Changing What We imagine Changes What We feel

​The mind is always trying to make sense of what it is sensing. It's just what the mind does. It initially attempts to do this by searching for images we have stored from the past that might make sense of what we are sensing in the present.

Much of what we sense right now has very little to do with what is happening right now. It has much more to do with the memories of our past we're using as reference material to define our current moments.

When I teach, I always use the example of a tree. Trees feel very peaceful to me. I believe that's because I have a powerful image stored in me of a tree I used to sit under as a child that brought peace in challenging moments.

So when I see a tree, any tree, my mind tends to take me back there. Back to those sensations even if not back to that exact tree. Rarely do I know while peacefully standing in the midst of trees that my mind is doing, but I'm grateful it does it.

Because my mind doesn't always do me favors in that regard. I have some memories stored away about some challenging childhood relationships that have stood in the way of healthy adult relationships. The same mind that finds the sensation of peace in my memories when trying to make sense of the trees in my life, finds sensations of discomfort and shame and hiding when it tries to make sense of new relationships in my life.

It's kind of a cruelty, I guess, the way the mind can lean so heavily on the past to make sense of the present. But, what a gift on the other hand, to understand the way the mind works. Because we all have the power to create new images.

I'm reminded of a story in the bible. Abraham was having a hard time imagining that he'd ever have children. When considering the promise from God that he would, Abraham had nothing but negative images in his mind to use to make sense of God's promise.

The bible tells us God "took him outside and said, 'Look up at the sky and count the stars—if indeed you can count them.' Then he said to him, 'So shall your offspring be.'"

God was helping Abraham store away new images as reference points for his future promise.

I spend a lot of time these days working to let go of images from my past. It is not easy, but with work they fade a little more each day.

I also spend a lot of time creating new and healthier images of the things I want to encounter in life. It's true, we can use our imaginations to create and store images in our minds that will be used to make sense of future scenes in our life.

The poet William Butler Yeats wrote, "wisdom first speaks through images."

If you spend enough time imagining what you want a future relationship to look and feel like, how you want to treat and be treated in that relationship, eventually you will have images that will speak wisdom into your future.

If you spend enough time imagining what it will feel like to be successful at the end of your marathon or at your book signing or taking on a new role at work, eventually you will have images that will speak wisdom into your future.

I'm not one who necessarily believes that if you can imagine it you can become it, but I am one who definitely believes if you imagine hope and health, you're a whole lot closer to getting there than you will be leaning on images from your past that don't predict either.

So, I encourage you today, imagine some beautiful things in your life. Maybe pull up a picture on your phone that's particularly happy, and just stare at it, absorb it, let it sink into your mind and body as an image that will wisely speak happiness into your future.

Or close your eyes and imagine happiness and security in a relationship.

Or stare at the stars in the skies and begin to count them as the gifts God is sending your way.

You have some images from your past that are not making great sense of your present. Give yourself an amazing gift, replace those images.

Replace them with the stars in the sky.