Even though Pema Chodron never really talked about script in her writings I can see the relationship between this and the unruly mind.  She is an American Buddhist nun and a renowned Tibetan meditation master.  The book tiles i have read are Acceptance and Taking The Leap.  I relate these to the 12 steps and Life Script.  How human beings can live in fear and want to create certainty out of uncertainty.  Additionally the struggle to accept life for how it is and what it is , in the here and now.  To just “be”, is something that we are not taught and can be a real leveler .  Hence mindfulness and being present.  Pema sees people as having a contradictory self which is a cross between our  tenderness and warmth and our bittersweet vulnerability which is not relaxed in its search for certainty. How we deal with this is important to mental health and its no wonder so many people suffer with addiction in an attempt to self sooth.  I see step 1 and that we are powerless to life and its uncertainty and step 7 living with humility and compassion helps to regulate the part of us that lives with fear .  With time  one can experience that we don’t automatically have to flee from uncomfortable feelings.  We can embrace life, feelings and genuinely live with an open heart.

In script we kick our uncomfortable stuff which brings unwanted feelings to the present.  If we close up to understanding and experiencing this we will turn to addiction and relapse in the long term.  If we are open and follow a principled way of living as in the steps we can have warmth with pain and live with heart qualities in love, compassion, gratitude and tenderness.  The script is like a storyline that once existed as protection, avoidance  and child reasoning but in the present adult life can be very counterproductive.  Script can make us involuntarily shut down “defense’s” etc.  We revive our scripts by feeding them with internal conversation which is toxic.  Also we seek external environment stimuli and others to reinforce our script beliefs.  Working on the self is so important and keeps us in reality.