Getting prepared: Phase 1

1. Take pen and paper and your journal.
2. Move to a quiet place where you will be uninterrupted for at least twenty minutes.
3. Close your eyes and rest for about three to five minutes, breathing deeply.
4. Open your eyes.

Setting the stage: Phase 2

1. Using pen and paper, or talking aloud to yourself, or simply tracing in your own mind, recall the history of the problem as if it were the personal life story" of a person you have known:
• When was the problem born?
• How and where did it grow?
• What have been the high and low points in its life?
• When does it come to visit you?
2. Rest with your eyes closed for a few minutes.

The conversation: Phase 3

1. Imagine the problem sitting in a chair across the room from you.
2. Give it a name.
3. Write as fast as you can, without editing and without rereading, a conversation between yourself and the problem:

Example
Regina: Headache, I hate you.
Headache: You hate me? You hate yourself!
Regina: . . .
Continue for as long as you feel inclined. Expect nothing. When finished, reread what you've written.

The wrap-up: Phase 4

What this experience has taught me:

Try this same procedure, with the same problem, on several different occasions. Compare, contrast, learn from the results.

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