January 1, 2010

New things in the new year?

"My name is Steven Kaufman and I am a person who stutters. Until next time, stand up and be counted. Make your voice heard." (blog)
Steven signs off all his posts with the above two liner. Yes, all his posts end thus. If I understand him correct- he is walking down the royal road of acceptance to recovery. I came across this wonderful blog from a thirty year old American recently and decided to share it with our readers.
Some one, recently asked me: If I constantly talk and write about my stammering, in the name of acceptance, how will it ever go away? wont it sink deeper into my sub-conscious?
If you read this and other similar blogs, you will understand the secret: Stammering is already deeply soaked into our subconscious mind - this is why we struggle hard and shy away from any reference to stammering, even if casually. This cosntant struggle to keep it repressed there in the mind, makes talking so much more difficult.
So, when you walk the path of acceptance, all this repressed energy is allowed to evaporate.. You feel lighter. Especially when you are talking. You are no more battling to hide anything. You have given yourself the freedom to stammer, if it comes on.. As a result you speak more freely. This paradox has been mentioned very well in Unspeakable movie: When your car is skidding, your natural tendency is to turn away from the skid- but the correct response is- to TURN INTO the skid, not away from it. This prevents the locking of wheels. Stuttering modification techniques are based on this principle.
Bravo, Steven! Carry on!

1 comment:

kishore said...

Acceptance leads to change of mind.It is like accepting our shortcomings and leading our heart and soul in banishing these shortcomings.