The journeys of the mind and their application to therapy
From psychology with systemic perspective, we usually say that the important thing when accompanying a client in their process is not so much knowing how You have reached the state you are in or the state that brings you to ask for help, but the state you want to access.
That is we like to look ahead more, since this is the way to go, using the past to collect the large amount of resources that past experiences offer us.
Any behavior has a justification, and knowing it sometimes only helps you stay where you are, since you found the reason, but curiously, it rarely helps you to resolve the situation, since being focused on the cause, you cannot design what you want, rather you design the “not wanted". In this article I will tell you why this difference is important.
- Related article: "Types of memory: how does the human brain store memories?"
The two directions of the mind
Our mind can travel in two directions and in two different ways.
Conscious travel
- To the future, to visualize what we want to achieve and count on motivation.
- To the past, to collect the learnings that we carry out through lived time, through what we have experienced. It brings hope and security.
Unconscious or automatic travel
- To the past: looking for causes and justifications. It attracts resentment and guilt to oneself.
- To the future: wanting to resolve the uncertainty. Attracts fear and anxiety
Travels of the mind
Thanks to the fact that our brain is able to create images and carry out synaptic connections relevant, we could say that for him, It is the same that something is lived or imagined, since in both ways it experiences it as real, and thus it is registered inside to be able to access it when you need it, as if it were a lived experience.
For example: If you ever visualize that you are on stage in a red suit talking about your book, while you are applauded and a Janis Joplin song in the background, the more times you perform that visualization, the deeper that content will be etched in your mind, in such a way that tomorrow you will be able to access that visualization as easily as any other memory, you may even come to believe that it happened really. Magical, right?
That is why it is so important to be aware when we do the two virtual trips of the mind, because we can build what we want in so much detail that we could almost draw it.
There is a very interesting mechanism, and scientifically based for what this happens; I invite you to discover it, for now stay with this: "The brain does not see what it does not know."
Our mind likes what it knows, and on the contrary, it does not like changes, since our friend her (primitive brain, in charge of our survival) is always in alert mode in case some extra movement is needed in the face of a real or imaginary threat. Therefore, our mind normally focuses on what it knows, trying to automate and thus consume little energy.
- You may be interested in: "Visualization: the power of imagination to overcome difficulties"
Advantages of conscious visualization
What is the advantage of psychotherapy patients visualizing their future in great detail (with all five senses)? Well, that image will be familiar to your brain, and from that moment on your focus will be available for everything that is similar to what you want, eliminating all those stimuli or situations that do not lead to that image.
So on the one hand we have a clear vision of what we want, and on the other hand our brain You will only see what we want, because as you already know, with our eyes we look, and with our brain we see.
Returning to the conscious design of the state desired by our client, What will happen if we focus on finding out why the customer is in the state that he is? Well, simply that we will be helping you to keep the focus exactly on what you do not want, with which your mood will generate more difficulty to change.
If it is presented with anger, fear, guilt or rage, or perhaps with anxiety or apathy, it will be very difficult for the belief that you can change. Possibly we will be helping to validate his condition and he will leave knowing why but will not take how to get out of his situation, because there will not be an attractive place to go.
And perhaps he will be hijacked by uncertainty; fear and you are creating an unattractive scenario, but unfortunately it is the one that the mind will recognize when it comes before him, and will select it from everything else, because it is what known.
The brain does not judge, but it is very obedient and it will give you what you create, because the other will still be in limbo and to be discovered.
To do?
It is necessary to accompany by the hand that desired state that sometimes the person does not dare to dream because she does not believe it possible, entangled as he is in finding out the causes and in questioning the why, as if she really had some control over everything that is not her, and intervene from physiology, language, breathing, drawing, creativity, movement... to make it as real as possible.
On that day, the person will not reach the causes, but will know a destination for which to move forward. Later, perhaps the understanding passes through that look back, to explore everything that has to be released and everything that has to be maintained to get closer to what is wanted. AND little by little he will build the "how", because he already did it other times.
I like to change his "why" to "what for", but we talked about that another day.
I would like to expand my knowledge through your point of view. I invite you to comment and let's talk.
