Many of us get a few stressful thoughts that repeatedly pop into the mind. The moment such a thought enters the mind, the associated feelings of anxiety, guilt or panic arise. Result is stress in the mind and tensing of the muscles of the body. Every time such a thought enters the mind, its power seems to get enhanced, like a balloon growing bigger every time you receive it in your hands. Here is the ‘court room’ treatment to drain the power from such thoughts, like pricking a balloon and deflating it. A few repetitions of this treatment will disable such thoughts permanently.
We will use the real life story of a woman who attended my classes. She had the recurring thought that she was responsible for the death of her father who died 12 years back, due to heart failure, literally in her hands when they were the only people in the house. When he collapsed, she administered CPR and tried to revive him. She called her sister and emergency# 911. But by the time the emergency medical team arrived, her father died in her hands. Though she did all she could, to save him, the guilt laden thought that she was responsible for his death haunted her for more than 12 years. She got addicted to powerful narcotics to suppress her feelings. Here is how we used the ’Court room’ technique to defuse the destructive thought and associated feeling of guilt.
This court has 4 key persons -
- The prosecution lawyer (PL): This is the voice in her mind, which is charging her for her father’s death. Imagine the PL sitting on the left shoulder.
- The alleged culprit (AC): This is the woman herself. Imagine this is at the heart position.
- The defense lawyer (DL): This is the normally dormant second voice in the mind, who needs to be awakened, to defend the alleged culprit, the woman. Imagine this is sitting on the right shoulder.
- The judge: This is your own cool mind, about which you may not be aware most of the time.Its job is to listen to both the lawyers and passes a judgement which is fair to both the prosecution side and defense side. Imagine this is sitting in your head.
The court room scene was physically enacted by the woman herself , playing all the above four roles, one at a time. We set up four chairs in a circle. The woman sat in the chair marked for PL (Prosecution lawyer) and stated the allegation that the woman failed to save her father’s life, being present with him when he collapsed and so she was guilty of her father’s death. She deserved appropriate punishment.
Then she moved into the chair marked for the DL (defense lawyer). I told her that sitting in this chair, she has to make as many statements as she can, to demolish the PL’s statement. She has to prove it wrong or doubtful. This was a new thought process for her. Never in the past she tried to defend herself consciously against the allegation. With some prompting, she recollected what all she did to her father and how she took prompt and appropriate actions to save her father’s life. As she started narrating, she became quite emotional and vigorously defended herself. She felt some relief at the end.
She then moved into the judge’s chair. Now her job was to consider the statements of both the lawyers and give an unbiased ruling on the allegation. For the first time after the incident, she genuinely felt that she was not to be blamed for her father’s death. She said so without any difficulty. The spell under which she suffered for 12 years was broken with tremendous relief for her. The extreme panic she experienced whenever she looked at her father’s photo gradually diminished and disappeared in a few weeks.
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