This quarter, we will continue to explore the concept of self-induced healing, which occurs in a state of safety. RUTs dissipate as your entire body heals. Bernie Siegel and Brenda Stockdale explained the characteristics of people who recovered from terminal stage 4 cancer. It turns out that healing from chronic mental and physical pain shares similar patterns. This link explains the process: summary document.

RUTs are at the core of essentially all mental health issues. Mainstream medicine addresses symptoms and diagnoses, and does not systematically address this root cause. Defending your identity (mental rigidity) is a significant source of RUTs. Softening your ego decreases RUTs. I have finished my book, Calm Your Body, Heal Your Mind: Transcending Pain, Anxiety, Anger, and Repetitive Unwanted Thoughts, and these sessions will reflect many of the newer concepts.

Repetitive, unwanted thoughts (RUTS) are present in 95% of people. Approximately 70-80% find them somewhat disruptive. They are driven by threat physiology, and in turn, the thoughts drive survival physiology.

There are four aspects of healing RUTs, along with one preliminary step. Please review these links to gain a comprehensive understanding of the overall healing approach.

Preliminary Step

• Begin Expressive Writing
• Separate your ego (identity) from your physiology

Four aspects of healing

Thought separation

• Unhooking from the train
• Active Meditation

Calm down your nervous system 

• Can’t Take Your Hand Off the Stove?
• Processing Anger – “5-3-2”
• Three aspects of processing anger

Dissolution of ego

• Why do you need an ego?
• The Envy of others devours us most of all

Connect to creativity

• Look up. Expand your consciousness.
• Play

Read Back in Control: A Surgeon’s Roadmap Out of Chronic Pain

October

2 – How Beliefs Get Stuck

• Wake Up People: Get Your Thinking Brains Online

7 – Should Thinking

• Perfectionism – The Ultimate Victim Role

 9 – Ego and identity, and mental rigidity 

• Mental Rigidity – A Core Trait of Many Mental Health Diagnoses

14 – The Search for Happiness – The Ironic Effect

• “Don’t Worry, Be Happy”: Firing up RUTs

16 – Creative session

21 – Why Do You Need an Ego? Lighten up.

• Dissolve It with Awareness

23 – Your Identity is a Cognitive Distortion – Labeling

• Understanding the “Curse of Consciousness”

28 – A Healthy Relationship to Food

• Your Relationship to Food and Life

30 – Living Life Well is a Learned Skill

• Downhill Skiing is Dangerous – So is Life

November

4 – Creative session

6 – Be Nice to Yourself

• “The Abyss” – Honor Your Suffering

11 – A concrete step to heal

• Want to live longer and be smarter?

13 – What the World Needs is for You to Heal

• Don’t Take on the World’s Suffering

18 – The Doctor is Missing Something

• “I Want to Believe”

20 – Creative session

25 – Envy is Normal – Suppressing it is Problematic

• Envy of Others Destroy us Most of All

27 – Thanksgiving Day

December

2 – Opening up to heal – Altruism

• Schadenfreude or Altruism – Your Choice

4 – Depression May Be Your Body’s Way of Saying, “Time Out”

• “The Bottom”

9 – Creative session

11 – More About Ego

• The Deadly Nature of Pursuing Ego

16 – Mental Pain – Your Hand is Struck over the Stove

• How Threat Physiology Drives Chronic Pain

18 – Awareness is all you need

• Awareness – Ingrained Patterns

23 – The Nightmare Before Christmas

• The Two Faces of Christmas

25 – Christmas Day

30 – Begin Your Life Today and Every Day

• Live Like You are 20