Anyone who has worked through this books succesfully? What do you do if you can't answer the questions/visualise/imagine what the exercises are asking for?
where, if it IS the one you mean, over a hundred reviews can be found, which may perhaps answer some of your questions.
If you'd care to post a little more detail about the kind of things you might be having a problem with, then I'm sure some of us may be able to be of further help.
where, if it IS the one you mean, over a hundred reviews can be found, which may perhaps answer some of your questions.
If you'd care to post a little more detail about the kind of things you might be having a problem with, then I'm sure some of us may be able to be of further help.
Holistic
It is as I said. Are you familiar with the book? You are asked to visualise/imagine and remember positive things and self images. That is what I am referring to.
If you go to the link, as recommended by Holistic, go to the bottom of the page and click on the link to all the comments. Some posters talk about what they visualised - mainly appears to be how they wanted their lives to be, not how they are at this time. Doesn't look as though many people saw changes within 7 days, but the majority seem to have improved over a couple or three weeks. Have you listened to the CD? Looks like you have to use your imagination and relax - let yourself go!
If you go to the link, as recommended by Holistic, go to the bottom of the page and click on the link to all the comments. Some posters talk about what they visualised - mainly appears to be how they wanted their lives to be, not how they are at this time. Doesn't look as though many people saw changes within 7 days, but the majority seem to have improved over a couple or three weeks. Have you listened to the CD? Looks like you have to use your imagination and relax - let yourself go!
that is the point of the visualation; not to imagine your life as it is.
I've read the link, thanks. But it doesn't address the problem. Some of the exercises set up or require conditions that are extremely difficult for me to visualise.
It is as I said. Are you familiar with the book? You are asked to visualise/imagine and remember positive things and self images. That is what I am referring to.
I haven't read the book but I am, of course, familiar with the concept. I have also read what you originally posted.
Quote:
Originally Posted by bloke
I've read the link, thanks. But it doesn't address the problem. Some of the exercises set up or require conditions that are extremely difficult for me to visualise.
In post #3 here I suggested:
Quote:
If you'd care to post a little more detail about the kind of things you might be having a problem with, then I'm sure some of us may be able to be of further help.
So, perhaps you'd like to share a little more about these exercises, and about the problems you're having with them, but only if you feel comfortable doing so, of course, bearing in mind this is a public forum. And what are these 'conditions' to which you refer?
If you'd respond to suggestions to give us something more to go on, we can take it from there
I did share more about the exercises. I'm not in a position to quote the book since that will take ages. The exercises revolve around visualising more confidence for example, remembering certain things that I can't, visualising an idealised self to merge with. I find these difficult and the book gives no advice how to deal with such difficulties.
I just spoke to a friend who has done this programme, and he said that he didn't really understand what bits of it were about until he had gone through it half a dozen times, and even then, if he were honest, he glossed over some bits as being irrelevant to his life experience. It took him about two weeks to decide that some aspects of his life were improving, and that stuff that had narked him previously were no longer a problem. Maybe you don't need to take the advice that McKenna gives 'verbatim' but adapt it to suit.
Maybe you don't need to take the advice that
McKenna gives 'verbatim' but adapt it to suit.
Well that's the question!
Without the author to hand it's just people's interpretations. It's entirely possible there is a subtle subtext that's the real gist of what the exercise is trying to achieve, but i'd rather know I'm doing it properly than interpret things my way and lead to possible disappointment.
"Without the author to hand it's just people's interpretations. It's entirely possible there is a subtle subtext that's the real gist of what the exercise is trying to achieve, but i'd rather know I'm doing it properly than interpret things my way and lead to possible disappointment."
I have some advice
Funny thing about life, it sometimes has its disappointments. Other times, in a different frame of mind, disappointments can be learning curves, or opportunities to reflect and try something different next time. Or maybe they are plain old disappointments - hey ho!
You also make a reference to 'doing it properly' and I'm not sure what that means. Undertaking any kind of change isn't a matter of doing it properly, it's more about keeping an open mind, being open to any result, and having the willingness to try come what may.
If you think there's no point in that, then maybe, for you, right now, you're right, there's no point. What if I feel worse or suffer from not having done it properly? That's OK, no-one died from feeling temporarily worse, and having survived the feeling, you can go on to try something else. You get to live another day. So what's to lose?
It seems you are looking for a fail safe route to being/feeling OK? And at times (no subtext here), the tone of your posts, seem to suggest that other people need to provide the answers, that everyone is somehow frustrating you by not supplying the answers/insight/information you need. It's not up to other people. It's up to you. There's a world of difference between asking advice, and responding to what is given with grace, and having expectations that other people can't possibly fulfil no matter how many words of advice, guidance or experience they share with you.
