Drawn Processing

Drawn Processing

Drawn Processing is one of my main methods for working through internal issues. It works by writing out one’s thought patterns and sensing the part of one’s self those thought patterns come from. Some examples from my own processing can be found here: https://www.theworldwithin.org/forum/viewtopic.php?f=1&t=4

Also, a video tutorial of this method can be found here: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qslcM8tJJnY . It’s an hour long, and walks through and demonstrates the basics so you can utilize this method for yourself.

Below I both explain and demonstrate how it works. The four characters below are (in order of introduction) my Force of Freedom, Sensitive Self, Good-hearted Theorist, and Warrior.

“So, um, this is supposed to be a page on what, again?”

“Drawn Processing – now since you’re not into this sort of thing, stand aside and I’ll take over.”

“Hey, shouldn’t I be the one doing this? After all, I come up with the theories and all that.”

“Really I should be the one talking here. But I’ll let you guys have fun right now.”

“Eh… how about you guys all just shut up and I’ll get down to basics.

Wait, what are the basics again?”

 

“Well, to do Drawn Processing, there’s some basic ideas that you need to get first. Foremost of these is the idea that there are multiple sides to any person’s consciousness. They’re always interacting within you at any given moment, and your conscious mind, your actions, everything you interpret as “you” – all that is the end result of those interactions.”

Principle 1: There are Multiple Sides of Yourself

See? Parts of yourself interact and are doing stuff constantly!

“So… what you’re saying is that we’ve got a bunch of little people running around inside of us. Sounds kind of… creepy.”

“No, no, it makes perfect sense! After all, whenever you get indecisive, it’s obvious during those moments that there are two competing thoughts. One side wants one thing and another wants another. It’s only one step further to say that each of those thoughts is coming from a different part of yourself.”

“Yeah, alright, fine. But what’s the good of this? Aren’t you just going to end up stuck, sitting around examining the interactions within yourself?”

“Hey wait, you’re getting ahead of things! The first step is seeing reality in this new way – multiple parts of one’s own consciousness. Or self, or whatever.”

 

“Yeah… I don’t like the word ‘consciousness’.”

“Alright – so here comes the good stuff. Knowing the above principle, not only can you better understand why you make the choices you do, but by seeing, or addressing, or examining… oh how do I explain this?”

“It’s simple. You can change yourself.

 

Principle 2: Conditions inside you might be bad

Change begins by bringing conscious awareness to the real problem.

“I know, but… ‘change yourself’ sounds like you’re a bad person to begin with.”

“Well maybe you are.”

“No no, that’s just mean. Anyway, you can at the very least change the organization of your consciousne- of your self. Yeah.”

“So, aren’t some people going to read that and want to arbitrarily switch things around to serve their own, perhaps ignorant, purpose?”

“Yeah, maybe… but it’s like this: the things you find in yourself may not be the way you’d expect. There might be abuse, cowardliness, tyranny, deception, all sorts of crap! You might find good stuff too, but the point is that if you see injustice or something that you want to change, then you can!”

 Principle 3: You can change your inner self

See? You can take down the tyrants inside of you with the conviction in your heart!

“Ok so I take down an inner tyrant, what good will that do me?”

“Well the part of you that’s being oppressed by that tyrant, you can feel their feelings. Maybe they’re upset a lot, or depressed. And you, as a consequence, also get upset and depressed. So when you free those inner people, you feel more free as a person as well!”

Principle 4: Once you solve inner issues, it has an outside effect

After you resolve your inner conflicts, you feel better.

“This all seems kind of pie-in-the-sky…”

“What are you talking about? You’ve been doing this yourself for a long time!”

“Eh I’ve just been along for the ride, I never much understood the theory behind it. Well, a little. Anyway, couldn’t you free yourself from an inner tyrant without going through this whole process?”

“Possibly… but what’s good about Drawn Processing is it allows you to methodically work through each issue, and to focus in on what your inner characters have to say about a particular issue. You could probably do this by sitting and going into your subconscious, but I think that takes a lot more focus, and it’s hard to draw conclusions from it.”

“Alright, I think that’s enough theory. How do you actually do this?”

“Ok, to do Drawn Processing, all you need to do is think.”

“Think?”

“Yeah, think! Think something, in words, in your head. Or feel an emotion – eh well I’ll come back to that. Anyway then you want to put the words on paper. Sorta like how I’m doing this very explanation. It’s quite clever to demonstrate it, huh?”

Step 1: Write down a thought

“Whatever. So you put the words on paper. What next?”

“Well, then you want to draw the face of the part of you who’s thinking those thoughts. Those particular thoughts you just wrote out. And when you draw the face, show the emotion of that part of yourself as well. There’s emotion behind thoughts, so include it! Hmm… so what next?”

Step 2: Draw a representation of where the thought is coming from

Include emotion!

“You haven’t explained how there’s more than one character.”

“Oh, well for that I’ll hand it over to her.”

“Me? You know people probably think it’s weird that there is a ‘girl’ character since the author is of the male gender, you know?”

“Yeah but this is the inner world! There are all kinds of energies in here, and some seem like girls and others like boys – if I’m wrong to draw it that way, sue me!”

