Journal #2 Activity

Please Read the book (Retelling the Story of Our Lives by David Denborough) chapter 2 “We are not our problems”

Ch. 2: think of a “problem” from your past that you FEEL PROUD of having resolved or dissolved.
1) describe the problem and circumstances (context)
2) externalize the problem of the past by naming it (if you have trouble naming it then you can begin by simply begin by placing “the” in front of the word e.g. “the anger” “the depression” “the anxiety” or simply describe the problem in your own words and think of what image personifies it—e.g. “the sink hole” “the beast” “the Nazi stress” as one of my client came to call his stress.
3) Investigate the influence and operations of the problem pg 34.
4) explore the effects of the problem pg 35.
5) evaluate the effects of the problem by “scaling” it from the past to now the present. e.g on scale from 1-10 with 10 being the highest–what number would best reflect how much influence it had over you at it highest place in the past? Using same scale where would you rate it now that it has been resolved (know that most things don’t completely go away but reside for the most part once resolved?
6) briefly discuss how resolving this past problem has introduced more “personal agency” in your life over the problem and has ceased from “cheating or robbing” you of opportunities and or relationships that would otherwise have been lost.
7) in what manner has resolving this past problem elevated or revealed the true nature of your character?