalls | Photography | Cinnamon | |
| Fields – open spaces | Walking | Freshly cut grass | ||
| Animals | Writing | |||
| Cartoon characters like Winnie the Pooh | Art | |||
| Chatting to friends online | ||||
Additions based on commenters suggestions in italics – Thank you :)
I added to each of the columns by writing it out here :) I can do this, can’t I?
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Now playing: Cat Stevens – Moonshadow
via FoxyTunes
Mothers and clinical psychologist
We’re seeing a new clinical psychologist at the moment to try and move forward in the therapy and healing process. It’s an interesting time as we all hide more so that she doesn’t see the craziness that is our life. Part of the reason for seeing her is to try to learn more skills to cope with the anxiety and triggers. I’m not sure that this is going to happen as it’s mainly been a concentration on breathing exercises which we already know. We’ve got another 6 sessions with her, so will see what happens…
Awhile ago we mentioned that the mother was going to come up to see us sometime, so she asked that if she does that we arrange it around one of the sessions so she can see how we interact with the mother and find out a little bit more about the past. We had that session yesterday and it was not fun! It was all going OK as she asked the general questions and asked to talk to the mother alone for awhile. But then she asked to talk to us alone and asked us to tell the mother how she could help us. Well it was a good way to check whether we could put the breathing exercises into practice! We’ve never wanted anything from anyone, especially from the mother. So we just fumbled around, and because we had to say something said that what she was doing was fine.
Then the mother had to tell us what she wanted so that she could help us. She talked about not blocking her out. That’s all we do with everyone, even those that haven’t hurt us, so why would we change that pattern and let her in when she’s hurt us so much?
Just keep breathing…