“If suing worked on an internal level, I just might.
In any case, you want me to talk about the other characters? Fine. It’s like this. No matter what thought you may have, there can always be a ‘response’ to that thought. That’s why there’s a train of thought. Thought can keep going and going – and it doesn’t just come from one part of you. Even when one part of you runs out of something to say, another part can pick up the slack or make sarcastic remarks about the first set of thoughts. After all, haven’t you (the reader), ever thought something, then right afterwards thought, ‘oh wow, that thought was stupid’? Or had your writing constantly interrupted by thoughts of how your writing stinks? Or told yourself to calm down? At any time, we can be aware of ourselves, aware of our own thoughts. That means that there’s always a part of ourselves that’s outside of the part we’re currently observing. And to be able to note that anything is going on, we have to be observing it, right?”

Step 3: Feel the response, and write it down

“Well said. Is that true in all cases? I mean, what if you get to the point where you can’t observe yourself anymore? Maybe that’s the real you! Actually… probably not, since that would mean none of what you observe is you, and I think it is… Maybe it doesn’t matter…”

“Now you’re just getting off topic with a bunch of crazy theories. Don’t waste the reader’s time, ok?”

“Yeah, oh right, ok. Um, so what next?”

“Talking about the other person.”

“Oh yeah – well, you started off well with that, but let me continue the practical stuff. So after you have your first drawing, with a face and such, then you can draw whatever the response is, and the face of THAT part of yourself. Often times there will be an issue that’s raised in a given conversation, and through continuing to draw the back-and-forth between the sides of yourself, you can settle that issue!”

Step 4: Resolve the Issue

Talking back and forth with different parts of yourself, you can resolve the issue at hand.

“So, what’s the good of that?”

“Oh, settling issues? Well, hmm, how do I put this?”

“Nah I can answer this one. Sometimes there’s some damn troublesome situation inside of you that’s causing all kinds of emotional havoc. Heck, maybe it even has an effect on your body. If you settle an inner issue, you find a positive solution that will make you feel better. It’s kind of like finding hidden treasure, except this treasure actually makes you feel good. Yeah I don’t even know if that’s a good metaphor.”

“I think it’s fine. Yes, as you work through things, you’ll find treasures: more confidence, greater self-esteem, joy, love, abundance, happiness -”

“Stop- you’re starting to sound like some used car salesman.”

“But this is the only way to really find those things. Not this method specifically, but working through internal issues.”

“I know that, and you know that, but the reader might not trust you if you promise too much. Also they might get disappointed when they find things like inner demons and crap.”

“Oh, yeah I forgot to mention that – through this process you discover sides to yourself you didn’t know were there. Some may be surprisingly good, but some might prove much worse than you expected. Yeah, we can all have villains inside of us. But think of how it would feel to overcome such villains? That’s what I’m talking about.”

“Yes, for sure.”

“So, we done here yet? I’m getting bored.”

“Hey, you’re on the banner of the website, you should at least stick around and say something to the reader about yourself.”

“…Oh hi.”

“Oh come on, more energy than that!”

“Don’t tell me what to do!”
“I’m the side of myself that likes to eat, fight –
oh butterfly –
fight things that are bad, and I like to eat, and I get distracted sometimes, no, I can focus, but I have no reason to right now. Oh well. Bye!”

“Alright c’ya later.”

“Oh and isn’t this website awesome?? We all made it together! Check it out!”

“Yeah – (although I don’t want to plug it overtly…). So, I think you, reader, probably have a good idea of how to do Drawn Processing now. If you have any questions, feel free to leave them in the comment box below. Thanks!”

“Oh something occurred to me.”

“What’s that?”

“When you focus on a part of yourself, it’s like… it’s like having a camera, and when you hear thoughts you can just hear the voice of a person. But when you turn the camera – you know, the camera of your awareness – at the source of the voice, you can see the person and the emotion on their face.”

“Yeah, that’s good. (Why didn’t I think of that myself earlier?) Anyway, any last words, warrior guy?”

“Only this: don’t just read about it, do it. If you still have doubts after that, then let me know. Otherwise you’re just foolishly passing up an opportunity.”

“Isn’t that a bit harsh? I mean what if those words haunt the reader as they keep procrastinating on doing Drawn Processing, or any kind of inner technique?”

“I hope it does. That way they’ll turn to what works instead of chasing solutions outside of themselves.”

“Oh, yeah… you’re right. But I’m sure it’ll sink in one way or another.”

“Would you guys shut up and just let the reader decide what to do?”

“Oh ok – well, I hope you enjoyed this explanation and demonstration of Drawn Processing! This is… (well this is just a temporary name)… this is the Good-Hearted Theorist, signing out!”

3 thoughts on “Drawn Processing

  1. I once had a similar idea but without the faces. It was with images but stopped because it felt embarrassing….and insane….. I just stick with simply thinking out loud ( Trying to explain things to myself similar to what programmers call “rubber duck debugging” and journal writing for problem solving even though they are slow in returns(often times I go off on a tangent without actually arriving at a solution for my current problem) and sometimes writing down my thoughts make things worse.

  2. Pingback: Fear of Feelings - The World Within

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