- Representations
- Reflections
Representations
Representations represent Reflections – they can be a simple shape, a word or our mental image of a person. They are quick to appear in our minds and in most cases we are quick to let them go. We might call them thoughts – but they are the kind of thoughts that lead on to other things.
We let a Representation come and go easily when it briefly catches our attention mechanism because we do not see it as important. When the Reflection represented has either already been fully explored or is so emotionally uninteresting to us we have no urge whatsoever to explore it it will flow through our mind without our trying to stop it.
Reflections
A Reflection is an experience in which several Representations interact with each other. Each interacting Representation offers us another journey into another Reflection. They form a ‘scene’ in which different directions are offered to us each with an alternative possible outcome.
The result of entering an unfamiliar reflection is to find yourself in a state of uncertainty. This does not cause too much stress if the reflection is built around an area of thinking to which you do not have a lot of emotional energy attached.
For example, two scientists discussing alternative theories of particles produced by a particle accelerator may hold your attention for a short period of time. If they argue over the possibility of the next accelerator test creating a black hole that could swallow you and your family they may get more of your attention. If they tell you they are building the accelerator where your house currently sits well, it is unlikely you will pay attention to much else for a long while. You may be particularly emotional about it.
In the above scenario you might select the image of the scientists or the image of the accelerator or the black hole as your Representation – but what it represents is the Reflection containing information about what you expect to lose and how you feel about it.
Emotionally intense Reflections produce ‘flashing’ attention-grabbing Representations.
Emotionally charged Representations grab the attention of your unconscious attention mechanism and may enforce a compulsive response we would rather not have Compulsion is a physical urge to do something about the content within the Reflection.
We usually feel compelled to pay attention to representations when they represent a survival-related threat to us or trigger a response designed to protect something of value.
What one person regards as a survival-related issue may be different to what others do. This is why different Representations mean different things to each of us at different times.
A couple of quick examples of Representations/Reflections:
- college certificates represent money; success; respect; a life of purpose and enjoyment – you see this represented by ‘certificate’ – you feel compelled to physically go somewhere and do things to obtain your certificate but not to get the certificate – to get the things in the Reflection behind it
- a bullying boss represents losing a big battle and getting sacked; blocked career paths; bad references; you being labelled a trouble causer; emotional illness – all this is represented by the image of the boss – on the surface it appears you feel physically compelled to go places or stand up to or run away from your bad boss but in the reflection you discover the true things feared are your own possible failures.
How Does This Information Help in Drilling for Emotional Wellness?
In obsessions and phobias we are quite often presented with the Representation and shy away from it because it looks silly or unnecessary or we just do not understand what is going on when this apparent simple image appears with a very strong set of emotional responses attached.
The emotional response, however, is not really attached to the Representation – it is attached to the Reflection behind it.
A phobic afraid of lifts (elevators), for example, may have a reaction to the lift door (the Representation) but the Reflection contains information on how it felt to be helpless; how it felt to feel suffocated; the imagined embarrassment of having to go to the toilet in a lift if you were trapped there and then have your rescuers discover the result– imagery like this may lurk in the reflection and be the real thing behind the obvious image of the lift doors.
In compulsion what happens is the emotional energy in the Reflection ‘flashes’ at us through the Representation; telling us there is something behind the Representation we need to go into and explore.
By going through our Representations into the Reflections behind them and exploring their hidden meaning we discharge the energy within. We turn those Representative flashing attention-grabbers into just neutrally charged thoughts that appear for shorter and shorter periods until one day they hardly bother us again.
A lack of understanding of this process can leave us standing at the flashing doorway to an emotionally charged Reflection wondering what it is we are supposed to do next.
Regards - Carl
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ReplyDeleteWow this is a lot to wrap my brain around. If I just let go instead and ask myself questions of the representations and combining reflections to process them in a way that will make me stronger Thank you for this.
ReplyDeleteGenuine request: is there any work you have written that will help grab self sabotaging representations and redirect for a better outcome?
Hi Tony - all I've written is on the blog at the moment; thanks for asking.
ReplyDeleteWhen dealing with reflections what we're dealing with is emotionally charged mental constructs that convey a false sense of reality. This 'false reality' acts as a mental block. I think you've already put the gist of that in your comment. The aim of going into a reflection is to dispel and evaporate it for the nothingness it is rather than keep being affected by it - I specialise in helping people with anxiety disorders and for these folks those constructs are really strong and can take months to remove.
Despite their falsehood we still have to acknowledge the existence of the mental construct and temporarily treat it as though it were something 'real' we have to face up to by going into it to get rid of the emotional charge through feeling. Through simply feeling our emotions we extract 'truthful insights' about ourselves as we go in. What happens with people with obsessions and phobias a lot is they 'stop at the door' - the Representation of the Reflection - get stuck there and start to dislike themselves and fight the compulsion to keep looking at the Representation. It's a bit like seeing flashing lights from a cave entrance in the middle of the night - you're going to keep looking but won't find out what's going on in there until you go in.
Stay in there long enough and your mind adjusts to the fact there's nothing in there other than flashing lights. The purpose of doing this work isn't to grab the representations - it's to stop them from grabbing your mind. Discharging emotional energy from our Reflections reduces the impact our negative Representations have on our attention mechanism and this allows you to turn them from attention-grabbing horrors to floating thoughts that flow on by without grabbing your attention mechanism for very long; if at all.
This method is applicable to areas of life not so emotionally intense such as feeling negative about job hunting, for example. You may feel a sense of foreboding every time you come to apply for a job and have a whole 'rejection reflection' going on in there but if you explore the reasons behind your negative feelings and acknowledge the reality of them you can find this negativity phase gets shorter and shorter each time. It might still appear but instead of stopping you in your tracks you just think 'oh, it's that old chestnut' quickly ignoring it and carry on with filling in that job application.