At some point in working with difficult memories, you may find that the distress from remembering it will show up in your body. While this method does its best not to activate the memory this way, it is still good to be prepared in case it does happen. Practice this skill until it becomes strong enough to use in such a case.
A ShopVac is a powerful vacuum cleaner that sucks up debris from off of a surface. This tool is named after a shopvac, but it can work by imagining any vacuum. Imagine turning on a vacuum so that it pulls air into the hose.
Now, scan your body and find any places where you might feel some regular day-to-day stress. Maybe it’s something like tension, a knot, pressure, heaviness, heat, cold, or restlessness. If you find something, imagine moving the hose of the vacuum over that spot. Not so close that it touches your skin, but enough that you could picture the stress getting pulled up into the hose like some kind of smoke or steam.
Push the vacuum canister out of sight, just like we did with the container. How does your body feel? The more you practice this exercise, the stronger it can become.
Alternative visualizations include imagining yourself scooping distress out of your body with your hands or imaginary hands. Or you could picture a bright healing light spreading through your body like some kind of magical spell. Whatever helps you identify the feeling in your body and relax it. Whatever you use, bring this up whenever you notice yourself becoming activated in your body, even if only a little bit. Better to catch it too early than too late.
If you’re revisiting this page during memory processing stages, please consider shortening the amount of time that you’re glancing at. A good rule of thumb is to shorten it to 1/20th of the time as the last round that caused bodily activation. That last round was likely just a bit too long, so give it another try with a shorter glimpse after you have grounded.
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