#inner world stuff

They’re not physical locations that system members actually live & walk around in, but the brain may make them perceive it that way.

When we front, we can “remember” what happened in our innerworld while we were there. Since we share a brain, we all have the same “storyline” there, which has created consistent “memories” from within our innerworld over the years.

We’ve had things happen there that have helped us process & recover from things that happened in the outerworld. (It’s why it’s used as a therapeutic technique.)

There’s a fine line with it. It’s possible to rely too heavily on the innerworld to escape the stress of this life, which, for many CDD systems, was the only way they could survive. Once it’s safe to do so, it is important to draw up a healthy distinction between innerworld reality and physical reality. But, on the other hand, entirely denying the legitimacy of innerworld events can greatly hinder healing.

Oftentimes, innerworld happenings are metaphorical. They occur because there’s something the brain/system needs to work through. For example, a “physical fight” occurring within the innerworld may represent clashing morals between two system members, and signify that the misalignment needs to be addressed.

a door

on on on slider rails

Intellectualizing about parts is sort of this bad habit I have, I guess. I start thinking things like, "I know there's a part who has been saying such-and-such negative belief, but I don't know who has been saying it. Which part makes the most sense? Who do I think would say something like that?"

I think doing things that way has led to me getting things wrong about my system in the past.

So I tried to just slow down and leave space to listen to parts instead. I went inside to our safe space and asked everybody involved in our "current issue" to join me. And I said that I knew somebody had been talking about believing such-and-such and I wanted to know more about that.

It took some time, but eventually that part came forward and I was really surprised by who it was! I was surprised because my beliefs about that part were that her "role" was just to be happy and silly and take care of self-care kinds of things. It didn't occur to me that the role she has been playing is a reaction to some really bad experiences and some really negative core beliefs.

Of course their isn’t some massive mental simulation running in our brain while we live our life in the real world. That would be literally impossible. But when the little ones are present, they fill in the gaps and imagine what would have happened in the interim.  

blended really intensely with sam, and was cocon with him while he was inside? it was like I was in his body? his area of the inner world is a yellow hospital waiting room and I've never seen around the corner. but he turned the corner and there was a white door that he/we went through and it was a hospital ward. sol was there. I've never seen her inside. she seemed to be a nurse? the hospital beds were filled with kids, I assume they're the littles she takes care of. one of them was on a ventilator. they were all asleep. sam and sol talked for a moment, I could feel him stretch his arms, and then I was like. ejected from his body and came back to myself? I went back to his area in the inner world on my owm and tried to turn the corner to see it for myself but he grabbed my arm and told me I couldn't go in there.