Stress Center Peer Support

I figured i'd go ahead and make a thread for this after someone had mentioned that they were talking to Carolyn about their negative thoughts and how do you replace negative thoughts on paper when you have so many of them...the answer to her question was to pick the theme...the theme is the root as another person mentioned that we are saying the same negative things but in many many many diffrent and creative ways. I also believe that when we answer questions like this...it helps us to get more incite.

So my question to you is...what themes have you found in your journalling so far? When you look back on when you first started journaling till now?

I personally have found that I obsess over suppliments and tinctures and when i believe something might help me...I expect it to solve all my problems and then i spend all my time on it.

I also realized that i beat myself up more over how i feel as opposed to my actions.

Lastly I'm not used to encouragement and saying to myself that I did great and that i'm proud of myself.


So what are yours?

Mike

Anybody?

well, i have a fear of physical pain and causing myself physical harm.
also, i am afraid of putting a lot of energy into something and not getting "rewarded" with "success"
i've made a lot of progress with this. but some of it still lingers--

If i had that fear...I'm see myself as a pinata and you know we always beat ourselves up....so i'd take a bat and beat myself a hole where candy will fall out...thats a pretty good reward. You could beat the reward out of yourself haha.

Mike

One of my themes were telling myself that things probably won't change, as I've been like that for too long and the patterns were too ingrained. A very self defeating theme that's taken a lot of work to change. I've accepted that I'm a work in progress and always will be, and I'm OK with that now.

Wow i completely thought that this was the thread that i made about laughing at obsessive thinking...wow i'm really sorry.

I've had that thought to and yes it is very frustrating but you've been there in the negative habitual cycle you're in right now and so of course you'd be feeling that way and thinking that way...we are creatures of habit and you're taking the steps you need to in order to change that and you should just be really proud of yourself as even putting the littlist effort is going to bring you closer to being that person you want to be

also think about this how can you keep doing all these positive things and still stay the same? If you've been through the lesson on obsessive behavior..you could use that kinda sentence in a mantra or just put it somewhere that you see it everyday.


Mike

Mike: i gotta say--i like the pinata thing. . . it's weird and funny and true. . . there's somethin' there about the sweet reward of discipline, "chipping" away at something. . . .
Margo: it's exciting to hear you've accepted yourself as a work in progress!
i see a theme in all three of our themes!