Contained. Check

So....another skill I use a lot and need to be practicing more is called containment.  This is me prior to Sheppard Pratt- emotions=bad. Avoid all emotion. If you feel emotion it is bad. If you think negative things it is bad. Just forget about your problems cause you can't handle them anyway. Run away= survival.

Guess what?  They didn't like that idea so much at Sheppard Pratt.  So...I learned this skill called containment.  Basically containment is taking a feeling, a thought, a memory, or an experience, recognizing it, packaging it up and saving it for later.  This is especially important for survivors of trauma because sometimes you have an emotion or memory and you are not in a place that it is appropriate or safe to deal with it. Instead of doing the typical run away and hope it doesn't come back. Instead you recognize it, acknowledge it and it's place and decide that you can't deal with it right now, so you put it away. The key is that you can retrieve it whenever you want.  

There are multiple ways to practice containment.  One is physical containment.  I like to do this by writing something down in my journal, getting it out on paper and then folding the sheet of paper over so I can't see it anymore. 

Another way is to write something down and actually put it in a container, some kind of containment box. I personally do this one at work. I have a little box of worries and I write on a sticky note and put it in the box so it's out of my brain.

The point of this is then that it is written down so you don't have to think about it right now. It's out of your head, but totally accessible so at a later date when you have the rest, or support, or time that you need to deal with it, you can do so.

Another way to practice containment is imagery.  The example that people always used at SP was that you imagined putting your memory, worry, emotion or whatever in the basket of a hot air balloon and then letting the hot air balloon going, but you still have that tether, so you can pull it back if you want to.  I preferred the image of a kite.  After I write down what I want to contain and fold it over, I imagine tying it to a kite and then flying the kite and I can decide how high the kite goes- if I want it up in the air by the trees or far far away from me.

My friend came up with this brilliant idea to use imagery with containment by imagining a pensive, like Dumbledore's in Harry Potter. (If you don't know what I am talking about, I am very sad for you because you have missed out on some happiness by not reading Harry Potter).  This method, you pull the memory out of your brain by the temple and have a pensive/bowl to put it in so it can swirl around in there until you need to retrieve it again.  I LOVED this idea (I know you are all shocked because I am so casual about my Harry Potter feelings...) and have taken it to heart.  So much that I decided to make a pensive when I got home.  So I went to Color Me Mine, and painted this awesome pot and it is now my pensive.  Since I don't do physical containment with a containment box, I decided to put my grounding tools in here and just have it for a visual when I need to use imagery.  I just love it!  I feels very Harry Potter like to me!