Mind-Body Workbook for PTSD by Stanley Block

it walking, parenting, using the computer, paying bills, working, or playing.) Is it your true self arising from a quiet I-System, or your damaged self prompted by an overactive I-System? Notice how your life is changing with your mind-body bridging practices:
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    You are improving your life with your mind-body bridging practices. By recognizing and releasing the negative effects of your fixer, your progress and healing continue. The I-System is not a static system; it may try to fool you by creating more fixers. For your continued progress and healing, it’s important to recognize these new fixers. Some examples are:
     
I’m doing better. I can relax and not do so much bridging.
I’m calm now, so I can drink socially.
I’m improved enough that I can do the maps in my head.
It’s okay to explode once in a while if the situation warrants it.
I only need to bridge when I feel bad.
If it feels good, I’m naturally functioning, and I should do it.
Bridging means having free choice, so anytime I choose to go eighty miles per hour, it’s okay.
Natural functioning is always effortless, so I don’t need to try anymore.
    The previous examples of fixers parade themselves as choices that come from natural functioning. But they come with the same distinctive signs you learned earlier in this chapter (body tension, mental pressure, urgent storylines, and lack of clarity about the effect of your actions). What is new about them is that they present themselves in a way that makes you feel good about them. This might cause you to fail to recognize them as fixers and instead see them as signs of progress. Only by befriending your fixer (see Day Four) can your true self make the choice, free of the I-System’s influences.
    MBB Weekly Evaluation Scale
Why Your Best Efforts Seem to Go Wrong
    Date: __________
    During the past week, how was it for you to do these practices? Check the description that best matches your practice: hardly ever, occasionally, usually, or almost always.

    List the main body sensations you have when the fixer is in control:
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    List three behaviors the fixer causes:
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    List three themes of storylines that come with the fixer:
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    How did your behavior change when you befriended your fixer and functioned naturally?
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    MBB Quality of Life Scale
    Date: __________
    It’s time to do another MBB Quality of Life Scale to see your progress. Fill out this quality of life scale, and compare it with the one you did in chapter 1, Day One. Congratulate yourself on your improved scores. Note any areas of low scores. Low scores relate to requirements you haven’t yet become aware of or defused. The rest of this workbook gives more skills to help you deal with the underlying requirements that still negatively affect your life. This workbook records your journey of self-discovery and self-healing.
    Over the past seven days, how did you do in these areas?

5.
Work Toward Resolving Your PTSD
    Over the past month, you have learned mind-body bridging foundation tools and have started healing your PTSD. The rest of this workbook specifically focuses on the PTSD symptoms that interfere with your quality of life.
    The diagram in figure 5.1 shows what can happen to your thoughts. In the upper I-System loop, the thought becomes a requirement that switches on the depressor-fixer cycle. This impairs how your mind and body work, which in turn causes you to feel and act damaged (dysfunctional mind-body).
    In the lower natural loop , your thoughts and actions are free from the I-System. In this unified state, you experience harmony and balance, and live your life at its best. No matter who you are or what you’ve been through, right here, right now, you can experience