Redirect: The surprising new science of psychological change

[Galaxia2002]

I did a redirect exercise regard to an traumatic event related to a friend and it works fine!! Now I am exited and I was planning to do it in a continuous base, i.e daily, but I have just read this article in sott http://www.sott.net/articles/show/239884-Writing-to-Heal where it says:

If writing can have such a dramatic effect on our lives, does that mean that we would all be best off keeping a daily diary? Not necessarily, Pennebaker says. While his work is not inconsistent with diary keeping, it acts more as a kind of life course correction. It allows people to step back for a moment and evaluate their lives.

"I'm not convinced that having people write every day is a good idea," Pennebaker says. "I'm not even convinced that people should write about a horrible event for more than a couple of weeks. You risk getting into a sort of navel gazing or cycle of self-pity.

I want to treat many different traumatic events of my baggage and even try with non traumatic events as thoughts that hinder me to advance, obsessions that I have detected in myself, etc. and this can take a lot of time. I am not clear if Dr. Pennebaker refers here that is no beneficial to write too much about the same event or to writting in general continuously even if were about events with varied cause (my case). Should I do a pause after each 4 days writting before start another?

 

[SolarMother]

Although I am not very good (and useful for others) example of that. I did tried with writing some years ago (I remember that you Laura were suggesting that long before the "science" discovered that). But, I never had enough patience to make it good. Instead of that I invented my "way" which is actually just recapitulation. I did describing the events in narrative way to myself (thinking about that). And I realize that to make it good and having some understandings of that I had to let some time from the event pass. In that way it was much less stressful and painful, and I was having more benefit of the whole traumatic event (benefit in the way of understanding it and having something learned from that).

Maybe it is time now for writing, I'm more calm and having much more patience now. I guess that the writing is also more quick and precise.

It's always been a struggle to get words down for me too, because of heavy deliberations on everything formulated, it had to fit with bigger picture, bogging down emotional flow by the intellectual centers dominance. With this 1st 4-day run of the exercise I sort of let my thinking be detached or serve what the emotional /motor had to tell, by letting fingers flow and let intellect structure what was already on its way. Relaxing that connection was always the problem, thinking too much about what the emotional should be doing, but this time it was different. I put down a loose frame like; 1 st day= the past. 2nd day = now. 3rd day = recap. 4th day =future : loose frame narrative was good for bypassing the inner protest over fixed formats. Doing EE beforehand. Looking away from the keyboard and screen to not get into the feedback loops of the environment, so to speak, letting whatever needs to come down, come. I'm no ace at typewriting but fingers found their way. Not worrying about editing or correcting symbols/ punctuation while writing, later if someone else is to read.

The renegociation or re-threading aspect this thread offers to recapitulation has helped me make alot more sense of recapping.

Learned much on this thread.
I also have the same issue with writing. I over-direct it, instead of letting it flow. I can't get my ideas out or I feel misunderstood--not clear due to over processing the writing. I think that's it?

So, the above was helpful to me. Years and years ago I took a creative writing class. The teacher would not let me write with my right hand (being right-handed.) I had to use my left hand which was slower and messier, but it worked in the end---writing came forth that I never could have imagined...and if flowed forth. Maybe this is a helpful idea for others on the forum with the issue of left brain dominance when writing.
So, I am going to employ this method if need be on the first of the 4 days of writing if I am unable to let it come out in chaos...(or longer than the first day) for both sets of 4 day writing: remote viewing trauma; and past, present and future writing.
My astro chart shows a gift for writing, yet I resist it. I think I resist the chaos part that then leads to the order.

 

[Laura]

If you have a series of traumatic experiences in your life, how about just writing about your life in general for the exercises? Kinda lump stuff together as "I had all these traumas of a certain sort... blah blah"...

 

[Gimpy]

Learned much on this thread.
I also have the same issue with writing. I over-direct it, instead of letting it flow. I can't get my ideas out or I feel misunderstood--not clear due to over processing the writing. I think that's it?

Perfectionism is a writers Achilles heel. (Or it can be.)

Have you tried doodling or scribbling? In an art therapy class once, we scribbled and doodled on a notepad for fifteen minutes before journaling, to loosen up our bodies and let go of any tension.

It might help you let go enough to write. Writing with the opposite hand is another exercise I remember doing too.

If you have a series of traumatic experiences in your life, how about just writing about your life in general for the exercises? Kinda lump stuff together as "I had all these traumas of a certain sort... blah blah"...

Yeah, for me it tends to be 'Yadda yadda yadda...." and I've never seen single Seinfeld episode.

 

[Buddy]

Perfectionism is a writers Achilles heel. (Or it can be.)

Dang, I was going to say that, 'cause I agree...the thinking center can be such a control freak. :)

Have you tried doodling or scribbling?
[...]
It might help you let go enough to write.

When I was in English 101 and needed to write, yet felt like there was some kind of 'block', I wrote about the block and how frustrating it can feel to not have something to write about and blah, blah, blah.

I see chaos as 'noise' (from information theory's signal-noise ratio) that goes with the signal but just needs decoding to be useful. Maybe because it comes back from the future? Or, maybe a writer's block is really just a feeling that says: 'take this detour first and talk about it to get around it'.

If you have a series of traumatic experiences in your life, how about just writing about your life in general for the exercises? Kinda lump stuff together as "I had all these traumas of a certain sort... blah blah"...

