Flashback And Intrusive Memory Protocol

The intention of this practice is to aid in responding to a current flashback, flash, or intrusive memory and/or learning new skills to handle the aforementioned for when they occur. The objective is for you to feel more in control and able to manage these intrusions as they occur in order to reassert your power. These techniques meld EMDR and NLP practices.

Transcript

Hello and welcome.

You have arrived seeking help for the pain you're going through.

Flashbacks can be very difficult to handle and often feel like they're taking over.

So I invite you to take a moment to allow yourself to take some control.

First I want you to know that you are safe here.

Look upon your surroundings,

Remind yourself of where you are.

If you have a pet,

Make sure to visit with them in order to feel like you're really here and not there.

Now whatever memory flash or flashback is in your vision,

We are going to work with it in order to take its power away and solidify you as the observer of this event.

If it's taking up all of your vision or it keeps showing up in your mind's eye,

See if you can scale this image back as if you're walking by yourself or with a loved one all the way to the back of a movie theater.

Scaling it back.

Shrinking the image so it's more manageable to look upon,

Observe,

And question.

If it's in full color,

Vivid,

Change the color.

Perhaps you may tone down the color,

Make it black and white,

Grayscale,

Sepia,

Whatever would make you feel safer and more in control.

Go ahead and work those dials of color.

Now if the image is clear,

Go ahead and see if you can fuzz it out a little bit or blur the edges.

If this makes you feel comfortable or safe,

If this does not call to you,

Simply let it go.

If you are hearing voices in this memory flash or flashback,

See what you can do to turn the volume down,

To fuzz out the clarity of words or repetitive sounds you may be hearing.

And remind yourself it's not your fault if some of these tools are not working right now.

It's okay to choose one and practice it.

What we are doing is again aligning you as the observer,

The one who has experienced this trauma as a part of your story,

But not who you are.

Now if some of these tools don't speak to you,

If you see the image,

See if you can project it on the top of a paint can that's opened.

And in your mind's eye just swirl the paint around,

The colors of the grayscale or the sepia,

Anything in between and watch it mix,

Giving you a moment to take a break from this intrusive imagery.

Now we are not avoiding our pain,

But allowing ourselves to stand back,

Take control and initiative over what we're seeing and begin to ask questions.

What triggered this?

I wonder why this is coming up right now.

What's happening?

So then you can take the next steps that are safe and whole for you.

Flashbacks,

Memories,

Intrusive thoughts are normal and not your fault.

So many people experience these,

But we never discuss it and we feel more alone.

Just know that you are normal and whole as you are.

Now as we step away from these new tools,

Look around,

Know where we are,

Feel the ground under our feet or feel our feet touching a bed,

A couch or a mat.

Take a slow,

Deep,

Conscious breath and let it go along with all of the exhaustion and pain that you may potentially be feeling.

May you be blessed.

Reviews

The music ends a bit abruptly but is a lovely meditation.

Very helpful to start thinking of oneself as an observer of these events/memories 🙏🏼🙏🏼🙏🏼

Interesting and helpful tools, (love the paint can one! )
thank you!
All packed into a few minutes along with gentle support 💗

Powerful imagery, tools for distancing myself from old tapes. Thank you.

Amazing! Thank you so much for this!

Adding to my toolkit with gratitude! This really made a difference.

My husband and I found this to be very soothing and helpful. 💙🙏

Thanks! Gonna use all these!

Nice process for clearing the mind of intrusive thoughts. Thanks!

May you be blessed thank you and no musty

Helped a little

Very nice and helpful! Thank you!

Great idea and practice, thank you. Much needed. I've been trying to explain these techniques to others, so this will be very useful! Thanks so much

Nice technique and presentation. Should be quite helpful for those actively experiencing these conditions as well as those who have a history of them but not presently experiencing active episodes. I would have liked to have heard the music fade out rather than cutting off so abruptly at the end, but that is an easily remedied issue. The practice itself is sound and well-done. Thank you for sharing this with us here in the Insight Timer community. I see you and the light within you. 🤲🏻❤️🤲🏻

Thank you very much. So soothing and empowering.