Here is a part of our conversation with her:
Surrounded by fir-trees
Where are you? Are you here or somewhere else?
She finds herself in the country. Even her picture had something of this sort (the test drawing which you must have already tried doing): in her picture, there was a person surrounded by triangles, which stood for fir-trees. What did we discover in our conversation? 70% of her attention was there, in the woods, and only 30% was present at the seminar.
While you are there, does that place give you anything?
People usually gain strength in places like this. However, she didnt respond, but having spent some time there and gotten what she wanted, she returned to the seminar.
Then she received the image of tranquillity: she was sitting with a butterfly on her hand.
It was highly interesting to observe our work with her. Sometime later, she realized that she was blooming. Her internal sensations revealed themselves. Everything went very well.
In the case of this participant of the seminar, it turned out that she herself, or a bigger part of her soul was in a quiet place, far away from the class. In this situation, the question: Where is my attention? Where am I? turned out to be very useful. These questions helped her get what she needed there, close the Gestalt of rest and return to the working environment21.
Exercise 3: Spend some time in a happy place and then return
Define where you are.
Stay there for some time so that you could get what you need: it could be some peace and quiet or emotional support. It can easily be something else.
Return to here and now.
Similar kind of technique is used in such schools of psychotherapy as Ericksonian therapy guided by affective imagery and several other movements: patients are asked to think of something pleasant and spend some time reminiscing. You need to find your happy place where you can recharge.
A little cave
A person might remember that when he or she was a child and went to the seaside to spend holidays, they would dig a little cave in the sand, which felt like a very comfortable and safe place. Everyone has its own unique image of a happy place, which functions as a vitamin in adult life.
In psychocatalysis, this method is used only in specific cases when a patient expresses a certain need for that.
In general, setting ones attention free, calling it back and dragging it away from something is a big job, which we will successfully complete along the course. For now, lets ask ourselves the questions where our intelligence and soul are? This can be seen as a useful complement to the work you have already done.
Fig. 10. Location of the information in the space of consciousness that causes the reaction of the body of different strength and quality.
This task is based on the following observation: the things that steal our attention can be inside our body as well as outside. We began by letting go of the tension-causing sensations in the depths of our body, and as a result, we have decreased the overall level of tension. Nevertheless, we also need to deal with what is at a distance and drains our energy, attention, and a part of the resources of the nervous system.
Topics, which disturb our mind, can be allocated along the vertical and horizontal axes. The most harmful are those worries, which have managed to creep into the core of the body and reach the solar plexus.
However, we need to work through everything that is on the way to the core.
Where is my intellect?
Exercise 4: Paying attention to the problems and sorting them out: if they are dead-end, go away from them, and find the solutions to the problems that have something promising!
Stage 1: Going away from dead-end problems
1. Diagnostic phase
Ask yourself a question: Where is my intellect? What is my attention focused on? What is it busy with? What is it aimed at?
At the level of sensations, there might appear an image of your intellect, being an octopus with its tentacles (or an amoeba with its pseudopodia). This creature has spread in different directions and left them there.
Things that keep our attention are often found above our head, in front of it, or above it.
In our mind, choose the fattest tentacle and walk on it to find out what is hiding at its end. You will see that it is holding your attention with your internal vision. Either it will be an image, that reflects the essence of the problem, or you will somehow realize what draws your attention.
2. Phase of evaluating spontaneously formed conditions and finding a solution to them
As far as each direction is concerned, you decide whether to keep it and invest your effort in it or whether it is enough and it is time you got your energy back.
Different tactics
It is quite likely that once your eyes are closed, you will find out that some part of your attention is filled with mental notes and post-its: these are the reminders about the things that require your attention, and you should not forget about that because they are important. Moreover, you have no right to rest until they were resolved.
Perhaps, some of these errands do not deserve the high priority you have given them, and their importance was ascribed spontaneously.
Some part of your attention can also be lost in the errands, which have long lost their importance, and you simply need to walk away from them.
3. The phase of changes: the solutions to set your energy free!
A)As far as investing your attention in something that has no future, stop yourself right away and simply observe how your energy, which you have given to this, goes back to your body (as light, warmth, a stream of water, or something else that is pleasant). The tentacles are being pulled in, and the surface of the ball is getting smooth.
Meanwhile, the things, that are not of your concern, or which have lost their relevance, should return to where they came from in the first place.
These actions will give you an opportunity to focus on what is important and relevant right now.
B)If there are justified reasons that require your attention, but they can wait, then you make a note in your agenda and realize that you will return to this issue in own time; until that moment, you dont have to worry about these issues.
Energy comes back to you, as well as that chronic, but inactive bulging in this direction will smooth.
C)When it comes to urgent issues, make your decisions right now: in what order are you going to do it, and how are you going to do it? Then you have to do it.
If you need ideas to help you find the solution, there is an additional exercise for this purpose.