What Did You Notice?

What did you notice over time? Now we are going to imagine that you took this sensation to the dog park and took the leash off. That means that just for a few minutes, we are going to only focus on this sensation while allowing it to be here, allowing it to be as strong or as weak as it needs to be. If you are willing, I’m going to ask you to close your eyes and focus only on this one sensation and fully allow it to be here, as if allowing it to run around in the dog park. What did you notice? Was it tolerable just to focus on this sensation? Would you be willing to try another one? See if you can focus on each of these sensations one at a time for at least 1 to 2 minutes. Write or draw in the box below. The more we can let our emotions off the leash, one element at a time, the easier it can be for us to face these emotions over time. Sometimes our emotions feel like an enormous monster, chasing us as we are trying to run away. However, there is a trick. The monster feeds on fear and gets bigger if we avoid it. That means it becomes scarier and more powerful when we run away from it, but smaller and less scary when we face it. But if you break apart each part of the monster, you can be more powerful when you face it. Let’s look at your feelings and break them up into separate parts.

A Bruise That Never Goes Away

When the dog is on the leash, he’s probably excited, hyper, and can’t wait to be let off the leash. But once you take the leash off, the dog can run around freely to let some of his energy out until he feels calm. Pick one feeling from the ones that you circled above, such as feeling shaky, or feeling out of breath. Okay, now imagine that you can zoom in your attention to only focus on this feeling just for a few moments. For example, if you picked sweating then focus your entire attention now on just noticing how sweaty you are feeling in this moment. Now, we are going to imagine that you took this sensation to the dog park and took the leash off. That means that just for a few moments, we are only going to focus on this sensation while allowing it to be here, allowing it to be as strong or as weak as it needs to be. If you are willing, I’m going to ask you to close your eyes and focus only on this one sensation. Fully allow it to be here, allow yourself to feel this way. What did you notice? Did you find you could put up with focusing just on this sensation? Would you be willing to try another one? See if you can focus on each of these sensations one at a time for at least 1 to 2 minutes. What did you notice as time went on? Write or draw in the box below. The more we can let our emotions off the leash, one bit at a time, the easier it can be for us to face these emotions as time goes on.

All The Trials

Or perhaps bicycle tires or a beach ball? Each of these has a little valve, which allows the air to be pumped in, as well as to be let out. In a similar way, we can practice letting some of the pressure or tension out of our body. Take a few moments to notice any areas in your body where you might feel tense, such as in your shoulders, your jaw, your chest, your stomach, your forehead, or the top of your head. Imagine that each of these areas has a little valve that you can open to allow some of the pressure out. If possible, see if you can actually pretend to open a valve in these parts of your body, one at a time. Each time you open a valve to let some of the pressure out, see if you can sit back and breathe for a few moments, allowing your body to settle as you are practicing this exercise. In fact, to an outside observer, the many challenges that our clients might be going through demonstrate the incredible amount of resilience that our clients have. Given that many people who are struggling with depression and anxiety experience higher cortisol levels as stress, this means that getting out of bed is the most stressful thing that people do every day! This means that the mere act of getting out of bed is already a victory. The following activity is designed to help clients to realize that their success is determined by what they do, not by how they feel. If they are able to battle some of their monsters and still show up to school or work, that is already a major win in their battlefield. Others have to fight a whole bunch of dragons just to get here. Dragons are any challenges that we might face, such as struggling to get out of bed, feeling tired, feeling anxious, sad, or lonely, having to interact with people we don’t like, or having to do things we don’t want to do.

No More Tears

Each one of these challenges is a dragon. Imagine that you are fighting off two or maybe even three or four dragons at the same time with one hand, while trying to do your work with another. It would make sense then that it would take you longer to complete your work or that it might not be as well done as if you were not facing a large group of dragons. Having the understanding of how much you are already able to accomplish on a daily basis makes a difference. So, let’s count your dragons. How many dragons did you already fight today? I had everything planned out.