Читать книгу Positive Thinking: Everything you have always known about positive thinking but were afraid to put into practice - Vera Peiffer, Vera Peiffer - Страница 16

Are you finding it difficult to imagine your ideal holiday?

Maybe you have not been using your imagination for a while and therefore you have become ‘rusty’. In order to regain the ability to imagine or fantasise, start off with an object in your environment – a plant, the telephone, a picture, anything at all. Look at the object closely, observing every little detail.

Once you have done that, close your eyes and describe the item to yourself, recalling as many details as possible. Now open your eyes again and check whether you remembered the item accurately. The more often you practise this, the better you will become at picturing something in your mind. The fact that you can remember means that you have formed a mental picture of the item. You cannot describe anything that you cannot imagine. Improving your imagination will automatically improve your memory.

Are you finding it difficult to enjoy your holiday?

What marred your day-dream? Did you find it impossible to imagine something as entirely pleasurable, without any flaws? Perhaps you consider this exercise unrealistic and want to tell me that last time you went to Majorca you got landed in that grotty little place next to the main road where you suspect the maid must have taken your earrings because you couldn’t find them anywhere … I’m afraid you didn’t get the point of the exercise.

We all know that life is not perfect. There will always be ups and downs and unforeseen obstacles. This is so, whether we are happy or miserable about it. We cannot do anything about unpredictable events appearing in our lives, but we can certainly influence how we cope with them.

We have a choice of how we want to look at problems – positively or negatively. We have a choice whether to be happy or miserable. No matter what we choose, the problems will still occur, so we can either sit anxiously in a corner, waiting for the next thing to go wrong and be thoroughly unhappy with life or we can face problems as and when they appear, deal with them as best we can and have a thoroughly good time in the meanwhile. Besides, are you quite sure you didn’t leave those earrings on the beach …?

Mental holiday is certainly an exercise in escapism, but then it is meant to be. Just like deep breathing, it gives body and mind a chance to relax and recover lost energy, and it helps you gain a bit of distance from everyday routine, leaving you refreshed and in a good mood. Mental holiday is meant to make you feel good, and only when you imagine something beautiful will you get the maximum result from this exercise.