One day it is work that creates the tension. The next, a relationship, a decision, a sentence spoken — or one left unsaid. The stories differ; the same feelings and reactions come back.
At such times it is easy to conclude that the problem is caused by circumstances, by another person, or by an unpleasant thought. So we look for the solution on that same level: we try to change the situation, the other person, ourselves, or the way we think about it.
iTS approaches from a different direction. It does not ask whether a thought is positive or negative, right or wrong. It looks at how it came about, what it attaches to, what consequences it creates, and what keeps it running.
Thought in itself is not the enemy. Without it we could not plan, learn, decide or find our way in the world. The conflict begins when thinking breaks away from what is actually happening, and then reacts to its own interpretation as if it were reality.
A late reply is then no longer simply a late reply. It becomes rejection, uncertainty or threat. We do not react to what happened, but to the meaning our thinking attached to it.
iTS does not try to manufacture a more pleasant meaning. It makes the process of meaning-making itself visible.
Knowing something intellectually and understanding it in its full workings are not the same.
We may know we are overreacting to a situation, and still react the same way. We may know a fear is unfounded, while the fear goes on working unchanged. We may know we should not depend on others' opinions, and the very next sentence shows how much that knowledge is worth.
iTS does not place more knowledge beside what you already have. It examines why what we have long known has no consequence.
When the full structure of a mechanism becomes visible – not only its cause, but its benefit and its consequence too – the mind no longer needs to sustain it the same way. Not because we forbade it, but because it no longer sees the same thing in it.
This is the difference between trying to stop something and there no longer being any point in continuing it.
