I have used it quite a fair bit when I was working full-time on my mental health during a retreat.
I sometimes have resistance to using it. Mostly, when the negative belief that I wanted to counteract was pretty big, exploring the underlying issue using focusing, Internal Family Systems therapy, or some other introspective technique seems more useful in that situation.
Whenever I struggle to make progress on an important goal, I feel bad. I get feelings of frustration, impatience, and apathy. I think to myself, “I have wasted all this time, and I will never get it back.” The resulting behavior during these moments does not help either; my impatience makes it hard to concentrate, so I often work on more engaging tasks rather than the essential ones I ideally want to focus on. I also tend to push through; even if I feel tired, I want to make progress at all costs. I force myself to work, which results in decreased motivation, making it hard to make actual progress.
Thanks to a... (read 1767 more words →)
Social meetup for everybody interested in Lesswrong, even if you have just heard of it feel free to join.
At 14:30 we will have some 1 on 1 conversations to get to know each other a little better and after that unstructured socializing.
The meetup is at my own place and there is tea, beer, and some snacks. Feel free to bring some extra drinks/snacks but don't feel obliged.
RSVP's are appreciated
Hope to see you soon
We will get together to celebrate the winter solstice! This is an event where we will sing songs together. We will celebrate live, reflect on the hard challenges we face as a society, acknowledge the strenghts of the community, and hopefully get some inspiration to create a much better world together.
We will start with a shared dinner. Bring your own food (potluck style!) for maximum coziness. Also, feel encouraged to bring your instrument if you play one, there will be opportunities to use it.
Then we will move on to the secular solstice celebration and afterwards there will be opportunity to reflect and chill out. If you want to sleep over, I have... (read more)
This concern seems legitimate to me. There is often important information in negative feelings which I mostly explore with Focusing or Internal Family Systems. When my brain thinks that there is still information in that feeling but I am nevertheless applying the HEAL method, it can feel as if I am convincing myself or, as you said, repressing your emotion. That seems indeed somewhat tricky to me.
However, I also think that there is not always useful information in negative feelings. I often had times where I already explored the negative feeling or knew where it came from but it still came back. Before having heard of HEAL and reading Rick Hanson's material I thought that you always had to fully experience and feel a negative feeling in order to overcome it. I no longer think this is the case, instead I replace it with thoughts or behaviors that are more helpful and in these behaviors also incorporate the useful bits of what the negative feeling tries to achieve.