Dr. Hanscom's Blog Unhooking from the Train

Mind Body Syndrome?

The Mind Body Syndrome process continually fascinates me. With engagement of the principles that treat it the improvement in my patients’ quality of life is consistent and frequently dramatic. The foundation of success continues to be the writing exercises. I don’t know the reason why it is such an effective exercise. I just have some ongoing thoughts and observations.

Reprogramming

There are three aspects of the re-programming process:

• Awareness
• Detachment
• Re-programming

Most of us seem to be fairly enmeshed in our past and it affects much of our current behavior. We all have many negative experiences to process and we do our best to deal with them. Strategies include:

• Suppressing
• Analyzing
• Ignoring
• “Re-writing” it
• Escaping through addictions

Brain Pathways are Permanent

You cannot change the past. You also can’t change the neurological connections to the past. Memories may fade with time but once a given memory is retrieved it is completely present.
Our inability to alter the past certainly does not keep us from expending tremendous energy in trying to do so.

The Train

Picture a very long completely loaded freight train. It is impressive that engines have been developed to pull that kind of a load-even up a significant incline. It is not dissimilar to how we drag our past into the current day and can still function.

I feel the writing exercises allow me to disconnect from the past—immediately. It creates an awareness of what is contained in the “train cars of my life”. The space created between the thoughts now on a piece of paper and me is the detachment process. It is as if I simply unhooked the first car from the engine.

Who Says I Have to Pull this Load?

There is no rule of life that says I have to stay connected to that huge load. And I still have the same power of the engines that is now pulling NOTHING. The available energy to be creative is almost limitless. I just regret that there is a physical limit to what my body can take.

Being “unhooked” from that load allows me to use the tools I have learned to more fully engage in the present moment. That is the re-programming part of the process. The tool I use the most is “active mediation”. That is choosing a physical sense to become as aware of as much as possible throughout the day. I tend to choose sound. At mealtime I work on really tasting my food.

Another common term for this strategy is mindfulness. If you are fighting your links to the past it is difficult to engage these tools.

Writing Seems to be a Great Foundation

I open to any suggestions regarding what is helpful in knocking out dysfunctional mind body circuits. However, I still have not seen anyone be really successful without using the writing as the foundational step.

Leave the past behind you—now. You can spend a lifetime trying to unload the freight in these cars or you can take a few minutes to just disconnect from it.