Paulien writes about themes that the coaches of the Gupta Program encounter regularly. Through this blog, she addresses recurring topics and hopefully adds inspiration and awareness in the retraining process.
As one of the coaches mentioned, there are many different ways to relax the nervous system. It could be breathing, self-compassion, the soothing of the inner child, etc. For some it works best to look at their thoughts, what am I believing that makes me feel so constricted? And they put the belief on the mindmap. For others it is more useful to work more bodily-oriented because their thoughts are all over the place, these people might choose breath work, meditation, or gentle movement. So part of going through this program is experimenting with what works best for you.
In this journey of recovery, it is super helpful to be curious. Curiosity softens any rigid attitude and makes us more gentle towards ourselves. Curiosity helps us to allow ourselves to experiment with different elements of the program, to take time for that, without self-judgment. And that is also what the coaches will do, they will start exploring with you what is the best way to work with whatever you are dealing with, it could be a certain fear or a symptom.
It makes a huge difference if you approach any stagnation in your system, tightness in the stomach or chest, with a willingness to learn from it. The tightness can be our unconscious speaking through our body tensions. You might explore what it is about, and learn about what is going on in your unconscious and work with the deeper beliefs you are holding.
Or when you find yourself stuck in the trance of the same thought patterns, you might start to see that you are out of contact with your body when that happens, and experiment with applying pacing, gentle stretching, yoga, walking, meditation or even singing, to bring your attention back from the mental level into your body and heart.
Curiosity brings more lightness in the process and the willingness to learn reduces our self-judgment.
Also, for people who apply the retraining to diagnoses or symptoms that might not be CFS, Fibro, MCS, but it is something else, you might wean off from medication, or you have symptoms that you can’t find described in the book… Besides making sure that you stay connected to your doctor, I would also say.. instead of comparing yourself with other people, doubting if the program is right for you because you can’t find your story in the stories of others, focus on curiosity. I’m dealing with this symptoms/thought or feeling, what would be for me the best way to work with it?
Personally, I believe that when we become curious to, for example, our fears, it gives an opening to work with it. It is like being an inner parent that says, ok child what is going on? Sometimes half of the stress is already gone when we approach ourselves with curiosity and the willingness to learn.
So with whatever you encounter in this moment, it could be brain fog, a down feeling, fatigue, or a restless background feeling, can you look at it from curiosity? And what is this moment asking from you, do you need to attend to emotions that speak through your restlessness? Or does compassion meditation help you to return back into your heart, which can be very useful when we have a day that we are very fatigued or triggered by other people. Try out the different options, explore. And you can always contact a coach to help you with this process.
Paulien
(Dutch GP Coach)
