Images and Symbols: The Glue of Habit, The Lubricant of Change

CHAPTER FIVE

There Is No One Who Doesn't Have Images

BY ARLENE F. HARDER, MA, MFT

Chapter - 1 - 2 - 3 - 4 - 5 - 6 - 7 - 8 - 9 - 10 - 11 - 12 - 13

When a woman in a workshop claimed she didn’t have "images" because she didn't "see pictures" when she closed her eyes, I was delighted. It gave me a chance to use one of my favorite imagery exercises, called Of Course You Can Do Imagery!

Here it is. First, simply read the following three paragraphs and then close your eyes and experience what happens.

Every time I’ve led people through this exercise, even those who don't "visualize" in their inner landscape, have a great time. After several minutes, when they open their eyes and share what happened, it's amazing to discover how many animals have been invited into that room. From common kittens and puppies to elephants, lion cubs and eagles, there's not a single person who doesn't know the color and size of the animal that has crept, crawled, jumped, flown, or slithered into his or her imagination.

How can the woman know what her animal looked like in the imagery exercise if she didn’t "see" pictures?

It's possible because we have five different senses. Every time she played with a childhood pet or stared with fascination at giraffes in the zoo, her brain (this complex and amazing mechanism that makes us the most evolved being on the earth) was busy absorbing not only sights of the animals, but the sounds, smells, and touch as well. Even taste could have been incorporated into animal memories if, for example, she had a pet rabbit and bit off a piece of carrot before feeding the rabbit. Therefore, although the majority of people tend to have somewhat “visual” memories and images, the woman in the class was as capable of "knowing" about the animal that came into her inner “landscape” as the next person. We all have a huge rolodex of images from which to draw when we encounter a new dog whose degree of friendliness we have to determine quickly.

If I am asked to imagine walking through a lush meadow high in the Sierras, I could describe for you a beautiful scene with lots of details. BUT that doesn't mean I necessarily "see" those images. I just get a "sense" of them based on many camping trips into the high country. Even the things I "see" are fuzzy and incomplete. It's rather like looking at pictures in a connect-the-dots coloring book. Even with a few dots you can tell the finished picture will be that of a sailboat. Because you know what sailboats look like, your mind fills in the details.

Incidentally, it is because so many people have misconceptions about imagery that I don't refer to these kinds of exercises as "visualizations," though some do. The reason I steer away from the word visualization is because it can give the impression that when you close your eyes, unless you see bright colors and objects, you are a poor candidate for this technique, just as the woman in the workshop was sure she didn’t have images.

But having a "feeling" about something is as much of an "image" as is the ability to describe the color and shape experienced within the mind's inner landscape. Even for those who "see" images easily, the colors and shapes are not at all as vivid as scenes in real life.

In fact, every single thought we have contains an "image" of some kind, although we may not label it as an "image." Even complex concepts like courage, generosity, love and peace all have images associated with them. When we laugh at a joke, it is because jokes embody images; think of the proverbial slip on a banana peel. When we take part in a political discussion, images influence our convictions. The truth is that we cannot not image — or surely we would never find our car in a parking lot, remember the face of an old friend or understand a novel.

Unfortunately, much of the time, old, unconscious images encourage old patterns of thought . . . leading to old behaviors . . . and giving us old results. Even when we realize we must respond differently to a new challenge, the images stored in our minds have become the blueprints we draw upon. If our images are basically positive and self-affirming, our new choices will add to our self-confidence and sense of well-being. If our images are negative and self-defeating, our decisions are likely to lead to further self-defeating behaviors that are harmful to our bodies, minds and spirits.

© Copyright 2008, Arlene Harder, MA, MFT