We all need to be heard for a little while.

Waves_and_Smiles

Aw, code have a hug! I know how those thoughts feel in the dead of night. So sorry that I was asleep. I hope you feel better today, I will be thinking of you.

I don't how visual you are but I have said before that I use visualisation for bad thoughts. I place the thoughts in a pretty box and tie it with a ribbon in my mind (I always treat the thoughts kindly because they are still part of me), then I imagine opening the door to an underground bunker. These are heavy lead doors where nothing can get out. I place the box of thoughts on a shelf and then the close the doors on them. I cover the bunker with cement and then soil and plant a beautiful forest on top of them so that they are hidden and something pretty is there in their place.

For thoughts that I don't want to look after (these can be flashbacks that serve no purpose other than make me feel awful or taunts from the voices) I throw them out into the universe with a long piece of ribbon attached. I watch the ribbon disappear over the earth and fade into space until they disappear. It sounds daft but visualisation really works for me, it might be worth a try? No harm done if it doesn't work for you.

AFM I slept for 12 hours and the good thing is that the headache is entirely gone. I would normally still have it slightly a day later and still feel sick with flashing lights in front of my eyes so the new medication is working! I am very happy about this! Now we just need to adjust the dosage so it stops the headaches straight away, I have hope!

Also, the electricians didn't turn up which means I can relax until Monday. It feels like I am on vacation for 2 days, no panicking everytime someone walks up the stairs. Bliss!

The next animal visit is being investigated, Pyxis!

codemonkey

Please don't apologise for being asleep ladies - I just checked on the off-chance someone else was being nocturnal. I feel a little better this morning. I didn't have dinner (I get emotional when hungry) plus tiredness plus PMS, plus DH being a bit...distant and grumpy, all got me at once.

WaS, I use visualisation too. I'm not as kind to my bad thoughts as you. They get put into wooden crates, the lids are nailed down and the crates are taken to a warehouse. It's quite a derelict looking building in the very dark recesses of my mind - all the windows are broken but barred so nothing can escape. I also imagine my body filled with tiny holes and all the bad stuff being pushed out of these, then my body is filled with bright, golden light to heal it.

Waves_and_Smiles

There you are code, I was checking for you. No wonder you felt awful with all those scenarios combined.

I do the light thing, too! I imagine golden light flooding into my body and blackness streaming out of it until there is none left. The gold light then forms a shield and then stops the blackness from getting back inside. Visualisation is a very powerful therapeutic tool if it works for you. There is no limit to the situations that you can imagine to get rid of anything that feels bad. I use it every night before I sleep.

Do something nice for yourself today, you deserve it.

Pyxis

I like that idea of golden light washing out all the blackness! I must try that later as I've been feeling ghastly all week. Right now, though, I'm off out for a day seminar on the History of Public Transport, which I booked last summer! It should be interesting enough to keep my mind off things for a while.

Someone on another thread quipped that if I were to miss this one, there'd be two more lectures along in a minute!

See you later, WaSmates! :cool:

jobbingmusician

Sorry I wasn't here, as well. I went to bed around 12.30 and watched the end of a film (turned out there was less than 5 min left ) Then put Family Guy on and fell asleep immediately - poor Vox is sleeping downstairs ATM (long story not connected with us being distant, we are both longing for him to return upstairs) and doesn't usually sleep till he hears the TV go off, so it's a bit of a disaster if I fall asleep without turning it off! :eek:

Waves_and_Smiles

Aw, hugs, Pyxis. I hope today is fun and you can forget about the ghastliness for a while.

Oops, JM! You must have been tired!

April's animal experience is worked out! The farm I visited has received the training harness for Kevin the llama! The owner asked if I would like to spend a day there working with him. The idea is they flood him with training over 3 days aiming to remove the harness afterwards and he will hopefully come to his name, walk with people and stop when they do of his own free will. This is necessary because he currently tries to escape his field and won't come back when called so they end up chasing him all over the farm while he spits at and tries to kick any man who comes near him! It's dangerous for the farm workers and distressing for him. They have tried to place Kevin in an animal sanctuary where there would hopefully be more women but nowhere will take him because he is a risk, so they are going to attempt to work with him and look after him for the rest of his life no matter what. Poor Kevin, he is so gentle with women and I was able to stroke him and hand feed him with no problem at all.

They need women to enforce the training consistently (by giving him lots of rewards in the form of treats!) for as much time as possible so asked if I could be there for a full day for lots of 20 minute sessions. The owner will train him for 2 days beforehand and I get to do the last day which means he will have an idea of how it works and I get to see if he will cooperate with me without a harness. Her daughter has a broken leg and everyone else who works there is male so the owner is the only one able to work with him right now and she is obviously very busy. It is completely free for me but I am welcome to bring as many outside leaves of cauliflower as I wish if I want to contribute, because that is his favourite treat. I am going llama training!

elsien

Is visualisation something you can learn to do? I've tried it before to leave work stuff behind when I get home, but my boxes develop a mind of their own and won't do what I want them to.
Clearly I have no mental discipline whatsoever.

Waves_and_Smiles

Hahahaha! Mine used to do that, elsien. It takes practice but it works eventually. The thing is to go with it, so if you put something in a box and the box keeps opening you cover the box in duct tape, if that doesn't work pour cement over it, for example. Don't try to get it back to the original visualisation, just keep adding bits until it finally works. I had no idea how to do it originally but was taught in therapy, now I wouldn't be without it.

dragonette

I'm loving these visualisation ideas, not sure if I'm visual enough for them to work but will def try the golden light one.

Sorry noone was awake, Code. Hope you feel better now.

Oooh llama training! That sounds so much fun!!!

I'm still energy crashed and fairly immobile, but I started a crochet blanket so i can feel productive even when I'm crashed. I love crochet and had really missed it being able to do it (had a minor spinal injury, but the pain now seems to be the chronic illness rather than the injury so sod it, the benefit to my MH is worth it.

Waves_and_Smiles

If you aren't visual dragonette, and not everyone is, there are other techniques. You can imagine your negative thoughts as music out of sequence and make a beautiful melody that overwhelms the bad music. Or you can imagine the negativity as a bad smell that is replaced by the most amazing scent you can imagine. Or imagine the thoughts as prickly and sharp and cover them in a soft blanket that feels comforting to the touch. These work equally as well for different people, it just depends how your mind is most comfortable experiencing things. Some people are numerical so will use a number to represent their thoughts and then add other numbers to it repeatedly until the initial number is no longer of relevance in the calculation. I have used the latter and carried on calculating until I forget what the original number was which brings the same relief as packing it away in my boxes.

If you need something more physical you can write STOP in huge letters on a piece of paper, or write down your thoughts and feelings and (safely!) burn them or rip them into tiny pieces. You can use crayons on a piece of paper and use say, black as the bad thoughts and colour over it in your favourite colour or stick brightly coloured papers over the top of it until you no longer see it. I tried many techniques of thought stopping until I decided using imagery is the best for me. There are as many ways as you have the imagination for.