In the mind's eye - Arnold Lazarus Learning your associations:- Relax.
- Return to negative feelings and try to increase them.
- Focus on images that come to mind.
- As new images replace old ones, try to see each one vividly.
- If no new images arise then zoom in with more detail to understand more connections and meaning.
Step Up Technique: - Imagine a future situation and keep moving beyond the situation until some insights appear.
- Visualize possible good outcomes and possible bad outcomes.
- Visualize the worst outcomes to show how catastrophic the thoughts are.
Ideal self: - Imagine successful actions and behaviours.
- Compare actual self and real self.
- Remember past successes until the good feelings appear.
- Apply this feeling to your next activities.
- Keep bridging the current self to the ideal self by imagining different behaviours and tactics.
- Accept failure as a part of the process.
- Different images produce different feelings, sensations and behaviours, and different problem solving strategies.
Exaggerated role taking: - Imitate successful people and their actions, especially if you are intimidated by powerful people or intimidated by the situation.
Doing boring Work: - Think cheerful images while doing tasks.
- If you want to achieve something in reality, first picture it in your imagination.
- Vivid images are always better. Also potent images of mastery are also good.
Phobias: - Imagine feared scenarios over and over again until you feel more comfortable.
- Use positive imagery in dealing with feared scenarios. Use coping imagery in dealing with worst case scenarios.
- Use imaginary negative reinforcement - imagine a fear helps you get away from an even worse fear. The more negative the better.
- You can teach children realistic lessons with symbolism.
- Imagine the worst case scenario and a reward for the right behaviour.
- Use negative imagery for temptations and reward for the right behaviour.
- Imagine strengths you already have until you start imagining goal rehearsal.
- Remember how far you've come.
Dealing with procrastination: - Make a list of things you've been procrastinating about and visualize for 3-5 minutes doing these actions to develop motivation, and then do it.
- Progressively increase the difficulty of the goals.
Oxford guide to Imagery in Cognitive therapy - Ann Hackmann, James Bennett-Levy, Emily A. Holmes. Evoke negative images and discover the associated beliefs. Provide contradicting information to allow transformative change.
Goal setting: - Imagery is most effective when the outcome and strategies are focused on.
- Thinking about the process is better than the goal.
- It's better to think about the process to achieve the goal rather than the reasons for the goal itself.
- Vivid imagery is better. Use as many senses as possible.
- Repetition is necessary but less so if the images are more vivid.
- Images should be reappraised to improve realism as closely to actual situations as possible.
- SMART goals: Specific, Measurable, Achievable, Realistic, and Time- specific
CMT Compassionate Mind Training: - Basically it's Metta practice mixed with imagery and CBT. Imagine real or unreal compassionate people in vivid ways.
New System (Padesky):- Use real or imagined people to imitate to develop new positive beliefs.
- For people with resistant schemas it's often better to just imitate the ideal behaviours you want to develop than to wrestle with old beliefs.
- The positive imagery, self-talk, must be repeated (especially in dark times) so the wiring can be accessed in bad times reliably.
Seeing with the mind's eye - Mike & Nancy Samuels - How you think effects how you feel. If you have a certain attitude it can spread to others.
- Many images are in dreams or unconscious. We act on what we feel.
- We can create and change the world through visualization.
Visualization:Relax and concentrate. Then see objects without their labels.
Visualize whatever you want.
For your goals hold the image in your mind's eye.
[Keep it mostly positive but on the process to the goal. When there are obstacles visualize solving them. Implementation intentions are good here.] ~ my point I added, unfortunately the book says the opposite. It's an older book and somewhat dated.
Examples of visualization:
- For men, visualizing cleaning and sharpening a sword.
- For women cleaning and polishing a chalice.
- Imagine relaxing scenes
- Imagine being healthy
- Imagine white light for healing
- Visualize geometric forms to increase intuition
Motivation - Rob Long - Motivation - Success comes from practice, determination, feedback, encouragement, enthusiasm.
- Lack of motivation - caused by a lack of practice, criticism, no interest.
- Learning without motivation - Long-term goal, reward, to show people I could do it, to please others, to avoid punishment, overcoming a challenge.
- People often have high motivation at the beginning but when there's lots of effort with no reward they give up. The motivational dip requires tasks being broken into smaller parts and feedback that is specific and forceful to maintain motivation through the dip. This must continue until the task is mastered.
Handbook of imagination and mental simulation - Markman, Klein, and Suhr When does mental practice work? - It's best when mental practice is mixed with actual practice.
- It's also better for activities that have a large mental component.
- The longer one waits between mental practice and actual performance the smaller the effect.
- Novices benefit more for cognitive activities.
- 20 min of mental practice is optimal to prevent memorizing mistakes when there's little to no feedback. Too little practice doesn't create enough of an effect.
Phase 1: Store accurate images
Phase 2: Initial mental rehearsal to fine tune the image
Phase 3: Image correction after practicing. It's important to imagine yourself from your point of view rather than outside of your body.
Phase 4: Advanced mental rehearsal - creating cues to make actions automatic in the proper setting. Actions need to be cohesive to act as one unit.
Implementation intentions: “If this happens I’ll do this…”
For initial discovery of goals
mental simulation is best. For actual plans
implementation intentions are better. Use both.
Counterfactual thinking is about possibilities of what might have been.
Upward counterfactuals - imagining reality improving.
Downward counterfactuals - imagining reality getting worse.
Comparing yourself upwardly is more motivating than thinking about what it would be like if things were improved.
Realism in the time it takes to achieve goals is important to understand and generating possible alternatives (considering the opposite) is necessary to improve accuracy. This is best when people aren't over-zealous about risk protection.
Imagine yourself as other people to improve empathic understanding.
Process model of self-regulation:
Current self moving to new self is based on achieving the expected and avoiding the feared self.
- A possible self is cued.
- The gap between present and possible self is clear.
- The possible self seems attainable or preventable.
- The possible self is linked to another possible self in the same domain but of opposite valence (carrot or stick).
- The possible self is linked to strategies.
- The possible self and strategies feel congruent with important social identities.
- Subjective experience of effort is interpreted as meaning that the goal is important.
To master negative feedback one must take appraisal of negative feedback and protect one's positive view, and positive future outlook.
