Edgework Exercises
Each patient who comes to MindBody Medicine Center receives a copy of Dr. Peters’ book, Edgework, Exploring the Psychology of Disease, Beyond Diet & Fitness. The book reviews the research and concepts of mindbody healing with an eye towards the practical and personal application of this revolutionary shift in medicine.
You will read about the power of thought as it coalesces into attitude and belief. The book introduces the concept of emotional wound healing, a process as natural and essential to health, as physical wound healing. Using this concept, the emotional challenges and stresses that we all encounter in life can be seen as the earliest opportunities for psychological healing, and they become markers on the path toward health, or illness.
Edgework is a term that refers to the edge between what you know about yourself and what you do not know. Dis-ease of any kind is the body’s way of getting your attention and inviting this self-exploration, thereby offering true healing. The path maybe scary, as change itself is scary for most of us. It is easy to understand what the noted English poet W. H. Auden meant when he wrote: “We would rather be ruined than changed; we would rather die in our dread than climb the cross of the moment and let our illusions die.”
Chapter 14, the final chapter of Edgework, contains the EDGEWORK EXERCISES, which are designed to translate the principles of mindbody medicine into personal reality. Whether your interest is in prevention or healing, these exercises will help you explore your powerful and formative unconscious mind. They will also assist you in transforming dysfunctional beliefs and attitudes about yourself and the world around you. They will help you honor your emotions and live a fuller and happier life with fewer tendencies toward illness in the future.
The Edgework exercises are:
Exercise 1: What is your level of commitment to yourself?
Exercise 2: Becoming friendly with fear
Exercise 3: Feeling emotions
Exercise 4: Taking responsibility for the experiences in your life
Exercise 5: Taking a close look at your thoughts, beliefs, and attitudes
Exercise 6: Healing emotional wounds
Exercise 7: Exploring the emotional wounds behind an illness
Exercise 8: Mirroring – discharging your shadow everyday
Exercise 9: Loving yourself and finding your passion
Exercise 10: Releasing resentment
Exercise 11: Transforming anger and hostility
Exercise 12: The healing power of forgiveness
Exercise 13: How to transform your stress into personal signals for self-knowledge
Exercise 14: Visualizing the healing power of your mindbody