Towards the middle of last year, I decided to give EMDR a try, after hitting what felt like an impassable wall in traditional talk therapy. It was incredibly helpful for me, although not the magic bullet I was hoping it’d be. But what I did take away from it was the ability to hold onto and connect with the fleeting images in my head that came up during the sessions.

A few months ago I picked up meditating again. It’s something I’ve tried on and off with varying degrees of success over the years. But this time around I’ve found it easier to connect to what I’m feeling. My approach isn’t drastically different from what I’ve tried in the past, but the introspection part has seemingly clicked, albeit in fits and starts. This evening I was thinking about someone who’d been important in my past, someone who I’ve tried to not think of over the past few years, and felt a strong emotional reaction to thinking about them. I figured that I might get somewhere by meditating on that feeling, and I was surprised by how strong a physical and emotional reaction I had. It felt comparable to the hardest (and most effective) EMDR sessions that I had, although this time without a therapist to talk it through with. It felt like something was fighting to get out, and it almost did but I couldn’t quite let go.

I’m not entirely sure where I’m going with this. Feedback to a previous post was that I got close to the point, but didn’t quite get there. Perhaps it’s that if you’ve dabbled with meditation in the past, and have tried EMDR (and found it helpful) to consider giving meditation another go.