Tonight’s Genesis Process group is going to be about protective personalities. The pain we feel sometimes puts us in a position to create personalities that we believe will protect us from being hurt. Those personalities can show up as tough girl/guy, the doormat, the hero, actor, needy, the phony, don’t mess with me, the Pharisee, numb, the wall, I’m OK, confusion, blank, lazy, anger, contempt, control, crazy, the scapegoat, loser, independence, the ice princess, the bully, the doormat, the victim, sister super servant, over achiever, or fill in the blank…. We hide behinds these other personalities as a means to manage our exposure to pain.
Think about the last time you were angry or afraid because of criticism, trusting, failure, confrontation, etc. Then ask yourself this question to expose the personality ….” How did I react or defend myself?” Usually this is where you see that other personality rear its’ ugly head. If you have a hard time identifying it ask yourself, “in the atmosphere I grew up in, how did I survive or cope?”
This was eye opening the first time I did it. I had never considered myself a bully but that was the first personality flushed. I intimidated people and I liked it. It gave me power. So please understand why this stuff is so hard to give up. There are so many lies around what it is doing for you. Of course most of us don’t measure the cost of what it is doing to us until we have paid a pretty high price.
I had someone tell me one time “who wants to pet a porcupine”. Sounds funny but the truth was that when I was criticized, having a trust issue, was feeling like a failure or being confronted here came those sharp spines backing off anyone that came near. I would lower my head and attack. Let us just say that it makes folks not want to work or play with you when that is how you handle your hurt.
Tonight some folks are going to get set FREE as we begin to call out that protective personality and relieve it of it’s’ duty.
We will go through the process of looking at:
- What’s its job?
- How it does its’ job?
- What would happen to you if it wasn’t there?
- How old is it? How big is it?
- Releasing it of its role in your life.
- Transferring those areas of responsibilities/fears to Jesus
- Asking Jesus to minister to the child (personality), trusting Him.
FREEDOM! FREEDOM! Walking in true freedom with Christ! There are some folks going to leave class tonight completely different than they walked in! Woo Hoo, I can’t wait.
Blessings ~ Tammy
Tammy Hardin is a Certified Relapse Prevention Specialist, Life Coach and Biblical Lay Counselor. She uses her 20 plus years working with addictions to “set the captives free”. To learn more about her mentoring processes visit her website at www.emotionalandaddictionrecovery.com
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im on day 3 of the most difficult journey of my life so far and was looking for a little help along the way found this site . just reading that there are people out their in a similar situation to me but just that little bit further on gives me the strength to carry on.
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Today is only Day 5, but yesterday was hard. The first four days I felt pretty good and a sense of relief. I felt I was making the right choice to give up pot but somehow without pot and alcohol life just seems grey. I used to look forward to smoking pot and really enjoyed it. Ironically, I don’t feel a whole lot different without it – I think I had built up so much tolerance I wasn’t really getting that high, but without it I am more anxious and irritable. Unmotivated. I just hope today is easier.