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Jar Of Beads :)


Shortiee.x

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Some of you may have heard of the "glass beads in a jar" technique to tackle black and white thinking for example "it's all pants" "everything is wrong" when actually not everything is, it's the few negative things taking over thoughts and emotions.

I find it very helpful. I have my jar as part of my ornaments (which are also "safety/recovery" tools) got my pretty beads and to others, it's just a jar of coloured beads.

If you don't know how it works, basically you get two different colours of beads. For me navy blue are negative thoughts/feelings/actions and white/clear are positive or happy things. It may start out looking dark and negative. Everytime you think/do something positive or reach a goal or remember something happy you put a clear or white bead in the jar. It's a visual aid and I find it helps with acceptance and is good sometimes for distress tolerance and I find it encourages me to do something positive so that I can make the jar look brighter.

I'm going to share today's jar of beads. Negative has a "-" before it and positive/good has "*" before it. If anyone wants to join in, feel free, I hope even just one person finds this and it helps them.

-woke up with a headache

-miss my children

*cuddles from best friend

*cooked lunch

*feel good film

*sing and dance with best friend like no body was watching

-burst into tears

-destructive urges

*best friend talked me through it

*tidied kitchen

*mindful bath

-triggered by a "friend"

*used wise mind

*reached out for help

*took medication

*having an early night

*hopefully passed on a skill :)

Feel pants but as you can see from my jar, the positives out weigh the negative by far!

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I really like the whole idea of this (((Shortiee.x))).xxx Thank you for sharing and great that you have many positives today even though you feel like pants.xxx

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This is a fab idea, I really like it! Thanks for sharing it with us, I'd never come across it before but think it could be really useful for me - and no doubt many others! :):):)

And well done on your day - it's so good that you can recognise so many positives even though you still feel bad :)

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  • 2 weeks later...

I really like this idea and am a little envious that someone thought this up! That's really clever! Think I'm going to use this and maybe see if I can adapt it too for other things.

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I couldn't find any suitable beads in actual shops but ordered some online. Got them yesterday!! And I found a lovely jar that's just the job!

Quite excited about getting started now :)

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This could be just what I need

Thank you

I always feel like I've ruined everything

If I can see some white beads maybe I'll feel better?

Thank you so much for this idea

I wish I could get started right now

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