Part 7
Running memories and pictures on in your head like a film
Riley had very upsetting images of the accident that kept coming into mind.
This can be common when someone has seen a death. Sometimes, this happens even when we didn’t see the event.
It can help if you have ‘stuck’ images to run the memory or picture on in your head past the stuck point. Keep playing the memory like a movie, then in your mind go past it, so you move to the next scene.
For Riley, this was imagining Charlie having a peaceful sleep under a tree in a beautiful forest. 🌳
The steps Riley used for the stuck image of Charlie in the accident were:
Pictures in your head: Exercise 1
Step 1. Note the stuck picture:
Charlie in the accident.
Step 2. Think about the meaning of the picture (What is the worst thing? What does it say about you as a person? What does it say about the person who died?)
It was my fault. I should have stopped the accident. Charlie suffered.
Step 3. What do you know now to be true?
I learned in Part 3 of the website that it was not my fault. The weather and the driver of the car were to blame. Charlie is no longer suffering.
Step 4. What picture might represent the person is no longer suffering?
Charlie sleeping peacefully under a tree. 🌳
Step 5. Call to mind the stuck picture then run it onto the peaceful image.
I imagined the accident image moving on to Charlie sleeping under the tree, like fast forwarding a movie on TV.
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