Travels Of The Mind And Its Application To Therapy
From psychology with a systemic perspective, we usually say that the important thing when it comes to accompanying a client in their process is not so much knowing how they got to the state they are in or the state that brings them to ask for help, but rather the state you want to access.
That is we like to look ahead more, since this is the path that remains to be followed using the past to collect the large amount of resources that past experiences give 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 resolve the situation, since being focused on the cause you cannot design what you want, rather you design the “unwanted”. In this article I tell you why this difference is important.
Our mind can travel in two directions and in two different ways.
Conscious travel
Unconscious or automatic trips
Travels of the mind
Thanks to the fact that our brain is capable of creating images and making the relevant synaptic connections, we could say that for it, It is the same whether something is lived or imagined, since in both ways it is experienced as real. and thus it is registered inside so that you can 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 plays in the background, the more times you do that visualization, the deeper that content will be engraved in your mind. , so that tomorrow you will be able to access that visualization as easily as any other memory, you may even come to believe that it really happened. Magical, right?
That is why it is so important to be aware when we make the two virtual trips of the mind, because We can build what we want with so much detail that we could almost draw it.
There is a very interesting, scientifically based mechanism why 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 very much. , since our friend (primitive brain, in charge of our survival) is always on alert in case any extra movement is necessary 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.
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 resembles 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 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 design conscious of the state desired by our client, What will happen if we focus on finding out why the client is in the state they are in? Well, we will simply be helping you keep the focus on what you don’t want, which will make your mood more difficult to change.
If it comes with anger, fear, guilt or rage, or perhaps anxiety or apathy, It will be very difficult to create the belief that it can change. Possibly we will be helping to validate your condition and you will leave knowing why but you will not take away how to get out of your situation, because there will be no attractive place to go.
And perhaps you find yourself hijacked by uncertainty; fear and you will be creating an unattractive scenario, but unfortunately it is the one that the mind will recognize when it is presented to it, and it will select it from everything else, because it is what it knows.
The brain does not judge, but it is very obedient and it will give you what you believe, because the other will still be in limbo and to be discovered.
To do?
We must accompany hand in hand with that desired state that sometimes the person does not dare to dream because they do not believe it is possible, entangled as they are in finding out the causes and questioning the why, as if they really had some control over everything that they do not. It is she, and intervene from physiology, language, breathing, drawing, creativity, movement… to make it as real as possible.
That day, the person will not reach the causes, but will know a destination to move forward. Later perhaps understanding will come through that look back, to explore everything that has to be let go and everything that has to be maintained to get closer to what you want. AND little by little you will build the “how” because he already did it other times.
I like to change your “why” to “why”, but we’ll talk 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.
