One of my professors that I respect deeply is known to say, with some frequency, “Chinese medicine is symbol science.” Now that could easily be laughed off by some, but it is deeply and beautifully true. To explain, let’s take one aspect of the CCM view of reality. We frequently state that the universe is fundamentally composed of Yin, Yang and the interactions between the two. When I say this, I am declaring it as true in the sense that it accurately represents reality. I am not necessarily saying that there are two elements, Yin and Yang, that you could isolate in the laboratory and bang together to produce publishable results. For the last two years as I’ve learned this medicine, I’ve tried to relate it to all aspects of my life – including my personal and professional productivity. I’ve found that symbolism can be an effective way to stay motivated when motivation is a scarce commodity.
What is a symbol? In Chinese, the most common character used for “symbol” is xiang (象). The character was originally a picture of an elephant. Why an elephant? First, think of an elephant. It’s a huge animal. It is abundantly obvious when you’re near an elephant. Even think of the American expression concerning “an elephant in a room.” This is something that is obvious to everyone in the room, but no one is talking about it. The core of this being that it is quite clear that it is there. This is what a symbol does for us, it makes otherwise vague or tricky things very clear. Secondly, the elephant itself is a symbol. Chinese stories talk about the elephant as representing the four main aspects of the moon; the front view shows the full moon, the rear end the new moon, and each of the two side views (with curving tusks) representing the waxing and waning moons.
How do symbols relate back to this idea of motivation? Well, personally, one of the reasons that I lose my motivation to reach goals is that I simply forget about them. Even if the emotional reaction I had to the initial goal formation was very intense, even if logically all of the pieces of the goal are congruent with my true purpose, the daily distractions of life often knock me off balance and I forget about my goals. Given that symbols are, in essence, physical reminders of something that either cannot be physically sensed (as in a not-yet realized goal) or is inaccessible to the senses at the time (as in, say, your partner when they are away on a trip) they seem ideal to help us remember our goals. We can load our symbols with emotional AND intellectual meaning which should increase the potency of our remembering.
How to create a symbol for your personal goal
- Carve 20 minutes or so out of your day and do whatever rituals you like to get yourself in a relaxed and calm state. This would definitely include making sure you will not be interrupted by work, housemates, your cell phone, etc… It may involve listening to some relaxing music, doing some chants or prayers, reading something that inspires you, or simply breathing deeply and slowly.
- Pick a goal. It can be “THE goal” – the organizing intention of your life. It can be something more low-level, like an income increase or finding a partner or doing yoga every day or remembering to BREATHE when you’re talking to your boss.
- Close your eyes and imagine what your life would look like if you achieve this goal. Do not censor your thoughts. Let thoughts, feelings, images, sounds and whatever else flow through your mind unimpeded. Do this for a couple of minutes, really trying to have the experience of the accomplishment of this goal. In the beginning, this will just feel silly – you might not have mind-blowing visualizations and may feel like you are fooling yourself. Let yourself feel whatever you feel.
- You will probably find that some image or other sensorial experience comes to you repeatedly during your intention setting. If you are lucky, this will be some kind of physical object you can use for a symbol. For instance, it could be that a picture of your favorite place keeps coming up, or possibly a face, an animal, a few words, a pattern – anything. If you do not find that something that concrete is coming up, examine what IS coming up. Maybe it’s a phrase or group of phrases, maybe just some scene from your future life, maybe even a scene from television or a movie! When you locate this repeating sequence, concentrate on it more deeply. Eventually, even a jumble of concepts will start to distill down to something simpler. Keep trying and let your frustrations pass without giving into the impulse to quit.
- When you have your symbol firmly in your mind, go back to the simple process of imagining your life with your goal already accomplished. Whenever a new thought, feeling, image or whatever comes into your mind about this goal, imagine the symbol in there somewhere.
- Here’s an example: My symbol is Mount Hood (a beautiful mountain I can see from my house) and my goal is to finish the thesis I’m working on right now. When I imagine myself turning in my final draft I mentally place it against the backdrop of Mount Hood. When I imagine myself working at my computer making endless edits, I imagine that I am at the base of Mount Hood doing that. Now you see that this symbol isn’t very related to the goal – there is nothing obviously similar about Mount Hood and my thesis. However, for me this is a powerful symbol. Your symbols do not have to make sense to anyone else. They just have to work for you. When you have worked on associating all of your thoughts and feelings about your goal with the symbol, open your eyes.
- For the next few days, you are going to have to expend some effort to make the symbol work for you. Find or create a physical representation of it – for me in the prior example, I might get a photo of Mount Hood and keep it in my wallet, posting copies near my desk and taped to my dashboard. The fact that Mount Hood is easily seen all over Portland definitely helps me in this example. Make a conscious effort to recall those emotions and thoughts every time you see your symbol. This may be difficult at first, but just keep trying. If you have a moment when you see the symbol, close your eyes and recall your meditations. Allow those emotions and thoughts to really populate your body and mind. Eventually, the symbol will simply do this for you automatically.
This is not a new concept and I’m sure you can find some form of this technique elsewhere. It keeps coming up in the collective consciousness because it’s FUN and it WORKS. Go ahead and try it. It can’t hurt. I find that more repetitions and healthy doses of humor really help. Sometimes an absurd, funny, even offensive symbol works even better than something more bland or obvious does. This method has worked for me with many types of goals and a diverse array of symbols. Let me know if it works for you or if you’ve found another permutation of the technique by posting a comment!Eric Grey
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