Get a pencil and paper and find a comfortable spot.
Take a few breaths and let yourself feel the seat of your chair.
Think about a recurring upset or conflict you have.
Write down your Long-Standing, Recurrent, Painful Patterns (LRPP: long-standing patterns of relating to difficulties -- patterns of reactivity that create pain) in one or two sentences. What is it about?
Bring to mind an image that illustrates or represents your LRPP. This could be an animal or plant.
See yourself in relationship to this creature. How far away are you?
Next, see yourself in a safe place, maybe in your comfy chair or next to an imaginary person with whom you feel safe. Let yourself experience the felt sense of that safety.
Describe this creature as vividly as you can. Feel into this creature. What is it like to be that plant or animal? What is its mood? What does it want? What does it fear?
Then hold both perspectives, yours and the creature’s, keeping them distinctly separate. What is the felt sense of that experience?
Take a few breaths, relaxing with the exhalation.
Write down a few sentences about this experience, describing the two perspectives.
— Radhule Weininger in Heart Medicine