reluctant as I was to purchase and read the joy diet for the next chapter book club, I am happily finding that the unfortunate title {I have a little ptsd from the "happy for no reason" debacle of earlier this year} is just a cheeky grab-in to a beautifully written book filled with smart and relevant cognitive-behavioral techniques to guide one on the journey to a life well lived. whew! that was one long sentence.we are on chapter two, which deals with the concept of truth. I fancy myself a girl who is honest, mostly based in reality and certainly seeking the life authentic. sometimes this causes me psychic confusion as I feel I operate in a sugarcoated culture of delusion and subterfuge with other individuals who are not interested in and actively suppress what is. the chapter provided much guidance for me to focus on just living my own truth regardless of the environment that truth finds itself in.
the concepts of "clean pain" and "dirty pain" resonated with me. simply put, our clean pain {or clean truth} is the observable, objective experience; our dirty pain is the emotional and mental story we tell ourselves about that experience. the author suggests brilliant techniques to separate these two and practice being with the clean and minimizing the dirty. I won't get too much into it because these things tend to be very personal and individual issues. I highly recommend that you read the book.
I'm allowing myself practice with little clean truths before I tackle the mack daddy truths lurking in my subconscious. some of my moments of clean truth this week:
- my hands are bruised from clapping so hard last night at the u2 show.
- my throat is raw from singing sunday bloody sunday at the top of my lungs with 50,000 other voices under the direction of bono.
- my heart is full of memories, music, love for this band.
- I am a girl in transition.
- my house desires organization.
- I have a lot of questions and curiosity about life and plan to keep on exploring.
- tiny golden leaves are falling outside my window.
- I really like grilled cheese sandwiches.
simple truths. it's up to me to examine and manage the emotional chatter (positive and negative) that accompany each.
