Using Your Imagination to Heal Yourself
Here is a short exercise for using the power of your imagination to heal yourself from emotional distress and anxiety, among other things.
The first step is to take an interest in yourself. Take a very great interest in yourself. Take the kind of interest that a loving mother and father would take in their child’s games and imaginary friends. Take an interest in your thoughts. Talk back to them. Ask them about themselves, as the mother or father would of the child’s images and ideas.
Ask: Who are you? Where do you come from?
And if you don’t get an answer right away, do not worry about it. Just remain curious. Just remain open.
And if the thought arises in you, “Oh this is silly, how can I possibly ask my thoughts about themselves?” do not worry after that thought. But take that curious, loving attitude of the mother or father and say to it:
“Hello. Who are you? Where do you come from? Why do you think such things are silly?”
And perhaps it will say, “I am this experience you had when you were seven years old. I am this experience you had where you were taught that believing in magic was not realistic and that it was foolish and that you needed to put away childish things.”
And then you can say, “Oh, thank you for telling me. I can see that this was very hard for me, to have this experience. And I can see your point, Thought, but I am trying to learn a new way of being, and you’re not being terribly helpful right now. So if you don’t mind, I am just going to continue to explore my own inner landscape.”
And as you begin to talk to your thoughts, as you ask them questions, as you take an interest in yourself, your thoughts will begin to reveal yourself to you.
Perhaps one thought will say, “I am the voice of your father or mother,” and you will see what energy does not belong to you, and you will be able to ask whether or not you want to keep it..
Perhaps another thought will say, “I am the voice of expectations. I am trying to keep you on the ‘right’ path, the path that everyone else goes on.” But then when you identify this voice you can ask yourself, ‘Well is this voice telling me of the right path for me?’
And then perhaps there will be another voice, and this voice will say, “I am the voice of your heart.” And you will know it by it’s quiet, loving certainty. And the voice of your heart will say to you, “I am so glad you are listening to me. I have been waiting for you for so long.”
And so on.
You do not have to take this exercise too seriously. There is no right or wrong way to do it. No one will ever know about this exercise but you, unless you choose to tell them. If it helps you to picture some of your thoughts as old grannies in their dressing gowns or as trench coat wearing detectives or as teeny tiny aliens or as roaring lions or as soft, flowing streams – do it. No one will ever know about it but you. Perhaps you will even have fun. Perhaps you will even laugh out loud at how silly and ridiculous some of your thoughts are.
And then one day, you will take a long walk inside of yourself. You will pass the roaring lion and the flowing stream, you will pass the trenchcoat wearing detective peering around with a magnifying class, you will pass a UFO landing, you will pass gods and goddesses, you will pass valleys filled with flowers – and you will realize just how much the space inside of you has grown.
And you will see that the space inside of you is very beautiful, but more than that, you will see that the space inside of you is yours. It belongs to you. You have created something no one can ever take away from you.
When we have an inner space like this, our outer space begins to shift. It begins to become more reflective of what is going on inside. But more than that, when we have an inner space like this, we have a safe place to return to when our outer space falls apart or becomes difficult to handle. We have a place of centeredness, a place of internal safety, from which to look out when we are faced with life’s difficulties. And that, in itself, is healing.
