"Given the will, one will usually find the way. Life is too short a time to spend shell-shocked, with a head full of troubled thoughts and a heart lacking in courage. One must move on from past regrets, get rid of the emotional baggage we have carried around for far too long and go in search of a new cabbage patch!
As Mark Twain wrote in 'The American Claimant',' Drag your thoughts away from your troubles, by the ears, by the heels or by any other way so that you can manage it; it's the healthiest thing a body can do.'
During my many years of running groups, helping emotional disturbance, teaching relaxation methods and problem-solving in Probation Offices, Prisons, Hostels, Hospitals, Psychiatric Units, Schools, Educational Establishments and Community Halls, I always relied on some programme content which dealt with effective ways of 'emotional distancing.' I quickly learned as a worker that until a person with a problem to solve can become the person operating the camera and taking the picture instead of the one being photographed, very little is likely to be achieved long term.
Without going into the many techniques and methods one can usefully employ, I would place the distancing of oneself from the original thoughts and emotions that surrounded 'the problem' to be essential in resolving it. Note that this doesn't imply running away from it, but simply standing back and getting a new perspective on the unresolved situation. This is the best way I know of taking a breather, enabling one to put sufficient time and space between our old thoughts that got us in trouble in the first place and the kind of thoughts and thinking that are most likely to get us out of trouble now!
I'm with you, Mark; upwards and onward, or should that be you sometimes need to take one step back in order to take two steps forward!" William Forde: October 31st, 2017.