Schema Mode Elicitation Inquiry And Mentalizing The Modes

When we take our schemas (negative self-beliefs) at face value, allowing ourselves to really believe them, we have the chance to disconfirm them by having corrective emotional experiences. In this guided meditation, we will try to learn about our schemas and create new emotional memories through visualisation.

Transcript

Now,

Remember that you want to take the pro symptom position.

So like believe your schema,

Believe your mode,

See how it's necessary.

And then again,

Keep answering the questions as if you were a child,

Very naively.

So what are the symptoms that keep coming up in your life?

It might be a thing that you're driven to do,

Or it might just be a consequence of maybe some of your habit patterns or beliefs.

I'll ask the question again.

What are the symptoms or modes,

Behaviors that come up in your life?

And likely there's some suffering or difficulty associated with that.

You might feel somewhat urgently driven to do these things,

Or again,

They just might be a consequence.

And now what are the beliefs that underlie this?

They might be the schemas.

So what are these beliefs about yourself or the world or how one must act in the world that underlie and make these symptoms necessary?

And now have this attitude of openness and curiosity about your mind and about these symptoms and beliefs.

It is actually quite interesting.

And now this question may or may not be relevant,

But is there an even greater suffering which you are avoiding by engaging in this way of,

By producing this symptom,

By engaging in this mode?

Another way to ask this question is what are the benefits?

We need to assume that there's some benefit.

So how is this,

Let's say,

Mode of behavior or symptom beneficial to you?

And this is not asked in an ironic way,

But I really see the benefit.

Now ask yourself again,

What compels this behavior,

This symptom,

This way of being?

What's the belief that underlies this symptom production?

That's why I keep investigating.

And now also look and notice how there's likely been like a long history of the same behavior coming up over and over throughout your life.

And just appreciate that with curiosity and openness.

And now from this place of unquestioning childlike belief of this underlying schema or this underlying belief,

I believe what about myself or that I am what?

So what do you think about yourself?

And also this is just the emotional mind.

So there's often a kind of,

There's something unsophisticated about the answers that come up,

That's what you want.

So answer like a child,

I believe what about myself when I'm fully naively believing the schema.

And when I'm completely and naively believing the schema,

I know what about the world or about others.

Others are such and such,

The world is so and so.

So what do you believe about the world or others?

Keep going,

Keep investigating.

And so again,

Go over both of these.

So when I'm fully believing the schema,

I believe what about myself and what about the world.

And also see how those two make sense.

There's a certain logic to it.

Like,

Oh yeah,

Of course I view it this way.

This makes perfect sense from a certain perspective.

And now notice how believing this about myself,

Believing this about the world,

I must do what?

Or maybe even I just find myself consequentially doing what and likely this will relate back to the original symptom or mode.

And now strangely at other times,

I find that I end up doing this other thing.

What is that?

And at other times I end up doing this other thing.

I behave in this other way.

And all these different ways that you behave might seem very contradictory.

That's totally normal if that's the case.

And now notice how the underlying belief makes the symptom or the mode or the behavior necessary or a natural consequence.

Once again,

Notice the coherence,

The conformity.

And now see if you can find memories from childhood or from early adulthood or teenage years that taught you these lessons about yourself,

The world and how you must behave.

Keep investigating this.

And also notice once again,

Learning these lessons at that time in your life was actually responsive and adaptive.

It's important to see that.

You're learning in a sense,

Even these toxic lessons was a sign of your actual health.

You adapted.

You adapted.

You adapted.

And it might be the case that these learnings are maladaptive at this point,

But that's another matter.

Okay,

Now just see all of this clearly.

And also it's healthy to have a sense of empathy towards yourself.

You can see how that these learning these lessons was not pleasant.

And also appreciate the negative impacts that learning these let's call them toxic lessons have had on your life.

And we're just seeing that plainly with equanimity,

Just as things are.

So now we're gonna move on to a series of inquiries that are pretty much similar.

We'll kind of cover a lot of the same ground,

But we'll just focus on the mode,

The behavior,

The symptom a little bit more.

So go back to this original symptom,

Or you may have discovered a different symptom or mode in the process of the meditation that you wanna work on.

And now name it.

And like a parts language can be helpful here.

Like,

Oh,

This is my distracted mode.

This is my self soothing mode.

This is my isolation mode.

This is my workaholic mode or subjugated mode.

Go ahead and name it.

And just,

It doesn't matter how you name it.

Name it in such a way that's memorable for yourself.

And now kind of bring up the mode and then let this kind of cascade of body tensions,

Emotions,

And image thoughts,

And also auditory thoughts.

So internal talk arise and just study it with interest.

Also notice how there's this particular signature of the mode.

It's like a certain,

Let's say mental state or bodily state that arises very predictably when you're in this mode.

And just see that now.

And now once again,

See,

Look for the underlying beliefs.

We're covered by the beliefs.

We're covering a lot of the same ground here.

There's just repetition here.

So see how the underlying beliefs that make this mode necessary.

And again,

This is repetition,

But what were the unmet needs in childhood or adolescence or earlier adulthood that brought about this negative learning?

