Last week I was working with a client who has a tendency to imagine that the worst things are going to happen to his family. The images are not based on concrete reality. It is like his mind goes on walkabout trying to think of dark things. He was having thoughts about his sisters dying, And when he had these thoughts, it would paralyze him from doing the goals he set out to do which may be something that happens to you.

Basically your dark imagination has two kinds of origins. The first one is related to actual negative experiences that you have had such as when you have been verbally or physically attacked. This kind of imagination comes because your mind remembers the attacks and then goes to imagining similar things happening in the future. The other kind of negative imagination comes from feeling all alone or abandoned in the world. When you feel alone, the imagination can go on all kinds of expeditions into dark areas without any bounds.

So when I was dealing with my client, I said to myself that he has a really active negative imagination that takes him to inaction, a kind of freezing. The first thing I did was to have him list the activities that he wanted to do more of. He told me that he wanted to play music more, study science, and meet more girls. So I started the process of change by asking him to think of his music instrument as a person and then ask that person what he wanted him to do to improve his music. The musical being told him to practice 3 times a day, and when we did this with the science guy it turned out if he could think of science as playing music, then he could study much more. It was the same for meeting girls. Turning the activity into a person allows the feeling of being all alone to disappear. If your piano is a person speaking to you, you are not alone when you are playing it.

The point here is that the active negative imagination is not the enemy to be switched off. It just needs some help and support in being redirected in a positive manner. A person with a strong negative imagination also potentially has a very strong positive imagination that can be used successfully. Traditionally the teaching profession was governed by the principle that you have to put your nose to the grindstone, which implies that work and study is hard. But what if your math problems were communicating with you or dancing with you. Dance your way through your dishes.

The above example is especially useful when feeling alone is the thing that presents itself. When fear is present, you can use your imagination in all kinds of positive ways. A lot of what happens in your imagination when you have experienced childhood trauma, is that your mind makes the whole world the enemy and makes them huge. Instead of having courage or feeling optimistic, fear makes you go back to feeling like you are a defenseless child.. So one of the things that you can do when the fear is present and it seems like the whole world is against and really big because now you are a defenseless child, is to have a strong imaginary companion with you internally like a soldier. It is absolutely amazing how fast the fear vanishes when you have an internal companion that keeps you from going back to helpless childhood state.

But that’s not all when it comes to imagination. The next visualization is something I try to do each morning. There are a lot of variations on this theme. So first you decide what is the priority challenge that you need to do for the day. And then you can ask yourself what quality you need to do the challenge. For instance, today my challenge is writing, and the quality I need the most is being in a relaxed flow. When I look ahead to my writing time, I am seeing myself flowing down a river wondering where the writing is taking me. I cannot see the place it is taking me, but I can feel the flow. This helps me to write.

Your imagination is your friend and you can use it. When it goes dark, it has just lost its way. You can use it to get you back on your path. Here are some excellent questions to process.

How does you mind go on a negative walkabout when you are feeling alone in the world?

What kind of voice do your goals use with you to call you in a positive way toward achieving challenging tasks?

What kind of companion do you need inside to keep you from returning to your childhood fearful self?

What kind of animals go along with your positive qualities? Do you have a lion inside, a dolphin, an otter? How would your otter give a presentation?