no details necessary

Titrate: Place your soft open attention around the periphery of sensations that you call ‘overwhelm.’ No need to dive into the epicenter at all. Keep your soft attention around those sensations until you need to shift and look out your window at that beautiful tree dripping with spring buds. Back and forth, as slowly as need be, to make friends with the sensations in your sensitive body.
With each pendulum movement from sensation to beauty her capacity to be with overwhelm changed. And the feeling of overwhelm changed too. She could now speak of two incidents, generally, no details needed, from childhood. She began at the outermost periphery: “Where were the parents? Why were we so unsupervised? I needed protection!” she exclaimed with an immense grief. She looked out the window and relaxed into the beauty, breathing through her mouth, taking all the time her body needed to re-set. She had never spoken these words, much less mentioned what happened. Mentioning what happened is not necessary anyway, I assured her.
New periphery: Asking her to find one word to describe what happened she chose “inappropriate.” My parents had creepy friends with creepy kids she shared, explaining their track record of lawless acquaintances. At least the ones she knew of. She was very young when ‘things’ happened, and while she had tried to tell her parents, they kept inviting those same friends over for weekly visits. Still leaving her unsupervised with their children. Window. Looking out the window, she sighed, long and slow sighs, breathing slowly through her mouth, returning to calm. She took her time demonstrating excellent self-care.
The periphery of pain was getting smaller now and the next layer revealed a buried rage. What would rage say? Rage, her protector, was very wise. Rage, now turned outrage, knew exactly what she needed, what was missing, what needed to happen, no, what should have happened. This time she felt relieved for it was the rage that she had been managing to bury. She suspected that the effort to manhandle rage turned into overeating and the habit of filling up shopping carts on her favorite clothing websites.
Window. Window. Window.
The periphery narrowed yet again, and she could see herself as a child feeling confused, lost, and very scared. She noticed that these feelings created the belief that she was shameful and broken too. She has young children now and could see her young version of herself as she would her own. Instead of ignoring the feelings of her young experience, she allowed them to be as if holding them for her: The shame, confusion, loneliness, and feelings of fear. No window needed, just a loving warmth emanating through her body allowing all these new sensations to rise and integrate.
Her ‘radar detector’ for zeroing in on people who are untrustworthy and potentially misleading is well cured. She realized that instead of scanning for danger, she could notice all the other people. The ones she could not see before; those who are trustworthy and honest. Oh, this would make for such an easier life, for her and her children.
This time she looked out the window with awe and wonder. Together we repeated: “All of life comes to me with joy, and ease, and glory!” five times. Who knows why five, but it was enough. Her body tingled, a growing excitement in her belly, and a smile on her lovely face.