Below I provide several ideas or concepts around which you can create your own audio tapes.
(1) One concept is what I like to call “Forecast, Dream, and Aspire” and in this concept you imagine who you are and your life, and then you describe it to yourself. You can include details like how much you’re enjoying your yoga, meditation, and mindfulness practices, and how those are making you a healthier and happier person. You can describe how beautiful, clean, and great feeling your home is now that you’ve consciously tried to make the space around you more harmonious. You can include concrete details like how many kids you will one day have or the awesome job you’ll eventually enjoy, but remind yourself that it’s not the number of kids or gender or the exact job and company that will make you feel fulfilled, but rather it’s the sense of community, love, pride, or purpose that it gives your life.
The idea is not to create goals that you’re waiting to achieve, but to recognize and hope that life will get better because it can. You will never achieve a better life situation if you can’t envision it, so start there and the rest will follow. Just don’t get frustrated because things aren’t precisely how you envisioned. The idea here is not to create a checklist of details you can check off, but rather to create a vision of love, warmth and power. It should be a vision of hope and optimism.
I recommend using the active voice and describing the situation as if it was true right at this moment – that you are living it. I also recommend emphasizing the love and compassion that you give to yourself constantly and discuss the awareness and mindfulness that you are constantly cultivating.
(2) Another idea is what I call “symbolic dreaming” audio tapes. For example, I like to imagine myself as a dolphin swimming through the ocean. It’s good to describe what you’re experiencing that you enjoy – the water running over your body; the freedom of the wide, open ocean; the sense of being part of a special community; the magic of the ocean; the exhilaration of jumping and twirling up over the water. Other times, I like to imagine myself as a fairy flying over the world or the ocean or even to other galaxies and make believe lands. I imagine the peace and quiet of the wind passing over my ears and the thrill of souring. I imagine travelling down into redwood groves and exploring under leaves and around streams. I imagine falling in love with another fairy and travelling on adventures together.
(3) Another idea is what I fondly call the “Patronus Charm,” a term that I am borrowing from Harry Potter. In case you haven’t read Harry Potter (which you should! It’s such a fun, imaginative, and light-hearted read!), the Patronus Charm is used to combat Dementors who are basically monsters that feed off of people’s fear and pain. The Patronus Charm can only be conjured up by thinking of the most powerful happy thought that you have and yelling “Expecto Patronum” and then an avatar of sorts bursts out of your wand and staves off the evil Dementors. In this case, our bad memories or thoughts are dementors and we need to combat them with good thoughts. So first, try to express what scares you – maybe try doing it metaphorically if it’s too difficult to talk about. For example, I describe my pain, anger, and fear with images of ripped flesh, blood, screams, silent screams/sobs, lying prostrate on the ground, the sense of not existing or ceasing to exist. But you can also use more synthesized descriptions of your thoughts like stating that you feel lonely or scared. You can also describe a bad experience that happen to you – like a rape or beating – and express your fear of it happening again.
Then you need to counter these bad thoughts with your best memories. For example, the love you feel for your significant other, the sweet embrace of a lover, the kind nudge of a pet, the thrill of running or biking up a mountain, the warmth of true friendship, the respect and admiration of coworkers or something along those lines. You can also remember less powerful memories that still bring good feelings – like a fun party you went to or a great laugh you had with some friends or a great concert you went to or listening to your favorite comedian.
The purpose behind all of these exercises is to remind ourselves that there are bad things in the world and bad things have happened, but there are also good things in the world and good things have happened to us. And most importantly – that good things will come to us again if we just start believing that then can and will.
Below is something that I wrote in my journal and I find it useful to look back at every once in a while – I hope that it will help you too.
What is innocence? What does it mean to lose it? I think when considering these things it is important to differentiate between what it means to be naive and what it means to be innocent. To be naive is to believe the world is all good and to lose naivete is to gain sight. However, to lose innocence is to lose the desire to live...to lose the ability to see good in the world...to lose the belief that life is supposed to be good...the conviction that it SHOULD be good.
To lose naivete is to reach adulthood, but to lose innocence is to die.
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