Lesbian Worlds |
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Taking Personal Inventory We all desire to lead mindful lives. The more heedful our impact and influence upon the relationships we participate in, the more readily we are able to experience the contentment interacting with others creates. Most of us, though, have had experiences in relating with others that have abandoned us to complicated, sometimes overwhelming, emotions. If left unexamined, these feelings can become the creators of an emotional chaos that threatens the associations we wish to enjoy. Thankfully, there are simple tools of self-investigation available that, if approached willingly and courageously, give rise to a power of sentimental and empathic support. I, as much as anyone else, have had my share of emotional crisis. You know of what I speak, the pain-producing collapse of a relationship that leaves us questioning our own capability to recognize love, the confrontation that produces fear, the jealousy that imperils common sense- each of these situations can surrender us to a lifetime of failed connections, or can be used to produce the desire for change. The process I use for self-investigation is not new, as the idea of taking a personal inventory of emotions and behaviors has been around for centuries. It is neither the product of the recovery movement nor of any specified religion. What these institutions have realized though, by using an inventory method, is that through looking deeply and without fear at our own activities, we can find simple - though not necessarily easy- solutions to very complicated problems. The following are the stages I use, based upon all I have learned about what keeps me emotionally well and affirmatively sound: The primary consideration here is that you have to be honest, you have to be willing to go inside and face some challenging realities. And remember, this is solely about and for you! 1. First, you want to set down on paper (or computer screen) all the activities, all the repression, and all manipulations you have used to get your own way. What emotions have these behaviors created in you? For each state of emotion you are now in, write down the name of all the people who have participated in the creation of the way you feel. After each name, focus on how the individual has played caretaker or been taken care of by you. Where, in all this care, have you chosen to be controlling and manipulative? What are the angers felt for each person on your list? Answer the same question about the following feelings: pain; fear; resentment; rage (as in hysterics and unfounded fury); victimization (how have you allowed these others to hurt you; how have you done the same to yourself; how have you hurt them?); and beliefs (which limit you? What messages are you sending to yourself that you inherently feel are unreal?). In what areas of your life has this problem caused you to be neglectful? Where have you failed to take responsibility (taking into account both your emotions and your fiscal duties)? What boundaries have you set? Where have you failed to maintain these same boundaries? What feelings about guilt do you have? Where have you failed to be loving to yourself? Of others? Is there a lack of intimacy within the relationship? (If it is a sexual relationship, do you engage in sex at times you do not wish to? Do you ever ask for sex when your partner does not wish it?) In what condition is your self-worth? Do you feel your presence in each person's life on your list to be valuable? What about trust? Write down the feelings you have about the confidence you feel, the faith and hope you use to set store in each person. Now, look at how trustworthy you have been. Can the people on your list trust you to do the things you say, and can they trust what you say and do as real? Can you do the same for them? For all the questions on trust, answer the question "why, or why not?" How stuck have you been in your current thought processes? If it is one of negativity, where do you believe such an emotion is founded? Do you attract sick and needful people? Are you attracted to sick and needful women?
Once you have written all these things out, it is important to the process of resolution that you then tell them to one other person. It is obviously of utmost importance the person you reveal yourself to understand what you are doing, and is not someone who will ever disclose the nature of your inventory's contents, or use what they have learned against you in any way. I, personally, have gone to a Catholic nun, a rabbi, one beloved uncle who understood, a good friend, and a dear teacher from my past. Because each fully understood my intent in daring to open myself to them, that it wasn't about being hard on myself but about being fearless and thorough, the nature of taking such a risk began the interior mechanism of healing and self-forgiveness. XXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXX
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