Re-Frame Aging
WITH THIS VISUALIZATION
Let’s face it… aging is not for the faint of heart. Physically, the body shows telltale signs…from weakening vision to diminishing muscle coordination to craping skin. Or perhaps you start to feel more tired after a workout, or you feel drained of energy after lunch.
On the flip side, with aging comes a constant curiosity, on-point perceptiveness, and a non-relenting thirst for life.
Remember in the Edgar Allan Poe story “The Telltale Heart,” how the faint sound of the murdered man’s heartbeat seemed to get louder and louder until the culprit went mad? This is a good example of things taking on exaggerated significance.
If your thoughts on the not-so-sexy parts of aging seem to be blowing things out of proportion, suck them back down to size with this technique called “Frame Shrinking.”
An NLP (neurolinguistic programming) technique that works well for some people is this: Relax, close your eyes, and breathe comfortably for a moment. Imagine the feature that bothers you. See it clearly in your mind. Make the picture as vivid and real as you can—see it in a real setting, with specific sounds and lighting and associated details. Now begin to see a box around the scene, like the frame around a picture. Imagine the frame shrinking, and watch the picture shrink as the frame closes in. Make it smaller, smaller, smaller, until it seems miles away and the sounds are lost in an echo, as at the bottom of a well. Imagine it continuing to shrink until—poof !—it vanishes. Immediately call to mind a happy memory, with all its associated details. Fully see this happy scene in vivid color, filling the screen in your brain. Now smile broadly and open your eyes. Practice this visualization regularly.
