How to keep up with daily meditation

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blog, blogging, journal, keeping up with meditation, meditating, meditation, meditation calendar, meditation motivation, stickers, therapy

I got this from my therapist. She suggested that I put a star on a calendar when I meditated. This got me thinking. I like stickers – all kinds of goofy stickers.

Meditation Motivation

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Amazon, calendars, daily meditation, difficulty with meditation, meditation, MS Word, page protectors, solfeggio, solfeggio tones, stickers, success with meditation, therapists, therapy

I got this from my therapist.

She suggested that I put a star on a calendar when I meditated. This got me thinking. I like stickers – all kinds of goofy stickers. I put bunches of them on cards that I give to people; birthday cards, get well cards, etc. In fact I have a notebook with probably 50 page protectors that I keep all my stickers in but it’s in storage right now after we moved.  So I thought “I’m going to get me a bunch of stickers from Amazon”. So I went to Amazon and lo and behold, I found a hundred choices of mass quantities of stickers in every conceivable category. So I bought a couple of bunches. I made a calendar on MS Word with large enough boxes and with huge type to put stickers on and tacked it to my wall – and I’m using it!! Boy! am I using it! So far I haven’t missed a day of meditation and it’s been several weeks. Some days I’ve forgotten during the day but I seem to be looking at that calendar just before I go to bed and see that the day will not get a sticker on it. There will be a ‘hole’ in the calendar – and that just won’t due. So I get my 30 minutes in before I go to sleep. And I have the most beautiful calendar – full of bright, colorful, goofy stickers on it. And I am bound and determined get a sticker on each and every day.

I meditate to solfeggio tones. Here’s one I really like.

 

Monday – 4-30-2018

Tags

complex post-traumatic stress disorder, EMDR, fighting, husband & wife, Intimate relationship, marital conflict, Marriage, marriage problems, post traumatic stress disorder, PTSD, relationships, therapy, verbal abuse

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Click here to read the beginning post for this series

I’m sure many people think that verbal abuse isn’t that bad. Those are the people who’ve never been a victim of it. If they’d experienced it, I’m sure they’d be singing a different tune. Being verbally abused feels like getting punched in the face.

Thursday: 4 – 26 – 2018 – part 2

Tags

boundaries, EMDR, Marriage, marriage problems, PTSD, relationships, therapy

To read about the new way in our relationship , click here

So, in response to my request for shoulder moments. I asked Jerry what he would like from me. Here is what he wrote. We will be reading both our pages every day.

1. Collaboration between both of us.
2. Patience from her for Jerry’s physical health issues.
3. Patience from him for Robin’s mental health issues.
4. Explain each other’s prospective completely before rebuttal starts.
5. Allow time for each one of us to respond to the issue at hand.
6. No personal attacks from each other.
7. Work towards compromise with each other in decision-making.
8. Ask for forgiveness rather than being judgmental with each other.
   Keep it to the issue at hand and take responsibility for a mistake.
   (this item is still under discussion)
9. Honor agreements with each other and re-visit agreements when one
   of us is unable to comply as agreed.
10. We need to define actual needs from wants that pop up from time to time.
11. If anyone is making noise between 11 pm and 7 am it is that person’s
    responsibility to go to a separate room and close the door.
12. Take responsibility for our own actions.
13. Having a basis of mutual respect in the marriage.

This is pretty complicated for me so I asked him to take the reins and let me know when I cross over a line.

Click here for the next post in this series

Thursday: 4 – 26 – 2018

Tags

abuse, EMDR, EMDR therapy, freedom, LCSW, Licenced Social Worker, Marriage, relationships, spouse abuse, therapy, verbal abuse

To read the beginning of this new chapter in my life, click here

I had my EMDR session yesterday with my therapist Cynthia Pickett LCSW.

She said that the EMDR is bringing out my ‘natural’ self which lingered under all the PTSD haze. Before the EMDR, with all the PTSD history I have had, I’ve been mulled in the idea that I deserved no more than abusive behavior. Because of being abused all my life (hated by my father, unbelievably, from the moment of my birth) I have felt like a lower form of human and this self-evaluation led me to think that someone abusing me was ok. With the EMDR, I’m starting to see that being verbally abused is unacceptable. I’m a decent human being and don’t deserve this kind of an abusive relationship.

It feels natural and I seem to be ‘getting it’ down to my core self. I’m a good person and I deserve better than that. I’m even willing to leave my circumstances to be free of it. Something I was totally unwilling to do before this.

It’s fascinating what the EMDR is doing to me. It’s unlike any therapy I ever experienced. With all the talk therapy, nothing much changed in my life. But this EMDR is really shaking things up. FINALLY! I’m moving forward.

