Exercise: Replacing Negative Images with Constructive Ones

There is an inability to handle his own energy- At times his own energy frightens him, and then it seems to abandon him completely. Here, however, he has abandoned it, for he succumbs easily to negative suggestions. Because he is sensitive to various elements, he also soaks up atmosphere and suggestions like a sponge, and he has not learned to protect himself.

In poor periods he is almost completely vulnerable to negative suggestion, so that it operates through his own psychic and physical system. He should then often give himself the following suggestion: I will only react to constructive suggestions. You may take a break and we shall continue.

Now, listen to me. When you find yourself facing such negative images in your mind and projecting them into the future, you should at once mentally wipe out that image and replace it with a constructive image, seeing yourself, for example, sitting in command of a well-ordered room.

This must be done immediately and upon every such occasion and under every such circumstance. This exercise will indeed wipe out the previous negative image.

You must mentally wipe out the negative image, for example. If you think that tomorrow Johnny F will misbehave in study hall, you should, in your mind, replace this with the image of Johnny F behaving very well. In the first place, if you imagine that a particular student will misbehave, you are automatically sending him a telepathic message to that effect. If he is highly susceptible to suggestion, he will carry out the suggestions that you have given.

When you replace this with a constructive thought, you are sending that constructive suggestion to which he will also react. Any time you see yourself in your mind as unhealthy or staggering, you must immediately wipe the image away and make an effort to see instead a mental image of yourself as healthy and strong.

Such images affect your whole physical system through the manufacture of hormones and chemicals. Suggestions, whether given to you or given by you, cause an emotional situation that automatically affects the production of hormones and chemicals.

I told you to tell yourself- I will only react to constructive suggestions. If however, you find yourself harboring a negative suggestion, then instantly counter it by replacing it with a constructive one.

This can be compared and correctly to errors in a painting. When you are in a poor state of mind, you automatically affect the others you meet, negatively. You then react to their behavior and complete the circle. Now this leads into a highly charged emotional environment, which is the cause of the depressions of which you have spoken.

When the peak is reached then self-pity controls your emotions so completely that there seems to be no escape. In a mood of self-pity there is indeed an almost perverted luxury, the luxury of despair, for despair says: There is nothing I can do, and relieves you of any responsibility for change. This applies not to you only but to such a state in general. You become incapable of getting out of yourself, even to the extent of enjoying small pleasures and, little by little it seems every joy is withdrawn from you until nothing is left but despair.

This is caused by the culmination of negative suggestions and of negative thought. They build up until you can take it no longer. In the natural state of affairs, however, sooner or later, some highly charged positive suggestion then begins to clear the emotional air.

The Early Sessions, Book I
Session 332, Page 333-334