Tell Yourself You Are Safe

Hugh Johnson

Member
Joined
Mar 14, 2014
Messages
2,648
Location
The Sultanate of Portugal
Right now. Just tell your body and mind that you are safe, you have food to eat and a place to sleep. That the place you are in is perfectly safe and there are no real worries right now.

Just do it. Turn your attention inwards and assure your body you are safe and all your needs are met. You should notice unnecessary stress dissolving, because it is likely that you are using your memory an imagination to create threats where there are none and your body responds to them.
 

charlie

Admin
The Law & Order Admin
Joined
Jan 4, 2012
Messages
14,359
Location
USA
Best thread award. :trophy:
 

Atman

Member
Joined
Dec 10, 2016
Messages
393
Basic psychosomatics.

The same reason why watching news increases your cancer risk.

To some extent it doesn't matter if a threat is real, if you think and believe it is, it will have physiological manifestations.
 

PhilParma

Member
Joined
Sep 27, 2015
Messages
543
Location
Minnesota
Reminds me of the ending of the The Aviator, "you are not safe."



I've been having some hypochondria/anxiety about my receding gums. I guess I'll just surrender myself to the Periodontists and let it be. Worrying all day isn't helping...
 

InChristAlone

Member
Joined
Sep 13, 2012
Messages
5,955
Location
USA
Great thread!
 

lampofred

Member
Joined
Feb 13, 2016
Messages
3,244
At least in my case, if my subconscious feels I am in danger, my conscious mind affirming I am safe doesn't do anything... The muscle tension remains except in deep sleep/meditation because only a lack of thinking turns off the sympathetic nervous system.
 

InChristAlone

Member
Joined
Sep 13, 2012
Messages
5,955
Location
USA
At least in my case, if my subconscious feels I am in danger, my conscious mind affirming I am safe doesn't do anything... The muscle tension remains except in deep sleep/meditation because only a lack of thinking turns off the sympathetic nervous system.
In that case you need to slowly work on releasing stored up energy/trauma.
 

vulture

Member
Joined
Sep 1, 2017
Messages
1,027
Right now. Just tell your body and mind that you are safe, you have food to eat and a place to sleep. That the place you are in is perfectly safe and there are no real worries right now.

Just do it. Turn your attention inwards and assure your body you are safe and all your needs are met. You should notice unnecessary stress dissolving, because it is likely that you are using your memory an imagination to create threats where there are none and your body responds to them.
If you perform Zazen or something similar you may realize how body and thoughts are tightly connected: if stressful thoughts there's usually muscular tension.
Might help to think that, along with developing a lifestyle that reduces stress and guarantees such things
 

Nebula

Member
Joined
May 30, 2018
Messages
677
It definitely has some effect, but telling myself to perceive and feel a certain way with meditation or mantras is not very effective for me. I think that's because emotion is pre-cognitive. Emotion is more heavily influenced by hormonal and metabolic states. The thing that has increased my sense of abundance the most is short sprints and getting lots of sun early in the morning. Short sprints can increase T and decrease cortisol. Lately I've been doing sprints at sun rise then jumping in and out of a river I live next to, then sunbathing to dry off in the early morning sun. I feel fantastic and go into my work day feeling very confident, jolly and stress free. I love summer!

Although I do agree that the words and media you surround yourself with and use can have profound effect either negative or positive. But I see them as only slight modifiers of the emotions you create with your hormonal state.
 
OP
Hugh Johnson

Hugh Johnson

Member
Joined
Mar 14, 2014
Messages
2,648
Location
The Sultanate of Portugal
You live in the feeling of your thinking. Think a danger in existence, and your body will react will stress hormones. Think you are safe, and your body will repair and restore.
 

zewe

Member
Joined
Jul 8, 2018
Messages
265
If you perform Zazen or something similar you may realize how body and thoughts are tightly connected: if stressful thoughts there's usually muscular tension.
Might help to think that, along with developing a lifestyle that reduces stress and guarantees such things

You can a apply inverted thoughts to this connection. Once, a yoga student complained to their instructor how the poses were painful to do. The teacher said to him, "Stop scrunching your face like it's going to hurt."

I have a lot of muscle tension in my body. When you carry this tension for long periods, it becomes habitual. One of my tensions is hunched up shoulders; an after effect of being kidnapped, beaten, screamed at and tortured for hours. [I escaped. BTW]

I try to be aware of my body tension and notice how it affects my moods. Half the time, I don't know that I'm carrying my body that way.

Increased awareness [in a good way, not hypervigilance of PTSD] is one thing I work on.

I also work to put wisdom gained, intuition, and intelligence into practice and live it.
 
