Our Mental Images Either Affirm or Deny Our Spirit
What we see in our mind's eye affects our spirit. Generally speaking, our mental images can either affirm and strengthen or deny and weaken our spirit.
When we consider how our mental images affect our spirit, it's important to distinguish between our mental images themselves and our opinions of our mental images. In my experience, for example, the mental image of a fire in my fire place on a cold day comforts my spirit. The comfort feels immediate, directly related to the image of the fire. I have no opinion about the fire. I just experience it.
However, the mental image of receiving an unexplained calendar invite to a meeting with my CEO evokes fear in my spirit. It evokes fear, not because there is anything inherently fearful about meeting with my CEO, but because of my opinions about going into an unexplained meeting with my CEO.
An Experiment
The effect of your mental images on your spirit is easy to test this for yourself.
First, attend to your spirit. Focus your attention on the center of your chest, behind your breast bone and between your nipples. We often call this area our heart. It's where we feel our spirit. If it helps, place one or both hands over your heart as you breathe into and out of your spirit.
How would you describe how your spirit feels? Make a mental note of it.
Now, imagine yourself waiting in a check out line at a grocery store. You're running late and feel a bit impatient. Then someone cuts in line two people ahead of you and no one does anything about it.
Focus again on your spirit. How does it compare with how it felt prior to imagining the check out line scene? Has it changed? If so, how?
Now, change scenes. Imagine someone dear to you scratching your back and rubbing your shoulders. Feel the sensation of their fingers scratching up and down your back. Feel their warm hands on your shoulders rubbing the tension away.
How does your spirit feel now? Has it changed? If so, how?
This simple exercise might or might not illustrate for you how our mental images can affect our spirit. Whether it did or not, I encourage you to become more aware of your own mental images and the effects they have on your spirit.
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