GRIEF AND TOOLS
Dec 27, from “Strengthening My Recovery” daily reader
“While grief can be perceptible through writing and talking about our memories, some grief is not always visible.” BRB p. 200
ACA encourages us to journal and share our story to help with our grieving process. While some of us use only these tools, there are thankfully many other tools available.
That’s important to know because for some of us, our grief doesn’t always surface while we are writing or talking. The hidden Inner Child may be too terrorized to respond to these methods. If this is the case, we learn to experiment with other methods to gain our Inner Child’s trust. One tool is the non-dominant hand-writing exercise. Another is seeing a qualified therapist.
Whatever method works for us to uncover the grief eventually sharing what we find will empower us to continue the journey toward wholeness with the support of our meetings and our fellow travelers. There’s plenty of room in our toolbox for whatever tools we may find along the way that help us get to the heart of what we’re dealing with.
But we are careful about advising others how to do this work, since what may work for us, may not work for someone else.
Our goals are what we focus on: to awaken spiritually, integrate our Traits, and re-parent ourselves to wholeness with gentleness, humor, love, and respect.
On this day I will use the tools of recovery as well as any other tools that can help me to get in touch with my Inner Child.”
My experience:
During my readings I was very curious about the concept of the “Inner Child.” I do have to say that I had serious reservations that there could be some scared being inside me. Most of us have seen “Sybil” and other movies that depict different personalities inside one person. I felt like there was the expectation that you I would somehow unleash all these different personalities. It seemed a little far-fetched to me. But then I came across a book from Lucia Capacchione called “Recovery of Your Inner Child.” This book directed me through a series of exercises which included non-dominant hand writing. Because these exercises provide the non-dominant side of your brain to get in the game, so to speak, it allows you to tap into so much buried information that you have stored for years. This information could be what is causing pain, anger, resentment, etc. And because that side of the brain is rarely tapped into, you don’t even know this information exists and/or it’s affects. This was an act of self-love that opened my mind up and I was able to see and remember things that I had long since buried. It also made me realize that although I was experiencing some healing with other tools I was using, my gladiator was still doing his job to keep me safe from certain memories. Opening this Pandora’s Box gave me the opportunity to heal and not continue to stuff feelings or allow buried feelings to rule my actions. I have to tell you, this has been the most wonderful experience for me. For me, the use of this healing tool allows all my other tools to be much more effective. I hope that you all can join me to recognize that there are tools out there to help you along your healing path.