How are emotions translated into images?
This exercise comes naturally to some people, while others must learn it. Young children often possess this ability innately, but tend to lose it as they develop rational thinking.
Initially, multiple images may emerge as potential representations of an emotion. By carefully examining these images, one can identify which aligns most closely with the feeling. Often, the match is imperfect, requiring further refinement. This process can take considerable time.
Example
In therapy, a client struggled to articulate a specific feeling. With the therapist’s guidance, they settled on an image that was adequate yet not satisfying. Six months later, however, the client discovered a breakthrough: while analysing a dream, they recognised an image that perfectly encapsulated the previously unresolved feeling. The client concluded, “The feeling is the image, and the image is the feeling.”
Emotions are inherently elusive, whereas images are tangible, easily described, and retained.
A tangible image is very useful in therapy. Here is an example of how it was used with active imagination:
The client was a woman who was a painter very familiar with imagery and their usage in her work. In her therapy session she complained about feeling disturbed and uneasy in herself. During the ongoing dialogue, she mentioned when she looked inwardly there was a little man vigorously jumping up and down on a pogo stick. She closed her eyes and with encouragement from the therapist she attempted to slow down the little man. Slowly she managed to get a slower pace and a more gentle curve for the jumping. She continued doing it for ten minutes. Then she stopped. The therapist asked how she felt. She indicated normal and the uneasiness had departed. Initially, she did not make the connection. Eventually, she saw that by slowing down the little man she was in fact also slowing down and calming the uneasiness in her feelings.
This example demonstrates the connection between the image and the feeling. Anytime the woman felt uneasy in the future, she returned to her little man on the pogo stick and got him to slow down.
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