Do you have a vision board? Or do something similar that works for you?
 

Hi,
Last summer my tdoc asked me to make a vision board to help with my fear of sleep.
She wanted me to put pictures having to do with sleep on a cork board so that I could get used to the idea of sleep being a good thing. http://www.thesmilies.com/smilies/nature/bubble.gif

I found pictures on the Google Image search of a computer sleeping and a good line drawing of a girl sleeping in a beautiful bedroom. I also typed notes to myself and printed them out that said things like "Sleep is good" and so forth.

I'm wondering if anyone else uses tools like this.

Maybe some mantras or affirmations? http://www.thesmilies.com/smilies/nature/star.gif http://www.thesmilies.com/smilies/nature/star.gif http://www.thesmilies.com/smilies/nature/star.gif http://www.thesmilies.com/smilies/nature/star.gif

Mari


Here's what wikipedia says about vision boards
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Vision_board

Here's an electronic version of a Vision board:
http://www.thepowerofthree.net/user-home.htm
http://www.thepowerofthree.net/

When I was little, I had a very difficult time sleeping. And alot of the problem was from fear. So I started making up my own fairy tales in my head as I lay there in order to distract myself. I kept them very light and silly and full of beautiful things.

To this day, if I am having trouble falling asleep, and especially if it is because I am having worried thoughts, I will tell myself made up fairy tales. It works for me. But there is a problem with it. I never know how they end.....;)

Hi,
I like your fairy tales!
This is so much better than thinking about what I need to tell somebody or going over an old story of my life.

Maybe never ending fairy tales are the best kind.

Mari

I went to the power of three site...registered and it looks very interesting.
thanks for sharing the link.

I think I need to work on some goals other than "pay off bills".
bizi

I'm sort of doing something right now Mari but it's not this one. My pdoc wants me to put my desires, my emotions, my feelings, wants and needs in a scrapbook, not words just pictures. I bought a book and made a nice cover and was already to do it. Two weeks have gone by and do you know what's in it? Nothing, not one darn thing. How do you put pictures in a book of something you can't have? How can you put a smell, a touch, or a feeling of warmth in a book? Or a mother's hug. You can't. :( The anniversary of her death is fast approaching and that's all I can think about. :( She's going to be so disappointed in me :o

Dear Girlie,
I am sorry, I know that anniversary dates are hard.

Perhaps you could come up with a better way to express yourself....
it is hard looking at a blank piece of paper.
Maybe you can go thru some magazines and take a pair of scissors and just start cutting out some things that you like...get some of those glue sticks like the ones we used as kids....
maybe you can make a collage...maybe you could then cut out some words or phrases that you like to glue above them.
or you could jsut play with them out in front of you moving them around untill they felt right then glue them on.
YOu get to make up the rules here ...nobody has to see this...
YOu could also jsut take a pen and draw....what I mean is to think of a word and draw how it makes you feel.
I have scribbled alot of emotions on paper...it is jsut one way to get them out.
You can do this....
write your name real big on this first page....taking the first step is the hardest thing to do.
You can do this....
((((HUGS)))):hug:
bizi

Yes it's hard looking at a blank piece of paper Bizi but that's what it is, blank, empty. I thought I could do this and really wanted this to work but I didn't realize how hard it was going to be. I'm just so flat right now in my thoughts and feelings. I'm not sure if it's from the lithium or just total exhaustion from working so many hours. I have a lot of magazines so maybe I'll just starting cutting and see if I can make some sense of it all.

My pdoc said that I have a little OCD going on with all these intrusive thoughts, as she called it. I jump around from one thought to another and it always involves what ifs, what if I had stayed home from work that day knowing my mom was sick? What if I had taken her to the hospital in the morning seeing how swollen her legs were? But she didn't want to go, she said she was okay and would make an appointment to go. What if I had gotten gas in the morning, would I have made it to the hospital in time to say goodbye?

So I'm left with emptiness but if I could have done anything different I would have.

atta girl,
yes just start cutting and pasting...
Has your pdoc ever suggested lamictal for you, it has anti depressant qualities...I can't take antidepressants because they make me manic.
I really like the lamictal. It is a mood stabilizer in the anti convulsant family.
Can't remember if we have talked about this before...
bizi
and yes you are exhauseted from working so many hours!:eek:

ME BP

I have to ask, Can you think of the your mom's favor cookie.

If so then find a picture of it, and put it on a page. And then I'd put
the picture of my favorite cookie right next to it. And write
under neath it. This is my mom's favorite cookie, and this is mine.

I'm so glad my mom and I loved cookies. Or a favorite cake or something
else like that.


Then a flower, or say song.

Donna

Dear MeBP,

Those intrusive thoughts also sound like could be caused by anxiety.
Can your pdoc help you? Your tdoc?

I'm sorry that you lost your mother and are reliving what happened.
Does it help to try to focus on something good -- like the cookie suggestion? Or her favorite song?

Mari

I've been sitting her cutting and cutting most of the night and all I have is a bunch of meaningless pictures. I don't even know what they mean, I just cut away. I wish I could remember what cookie my mom liked. I have so many holes in my memory because of the treatments. I can remember all the bad things but can't remember what kind of cookie my mom liked. As the day draws closer and closer I'm beating myself up all over again. Why can't I just get it through my head that I did what I could for her. :(

You are being so hard on yourself...
would you be this hard on some one else?
no you wouldn't.
Maybe you could look at yourself as someone else...
I know that sounds weird but maybe you can try to see yourself as someone who has been thru a great deal..someone who has courage and is brave..like a warrior, ...cause that is what you are.
You can be proud of this.
((((HUGS)))))
bizi

Dear Me BP?, http://www.thesmilies.com/smilies/happy/applause.gif
Oh, you did a great job by moving into the first steps and trying out what your therapist suggested. That's huge. Tell yourself, "good job."

You don't have to remember what cookie she liked.
I can't remember what cookie my mom likes even though we used to bake together when I was a child. But my mom does have a huge sweet tooth -- so any cookie would work in this kind of desire/emotions book. ;)

I'm going to guess that you cut out all good pictures. You chose the pictures for some reason. They probably do have meaning.
You can proceed to the next step and put them in the scrap book.


You were a good daughter to her and she loved you. Remind yourself of that. And everyday you do a good job simply by getting through it.


Mari

Vision board to my Red Bug!
 

Yes I use a vision board! When I want to manifest something into my life...I use pictures to help me vision it.
I took a picture of a red VW convertable out of a mag and hung it in my office and looked at it until I actually could feel the wind!
I now have that bug in my garage!
:winky:[

Welcome Misty!

The red bugs are such cool cars. :)

Mari

Hi MeBP

Did you like to color when you were a kid? I say that because I did and I also like computers. So one day, I just started playing the the MS Paint program that comes on most computers. I had a lot of fun with it and it was very therapeutic as well. I drew stick people and crude houses and mom standing in the window watching me play with my dog under a tree on a sunny day. Things like that, things that (little me) :o might want to draw. In fact, I still have them on my computer. I really suprised myself at how much came out during that exercise and no one told me to do it. I just felt like it. And it was a lot of fun. If you have a white board, color on it even if you don't show her. I think you will get a lot of it. Just be a little girl. I think the pictures in magazine would turn me off too. They are too prestaged and let's face it they are other people. No one that you care about, I'm sure.

Mari, sorry your thread got hijacked a little. Somehow, I think that you don't mind. :wink:

Good Luck to both of you.

Hi, Looking4hope,

Hey, I'm cool. I just wish that I was as creative as everybody else here. http://www.thesmilies.com/smilies/happy/fluffy.gif
M.