The journeys of the mind and their application to therapy.

A reflection on the journeys made by the mind, visualization, and its use in therapy.

From psychology with a systemic perspective, we usually say that what is important when accompanying a client in his process, is not so much to know how he has reached the state in which he is or the state that brings him to ask for help, but the state he wants to access.

In other words, we we like to look forward, as this is the road ahead, using the past to gather the great knowledge of the past.We use the past to gather the great amount of resources that past experiences provide us with.

Any behavior has a justification, and knowing it sometimes only helps you to stay where you are, since you found the reason, but curiously rarely helps you to solve the situation, since being focused on the cause you cannot design the desired, rather you design the "undesired". In this article I tell you why this difference is important.

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 lessons we have learned through the time we have lived, through what we have experienced. It brings hope and security.

Unconscious or automatic journeys

• To the past: looking for causes and justifications. It attracts resentment and guilt towards oneself.
• To the future: wanting to resolve uncertainty. Attracts fear and anxiety.

Journeys 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 our brain, we are capable of creating images and making the relevant synaptic connections, It is the same whether something is lived or imagined, since in both ways it is experienced as real, and so it is registered in its interior to be able to access it when needed, as if it were a lived experience.It is registered inside you 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 a stage with a red suit talking about your book, while they applaud you and a Janis Joplin song plays in the background, the more times you perform that visualization, the deeper that content will be recorded in your mind, so that tomorrow you can access that visualization as easily as any other memory, you may even come to believe that it really happened. Magical, isn't it?

That's why it is so important to be aware when we make the two virtual journeys of the mind, because we can build what we want as easily as any other memory. we can build what we want with so much detail that we could almost draw it..

There is a whole very interesting mechanism, and scientifically based on which this happens; I invite you to discover it, for the moment 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.Our mind likes what it knows, because our friend (primitive brain, in charge of our survival) is always in alert mode in case some extra movement is needed in case 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 detail (with all five senses)? Because that image will be familiar to your brain, and from that moment on your focus will be available for everything that resembles what you desire, 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 know, with the eyes we look, and with the brain we see.

Going back to the conscious design of our client's desired state, what will happen if we focus on finding out why the client is in the state he is in? Well, we will simply be helping them to keep the focus on what they do not want, which will make it more difficult for them to change their state of mind.

If he presents himself with anger, with fear, with guilt or rage, or perhaps with anxiety or apathy, it will be very difficult for the belief that you can change to emerge.. Possibly we will be helping to validate his state and he will leave knowing why but he will not take with him how to get out of his situation, because there will be no attractive place to go.

And perhaps he will be held hostage by uncertainty; fear and he will be 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 all the rest, because it is what it knows.

The brain is not judgmental, but it is very obedient and will give you what you believe, because the other will still be in limbo and to be discovered.

What to do?

It is necessary to go hand in hand with that desired state that sometimes the person does not dare to dream because he does not believe it possible, entangled as he is in finding out the causes and questioning the why, as if he really had some control over everything that is not him, and intervene from the 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 to move forward. Later, perhaps understanding will come through that look back, to explore all that has to be let go of and all that has to be held on to in order to get closer to what is wanted. Y little by little you will build the "how", because you have done it before.because you have done it before.

I like to change your "why" for the "what for", 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.