To continue in this series, click here

Wednesday 4-11-18

Tags

Bessel Van Der Kolk, divorce, EMDR, marriage problems, massage, masseuse, separation, The Body Keeps the Score, therapy

I had my EMDR therapy today. I’ve been reading this book my therapist gave me called; “The Body Keeps the Score” by Bessel Van Der Kolk, MD (isbn # 9780670785933). It’s an excellent book on different types of therapy for PTSD victims and childhood abuse PTSD victims. I liked it a lot because he doesn’t just circle around the problem. Half the book is devoted to different kinds of therapy to help PTSD sufferers. One of them is EMDR. There’s a whole chapter devoted to it.

Anyway, I was in the middle of the EMDR session when my problem with Jerry’s screaming came up. My therapist said I didn’t have to live with that sort of thing. Well I’ve been living with it for 30 years now but when I got out of the session something broke inside. Suddenly I have the gumption to move out! I’ve been staying for nothing but financial reasons but the light dawned on this. Jerry and I could make it separately financially. With my inheritance, we paid off two houses and rent on out. I could move back to the rental and make Jerry pay me $600 out of his monthly retirement check. Then we’d both be about even money wise. I had a feeling of freedom.

At the same time this was going on in my head another thought popped in. I think this was from God. I need to get a massage therapy credential. I know I would be a good masseuse. My hands are always warm and dry no matter what the temperature is. And I’ve always gotten compliments from people I have given massages to. So that’s what I’m going to do. I looked up massage schools in the area and a very nice one came up. “Milan Institute” right here is town.

I have decided that after my next EMDR session I will sit Jerry down and tell him that he has 30 days to straighten up his act or I’m out of there by the next 30 since we have to give our renters 30 days notice. That’s a total of 60 days.

I want out of here so badly I can taste it. I want to have my own place that I can decorate just how I want. And I want to be a ladies masseuse. I am thinking I will make my home my base of operations and I will only do women. The idea of being in a house all alone with a man gives me the chills. I was raped when I was 22 and have been skittish about men ever since.

Wednesday – 4-4-18

Tags

12 Step Program, aging, being unlovable, EMDR, eye movement desensitization and reprocessing, Family, journal, letting go of old ideas, PTSD, therapy

EMDR with Cynthia Pickett LSW. (a type of therapy called: Eye movement desensitization and reprocessing )

I’m doing EMDR therapy for my terrible problem with relationships.

I began this session by recalling the memory of growing up never having had a single conversation with either of my parents. This brought tears. Then I cried from being reminded that I was just a child and had to raise myself and that, since I was only a child with a child’s mind, I did a totally rotten job of it. Then I talked about the idea that you form your ideas before you’re seven and that it’s nearly impossible to get control over these ideas in order to change them. Then she piped in that one actually could change these ideas and that, if I had control, I was not a victim. At first I highly resisted this but then I saw the value of not being a victim because if I was a victim I could never change my circumstance and I vigorously wanted to change it. Because I was resisting I asked her if she had overcome anything herself. Then she talked about her journey overcoming the childish idea that she was unlovable because her mother tried to kill her when she was only two years old. I asked her how hard it was to change this. She said; “Very hard.” I also asked her how long it took and she said; “A long time. But with the EMDR it won’t take you as long as it took me.” So I decided not to resist her idea anymore because it was better than what I was telling myself. The 12 Step Program says ‘we let go of ALL our old ideas’ and I realized that the idea that I couldn’t change my mind was a ‘old idea’, so I decided to let go of it and go with her idea instead. I think that resistance to another person’s new (and better) idea is what takes so long to get well and I was not going to take a long time doing this if I could possibly help it. After all, I am – 63 years – old and I’m not getting any younger.

During this week my assignment was to tell myself; “Your parents were wrong. You ARE lovable and you deserve love and kindness”. Taking direction is really hard for me but I’m going to follow her directions this week.

From My Journal – 7 – Therapy

Tags

abstinence, child abuse, child within, complex ptsd, compulsive overeating, crying, Mental health, mental illness, PTSD, spirituality, tears, therapist, therapy, trauma

So I went to therapy yesterday. I love my current therapist, Elizabeth. I love, love, love her. She’s so busy that I have to make appointments up to two months in advance to keep my same time slot. Where I go, you can’t claim a regular slot for yourself, you have to take what you can get. I was lucky. Someone had cancelled so I got to meet with her yesterday.

About Theophostic Prayer Ministry

Tags

C-PTSD, christianity, complex ptsd, emotions, God, Mental health, Paradigm shift, pastoral counseling, post traumatic stress disorder, Prayer, PTSD, Theophostic, therapy, trauma

I’ve been reading a book on Theophostic Prayer Ministry. Very interesting. Has anyone else heard about this type of therapy? As I was reading it, I noticed that it resonated with my own story. I have experienced more than several spontaneous (prayer induced) healings in my life that resulted in permanent heart-changing views about… who I was… what life was about… what I could overcome… and many other things.