Dina Glouberman You Are What You Imagine

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.When you are clear in this way, serendipitous events – or happy coincidences – seem to happen with amazing frequency to help you.This is the magic and the mystery of visioning.You will find a version of the visioning exercise Mark used on page 139.DOROTHY’S STORYDorothy came to my Life Choices, Life Changes imagery workshop at our Atsitsa Centre on Skyros Island8 27 years ago, and reappeared in my Turning Points and New Beginnings workshop in London just this year.9 She told the group movingly about the extraordinary changes in her life that had ensued from that first workshop, and in particular from an imagery exercise I call Image as Life Metaphor, which involves inviting an image to emerge in response to a question and then working with it.I asked participants to invite an image to emerge spontaneously that somehow represented who they were or what they needed to know at this moment in their lives.Dorothy’s image was of a parrot in a cage.Interestingly enough, the image of an animal locked in a cage is a relatively common one when people do this exercise; in my experience, it always transpires that the cage door is open or the key is accessible.This is Dorothy’s account:You asked me to write about my Imagework experience at Atsitsa in 1986.I imagined I was a colourful parrot trapped in a cage and felt I was stuck.At the time I was stuck in my anorexia, very thin and somewhat physically frail.You helped me to find the key inside the cage and I let myself out, flapped my wings and ran around the circle.This work led directly to my starting to learn to fly a plane! Then, of course, I had to stay well for that, so I recovered from anorexia and then gave up my job as a lawyer and became a commercial pilot and flying instructor.Twenty-seven years on, I run a successful business training other people to become flying instructors and in many instances ‘to live the dream’.Next year, I will be the first ever woman to become the Master of the Guild of Air Pilots and Air Navigators, after 85 years of existence, all due to the image of the parrot in the cage.I still try to be the parrot out of work, wearing colourful clothes and parrot earrings.Dorothy’s story is a wonderful reminder of how imagery can lead us from difficult times to a turning point in how we see the world and ourselves, and eventually to build our new understanding into a new beginning.In her case, the new beginning was this extraordinary and lasting change in her health, her career and her life.You will find a version of the Imagework exercise Dorothy used on page 64.PAST ITS SELL-BY DATEMark and Dorothy were consciously using imagery in a positive way to understand and guide their lives.When you are not working in this focused way, much of your existing imagery can be completely outdated, because it comes from vivid impressions and experiences you had when you were young or powerless.Sometimes the worst experiences are the ones you have completely forgotten, but your imagination has not, and the body tensions that go with those memories are still there under the surface, creating fear, anxiety or depression without your knowing why.10For example, unconsciously you may have brought forward from your infancy an image of life as forever disappointing, or of people being aggressive and dangerous, or of good fortune being something that you have to pay for, or of every effort of yours being attacked, perhaps because in your childhood it was often that way.Of course, you may equally have unconsciously brought forward an image of a benevolent and abundant world, where there is always enough milk and always enough love and protection, and then your adult world will look very different!One of my students, Catherine, was regularly sexually abused by her father when she was a child, but her father was also the one who mothered and seemed to love her, while her mother completely withdrew.In her mind, even nice guys can abuse you so how can you tell if a man is dangerous? So she closed down, put a Do Not Enter sign on her heart and never let herself get involved emotionally with a man.She had no idea she was doing it.She just wondered why she was always alone.Now that Catherine is beginning to realize why and how she closed down, she’s working to bring her old images up to date so that she can be open to a new relationship.She is learning that there is a way she can tell whether a man is dangerous.It’s not by looking, because he may look like a nice guy.Rather it is by some other kind of intuitive sensing that tells her if this is a man with empathy, and if this is a man who respects women.Armed with this new awareness, she is preparing to open the door to relationships for the first time.She likes to imagine that there is a sensor on the door that will tell her whether the man is safe, so that she can decide whether to open the door to him and really let him in.Now that Catherine knows that she is able to discriminate between men that are good for her and those that aren’t, a new beginning is finally possible.Like Catherine, you may not be fully aware that when your adult life still looks like the world of your childhood, it can be because you have closed down to any new relationships or experiences that might counteract that view.Perhaps you have unconsciously been seeking out events that fit your picture, even managing to get people to behave in just these terrible ways.You may have been attracted to the kind of people who will behave this way, and ignored anyone who behaves well or considered them exceptions.What you see in the world is often what your inner eye has projected onto the world.In other words, you see what you believe.Does this begin to explain why sometimes, no matter how hard you try, you seem to end up in the same old situations you are trying to escape from?AN EDUCATED IMAGINATIONThe language of the imagination is the language of the child.And we all know that children can veer between being bullies and angels, sometimes with not much in between! So if we think of the imagination as a child, we can understand a bit better how to deal with it.Let’s take this a step further.If you adopt a child who has been treated badly, you’d have to take time to understand what has gone wrong, and to help the child get new attitudes.Similarly, if you have had a difficult childhood, your imagination will reflect that, and will need your loving attention [ Pobierz całość w formacie PDF ]

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