How to Change Your Relationship to Your Body Through PRT and IFS... Part 2
When pain or discomfort become a predominant feeling in your body, it's easy to start disliking your body or avoiding it altogether.
Feelings of frustration and "if only the pain would go away," can become so loud that the body can become something that is hated and feared instead of celebrated and enjoyed.
If you're ready to step out of this pattern with your body, here is an exercise that you can try below. For this exercise, it can be helpful to have a journal to write down what you notice either during or afterwards.
Start by taking a moment to notice the sensations in your body. You might notice any areas of pain or restriction, the temperature in your body, or sensations that create discomfort inside.
As you notice the sensation start to notice how you feel towards the sensations. Do you feel frustration, openness, curiosity, or fear towards it? Or do you go into your head and start analyzing why it's there or feel like you need to figure it out or fix it? See if you can notice these reactions without judgment, just letting them to be here for now.
The reactions that you have to the sensations in your body come from what IFS calls protective parts of yourself. These parts take on protective roles to try to help you with the symptoms, but can accidentally become sources of what can make your symptoms worse. When we react with fear, frustration, fixing, or analyzing, it can signal to our brain that something is really wrong and can actually amplify the sensations inside.
If you feel a sense of openness or curiosity, see if you can just bring that to the sensation in your body. Notice what it's like to not have to fix or change what's going on inside. To just allow what is here and to know that you are working on changing your relationship to your body instead of the symptoms itself. If you feel a reaction that is frustrated, irritated, fearful, fixing, or analytical, see what it's like to bring your attention to that reaction/part of you and welcome it to be here.
You can ask that reaction how it's been trying to help and what it's worried would happen if it stopped helping in this way. And if it shares an answer, you can then ask it again what it is concerned would happen if that scenario played out. You can see if that part is willing to soften and try things a different way. You can let it know that while you appreciate it's been trying to help, responding to the sensations in a different way might actually help shift the sensations inside more than reacting to it with frustration, fear, or fixing.
If that part of you is willing to give some space, you can notice again how you feel towards the sensation. You can repeat this exercise above of getting to know the fear of the part's reaction you have to it and seeing if it'll give space until you feel a sense of openness, curiosity, or calm when connecting with the sensations in your body.
As you connect to the sensations in your body with more openness, you can notice if the sensations intensify, decrease, stay about the same, or shift around your body. There is no right answer here, you are just noticing what happens inside. See if you can enter in with an attitude that the sensations do not need to go away or decrease for this exercise to be a helpful practice.
Notice what it would be like to offer some compassion to the pain in your body and even thank it for how it is trying to help.
You can ask the pain or sensation what it's worried would happen if it's not there. You may hear something and you may not. If you get an answer, follow that and ask it what would happen if that scenario played out. This will often take you to a core wounding or feeling underneath connected to the pain. You can write this in your journal or make a mental note of it.
If it shares that core wounding or emotion underneath of why it's there, see if you can bring compassion and connection to it and just let it be there. If this starts getting too intense at any point, let it know you can come back to it with a therapist and shift your attention to your environment around you. Get up and move your body and find something that brings you a small amount of joy or ease.
Now notice what's happening in your body and what you're aware of with the sensations inside. If this feels authentic, you can thank your body for how it's been trying to support you and protect you. Let it know that you can come back to it at any time to just observe what's here and to bring gentle curiosity to what's inside.
So much of what amplifies our symptoms is our reaction to it. As we learn to shift our reaction into more ease and open curiosity, our brain gets the signal that the sensation inside is actually safe and not something to be feared. This is a big part of shifting the symptoms inside that are uncomfortable for you. If this is too hard to do on your own or you'd like someone to guide you through it, reach out to us. We offer Pain Reprocessing Therapy (PRT), Internal Family Systems Therapy (IFS) and Direct Neurofeedback which can help shift how you respond to your body and work with the underlying patterns connected to your symptoms.
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