If that is your thinking, then chances are you probably will end up disappointed. In real life, there's no such thing as a fail safe route to feeling OK. All there is, is putting your best foot forward, taking courage, and giving it a try. That's all everyone else does.
So, why don't you give some of the exercises a try and see what happens? And then it won't be other people's interpretations, it will be your lived experience of having tried something. Nothing, but nothing replaces experiental learning, and no matter how much feedback you get from anyone on here, that's their experience not yours. The only way out is through as they say.
And finally! If Mckenna's visualisations are not for you right now (and it certainly sounds like a struggle), read another book! The world is full of them, thankfully. If, right now, you aren't in the frame of mind for changing your life in 7 days, try something gentler.
A suggestion for you bloke, perhaps you might be better off with visual instructions in the form of video/DVD format- see if youtube has any paul mckenna videos or visualisation techniques as I find watching instructions makes it so much better to understand.
Well done Elodie, an eloquent and meaningful post. All I could think to say was, just try it- just do it. You explained it in a much more helpful way! Hom
"Without the author to hand it's just people's interpretations. It's entirely possible there is a subtle subtext that's the real gist of what the exercise is trying to achieve, but i'd rather know I'm doing it properly than interpret things my way and lead to possible disappointment."
I have some advice
Funny thing about life, it sometimes has its disappointments. Other times, in a different frame of mind, disappointments can be learning curves, or opportunities to reflect and try something different next time. Or maybe they are plain old disappointments - hey ho!
You also make a reference to 'doing it properly' and I'm not sure what that means. Undertaking any kind of change isn't a matter of doing it properly, it's more about keeping an open mind, being open to any result, and having the willingness to try come what may.
If you think there's no point in that, then maybe, for you, right now, you're right, there's no point. What if I feel worse or suffer from not having done it properly? That's OK, no-one died from feeling temporarily worse, and having survived the feeling, you can go on to try something else. You get to live another day. So what's to lose?
It seems you are looking for a fail safe route to being/feeling OK? And at times (no subtext here), the tone of your posts, seem to suggest that other people need to provide the answers, that everyone is somehow frustrating you by not supplying the answers/insight/information you need. It's not up to other people. It's up to you. There's a world of difference between asking advice, and responding to what is given with grace, and having expectations that other people can't possibly fulfil no matter how many words of advice, guidance or experience they share with you.
If that is your thinking, then chances are you probably will end up disappointed. In real life, there's no such thing as a fail safe route to feeling OK. All there is, is putting your best foot forward, taking courage, and giving it a try. That's all everyone else does.
So, why don't you give some of the exercises a try and see what happens? And then it won't be other people's interpretations, it will be your lived experience of having tried something. Nothing, but nothing replaces experiental learning, and no matter how much feedback you get from anyone on here, that's their experience not yours. The only way out is through as they say.
And finally! If Mckenna's visualisations are not for you right now (and it certainly sounds like a struggle), read another book! The world is full of them, thankfully. If, right now, you aren't in the frame of mind for changing your life in 7 days, try something gentler.
Best wishes in whatever you do
Elodie
I'm at a complete loss to understand the point you are making.
I have tried the exercises. That's the whole point. In trying them I find some difficult to do. Consequently I have asked, of the people here familiar with the book, if they can provide some advice as to how to deal with this. I'm sure others have had similar difficulties. It seems to me that you are not familiar with the book as you seem not to understand what I'm asking, which is a very simple question.
I really don't understand, in the context of my question, what you are trying to say.
I am not asking for other people's interpretations of anything. I know exactly what the exercises are asking. That is absolutely not the point at all; the point is that what the exercise requires is not easy to do.
I don't really feel comfortable quoting whole chunks of the book, but one of the exercies requires imaging you are full of confidence or remembering a time where you felt really good. The purpose is to merge with that visualisation to internalise the feeling (which you are then able to call upon later with a physical cue). The problem isn't understanding or interpreting (or using other people's interpretations) this exercise; it's imagining that level of confidence/remembering.
So the question is, to the people (if any) that have worked through this book, how to deal with these difficulties. With respect, if you aren't familiar with the book, please think about what you are contributing before you respond.
The problem isn't understanding or interpreting (or using other people's interpretations) this exercise; it's imagining that level of confidence/remembering.
Do you mean that you have never actually felt confident and therefore it is impossible for you to remember what it's like or that you have felt confident but find it difficult to recall what it felt like?
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