Simple images can help in shaping the way we think

• Published date: 11 March 2022
• Publication title: Shanghai Daily

USING simple visualization exercises, Eric Maisel, PhD, guides readers through techniques that change not only what you think but also how you think in his new book "Redesign Your Mind: The Breakthrough Program for Real Cognitive Change."

"The book is really based on a lot of guided visualization, a lot of pictures, pictures of the mind, and ways you can change that picture from one kind to another kind of picture," Maisel told Shanghai Daily.

"This seemed lighthearted and amusing. And there aren't that many tactics in psychology that produced results that quickly, that directly."

Maisel has written 61 books on issues such as creativity, life objectives, critical psychology and critical psychiatry, and mental fitness, and there is no indication that he will stop.

By imagining "The room is your mind," Maisel cracks down the complex psychological concepts with easy-to-understand imagines and real cases to address major challenges like depression, addiction, procrastination, loneliness, and promote cognitive growth, trauma healing as well as fundamental change.

native of United States, Maisel is a successful author and a columnist for a number of well-known sites, including the Huffington Post and Psychology Today. He runs a creativity coaching practice after retiring as a practicing family therapist.

Q: What is the central theme of this book? Why is it that "the room is your mind" is used as a metaphor?

: It's a simple idea that just popped into my head that we could employ the metaphor of the room that is your mind in useful ways to move a cognitive wellness forward. Because it struck me that if you could visualize the room that is your mind, and actually redesign it or redecorate it, then you would suddenly be thinking new thoughts.

So instead of having to wrestle with your thoughts, you could change the place where the thoughts are generated and come up with new thoughts.

Q: In the realm of mental health, you can apply several metaphors to convey your feelings. But why did you have to pick a room?

: It turns out to be a very useful metaphor. It allows for all kinds of interesting activities like repainting the walls of that room with a brighter color, so that you feel less sad, or installing windows in that room to reduce claustrophobia so that a breeze would blow through.

nd also, I thought it was a little cheerful, sort of fun. So much of cognitive behavioral therapy isn't fun at all. It's very heavy.

nd it is very easy to imagine. It's easy to picture throwing...