MikeG
New Member
"Take a look at your journal entries. What emotions are most prevalent?"
For me, it's definitely the anger. I think in some instances it's intense enough to qualify as rage. I've always known it was "down there," but I've most often consciously decided to ignore it, leave it alone, let sleeping dogs lie. Now, with the journaling, I've become much more aware of the accumulation of anger I'm carrying around.
My parents didn't allow for expression of any "negative" emotions, either from themselves, or especially from us kids. (In fact, now that I think about it, my father's chronic hip pain in the 1950s probably was TMS, too.)
I had what were probably the usual childhood disagreements and encounters with others that I felt angry about. But without any outlet for the emotion, I just basically decided not to feel it, which became a pattern for most all of my emotions. That's one reason I find Alan Gordon's program so helpful -- he provides very basic instruction regarding what emotions feel like in the body, something I've been pretty ignorant about.
I'm enjoying the SEP, learning a lot, and trying to find the middle way -- between attacking the problem in my typical, over-achieving way and not doing the work at all. Even if my back pain doesn't resolve, this emotional work is very helpful and worth the effort.
Mike
For me, it's definitely the anger. I think in some instances it's intense enough to qualify as rage. I've always known it was "down there," but I've most often consciously decided to ignore it, leave it alone, let sleeping dogs lie. Now, with the journaling, I've become much more aware of the accumulation of anger I'm carrying around.
My parents didn't allow for expression of any "negative" emotions, either from themselves, or especially from us kids. (In fact, now that I think about it, my father's chronic hip pain in the 1950s probably was TMS, too.)
I had what were probably the usual childhood disagreements and encounters with others that I felt angry about. But without any outlet for the emotion, I just basically decided not to feel it, which became a pattern for most all of my emotions. That's one reason I find Alan Gordon's program so helpful -- he provides very basic instruction regarding what emotions feel like in the body, something I've been pretty ignorant about.
I'm enjoying the SEP, learning a lot, and trying to find the middle way -- between attacking the problem in my typical, over-achieving way and not doing the work at all. Even if my back pain doesn't resolve, this emotional work is very helpful and worth the effort.
Mike
