Mindful Stories: working with the subliminal – a BI method developed by Simon Bell

Post By Professor Simon Bell

In solitude or with others, some things are too difficult to be dealt with directly. Sometimes we need to find a way to address underlying issues by roundabout means.

My starting point is two-fold. It can be summed up by the two following sentences:

We are needful of harmony with each other.

We are needful of peace with ourselves.

By: “needful of harmony with each other” I refer to the quality of the relationship we have with the others who come into and move out of our lives.

By: “needful of peace with ourselves” I refer to the quality of our self-knowing.

These two precepts underlie the intention and content of the Mindful Stories method.

The intention of Mindful Stories is to provide prompts or ‘calls’ to mindful consideration of the various elements of our inner relations. In reflecting on the stories used by this method, you are encouraged to reflect upon your Self and your Self with others and with things. Others like your family, work groups and friends. Things like nature, technologies and events in your life for example, interviews and holidays.

Reflections prompted by the stories may include questioning your motivations and motives, assessing your strengths and your weaknesses, considering your impact on others and their effects upon you. You may find the stories mirror some obvious and explicit event in your life; you may find that the stories address implicit and subliminal sources of concern and anxiety.

The prompts or ‘calls’ contained in the stories are invitations to sublimate, to look below the surface of your accustomed responses to yourself, your social context and your relations with the things that surround you and to allow new ideas and responses to emerge. Looking below the task in hand to the task below can free us from restrictions, allowing us to move ‘through the walls’ of the presenting problem. This in turn can lead to responses which you might not have considered before.

In this process I make use of fictions, stories which are objects which can provide means to address subjective problems, but problems which are too sensitive to be openly addressed more directly at this time.

There are no intended outcomes other than success in your exploring.