I use tarot and oracle cards as tools for reflection and contemplation. Rather than divining the future, they are a way for me to look more deeply at the "now."
"The goal isn't to arrive, but to meander, to saunter, to make your life a holy wandering." ~ Rami Shapiro

Wednesday, August 9, 2017

Re-framing

From the Sasuraibito Tarot, the Six of Cups; from the Soul Cards, New Beginning:
Clinical psychologist Rick Hanson wrote, "In effect, the brain is like Velcro for negative experiences, but Teflon for positive ones. That shades 'implicit memory' – your underlying expectations, beliefs, action strategies, and mood – in an increasingly negative direction." He suggests purposefully reliving joyful, gratitude-inducing events in the mind using sense memory to make up for this tendency. This is what I see the young man doing in the Six of Cups. Does doing this mean I will forget the lessons learned from the traumas and pain of the past? No, it's simply a way to balance out the darkness with more light. The vesica pisces shape seen behind the woman in the Soul Card is created when two circles with the same diameter overlap at each center point. The resulting almond-shaped figure has been seen as a symbol of birth and new beginnings - a doorway to a new frame of mind. Such a re-framing of how I think can change my habitual reactions to more skillful responses.
The pessimist complains about the wind; the optimist expects it to change;
  the realist adjusts the sails.  ~ William Arthur Ward


8 comments:

  1. This could be a perfectly combined with a gratitude practice: Write down three happy memories. Or pull a card to answer. "I remember a time when..." (Allowing only happy associations)

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    1. Hanson suggests fully reliving the moment, bringing the senses into play as much as possible, as if you are experiencing it again.

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    2. I see, that's more than just writing them down :)

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    3. I think part of it is to make the emotional connection with your head. :)

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  2. saved memory days. I love it when I remember to remember some of those

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    1. To consciously remember them is often harder than the other less joyful stuff. It is definitely a practice.

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