Exercise for Working With Imagery

Just so you know, I'm doing these exercises as I go along, too.

(Simonton, p.68)

"A Plan For Changing Beliefs and Developing Greater Emotional Mastery

The most effective time to work on your beliefs is when you are experiencing emotional pain, because then the unhealthy beliefs will be easier to identify. It will be clear that your undesirable emotions are interfering with your life -- for example, if fear is interfering with your sleep. [Atavan is also EXCELLENT when I get out of control]
Here is a process for working on your beliefs.

Step #1 Identify the undesirable emotion you are feeling.

Step #2 Take a piece of paper and draw a line down the middle from top to bottom.

Step #3 In the left-hand column, list 5 or more beliefs producing the emotion.

Step #4 Eveluate each belief with Maultsby's questions. [See previous post]

Step #5 For the unhealthy beliefs, write out healthier, compatible beliefs in the right-hand
column.

Step #6 Keep the paper with you, and when you feel the undesirable emotion, pull out your list
and read it. (You may need to do this 2 to 20 times a day.)

Step #7 In addition, 3 times daily in a calm, relaxed state, using your breathing to help you
relax, imagine the healthier beliefs. Do this for at least 3 weeks, or until the new beliefs
become your new, unconscious attitudes.

Example: Fear

1. I'm going to die within 2 years and leave my daughter, regardless of what I or anyone else does.
/
1. I may or may not be alive in 2 years, and what I do makes a significant difference.
.....
4. I may be able to get well, but I would never be able to maintain my health and keep the cancer away.
/
4. I can get well, and I can maintain my health and keep the cancer away."

Simonton uses the term "healthy thinking" instead of positive thinking because it "has to do with the factual aspects of the belief....

Unhealthy thinking: I will be dead in 2 years regardless of what I do.

Positive thinking: I will be alive and healthy 2 years from now.

Healthy thinking: I may or may not be alive 2 years from now, and what I do makes a
significant difference.

.....The problem is that positive thinking doesn't necessarily align itself with the facts of nature or with real life. We are attempting to develop beliefs based on fact. Healthy thinking is aligned with reality."

(Simonton, p.71)

"Take a few moments to write down what you believe to be true about cancer in general, and about your particular diagnosis and your chosen treatment. Then use the 5 questions to evaluate your beliefs."

Then, Simonton gives 3 central beliefs about cancer that you can begin to work with:

"1. The body has a natural ability to heal itself and overcome cancer. When cancer cells and normal cells are put together in the laboratory, cancer cells have never been demonstrated to attack or destroy normal cells. Never! However, under the sam conditions, white blood cells routinely attack and destroy cancer cells. Cancer itself is composed of weak, confused, deformed cells.

2. Medical treatment can help your body to heal itself, making it your ally in getting well.

3. Cancer is feedback that indicates a need for change -- that you need to do more of the things that being you joy andulfillment, and fewer of the things that result in emotional pain; that you need to learn to thestresses of life in healthy ways. This message is one of love. Acting on it can help you to align yourself with your true nature and significantly influence your body's ability to eliminate the cancer."

Simonton says that changing your beliefs feels like driving you car on the left-hand side of the road, or for you Brits, Thais, East-Indians, perhaps a huge chunk of the world when you think about it, the right-hand side.