It now kind of forces this mode or the symptom production.

And again,

See how this makes sense.

There's something about this that's like intelligent.

There's just stimulus and response.

Also,

See how anybody else would respond just the same way.

And also none of this is unique to you.

And again,

This is repetition from the earlier,

But contemplate the benefits of this mode or of this symptom,

Sincerely and fair-mindedly.

Behaving in this way makes a lot of sense.

It's beneficial in some ways.

And now keep investigating with this quality of openness and curiosity.

Now let's just study the mode.

And now it's very important to keep this kind of non-judgmental attitude,

But let's study the effects that this mode has on your work life,

Social life,

Intra,

Like in interpersonal life,

Like within yourself,

And your explorations.

I'll ask you the same question another three times.

So just pick one of those.

What are the effects of getting into these modes?

What kind of effects does it have on your work life,

Social life,

Internal life,

And the effects it has on your explorations?

Just pick one of those.

So again,

What are the impacts on your work life,

Social life,

Internal life,

Or explorations?

See all of this clearly and have this quality of curiosity and openness.

Good.

And now we're going to move into the emotionally corrective experience.

So one more time,

What are the beliefs about self and other that underlie this mode or symptom?

And now float back to childhood,

Or could be adolescence or earlier adulthood,

And find a particularly exemplar memory of when this learning was reinforced.

This does not have to be an actual memory,

It can be a composite memory.

So bring up a scene where the same problematic learning about self and world was reinforced.

Where are you?

What is this like?

How do you feel?

And also once again,

See how.

This is just learning.

It's not your fault.

Anybody would have taken the same learning or would have had the same learning experience from this event.

And now have the imaginal parents come into the scene.

You can either stay there in the scene or they can remove you from the scene.

The first thing that you notice is how safe you are.

You're totally safe,

Totally protected.

Also these imaginal parents are completely loyal to you.

They see it from your perspective.

And they really get it.

Notice how they're so attentive.

They know exactly what's happening for you.

They're so responsive and receptive.

They might lean in,

Tilt the head,

Nod the head.

You can see how your emotions are mirrored back to you on their faces.

They really get it.

They also know this is not your fault.

They're entirely clear about that.

Also they move to console you.

They might put their hand over your shoulder or hold your hand.

Develop the scene in such a way to get your needs met and to make this personally compelling to you.

That's right.

And also they know that you're going to move through this.

It's just going to take a little bit of work and they're going to be with you all along the way.

And this is very obvious to you in the scene.

You're never going to have to experience this negative thing ever again.

Here with these imaginal parents now,

This negative event is in the past,

But it still might still be upsetting and that's okay.

Keep developing the scene.

That's right.

Keep going.

And now go back to this original scene with your imaginal parents,

Except for now you're very strong and supported.

And you have these parents that are supporting you unconditionally.

They're very confident and competent.

And now take a corrective action.

Maybe the parents stand up for you or maybe you stand up for yourself or maybe you tell this other person how they did you wrong and this is not right.

The other person might,

You might have them acknowledge this,

See this,

Or you might just have the scene never happen,

But go ahead and re-script it such that it ends a different way.

In a way that disconfirms this earlier negative emotional learning.

Go ahead and develop that now.

And now notice how again you're in a place of power.

You're in a place of agency and you're totally supported.

And this other person or this old situation that taught you this negative belief has no power over you.

And everybody else sees this as well.

And shape the scene now in such a way to get your needs met perfectly.

That's right,

Keep going.

That's right.

And now,

And again,

Now do modify the scene as the scene as you see fit,

But it might now make sense to start taking leave.

To start drawing away from this old scene.

You're with the imaginal parents.

They're extremely supportive of you.

So loyal.

They're all so proud of you.

You're doing a lot of good work here and they see that very clearly.

And you can see this old scene kind of in the distance.

It has no power over you.

It's like,

Yeah,

You still,

There's still some information that you receive from that,

But you see it from a much broader,

More contextualized view.

And now you might now have some kind of meaning making insights here.

You might want to discuss them with the imaginal parents.

Now this might seem a bit weird,

But go back to the scene and go back to this negative emotional learning and try to bring it up.

But then of course,

Reflect on how you've had it disconfirmed,

How you were supported in such a way that's now not really a problem.

It might be the case that it doesn't really make as much sense anymore.

And now reinforce the positive experiences,

These positive corrective experiences you've had with the parents and otherwise.

Really feel into that.

What do your imaginal parents tell you now to help you see this and to reinforce the positive?

And now also they're so proud of you.

You've done good work here.

Also necessarily you have the insight,

Aha,

I have greater agency and mastery in my life.

I know how to work through all these beliefs.

And now feel into that.

Okay,

Good.

We'll go ahead and end it there.

To dissolve the scene,

Place your attention on the rising and falling of the abdomen.

Now open the eyes halfway and keep following the abdomen,

Rise and fall.

And now let that go and open up the eyes entirely.

Reviews

Cedric has a very compassionate approach that helps you learn about and live yourself.