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From: Alan Badmington
Date: 10/9/03
Time: 2:47:45 PM
Remote Name: 195.92.67.76
Hi Debbie,
I’m thrilled that my paper has already encouraged some readers (not just PWS) to venture outside their comfort zones.
If you detect an openness about my contribution, I feel that it is because I no longer experience any shame in talking about the speech difficulty that so adversely effected my life for more than 50 years.
You mention that you would like to learn more about the ‘apple and orange’ exercise, which I touched upon in my reply to Diane. Well, here goes!
Very simply, it is something that I used while presenting a workshop on ‘Positive thinking/creative visualization’ at the recent British Stammering Association Annual Conference in England.
I held up an apple in my right hand and asked the audience to concentrate solely on that fruit. Then I held up an orange and requested them to focus wholly on the orange. The point I was attempting to illustrate was that we are able to train ourselves to focus on one object (or thought) to the total exclusion of another object (or thought).
This is useful when we start thinking negatively. We cannot prevent a negative thought (represented by an apple) from entering our heads, but we can immediately replace it with a positive thought (represented by an orange).
I have learned to do this very effectively during recent years – refusing to harbour or dwell upon negative thoughts for any length of time. By holding up the apple and orange separately (and inviting everyone to focus on them individually), I was able to explain this point to those who attended the workshop.
In fact, we have so many negative thoughts each day that we could represent them by a variety of different fruits (apple, pear, mango, banana, grapefruit etc). If I were to start thinking about one of those fruits, then I would immediately transfer my attention to a positive thought (the orange).
I hope I have explained that clearly;-)
Kindest regards
Alan