Everyone knows how to time travel. Whenever you recall a happy event from your childhood your mind is traveling in time. Whenever you feel guilty about something you did when you were small you are time traveling. You can place your consciousness anywhere you choose.
Being able to travel back in time to a positive memory and avoid any painful memories is a key skill in the poetry of emotion process (Step 2). This makes the poetry of emotion process is as painless as possible.
Time line exercise
Let’s do an exercise to discover how you represent time in your unconscious mind. Many people use a line to represent time. You can think of your time line just like the history time lines your learned about in school.
Imagine that your memories and future dreams could be placed in the room around you. Most people can visualize memories and dreams floating in space like holograms.
Pick a common task you do every day that does not have an emotional charge – you feel pretty neutral about it. Some examples include brushing your teeth, combing your hair or drinking a cup of coffee.
Your past
Remember doing your task yesterday. Where would you place the memory in the room? In front of you, behind you, to the left or right, above you or below you? Now select a few more times in the past – one week ago, one month ago, one year ago. Take time to visualize each moment in time. Do your memories seem to have a direction and go in a line? Your line may be straight or curved. You may not have a line at all. Whatever you discover is your internal representation of your past time line.
Your future
Now let’s do the same exercise with your future dreams. Imagine doing your task tomorrow, one day in the future, one week in the future, one month in the future, one year in the future. Take time to visualize each moment in time. Does your future have a direction and form a line?
Your present moment
Now look at your past in relationship with your future. How are they related? Where is your present moment? How does it connect the past and the future? Are you able to be in the present moment?
Your time line
One common time line format is the past is behind you and the future is in front of you.
Another common format is viewing the past to the left and the future to the right. There can be many variations. There is no right or wrong answer. You may not have a line that represents internal time. Just discover what is right for you.
Analyzing your time line
Spend a moment analyzing your time line. You want to look at the line rather than your memories. Is it smooth or bumpy? Does it have gaps or dark places? Does it have places you really want to avoid? As you reclaim your true emotions your time line will be transformed.
Can’t find a line?
What do you do if you can’t find a line? You will need to be more careful when selecting positive memories from the past (Step 2 of the poetry of emotion process). Finding the poem for your time line may help you understand why you do not have a time line. Find out more in the next post.
Practice using your time line
Go back using your time line and find a positive memory. Try floating above your time line or walking beside your time line. Your time line can help you avoid painful memories and select the positive memories you need to release the past.
(Image: Marcin Wichary @ Flickr http://www.flickr.com/photos/mwichary/2275562642/)
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