Take me to the River
I started thinking that the universe seems to be built in such a way as to discourage boredom. It does this by generating an endless stream of interesting novelty, and by giving you an instinctive lust to keep learning. I enjoy the authenticity of finding an abundance of ways to break free of my habitual thoughts by creating therapeutic ways to go on walks. One that I would like to share is one that you can do when walking to the river. I like to allow at least 30 minutes for this intentional walk. The idea is to collect items that you pass on the way to the river and give them a significance to you. This should be something that has or is happening in your life that you would like to resolve, get through, or LET GO of. As you are walking collect items such as a stick, rock, flower, pine cone, and name them. Example: this stick represents the negative names that either I have given myself or that have been given to me by someone else. This rock is my connection to having to be perfect and to always have to be the fixer in my relationships, or my addiction to having to look at my text messages every three seconds to see if you have texted me back yet. This flower represents my constant anxiety over what someone else is doing, thinking, or acting that I have no control over. You carry these items/ negative patterns to the river with you. When you get to the river with intention and focus to each item let them go into the river. Throw that rock into the water! Say out loud your goodbye and feelings of letting that rock of judgment go. Watch it sink. Then for each item do a ceremony to release and let go of each thing that is keeping you from enjoying the here and now. It can be a release to attach a feeling to an object that you can physically let go down the river. Each time you practice letting go of negativity and judgment (even if this is from yourself) you are exercising a new thought and creating neuroplasticity in the neurotransmitters in your brain. Eventually, this kind of letting go and positive thinking can happen on its own when negative thoughts arise and challenge you. What we are doing in this kind of exercise is essentially developing higher-level and more abstract principles to enhance decision making in a wider range of contexts.
Although this is a great way to reduce negative thoughts and anxiety related to holding onto these thoughts it can be challenging. You might need to cry, to yell, to laugh, or to sit and rest after this exercise. Challenge can be viewed as significant in eliciting desired behavioral changes. Positive behavior changes, which are synonymous with psychological healing, can occur through a variety of processes. For example, through the use of vicarious experience, verbal persuasion, and overwhelming mastery experiences, participants' efficacy in the adventure activity may be increased (Bandura, 1997).
Some quotes for the week:
I vow to love and honor my highs and my lows my yeses and noes, my
give and my take, the life I wish I had and the life I actually have.
"Before I ask anyone to consider changing their attitude or behavior, I
first change myself in that exact way."
"The ideas and thinking of Alfred Adler, Albert Ellis, Milton Erickson, William Glasser, Carl Jung, Abraham Maslow, Jean Piaget, Carl Rogers, B.F. Skinner, Fritz Perls, and Viktor Frankl all appear to have contributed to the thinking in adventure therapy. Adventure therapy is a cognitive-behavioral-affective approach which utilizes a humanistic existential base to strategically enact change through direct experience through challenge."
"reminding you that you can have
anything you need if you will just ask for it in an unselfish way."
One More Benefit of Nature: It Makes You Like Your Body Better.
Researchers say the outdoors can help mute internal criticism.
https://tinyurl.com/yblo29vl
A positive attitude can go a long way