Now where the hell did I put those "buckets"?

....If only I could find those damn "feeling" buckets, I just KNOW I would feel better!
When I was taking DBT classes (complete waste of $$money$$). Very invalidating to be told to SHUT UP & BEHAVE...especially since that was the 'motto' that was branded into my body and mind as a child. In my opinion, DBT actually does more harm than good for abuse survivors...but that's a 'speech' for another day.

There was a 'group member' who joined the classes who CLEARLY was 'ordered' to attend the classes, and was unable to hide her disdain during the class. During the 3 weeks she graced us with her presence, the air was thick with friction. She flat-out refused to participate at all, and actually sat in the corner, physically turned toward the wall, as though she was a defiant 3 year old. DBTC believed that everyone should be accepted 'as they are' so although everyone noticed, it was 'accepted' by DBTC and the class. Well, everyone except 'unmedicated bipolar' group member...who was clearly 'emotionally disregulated' by anti-social girl's non-participation. A lot of things emotionally disregulated 'unmedicated bipolar' so I was not surprised when she expressed her 'concern'. DBTC told 'UBP' that 'ASG' is accepted in the group, as she is, and perhaps 'UBP' should look at her own 'emotion regulation skilss' and not let it bother her so much. DTBC said this a lot to UBP.

At the beginning of each class, we did a "mindfulness" exercise...(again, my opinion of these exercises are for another post)... One of the mindfulness exercises was to "watch" your feelings, as they moved down a conveyor belt, label them, and place them in labeled buckets. I swear I am not making this up. WTF! Marsha-Marsha-Marsha, said, "Don't attach to them, just observe the feeling and place it in the corresponding bucket." Perhaps she learned this exercise in her convent. Being the diligent 'student' that I am...I spent this time looking around the class, watching the other group members because I thought ALL of the mindfulness exercises were a colossal waste of my time :-).

After each 'mindfulness' exercise, we would go around the room and talk about our 'experience' of the exercise. Always a good time! Now, I don't know if anti-social took to heart unmed bipolar's comment, or if she would have commented anyway, but this is what she shared about her experience of the exercise:

"I pictured myself sitting in a chair with my feet up, drinking a beer, as the shit just fell off the conveyor belt onto the floor."

I thought it was HILARIOUS! DBTC was not amused, but 'accepted' what she had to say.
Clearly, another example of the effectiveness of the flying nun's "Shut up & Behave" program.