I.     My present situation is not the primary source of my pain.

II.     If I try to resolve my present conflict without finding healing for my past wounds, I will only find temporary relief.  But if I heal my past, I will redeem my present.

III.     The negative emotions I currently feel are merely echoes of the past, an open window into the wounds of my life.

IV.     To look through the open window requires I let go of the present situation and release it/them from being the primary source of my pain.

V.     If I choose to look through the window, I will confront my wound and lie face-to-face and feel its fury fresh again.  But if I refuse to feel, I cannot heal.

VI.     There are three things I must find as I look through the open “window”: the historical emotional “echo,” a memory picture of the event, and the original lie.

VII.     The pain I feel is not coming from the memory of the event but rather from the interpretation (lie) which was given the event.

VIII.     The emotional pain I feel will match the lies I believe.

IX.     If I believe the lie, it may as well be the truth since the consequences will be the same.

X.     To be free of the lie requires I embrace and take it captive rather than reject or denounce it.

XI.     It is in this helpless, hopeless state I am able to receive a healing Word from God.  When the way is made clear for me to receive, God will speak His healing word into my darkness and then I will at last be free.
 

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Taken from:  Genuine Recovery, Orientation and overview of the Basic Principles of Theophostic Ministry, by Edward M. Smith