No. 1 - Unpacking Eating Pain and Feasting on Life
In the last four chapters of my book The Trauma Banquet, I describe how I use the eating pain and feasting on life processes to manage distress and strengthen my resilience. In a series of blogs, I will unpack these overarching processes. Eating pain and feasting on life involve six resilience sub-processes identified by a popular psychotherapy called Acceptance and Commitment Therapy (ACT):
mindfulness
seeing from awareness
acceptance
watching thoughts
connection to values
values-based action
There are also many positive psychology strategies that I use to nourish these sub-processes including: savouring, practicing gratitude, cultivating self-compassion and meaning making. I will describe these in subsequent blogs. I will start with mindfulness because it is central to all of the resilience sub-processes and positive psychology strategies.
- Kenneth Pakenham PhD