Mind set: Believing is seeing
Imagination is a tool
that gives us the ability to actualise our goals by visualising them (TOI photo)
We have grown up in a cynical world. We tend to dismiss the unseen and unexplained. We give little, if any, credence to the idea that the mind plays a critical role in our healing. Nor do we value the notion that we have mental abilities that can actually help us create a better life for ourselves.
As a race we have failed to wonder why mankind was endowed with the mental capacity to visualise, fantasise and imagine.
When we study nature, we see that every function of a particular species is carefully designed to meet a specific need. A good example is the human being’s ability to feel. Touch or sensory perception was not designated at random. “God does not play at dice,” said Einstein. Let’s consider the human skin for a moment.
As Paul Brand and Phillip Yancey relate in their book, Fearfully and Wonderfully Made , “The sensitivity of each square inch (of skin) is programmed to fit the function of that body part. Our fingertips, tongues, and lips are the portions of the body used in activities that need the most sensitivity”...whereas the “soles of the feet, thickened for a daily regimen of abuse, are far less sensitive”.
If nature has so carefully determined the assignment of such physical aspects, then why would the same care not be administered to our mental design? Why would nature bestow upon us such vast mental equipment, if not for essential use?
In facilitating personal growth for clients seeking relief from their hostile realities, I have come to rely upon the broad capacities of the mind as essential for recovery. Without the active engagement of a client’s psyche in the therapeutic process, little progress can be expected. Healing is not something one has done to oneself. It is a proactive process. It may involve a healthcare provider, but entails, first and foremost, the client’s personal decision to initiate the correction of a painful body or mind condition.
In other words one has to resolve to get well. As the famous philosopher, Goethe wrote, “...the moment one definitely commits oneself, then providence moves too. A whole stream of events issue from the decision, raising in one’s favour all manner of unforeseen incidents and meetings and material assistance, which no man could have dreamed would have come his way.”
The client must decide and then believe in their ability to get well or healing can’t happen. In order to believe, one must be able to envision the desired change first. This is a universal truth.
In the Western culture however, it seems most common for people to seek the “most gain with the least pain”. We seek the easy way out. Our advertising industry sells us millions of dollars worth of services and goods on the promise of an easier, softer way. But life doesn’t appear to work like that. On the contrary, it seems that strong character, self respect and confidence are instilled through hardship, during times when one has had to stretch to achieve the highest potential. Read the case histories of those you most admire. You will find most have had very difficult lives. In Hinduism, it is said that often a master is one who takes on the hardest life.