OP
Hugh Johnson

Hugh Johnson

Member
Joined
Mar 14, 2014
Messages
2,648
Location
The Sultanate of Portugal
You can a apply inverted thoughts to this connection. Once, a yoga student complained to their instructor how the poses were painful to do. The teacher said to him, "Stop scrunching your face like it's going to hurt."

I have a lot of muscle tension in my body. When you carry this tension for long periods, it becomes habitual. One of my tensions is hunched up shoulders; an after effect of being kidnapped, beaten, screamed at and tortured for hours. [I escaped. BTW]

I try to be aware of my body tension and notice how it affects my moods. Half the time, I don't know that I'm carrying my body that way.

Increased awareness [in a good way, not hypervigilance of PTSD] is one thing I work on.

I also work to put wisdom gained, intuition, and intelligence into practice and live it.
Alexander technique is very effective for body tension, but it will come out as rage and other emotions. You may also consider the first exercise of Maxalding, where you stand and relax all muscles as much as you can, tense all of them relax again, repeat 3-5 times.

If you still have emotional trauma from the experience, hypnosis is effective at removing the emotional component, or even the memories although that is unnecessary. You have to feel the emotions, but there is no reason to keep dealing with the same situation several times.
 

zewe

Member
Joined
Jul 8, 2018
Messages
265
Alexander technique is very effective for body tension, but it will come out as rage and other emotions. You may also consider the first exercise of Maxalding, where you stand and relax all muscles as much as you can, tense all of them relax again, repeat 3-5 times.

If you still have emotional trauma from the experience, hypnosis is effective at removing the emotional component, or even the memories although that is unnecessary. You have to feel the emotions, but there is no reason to keep dealing with the same situation several times.

Yeah, I use components of the Alexander technique and the other you mentioned. Thank you for your advice.

Here's the rub, though. I read earlier today in a post [can't say off the top of my head which] where someone said [maybe a RP quote and I'm paraphrasing] "That perhaps the mental disorder
would disappear once a thyroid condition was corrected." I have histamine intolerance/mast cell activation syndrome. This is genetic. My body/immune system goes haywire from triggers that aren't necessarily mental. I DO have persistent PTSD and the HIT/MCAS complicate the heck out of it. The symptoms of HIT/MCAS mimic the PTSD and/or trigger it.

I've always said to my therapists [I've been through 5] that one of my main goals is to reduce my physiological symptoms. And I came to the conclusion that these syndromes are why a certain percentage of people don't get over PTSD. Now I find this link in many writings/research. My last and the current therapists understand this and support me in the necessity of treating the HIT/MCAS.

Getting doctors and psychiatrists to understand this is something I stopped attempting to do. They rely on meds so
heavily. that they've lost their intellectual curiosity. I don't take any meds as I am reactive to so many.....and I have the papers to show them why too. Interspersed in their notes is the word NONCOMPLIANT!

Am I making myself clear on this, Hugh? Because I sometimes want to shake doctors out of their apathy!

Do you know what the difference between ignorance and apathy is?...……….I don't know and I don't care!
 

vulture

Member
Joined
Sep 1, 2017
Messages
1,027
Yeah, I use components of the Alexander technique and the other you mentioned. Thank you for your advice.

Here's the rub, though. I read earlier today in a post [can't say off the top of my head which] where someone said [maybe a RP quote and I'm paraphrasing] "That perhaps the mental disorder
would disappear once a thyroid condition was corrected." I have histamine intolerance/mast cell activation syndrome. This is genetic. My body/immune system goes haywire from triggers that aren't necessarily mental. I DO have persistent PTSD and the HIT/MCAS complicate the heck out of it. The symptoms of HIT/MCAS mimic the PTSD and/or trigger it.

I've always said to my therapists [I've been through 5] that one of my main goals is to reduce my physiological symptoms. And I came to the conclusion that these syndromes are why a certain percentage of people don't get over PTSD. Now I find this link in many writings/research. My last and the current therapists understand this and support me in the necessity of treating the HIT/MCAS.

Getting doctors and psychiatrists to understand this is something I stopped attempting to do. They rely on meds so
heavily. that they've lost their intellectual curiosity. I don't take any meds as I am reactive to so many.....and I have the papers to show them why too. Interspersed in their notes is the word NONCOMPLIANT!

Am I making myself clear on this, Hugh? Because I sometimes want to shake doctors out of their apathy!

Do you know what the difference between ignorance and apathy is?...……….I don't know and I don't care!
You can not force them to be enthusiastic about your issues, but you could look for an alternative path than depending on them and I think it is why most of us ended up jere
 

Similar threads

Back
Top Bottom