#notesfromtherapy

[viperslang]

One of the most important distinctions that Brené Brown makes is between "vulnerability" and "woundedness". Sharing our darkest struggle or deepest pain is not instantly vulnerable if those with whom we share it haven't yet earned our trust & shown an ability to bear our truth. Sometimes we lead with our woundedness assuming it to be our vulnerability because our internal struggles have gone unheard and unwitnessed for so long that we have reached an abject state of aloneness in our pain. When the woundedness is "rejected" because the person we share it with is immature or incapable of a mindful compassion, we assume our vulnerability is being rejected. This is a false equalization. People can try to mess around with your woundedness because it is a raw, open place but no one has the power to reject our vulnerability.

[viperslang]

Dr. Kristin Neff elucidates how when you first start practicing self-compassion, you experience a "backdraft". The term is borrowed from firefighting apparently—it is what happens when a door in a burning house is opened—oxygen goes in and flames instantly rush out. It is hotter and more blatant in the moment but also necessary. When new love enters, old pain rushes out in a similar way. Starting on a mindful therapeutic journey can feel a little difficult in the beginning because you are slowly learning to move away from fixations/obsessive self-idenfication with pain and towards a more expansive recognition of compassion for yourself that is rooted in goodwill not good feelings alone. 

In the long term, this is how you will be able to center yourself irrespective of & more importantly, with the challenge you are fighting or the condition you are surviving.

[viperslang]

we are taught to sleep amidst a mise-en-scène of traumas too ample to ever be absent. i should be more than mere  compensation for muting your scars. should be more. than a succession of lacks deciding how the body can be disclosed.             Or where.

Scherezade Siobhan, from “Bombay, Uncut” (Published in Gramma Press)

[missgrimgirl]

consciousness : choice

[viperslang]

Mindfulness is the opposite of impermanence. We are surrounded by impermanence, its agitating shadow extending itself to fill up our consciousness. The fruitless chatter, self-talk rooted either in pride or fear, both manifestations of ego-mind. Mindfulness helps release this chatter, allows for space to make friends with who we are. It is staggering to perceive how afraid we are of our own company. Mindfulness brings us back to ourselves gently and we feel fine with the shifting balance of life, its wayward momentum and unpredictable catharsis.