When I journal, that's kinda like what I do. I often get to a place, though, where I feel a definite change of consciousness, so of course I don't think the same way anymore and tend to ask myself: 'so, why bother?' until I realize that change IS the point! Dang, what a dummy! :D

 

[anart]

Perfectionism is a writers Achilles heel. (Or it can be.)

Dang, I was going to say that, 'cause I agree...the thinking center can be such a control freak. :)

It's been my experience that perfectionism is a child of the emotional center running the thinking, not the thinking center itself. The thinking center is 'cool' - perfectionism is 'hot'. ;) Of course, that's just my take on it, and there are probably several different modes of perfectionism.

 

[Buddy]

Perfectionism is a writers Achilles heel. (Or it can be.)

Dang, I was going to say that, 'cause I agree...the thinking center can be such a control freak. :)

It's been my experience that perfectionism is a child of the emotional center running the thinking, not the thinking center itself. The thinking center is 'cool' - perfectionism is 'hot'. ;) Of course, that's just my take on it, and there are probably several different modes of perfectionism.

A new way to look at the issue. Makes perfect sense to me in a way that won't be forgotten. Thanks for that! :)

 

[Ollie]

Perfectionism is a writers Achilles heel. (Or it can be.)

Dang, I was going to say that, 'cause I agree...the thinking center can be such a control freak. :)

It's been my experience that perfectionism is a child of the emotional center running the thinking, not the thinking center itself. The thinking center is 'cool' - perfectionism is 'hot'. ;) Of course, that's just my take on it, and there are probably several different modes of perfectionism.

I have to agree, I'm coming round to that way of 'thinking' now. In the past I thought my intellectual centre was running my emaciated and suppressed emotional centre, now I'm beginning to realise that although it's underdeveloped and denied, my emotional centre still continues to run the show in a very subtle manner! The Predator's Mind is very cunning in its operation.

 

[Nienna]

If you have a series of traumatic experiences in your life, how about just writing about your life in general for the exercises? Kinda lump stuff together as "I had all these traumas of a certain sort... blah blah"...

I found that while writing about one experience, as I got to the fourth day, I was able to tie it in with another big emotional problem I have and wrote about that on the fourth day. I figured I'd take a couple of days break and then start in on what I found while writing about my other problem.

I do think that this sort of writing is very worthwhile. I can see how there are underlying connections from one program to another and how they are all connected in various ways. At least this is what I was seeing in myself.

 

[Laura]

Another very useful thing to do is to simply write an autobiography where you touch on just those things that were traumatic and had a powerful impact on you. Then you can see the "line of force" of your life and gain understanding of the meaning, what you have learned from these experiences (or can learn) and how they made you the way you are for better or worse. Then you can frame them so that they make you the way they are for the better.

 

[SeekinTruth]

Another very useful thing to do is to simply write an autobiography where you touch on just those things that were traumatic and had a powerful impact on you. Then you can see the "line of force" of your life and gain understanding of the meaning, what you have learned from these experiences (or can learn) and how they made you the way you are for better or worse. Then you can frame them so that they make you the way they are for the better.

How accurate would the autobiography have to be? In other words, could we trust our memories or do we need to ask others if possible to verify certain things and get another perspective on events? Or is this aspect of accuracy not important in this exercise?

 

[Laura]

Another very useful thing to do is to simply write an autobiography where you touch on just those things that were traumatic and had a powerful impact on you. Then you can see the "line of force" of your life and gain understanding of the meaning, what you have learned from these experiences (or can learn) and how they made you the way you are for better or worse. Then you can frame them so that they make you the way they are for the better.

How accurate would the autobiography have to be? In other words, could we trust our memories or do we need to ask others if possible to verify certain things and get another perspective on events? Or is this aspect of accuracy not important in this exercise?

Well, read "Amazing Grace". Obviously, I left out TONS of stuff and only included those things that had a strong influence on how my thinking/emotions developed. (With some attention to make things flow from one episode to another.)

ADDED: Writing "Grace" was one of the most therapeutic things I've ever done. There is something hugely relieving about describing your experiences as objectively as possible and stepping back from them, and seeing how sometimes very bad things actually make you a much better person.

 

[SeekinTruth]

OK, thanks Laura. I guess just try to be as objective as possible....

By the way, I did read "Amazing Grace" recently and it was excellent!

 

[mada85]

If you have a series of traumatic experiences in your life, how about just writing about your life in general for the exercises? Kinda lump stuff together as "I had all these traumas of a certain sort... blah blah"...

I found that while writing about one experience, as I got to the fourth day, I was able to tie it in with another big emotional problem I have and wrote about that on the fourth day. I figured I'd take a couple of days break and then start in on what I found while writing about my other problem.

I do think that this sort of writing is very worthwhile. I can see how there are underlying connections from one program to another and how they are all connected in various ways. At least this is what I was seeing in myself.

I found something very similar recently. I was writing about my back to work issues and I discovered that the traumatic episode when I was left, as a child of about three or four, at a nursery has actually influenced much of my life in quite subtle ways. The discovery was quite surprising, and the insights and connections unfolded as I was writing! On about the third session, I found myself writing about my mother's point of view in the whole thing. I was also able to reframe the experience and write a new narrative about my adult relationship to the childhood experience.

This writing exercise is incredibly powerful and helpful.

 

[Galaxia2002]

Thanks for the suggestions!