Practices
Every practice in the library, in one list. Narrow it by how long you have, who it is written for, and where you are right now.
Narrowed down
8 practicesArea · Low mood and hard feelings
How long you have
Who it is written for
Where you are right now
On your own, or with someone · Both of us together
When · Any ordinary day
If someone is saying so much that you have lost the thread, stop them kindly and check. Sorry, that is a lot and it matters, can I say back what I have got so far.
It feels rude and it is usually received as the opposite, because it says the words were worth keeping. Listening while quietly drowning helps…
When someone pours out a lot at once, catch the two or three words carrying the weight and give those back to them, in order.
You said you felt cold in your own house, and like a nuisance. Nothing added, nothing solved. It sounds almost too simple, and it does the thing a…
Let what they say land in you before you answer. The word that catches somewhere in your own chest is usually the live one.
Cold. Empty. A nuisance. Take each one for a second rather than sailing past it to the reply. Then give back the one that carried the charge, and you…
Emptying the feeling out at somebody does not shift it, and being told what to do instead skips over it. What changes things is feeling it with someone who stays.
You can tell the difference from the inside. Venting has a rehearsed quality, the same phrases coming round again with the heat kept up. Advice…
You cannot taste food you are eating fast. Feeling works the same way, so slow the pace until there is something to actually notice.
In practice that means one sentence at a time, with a pause after it, and questions like what happened in you just then. Both of you will want to…
Ask what the behaviour does for them, and then ask how they would like to feel instead. Both questions open more than telling them to stop ever does.
The first question maps what is being managed: numbness, rage, panic, a need to make something visible. The second gives you a goal in their words…
With someone carrying old shame, ask about the closeness itself. Is it alright that I am sitting here with you? Would a bit more space help? Then adjust, and let them see you adjust.
Small changes work best. Shifting your chair back slightly, looking away for a moment, softening your voice, then checking what that was like for…
With someone deep in shame, your steady presence is not the warm up before the useful part. It is the useful part.
That means resisting the urge to fix, to explain the psychology of it, or to hurry them along to a better feeling. Sit at their pace. Keep your tone…
There is more about low mood and hard feelings than the practices: the low mood and hard feelings area has the themes and the courses too.