Mind-Body Workbook for PTSD (30 page)

MBB Weekly Evaluation Scale
Heal Secondary Wounding and Face the Future with Peace of Mind

Date: __________

During the past week, how did you do with these practices? Check the description that best matches your practice: hardly ever, occasionally, usually, or almost always.

List three secondary wounding requirements you have defused:

______________________________

______________________________

______________________________

List three specific situations where mind-body bridging has changed your life:

______________________________

______________________________

______________________________

MBB Quality of Life Scale

Date: __________

Fill out this MBB Quality of Life Scale and compare it with the ones you did in chapters 1 and 4. The improvement in your scores shows your progress in self-discovery and self-healing. Your dedication and hard work is the key to your realizing that you have always had the power and wisdom to heal yourself. Using your new tools to quiet and befriend your I-System frees you to live life at its best.

Over the past seven days, how did you do in these areas?

10.
Life at Its Best

Congratulations on your dedication and hard work! You are healing yourself of PTSD. Your assignment for this week is to use everything you have learned in this workbook, and do one or more maps each day.

This chapter offers a summary of mind-body bridging practice guidelines and tools, a mapping guide, and a weekly assessment scale that shows you how you are doing. Make copies of the blank scale so you can keep using it after you have finished the workbook. Also, get a blank notebook to use for your maps and for keeping track of the scores of your weekly scales. Although it’s best to use your own notebook for maps, in the heat of the moment you can map on napkins, paper bags, and spare pieces of paper. Making a habit of doing maps in your notebook is important for your ongoing progress.

Your I-System is a lifelong companion; manage it well, and you will live your life at its best!

Mind-Body Bridging Practice Guidelines

1. Recognize early signs of an overactive I-System:
   
   • body tension
     
   • mind clutter
     
2. Use your bridging awareness practices and thought labeling to:
   
   • calm your mind
     
   • release your body tension
     
   • enjoy your senses
     
   • create wellness
     
3. Be aware of your storylines to prevent you from getting stuck in the content of your thoughts.
   
4. Be aware of your depressor-fixer cycle and your self-belief that you are incomplete and damaged.
   
5. Map your thoughts, using these tools:
   
   • mind-body bridging two-part maps
     
   • bubble maps
     
   • power maps
     
6. Find and defuse your requirements.
   
7. Befriend your I-System and live life at its best.
   

Mind-Body Bridging Tools

Sometimes mind-body bridging is easy, and sometimes it takes a lot of effort. Different tools work for different situations. Using your bridging awareness practices and thought labeling might be all it takes to quiet your I-System, defuse your requirements, and function naturally. Sometimes being aware of your storylines and uncovering your depressor and fixer are what it takes. For tougher situations, use mapping to uncover your hidden requirements. You might need to use bubble and power mapping for those hard-to-find requirements. Whatever it takes, mind-body bridging includes the tools that help you successfully return to your naturally functioning true self.

1. Bridging awareness practices
   —Use them all the time, especially when you notice negative self-talk and body tension. Tune in to your senses by listening to background sounds, feeling whatever you are touching, and looking at what’s around you. Simply bring your awareness back to what you were doing.
   
2. Thought labeling
   —When you have negative thoughts, label them as “just thoughts” and go back to what you were doing. For example, when
   I’ll never be the same
   pops into your mind, say to yourself,
   I’m having the thought “I’ll never be the same.” A thought is just a thought
   .
   
3. Recognizing the depressor-fixer cycle
   —When the depressor traps your negative thoughts that come from natural functioning, it convinces you that you are incomplete or damaged. The depressor and fixer work together to keep the overactive I-System going. When the depressor is in action, enough is never enough, and you are convinced you need to be fixed. Finding your hidden requirements stops the depressor and fixer’s cycle.
   
