Aspergers and avoidance

[BirdsNest]

I believe that tolerating discomfort and allowing it to be there and then choosing a course of action would be real freedom.

So true.

Sorry to sound like one of those new-age hippie wankers, but getting my head into a few books on Buddhism and Psychology ('Thoughts without a Thinker' is amazing.) and doing the ol' yoga really helped me to become self-aware. There is something intrinsically Buddhist about AS styles of thinking. It resonated with me long before I knew what AS was and long before Eastern mysticism became trendy.

I think being able to link emotions directly to bodily sensations, created new neural pathways, so now I can identify my emotions much better.
Sometimes it still takes a little bit of time.
Although I am, and will always be, a predominately rational over emotional person.

But yeah, gradually as I've managed to figure out that side to my life more I've opened up to my own feelings more. Its calmed me down - used to be a bit of a handful - and its been a huge help in developing the self-management strategies required of being on the spectrum and living in a world where most people don't get you.

 

[aspieoutlaw89]

i do the exact same thing with girls & women my age who potentially crush on me (commenting about my head of hair,calling me

cute

,etc),or look at me dirty because of how severely awkward i'd appear to them upon eye-contact,like a ninja .

 

[Nathan86]

I think that being more aware and being able to recognise and sit with emotions would actually bring freedom and choice - often when we're avoiding things we think we're advocating for freedom but actually getting tangled in a web of our own making just by trying to escape from whatever it is we don't want to confront. From a psychological point of view it seems they need to be experienced and allowed in order to lose their power rather than suppressed or ignored leading to physical and mental health issues.

So much of the rubbish in life seems to stem from avoiding - the overspending, alcohol abuse, compulsive overeating - isn't that a reaction to not wanting to feel what's already there or to filling a feeling of emptiness?

I believe that tolerating discomfort and allowing it to be there and then choosing a course of action would be real freedom.

Gracey I am not sure what is frightening or whether there's a difference between emotions and feelings - maybe it's the meaning we attach to them that is the problem because in essence all they are is fleeting bodily sensations to which we ascribe names and meaning. Let go of the latter and perhaps they would flow more easily.

Amen to that!