A TWELVE WEEK PSYCHOSYNTHESIS PRACTICE
Compiled and Edited by Thomas Yeomans, Ph.D.
No. 7 – EVOKING AND DEVELOPING DESIRED QUALITIES
The purpose of this exercise is to create inner and outer conditions through which one can foster and enhance a desired quality within him/herself. It is suggested for daily practice. In the following outline, the quality of serenity will be used, but the exercise can be adapted for other qualities, such as courage, patience, joy, compassion, etc. It is important that the choice of such a quality and the decision to develop it come from within the individual, not as a ‘should’ but as something he/she has chosen purposely and freely as a further step in growth.
Procedure
1. Assume a state of relaxation and take a few deep breaths. Then think about the idea of serenity: hold the concept ‘serenity’ in your mind, and reflect on it. What is its quality, its nature, its meaning, etc.? As you develop insights, ideas, or images associated with the concept, record them in your Psychological Workbook (No.1).
2. Open yourself to further ideas or images related to serenity that may emerge from your unconscious, and write down as above.
3. Realize the value of serenity, its purpose, its use, especially in our turbulent modem world.
Praise serenity in your mind. Desire it.
4. Assume a physical attitude of serenity. Relax all muscular and nervous tension. Breathe slowly and rhythmically. Allow serenity to express itself on your face. It may help to visualize yourself with that expression.
5. Evoke serenity directly. Imagine you are in a place which makes you feel serene: a quiet beach, a temple, a cool green glade… perhaps a place where you have experienced serenity in the past. Try to feel it. Repeat the word SERENITY several times. Let serenity permeate you to the point of identification with it, if possible.
6. Imagine yourself in circumstances common in your daily life which in the past would have tended to upset or irritate you; perhaps being with a hostile person—or facing a difficult problem—or obliged to do many things rapidly—or in danger—and and feel yourself calm and serene. (This step may be postponed until gaining some familiarity with the exercise).
7. Resolve as much as you can to remain serene through the day… to be a living example of serenity…. to radiate serenity.
8. Make a sign with the words SERENITY, using the colour and lettering that best conveys this quality to you. Place this sign where you can see it daily and if possible at the time when you need serenity the most. Whenever you look at it recall within yourself the feeling of serenity.
This exercise to develop desired qualities can become the focus of a larger program. You can gather together poetry, symbols, music, drama, artwork, photography, dance,’ and biographical excerpts, all evoking or in some personal sense symbolizing serenity, and use them for a total experience. By surrounding yourself with these materials, you can evoke and develop a deep sense of serenity—or of any other quality. You can use all that you find in your environment to foster a sense of serenity through your own creation of a synthesis of experiential forms.
A possible contraindication
In a minority of cases it is possible to experience a negative reaction to the exercise, i.e. attempting to evoke serenity may bring tension, restlessness anxiety, etc. This is usually a sign that there is a core of negative emotions that block the development of the desired quality. Such a situation is most likely to be encountered during step 6 of the exercise. If the negative reaction is strong, it is best to suspend the use of the exercise, explore the negative feelings that emerged, and then release them through catharsis. After this the exercise can be resumed, and will then have particular value as a means of filling with a positive and desired quality the psychological “space” left vacant by the release of the negative feeling.
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