I have struggled with my journey with PTSD and I found a way to distance myself from my overwhelming emotions and runaway thinking. So I thought I would share this in case it can help anyone else. This morning I was in a situation where I felt defeated and I was sliding into dangerous mental territory. For me the danger zone is when I start equating some external circumstance to my self worth. I sat with my dismay and I observed it and I reacted to my inner chaos by throwing in some super unhelpful judging myself for my own childish thinking. I was not a beaming ray of hope or vibrating at any higher frequencies and it wasn't even 9:00am yet. When I came home my husband could tell I was off and he moved away from me into another room. So in my solitude I was able to finally engage some creative thinking and I decided to type an email to myself describing my headspace and how it didn't align with my ideal version of myself. Then I went for a short walk. When I came back I re-read what I had written and it was only then that I got this beautiful feeling of distance from the whole emotional problem. When I realized at 9:35am re-reading that email that there was a 9:15am version of me who was writing about the 7:45am version of me's problems... THAT'S when it seemed so utterly unimportant. It made me feel free from the suffering. This is a very simple abstraction technique that I hope can help someone get out of their muck. I don't like seeing people get stuck in their muck!