Just so you know, when I'm sleep deprived, a lot of emotions rush to the surface, and a lot of negative thoughts have very easy entry to my conscious mind. Things feel truly bad and it's very easy for me to assume negative intent and feel awful.
So, two takeaways:
1) how you feel is *not* an indication that your self-work is failing. It's an indication that you're sleep deprived.
2) although it's terrifyingly real-feeling, it is not real. It's the effect of a biological situation.
For me, learning to deal with this second point has been extremely hard. I kept expecting that I'd come to a point where I could toss off bad feelings and not feel awful again, and I'd been wrong. What I had to do was learn to accept that they felt awful, but remind myself that they weren't real. And then, since they weren't real, I could ignore them - step away, distract myself, etc. - because fake stuff doesn't matter.
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timeasmymeasure
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Date: 2010-12-13 04:15 pm (UTC)So, two takeaways:
1) how you feel is *not* an indication that your self-work is failing. It's an indication that you're sleep deprived.
2) although it's terrifyingly real-feeling, it is not real. It's the effect of a biological situation.
For me, learning to deal with this second point has been extremely hard. I kept expecting that I'd come to a point where I could toss off bad feelings and not feel awful again, and I'd been wrong. What I had to do was learn to accept that they felt awful, but remind myself that they weren't real. And then, since they weren't real, I could ignore them - step away, distract myself, etc. - because fake stuff doesn't matter.