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eclairparty98 · Oct 27, 2017, 09:42 AM

Quote:

Originally Posted by Skeezyks

Hello eclair: I'm sorry you are struggling with this.

I'm going on 70 years old!

And I want to tell you that I have SO MANY bad memories of things I've done wrong in the past that there's simply no end to them. It's like being stung by a never-ending swarm of bees!

Perfect way of putting it, I know the feeling!!

Quote:

I wish I could tell you that I found a cure for this never-ending onslaught. But I haven't.

The best remedy I have found is the Buddhist practice of compassionate abiding. Here's a nice mental health oriented description of the practice:

https://mindsetdoc.wordpress.com/201...e-abiding-101/

What I find, in my own life, is that the best I can do is to allow those bad memories to be there (they're going to be anyway.)

I then breathe into them, smile to them, perhaps even put my hand over my heart as a sign of compassion for them, & be with them until they fade of their own accord. They come back, of course. But by continuing to abide with them in the way I've described, their power does diminish a bit over time. And, perhaps more importantly, this practice teaches us that it is possible to dwell with this kind of sorrow & still maintain our emotional balance... our equanimity if you will.

Also... here's a link to an article on the subject of intrusive thoughts from the PsychCentral archives. Perhaps something in it may be of some help too:

https://blogs.psychcentral.com/socia...sive-thoughts/

My best wishes to you...

Thank you so much, Skeezyks , for sharing your experience

I will look into your practice as it sounds like it could be beneficial to me. It's a real shame we can't simply permanently erase those bad memories but then there are those who say we wouldn't be who we are today without them...

Thank you for the supportive response, I really appreciate it - my best wishes to you, too