Narrative Therapy

This practice is based on Narrative Therapy and begins with cultivating mindful presence. The practice invites you to identify a problem in your life, get a sense of how it lives in the body, creatively name it and then ask it questions designed to help you re-author its story in your life.

Transcript

This awareness practice integrates aspects of the narrative worldview,

Which draws on social constructionism and which was first developed by Michael White and David Epstein.

The practice is designed to help you gain some separation from a problem in your life,

And helps you to re-author the story around it.

Beginning by finding a posture where you're comfortable and at ease,

Yet alert.

Whether on a chair,

A cushion,

Or lying down.

Letting your eyes gently close,

Lowering your gaze.

Taking a few deeper breaths,

Using each exhale as a reminder to let go,

To come into stillness.

Settling in as best you can.

And gently scanning through the body,

Relaxing any obvious areas of tension.

If some areas are not yet ready to release,

Seeing if you can make room for that too.

Giving those areas of tension room to breathe just as they are.

Letting them be held with a sense of softness.

Finding an object to focus your attention on for the next few minutes.

Might be the breath in the nostrils,

The upper lip and throat,

The rising and falling of the chest,

The expansion and contraction of the belly,

Sensations of the hands and the feet,

The photons of light passing through the eyelids.

Might also choose to focus on where the body makes contact with the chair,

The cushion,

The floor.

You might also focus on the sounds within or around you.

Another object of awareness might be the whole body as it breathes.

After choosing an anchor,

Bringing your attention to it and seeing if you can be with it from moment to moment,

Inviting a kind and receptive quality of attention.

No need to look for,

Create or have any special kind of experience.

It's already here,

Just as it is.

And if you find yourself searching for a certain feeling,

Seeing if you can let that be as best you can.

It's perfectly natural to search for a certain feeling and trying not to be too hard on yourself.

Allowing yourself to receive the changing nature of the anchor,

Letting it soothe your mind,

Your body and your heart,

A receptive,

Intimate quality of attention.

Even when the mind wanders,

It's not a problem.

Every moment of noticing your mind has wandered is a moment of awareness,

A moment of strengthening your attention.

Bringing it back with a soft,

Forgiving awareness is part of the practice.

Inviting yourself to be completely nourished by the subtleties of your anchor.

Completely absorbed by the life of your anchor as a kind of home base.

In a moment,

We'll begin moving to recognizing and naming a problem area in your life.

Know that you can always come back to the stability and safety of your anchor if you find that you're losing your concentration,

Getting lost in thought,

Or if things are just too intense.

See if you can bring to mind an area in your life where you feel stuck,

Where you feel entangled,

And that you would label as a problem.

It might be something that you try hard to avoid feeling or experiencing,

But that at the same time consumes a good portion of your mental energy.

The problem might center around a part of yourself that you don't like,

And that influences how you feel about yourself,

And that also impacts your relationship with others.

Might revisit a situation from the past related to the problem,

Noting who was there,

What was said,

What was heard,

What was seen,

What was felt,

What the aftermath was.

How did you feel about yourself after the problem arose?

If things feel too intense,

Perhaps only meeting the problem at its edge just before it's too intense,

Where it feels safe,

And where you don't feel completely lost in it.

Getting a sense simply of how it impacts you and your relationships.

Opening to how the problem lives in your body.

Sending to the problem with a gentle,

Caring attention.

Is there a specific pattern of tension in the body that accompanies the problem?

Does your belly tighten when you think of the problem?

Do your shoulders get locked to your ears?

Do your toes curl?

Do you feel the problem in your hands,

In your chest,

In your belly?

How does the problem live in your body?

Whatever patterns arise in the body,

Let it happen as best you can.

It's all right to feel just as you are.

There's no need to try to change or fix anything in any way.

Just bringing a gentle curiosity to the problem and how it lives in your body.

This won't last forever.

You might also explore what your breathing pattern is like when you think of the problem.

How we relate to a problem is often revealed to us by the quality of our breath when we bring it to mind.

If the impulse to quickly change the breath and fix it arises,

See if it's possible to be with it.

