SECTION SIX – PREPARATION AND AFTERCARE: MENTAL, PHYSICAL, SPIRITUAL How should a person prepare themselves mentally?
Traumatic physical experience can bring a lot of mental aspects to the surface, so to speak. There is no way around suspension being traumatic. Regardless of how many times you do it or how ‘tough’ you are, you are putting your body through an ordeal. This means that your mind (if you are dualist, if not then this should be even more obvious) will be affected. Generally, a suspension is not something that one should be doing when not felling mentally ‘well’. That said, some people find that suspending helps bring things into focus. This is not surprising since trauma forces you to focus on the act at the time and that focused state can extend beyond and to other aspects of your life. Of course, it can just as easily make a confused and troubled time worse by adding to the stress you are under. In any case, to be mentally prepared to suspend, a person must be first and foremost calm, collected, and very sure about their motivations behind suspending. Just as importantly they must have c
