Funnily enough, I did the Landmark Forum over the weekend -- re-framing in a big way. I found it more than a little hokey, but the core messages actually fit quite well with this CBT work, as well as with the mindfulness work I'm doing, and overall it's a great way of thinking. I'm going to try to nutshell it, probably more for my own benefit but it may be interesting/helpful to people here.
It start with the concept that, rather than lugging our pasts around behind us, we hold our pasts in front of us and allow our pasts to shape and frame our selves and our futures.
Our pasts are nothing but occurences which we then interpreted in order to create meaning for ourselves. What happened, happened. What didn't happen, didn't happen. What was done, was done. What wasn't done, wasn't done. All real, but all in the past. What we carry in front of us are simply the stories we've created about all the stuff that happened. Stories and hurts and guilts and fears and irritations and resentments and complaints... (Obviously, there are good stories as well, but, as we know very well here, we don't seem to allow our good stories to form the context for our selves and our future very often :( )
Not saying that the stories, etc. are wrong at all -- they are perfectly valid interpretations of what happened from the perspective we were in at the time. But now, in this moment, they don't mean anything.
So we spent the majority of the weekend identifying our stories and, where necessary, creating closure for them so that we could let them go and eventually stand in the moment, empty-handed. With nothing in front of us telling us what or what not to think, feel, say, do based on the perspective of a frightened 4 year old or an angry teenager or a righteous 20-something, we have the power to choose based on the perspective of who we genuinely are right now and/or who we wholeheartedly commit to being as of now.
There's a lot more to it, obviously. I'm finding it very powerful, even though the format and style was almost excruciating. Still working out some bits for myself -- mostly about bringing this into the context of real life -- but I think that this is coming from stories, etc that I'm still clinging to. Supposedly participants experience a transformation. Perhaps I haven't just haven't got it yet, but at this point I'd call it re-framing rather than transformation.
Anyway, I just thought I'd share that with you, given our current topic :)