[Closed] What's annoying you currently? II

It's a slippery slope unfortunately. By mediation I guess you mean meditation? I hear meditation is supposed to be incredibly effective...I really should try it myself (but I'm just so damn complacent). Although it sounds like you could do with a mediator too.

Anyways, good luck. Play your favourite scores LOUD. I want to be able to hear them from England.

Hmmm... I have just come from a similar situation, where negative and stressing thoughts cause a vicious circle that can really mess up your coping mechanisms (especially when you wake up at 'the hour of the wolf' and these cycles of thoughts make sure you can't fall back to sleep).

Just 'riding that wave' doesn't work for me. It takes too long, and has too much of a negative emotional impact.
I don't like it, I can't afford it, I don't WANT it.

So, I have no idea if this -I borrowed this from cognitive therapy techniques- can help, but it *does* help me:
The main reason these thoughts keep circling is that there is a sense (not really a thought, more like a feeling) that as long as you keep 'working' on it (and it's not even work, it's mostly regurgitating the events over and over again) a solution will be presented.
Of course it never is.

So what I found is that what helps is to make a very conscious effort to think of something else.
Make no mistake: this is very hard work!
Somehow your mind rebels: it wants to continue working on the problem at hand. And it does feel counterintuitive, because the 'problem' isn't solved yet! So this is in no way as easy as it sounds!

For me it took some guided distraction at first (putting on some music or even audio plays on head phones), really forcing my mind towards other subjects. Meditation wouldn't work at all because the mind simply doesn't switch over that easily. I would think it takes a very long time of practice before it *might* become helpful. And even then it's pretty much the same technique as I described above: a mental discipline that takes a LOT of work.

In fact, thinking about it it's much like a controlled dissociation: you take a very conscious decision to have negative and unproductive (even destructive!) thoughts and feelings stop bothering you.

Switching the mind over like that helped immensely with my emotional reactions towards the situation. I am able to handle these problems (which if course don't magically go away!) with a much clearer mind and feeling.

So, for what it's worth.
I won't pretend it's a magic wand.
But maybe it offers, at least, an alternative outlook.

And for the rest, what Steven said: play that music! Loud!

I was thinking about that actually! We'll see!

Best wishes to you, Stavi, and find comfort in Molière's famous words "The greater the obstacle, the more glory in overcoming it."

The safest general characterization of the modern European tradition of drama is that it consists of a series of footnotes to Shakespeare.

Wait, that sounds like a paraphrase of ... whom?

Volker

It's great.

Well said Martijn

That I've spent 4 years animating a Pixar-style feature film in my basement, on my own, and we have the best composer on the planet, and I might not be able to raise the funds for him to compose.

Check it out: igg.me/at/whitetiger

What am I doing wrong?

Nor me.

I think I found it:

https://www.facebook.com/whitetigerlegend

Or here rather:

https://www.indiegogo.com/projects/white-tiger-legend

Never heard of Alain Mayrand though.

Mayrand did an excellent little score for the 2011 film Comforting Skin. Available on MovieScore Media if I remember correctly.

Yes he did, though I don't think that I have heard that one.

another one to avoid
Tom

Shit man, that sounds awful! And none of us here can help other than offer sympathy.