1-416-561-57801. Can you identify repeated problems/situations that keep annoying you in adult life? (Consider all aspects of your life: work; family; friends; etc.). Describe briefly those recurring situations.
2. What typical feelings manifest in situations like those identified in (1) above? Make a list of them (List-A).
3. Can you identify scenes or circumstances from your childhood in which you felt similar feelings to those in your List-A? Pick one such scene or circumstance.
4. Meditation:
A. Sit; relax; close your eyes; breathe.
B. Visualize yourself as a child in the scene selected in step (3) above.
C. Make that scene as vivid as possible, by noticing its details. For example:
i. What age are you at that scene? How are you dressed?
ii. Who else is on the scene? How is each one dressed?
iii. Where does it take place (in a room? Playground? Street? Beach? etc.)
iv. How is the lighting? Are there any sounds?
D. What is happening in the scene? What are you doing? Who says/does what?
E. What in this scene annoys you? How do you feel? Why?
F. What do you do regarding your annoyance?
G. Let the scene unfold freely. Do not interfere with its unfolding. Just observe what happens, as a neutral observer. Pay attention and try to remember your feelings, as the scene unfolds.
H. When you feel ready, open your eyes and write down some notes about the scene, make a list of your feelings (List-B) and what made you annoyed then.
5. Compare the listings of your feelings (Lists A and B).
6. Write down the similarities or analogies between the situations that typically annoy you today and those from the scene you just meditated on. What are the possible analogies, the common denominators?
7. Try to state in a short sentence what the recurring pattern is. This should be a sentence in a form like: “When a situation such as …. occurs, I feel ….; and I react by doing ….., because I believe that ….”