What are you carrying with you?
👃You come home from work to find overripe, odoriferous bananas in the fruit bowl amassing fruit flies overhead. The smell sets off your gag reflex. What do you do with the greasy black heeled bananas serving as a breeding ground for irritating bugs getting in your face?
👃 Hoping to enjoy a bowl of cereal, you open the milk carton that's a month past it's sell date to give it the sniff test and about fall on the floor from the smell. What do you do with the soured, lumpy milk?
👃When you come home from vacation you open the refrigerator and you're greeted by the overwhelming stench of rancid meat. You find the culprit--slimy chicken that's two weeks past it's sell date. What do you do with the fetid meat?
Like most, you could easily see and smell the offending foods in these visual images and hastily replied 'THROW IT OUT'--but not before crinkling your nose and turning your head to get away from the smell--and washing your hands after.
Our brains have the wonderful capacity to see things that aren't there, and that is an asset when you need to get rid of something that isn't serving you. It doesn't matter if the image you create is real or imagined. What you imagine is every bit as real to the brain as real life.
...And this is how the power of imagery to banish negative thoughts works!
What's leaving a bad taste in your mouth?
Negative Thoughts Start to Stink Past Expiration Date
Who wants to sit with their negative thoughts any longer than necessary? We all harbor hurts, disappointments, self-doubts, pain, grief and sorrow. But why should we provide them a safe harbor to lock in and stay put?
Although negative thoughts have their place in prodding us along in life, most of them stay well past their expiration date and begin to stink and leave a bad taste in our mouth, making life unpleasant.
To rid ourselves of stinking thinking caused by negative thoughts the solution is clear: throw them out--but how?
Chose Simple Visual Imagery to Help You Let Go
When we allow ourselves to get attached to something--even our negative thoughts--we have a visceral reaction to letting it go.
If you've been nursing a hurt or 'how they done you wrong' story it can be difficult to let it go after you've invested all that time and attention to it.
Chances are you've created a visual image of those negative thoughts glomming onto you or hanging over your head like a storm cloud. You need something simple and powerful to offset the staying power of negative thoughts and stories.
Creating simple visual imagery to help you let go of negative thoughts is that powerful tool.
See Yourself Let Go
The Ultimate 'Letting Go' Imagery to Banish Negative Thoughts
Early in my career I dealt with a very nasty political situation in which I was going to be made the scapegoat for a situation I had no hand in. There were lots of moving parts and political players needing to shift the blame. It was a very dark and scary time.
But after being overwhelmed by the situation for too long (well past it's expiration date) I looked for a way to move past it and get the horrific situation from taking up so much space in my mind.
It was in this moment I discovered two of my all-time favorite images for letting go of negative thoughts and stories that still allowed me to view them anytime I felt the need.
I still use both of these visualizations when I need to. I watch as I go through the motions of 'letting go'.
Whatever imagery you use, look for something that gives you a visual and visceral effect for letting go of what's rancid so you can get back to your open, bright, and sunshiny life.
The Archived Book
I imagine myself putting the story, complete with negative feelings and nasty players into a book. The book has to be put away for safekeeping so I watch myself walk down a long deserted hallway to the back of the library where I have to climb a tall ladder to put the book on a dusty archival shelf with other ancient history. I climb back down the ladder, walk back down the deserted hallway, and out into the bright, open spaces filled with sunlight.
Up, Up and Away in a Balloon
I imagine I enclose the feelings, situation, person, or story in a helium balloon. I tie a string at the base and hold on to that string until I'm ready to let go. I release the string and watch as the balloon flies up, up and away until it becomes a tiny dot in space before disappearing.
For more than 35 years, Susan Meyerott has been helping people lighten up and step over invisible barriers to change one step at a time. She speaks to your heart, puts you at ease, and makes letting go and moving forward with life easier than ever before.
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