Care for the breath just as it is.

In this way,

The problem will feel more seen,

More understood,

And more known.

Now,

Visualizing the problem in your mind's eye,

What does the problem look like?

Does it have a certain shape?

A color associated with it?

A texture?

An appearance?

Perhaps the problem has a specific smell or a specific taste.

See how it feels in your body to move the problem and its form closer to you or further away.

What happens to its appearance as you play with the perception of the problem being close or further away from you?

Now that you've spent some time getting to know this problem and how it lives in the body and in the mind,

If you were to name this problem,

What would you name it?

It might help to put a the in front of the name.

For example,

The sadness.

You'll be asking the problem questions,

So see if you can choose a name that really captures the stuckness,

The impact,

The annoyance,

The irritation,

The despair,

Or the pain that the problem causes in your life.

Examples of some names might include the bully,

The devil,

The monster,

The punisher,

The dragon,

The darkness.

These are just some ideas.

You might also choose something that is meaningful for you specifically.

Now with the name of the problem in mind,

We'll now explore the influence of the problem on your life.

If you'd like,

You can call the problem by its name and ask,

How is the problem?

For example,

The punisher tried to play tricks on me.

What does the problem want?

What are the problem's plans for the future?

Is it plotting something against me?

What negative messages about myself,

Others,

Or the world does the problem try to convince me are true?

How does the problem lie to me about who I really am?

Again using the problem's name,

How has the problem impacted my relationship with myself,

With others,

And the world?

Is there some way in which the problem might be trying to protect me in some way?

Does the problem try to get you to do things you don't want to do?

After having explored the influence of the problem on your life,

Taking some time to check in with the state of your mind and the state of your body,

Making room for whatever is present,

Letting it all be there,

Held in a caring,

Soft attention.

Shifting your attention now to how you have exerted influence over the problem.

Are there times when you've been able to stand up to the problem,

When you've taken a stand against it?

What does that look like?

Who was there?

What was said?

What was heard?

What was seen?

What was felt?

What happened afterward?

How did you feel about yourself when you took a stand against the problem?

What does it feel like in your body when you take a stand against the problem?

Is there more space in the body?

Does your posture change?

Do you feel lighter in one area of the body?

And how about now,

Knowing that you have and are able to stand up to the problem?

What's that like in your body?

Are you sitting in a way where you're more at ease?

Perhaps noticing any shifting patterns of tension?

What kind of thoughts do you have about yourself when you stand up to the problem?

What does it mean about you as a person when you stand up to the problem?

What kind of story does it tell about you when you're not influenced by the problem?

And if you continue to stand up to the problem,

What would life look like for you if it had less influence over you?

Who would you become if you were no longer influenced by the problem?

Are there people in your life who would support this new problem-free story?

Who are they?

See if you can bring them to mind,

Inviting them to support you.

What kinds of things would they say to you?

How does their support land in your body,

In your mind,

In your heart?

Does it soften it?

It sometimes might be difficult to accept their support.

See if you can make that okay too.

Just meeting yourself where you're at with a soft,

Caring attention.

Attending to and being kind to the entirety of your experience,

Even if it's challenging.

What would these support figures help you live this new problem-free life?

Coming to the end of the practice and honoring yourself for your effort.

You've identified a problem,

Learned how it lives in your body,

Creatively named it,

Asked it challenging questions,

And have maybe gained some separation from it.

Now taking a few minutes to be with your experience without doing anything in particular.

Getting a sense of the whole body as it breathes in three-dimensional space.

Coming back into the body,

Whole body breathing.

Simply resting in natural presence.

Letting yourself be received by the space around you.

Now bringing the practice to a close,

Relaxing your concentration,

Inviting some gentle movement into your fingers,

Your toes,

Your hands,

Your arms,

Opening your eyes.

Getting back into the space around you.

Understanding if it feels right to you.

Reviews

🙏🏼

I found this really helpful and insightful. Often I struggle to sit for long periods but I could have done this twice over! thank you 🙏🏼 it’s given me a crack in my armour to go on and explore 💕