We are often asked by students, family, friends and patients how to find the truth of who they really are. Our lives are so filled with ‘busy-ness’ and the importance of maintaining our facades or masks of how we wish others to perceive us that it’s difficult at times to see through the veil. The exercise of Reversing is an old Kabbalistic technique using mental imagery that allows you to become the observer of your daily actions and perceptions and to come to a better reflection of the truth of who you truly are. Reversing can become like your own personal Time Machine – as in H.G. Wells…. although not as scary.
What is Mental Imagery? Quite simply it’s the mind thinking in pictures – sort of like dreaming while you are awake. With the mental imagery exercise of ‘Reversing’, you can rid yourself of negativity as you become the observer of your lucid dream and rewrite your old scripts with positive healthy ones.
Process of Reversing:
In a darkened room as you prepare for bed at night, lie down on your bed with your eyes closed. Get comfortable and take a few slow, deep breaths; see yourself totally relaxing deeper and deeper with each exhalation. Now review the events of the day in your imagination in reverse order event by event.
Begin with the last event of your day and relive it, then go to the preceding event of the day and relive that. Continue reliving events until the time when you woke up. Remember each event slowly and with as much attention to detail as you can, while at the same time correcting your behavior and attitude in situations which you found difficult. For example, if you had a distressing talk with someone, put yourself in their shoes and hear their voice and perspective coming out of your mouth and your words coming from their voice. This will help you experience what the other person was feeling. If you had a fight with your family member or coworker, imagine the situation from their point of view or where what you said to them is now coming out of their mouths and what they said to you is coming out of your mouth. Would you change anything? Replay it how (now from a more enlightened, mindful perspective) you would choose to respond and see how it turns out. [Read more…] about Spiritual Practice of Reversing: it’s not just for the bedroom
