Exercises of the imagination
A.
- How do you imagine God or Jesus?
- Are there deceased relations that helped you when they were alive?
- Have a dialogue with them.
- Use colors or collage materials to express the conversation.
- Write out a script between you and the person.
- You are looking for the truth and wisdom they would convey if they were actually talking with you.
B.
Become relaxed and imagine a place you love to visit or spend time in.
- Use all your senses to compose this scene in your mind.
- Give details and notice if there are people who appear. They could be wisdom figures or someone you trust who has a message or gift to give you.
- Notice the place in your body where you have the strongest feelings when you receive their offering. What did it feel like?
- Dialogue for as long as you feel is helpful.
- End the encounter and return to a waking state.
C.
Or imagine someplace that you have never been to in real life or perhaps just in your mind. These could be places like gardens, beaches, other places in nature like mountains and caves. Take a journey, either on foot or by some transportation. How does it begin? Who or what do you meet along the way? Arrive at the place you feel guided to and notice what happens.
D.
Use stories, either from scripture or children's literature. Pretend to be an object or a character from those stories, dreams or nature. What do you notice from this perspective, and record it in the first person. Create representations of the things you fear and ask how you can help transform it into a positive value. That is, what might bring peace, reconciliation and wholeness? This could be done abstractly in a mandala using different shapes and colors. Or it could be specific incidents where you thought it was too good to be true.
E.
Here, you could relive the hurtful situation in your mind, recreate it in different media, record your feelings and invite God to reveal how God was present when it happened. If you want imagine how Jesus would have acted and ask that you can respond in a similar manner after expressing all the associated feelings. How do you feel towards God?
F.
Place yourself in conflict situations. For example, there is a fire, shipwreck, or accident. If you could only take 3 things with you what would they be? Who would you want to be there? Look at the skills that you can exercise to find a way to freedom.
G.
Adapted from Healing Yourself, by Martin Rossman, MD
Use some relaxation method like sitting quietly, listening to your breath for a few minutes. Imagine that you are walking down stairs to a dark room, but you still feel safe. You find a place to sit down and wait.
- An image of a symptom, physical or emotional appears.
- If many images surface choose one. Look at all the details and see it as vividly as possible.
- What issue or problem does this speak to in my life right now?
- Let another image appear that heals or resolves the problem.
- How do the 2 images connect?
- See the healing image as stronger than the problem.
- Let the problem turn into the healing image. (The medicine is in the illness.)
- What does this say about your life right now?
- Notice how it is revealed in your body.
- When ready begin to return to your waking state by returning by the stairs that you climbed down. Record your experience.
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