February 25, 2007
Processing in the Hard Times

Someone in the family said, “’I don’t know if I can keep going.  You have been through a much more difficult slew of difficulties.  How do you keep going?  What brought you through it?  What helped you cope?”

   It’s a hard question and hard to answer. I said, “I don’t know, different problems might require different solutions, but here are some ways which have helped me:

>  I go “inside myself” to process things, and this takes time before results form.

>  Sometimes I sleep more, which is a kind of refuge, a rest, and maybe helps the processing.

>  I keep a journal, which is my place to safely deposit my thinking, where I can go back if I need to remember something, and it relieves stresses of remembering, emotional turmoil, and promotes processing over a period of time.

>  I know that “processing” is happening when there begins to be “results” coming out from inside me.  Some of these are:

-  Dreams

-  Insightful meanings or understandings

-  Connections emerge between separate thoughts or events

-  Stories or poems or songs

-  Journal entries connecting earlier entries to later insights

>  Attitudes to note:

   -  Anxiety, feeling stress, disturbance, feeling overwhelmed, sadness, grief, excessive fatigue, disturbed sleep patterns

>  Coping methods:

   -  I start “recording” the situation in my journal, using the 5 senses.  I  try to capture what they tell
     me via my sight, what I hear, taste,  touch (emotions are part of touch=feeling), smell along with 
     any    “on the spot” thoughts or impressions along the way - sort of a “stream-of-conscious” style
>  Obstacles:

-  Events most fast and short term memory can’t hold much if the   journal is not available, so I               do the best I can.

>  Choices:

-  I view choices/choosing as examining options, but I think it is  important not to rush into

   action or judgment before wisdom is  applied.  Act as fairly as possible, so there are fewer

   regrets.

>  Resolution:

-  This may actually occur at any point in the process, or after some time has passed and the

   mind has a chance to sort the situation  out.  This is where the connections, insights, 

   meanings, and   learning occur.  This is where consciously or unconsciously, our 

  determination is made regarding our future path and behavior,  hopefully some way to 

  promote positive outcomes.

>  Personal Comments:  A journal can become a helpful aid at many stages of the process of “What do we learn from this?” Some of these aids are: recording raw data as events unfold so it won’t be lost or misinterpreted.  It is then available as long the journal exists. It also reveals the process as it happens, provides and archives valuable insights, motivations, connections, etc., to later events.  As such, it is a better and more accurate “history” than mere memory.  It promotes higher levels of self-awareness.  And it gives me a sense of peace.