Small Figure Exercise

Small Figure Exercise

We did a small figure exercise, which is something like a Jungian sand box but more restricted.

Mr T asked me to focus on a happy memory from my childhood. (Focussing on past happiness is a new idea for me.) He did some guided imagery, which I couldn’t really connect to. But I did choose a scene. And he asked me for the “next happy memory” and I did four scenes in all. They are all happy family scenes outside the house.

1. Buying honey directly from the apiary with Mum, Dad, brother and sister. Honey was a treat for us and I was fascinated by the machines.

2. Walking with them in the hills. Climbing and running, enjoying my young body.

3. Walking with my wife around the time of our wedding. Me still climbing, walking on tops of walls. Teaching her to go down the slide, which is something she never did as a child.

4. Walking with wife and daughter. Daughter two or three years old, sitting in a push chair, pointing which way we were to go.

And that last memory is tinged with sadness. We rarely go out as a family any more. I’m not so close to my daughter. Where is my little girl and who is this stranger living in my house?

Interesting exercise. I hope you remember more good memories and figure out how to make some new ones.

Nice exercise. I can not remember happy times. Hard for me.

It was quite an effort for me. I tend to focus on the negatives.

Did you use little tiny people or did you get to make yourself into a lion or what? I've often wondered how that works.

can't maybe doing this will somehow help you to reconnect with those happier memories and learn to hold on to them? i have trouble doing that; but this exercise sounds interesting

i hope you and your daughter can make some new happier memories as well

Mr T provides a box of colourful plastic figures, similar to Lego. They come in three sizes: adult, teen and infant. The largest are about 4 cm tall. I stood the figures on the table. His props box is totally inadequate, so I used his computer mouse as a hill for the figures to climb on.

Could be.

It sounds a really powerful exercise, which has left you with questions and perhaps things to change?

CE...that is sad about you and your daughter, but realizing that is huge. I know they turn into aliens when they get into their teen years, making it much harder to connect. She needs you though, even though she pretends not to. Someone once told me that if you have teens, you have to stay up past midnight once in a while to chat with them (that's when they come alive for some reason). It was really good advice.

I find it difficult to remember any happy times growing up, but there are a couple, no T would ever talk about them with me though.

It was more of a head exercise than a heart exercise.
But it does suggest my teenage daughter is my biggest issue right now.

Does it help? I wish my T would do something like that, sitting and talking about things doesn't seem to help me. I'd like make model aeroplanes in sessions, at least I'm doing something and the glue fumes may help as well.

We're trying a variety of new things. That's refreshing after Madame T's meager menu of talk and more talk.