From the author: Specially for the site The idea that our thoughts influence our lives is not new, but we have to return to it again and again in order to convince the next Doubting Thomas of this. A negative idea, firmly lodged in your head, it will trip you up at every opportunity. For example, the idea that I am unworthy will emerge every time an opportunity arises to change my job, housing, or personal life for the better. And a person under the influence of this idea misses this opportunity every time. Here is the secret of chronic bad luck, bad streaks in life. Identifying such ideas is the direct goal of psychotherapy. The abundance of negative thought forms turns a person into a walking complex. The trick is that people are generally not aware of their mental background. And in order for words, pictures and other components of this background to become conscious and accessible, special procedures are needed. However, these procedures are not complicated, and a person can easily gain this access using many techniques. These are our own brains, right? When working with images, I often use the technique of catathymic experience of images, also called symboldrama. To illustrate, I will give 2 cases of working with images in which the negative content is obvious, simple and understandable. A few words about the technique: the patient is given a general task to imagine some image (meadow, house, mountain, etc.). All the details of the image that appear to him are the product of his imagination. Case No. 1. Depression. Task 1: Image of a meadow Sees a beach in a recreation area near the Volga. The meadow is covered with thick, lush grass. And completely inaccessible - separated by a river bed with a strong current. When trying to swim, he returns back without covering even half the distance. A strong current carries you away, and a few meters from the shore the water becomes icy. Task 2: Image of a lion Sees himself, powerful, with large powerful paws, and, at the same time, tired, powerless, limping on all his paws with noticeable discomfort in his back. The lion in the image can barely move. Case No. 2. Loss of loved ones Task 1: Image of a meadow Sees a clearing fenced off by a dense, dark wall of the forest. In the clearing he sees dead relatives. He sees himself in this clearing. Upon completion of the image, the deceased go into the fog at the edge of the forest, leaving the patient alone. Task 2: Image of the house The house seen is a small building near the cemetery. He goes inside, sees wreaths inside (okay, at least not coffins) and only after an urgent search, in another small room he finds signs of living people - chairs, a small table, a stove and a household refrigerator with a small supply of food. * * *A comment. The first two images are a complete “not”: impossibility, inaccessibility and inconsistency. The second case is a constant connection with death and the end of life. Even the house - and it turned out to be a house in a cemetery! Think about it - they carry this mental background with them all the time! And such a background leads to the fact that instead of a cause-effect connection, a vicious circle arises, where the negative mental background feeds itself and reproduces itself. The goal of therapy is to weaken and remove negative programs, and instead create and implement positive ones. For example, prayer and self-hypnosis are the most famous of these methods, when the necessary attitude is hammered into the consciousness every day until it replaces and displaces the negative. It’s funny, but even more similar to prayer is the EFT procedure - the emotional freedom technique according to Gary Craig, one of my favorite techniques. Perhaps I don’t know another thing that can be taught to any person in literally 10 minutes and have it work the first time. However, even more important is the person’s desire to change. Because without it, he will remain captive of his negative thoughts, attitudes and programs. Everything depends only on you! It's clear?