4. Storyline awareness
   —When you catch yourself mulling over stories, notice the repetitive themes, recognize that there’s a storyline at work, and return to the task at hand. It doesn’t matter whether or not the stories are true, or whether they’re positive or negative. Remember, it’s not your negative thoughts that get you down or positive thoughts that pull you up; it’s your storylines, which create mind clutter and fill every cell of your body with tension, supporting the depressor-fixer cycle. When your I-System captures stories, it takes you away from the present, but your awareness is all it takes to bring you back.
   
5. Mapping
   —Keep a mind-body bridging notebook for your daily mapping. Don’t forget, in the heat of the moment, you can map on whatever paper is around.
   
   1. Two-part mind-body bridging map
      —The first map shows you your I-System in action. Use your body tension to find requirements. On the second map, use your bridging awareness practices to uncover and defuse hidden requirements, putting your true self in the driver’s seat. See the mapping guide in the next section.
      
   2. Bubble map
      —Bubble map to uncover more requirements on any map. Draw a “bubble” around the thought that brings the most body tension. Take a few minutes to scatter your thoughts around the circled item. Keep “bubbling” any other thoughts on your map that come with a lot of body tension.
      
   3. Power map
      —An advanced mapping practice for people who have a strong mind-body bridging practice, power mapping is for tough problems where you still haven’t found your hidden requirements. In this rapid-fire mapping method, you do map after map (without using your bridging awareness practices) to watch your I-System in action. Take a pen and pad of paper, and write your topic in the center of the paper. Draw an oval around the topic, and let your I-System run wild as you jot whatever thoughts or feelings come to mind. Don’t try to figure out the issue. Keep doing one map after another by using the most troubling thought on one map as the topic for the next map. Keep mapping for however long it takes, until your I-System leads you to uncover your hidden requirements. Finally the I-System quiets down on its own.
      
6. Defusing requirements—
   Whenever you experience body tension and cluttered thoughts (like negative self-talk), use mind-body bridging tools to calm the I-System. Next, find the hidden requirement (for example, for the self-talk
   I’ll never be the same
   , the requirement might be
   I should be just as I was before
   ). Then recognize that your overactive I-System is causing your current distress, not current or past events. Making a habit of using thought labeling and bridging awareness tools, along with being aware of your requirements, lessens the I-System’s power. Map any hard-to-defuse requirements. You will know you have defused the requirement when you experience a sudden or gradual release of body tension about the situation.
   

Mind-Body Bridging Mapping Guide

1. Choose a mapping topic and write it in the oval. It may be as simple as “What’s on My Mind” or as specific as a certain troubling situation. Next, scatter your thoughts for three to five minutes, without editing them. Describe your body tension at the bottom of the map.

Choose Your Topic Map

Body Tension:

______________________________

______________________________

What’s your overactive I-System doing?

1. What are your depressors?
   

   ______________________________
   

2. What are your fixers?
   

   ______________________________
   

3. What are your storylines?
   

   ______________________________
   

4. What are your requirements?
   

   ______________________________
   

5. Make a bubble map of thoughts that bring the most body tension, to find more requirements.
   

2. Do this map again using bridging awareness practices. Write the same topic in the oval. Before you start writing, listen to background sounds and feel your body’s pressure on your seat, your feet on the floor, and the pen in your hand. Once you are settled, keep feeling the pen in your hand as you start writing any thoughts that come to mind. Watch the ink go onto the paper and keep listening to background sounds.

Choose Your Topic Map with Bridging

1. How is this map the same as or different from the previous one on the same topic?
   

   ______________________________
   

   ______________________________
   

2. How do you act in this mind-body state?
   

   ______________________________
   

   ______________________________
   

3. Are you able to defuse the requirement on the previous map?
   

   ______________________________
   

   ______________________________
   

   Remember, it’s either the damaged self or the true self that’s in the driver’s seat. You choose.
   

MBB Weekly Evaluation Scale Life at Its Best

Date: __________

During the past week, how did you do with these practices? Check the description that best matches your practice: hardly ever, occasionally, usually, or almost always.