What’s Hiding In Your Inner World? Here Are 3 Powerful Ways to Find Out
Follow the trailheads of your own mind, heart, and body to uncover hidden parts of you waiting to be known.
You know those moments when you’re having big feelings about something that should be a small nuisance?
All of a sudden your mind is racing, your body is reacting, and it’s a moment-to-moment fight to keep your emotions from exploding.
What if the next time you found yourself in this situation you thought to yourself, “Oh, this again. I know what’s going on here. And I know exactly what to do about it.”
That is the power of Parts Work.
Um, Parts Work?
Parts Work is a cutting-edge psychological methodology that is also rooted in ancient shamanic and indigenous traditions.
It describes the overall ideology of our inner world (or our psyche) being made up of multiple parts as opposed to one solitary “you” in there.
It’s a common misconception that your inner world is made up of just one solitary “you.” That there should only be one voice in your head, only one feeling you’re feeling, only one thought you are thinking.
But this is just not the case.
In reality, you have a whole bunch of different parts of you that live in your inner world, and all of these different parts of you have different roles and responsibilities. But all of them are trying to help you get your needs met.
Let’s make this practical: How many times have you said something like, “Well, a part of me wants this, but another part of me wants something else?”
Or how many times have you felt multiple feelings at the same time? That’s because at least two different parts of you are experiencing two different feelings.
Parts Work is the work of getting to know the different parts of yourself, helping them heal, and learn to work with each other instead of against each other.
Your experience of life can change dramatically when your parts start working together. Its the difference between the voices in your head being a bunch of screaming 10-year-olds vs a group of capable adults working together toward the same goal.
I’ve written loads of articles about Parts Work because it has the power to completely transform your experience of life for the better. A few of the best articles are linked at the end, but this one is a great place to start if you want to learn more.
Three powerful trailhead to find what’s hidden inside you.
When you’re in that situation where your emotions feel out of proportion to what is actually going on and your mind is racing and your body is reacting, what’s really going on is different parts of you are getting activated.
Once you understand which parts are getting activated and why, you can start learning how to work with them. And when you have mastered how to work with your parts, you really don’t have to be afraid of those overwhelming situations because you’ve developed the skills to navigate yourself back to clear and peaceful waters.
This is the power of Parts Work.
The first step in Parts Work is to first learn to identify your parts. There are three main trailheads that will help you do that.
The first kind of trailhead is a thought.
If you’ve got a thought that keeps repeating in your head, that’s a part of you.
If you’ve got a thought that says you “should” do something, that’s a part.
If a thought says you do or don’t like something, that’s a part.
Your thoughts are basically just your parts talking. As you get more aware of your thoughts, it’ll be easier to distinguish the different parts that are talking in there.
Not to mention your thoughts will start to make a whole lot more sense when they’re put in the context of a conversation between parts.
The second kind of trailhead is an emotion.
If you’re feeling sad, that’s a part.
Angry is a part, scared is a part, even joyful can be a part.
As you get more aware of your emotions, you’ll be able to identify more of your parts based on how they’re feeling as well.
All those big feelings that make no sense? You’ll be surprised how much relief you’ll bring to those feelings once you better understand the different parts of you that are feeling them and what they need.
The third kind of trailhead is a body sensation.
A tightness in your chest or your throat could be a part.
Butterflies in your tummy, that’s also a trailhead to a part of you.
Noticing when your teeth are clenched and your shoulders are hunched can also help you identify a part because different parts of you feel different in your body and move your body differently when they are blended with you.
As you get more aware of your body sensations, you’re going to be fascinated by the different parts of you that you’re able to discover.
Wanna take this to the next level?
Being able to identify when a part of you is present is an important life skill, but it’s only the first step.
The next step is to actually start a conversation with the part and get to know it more.
(Yep — each part of you has it’s own story about how it came to play the role it is playing based on your life experience. It’s absolutely fascinating once you start understanding the roles of your parts. Its like your entire life begins to make sense.)
I created a whole worksheet that will walk you through the process of identifying and getting to know a part of you step-by-simple-step.
It’s called the Meet A Part Of You Worksheet and you can download it for free right here.
(Some folks have said this worksheet has completely transformed the way they experience themselves so…be prepared).