Mental Imagery for Peace - Dr. Kathryn C. Shafer Jupiter FL Counseling

You may say I’m a dreamer
But I’m not the only one
I hope someday you’ll join us
And the world will live as one
~~John Lennon

In the wake of the Hamas attacks on Israel I am left reeling and wondering what I, one person, can do. My own personal connection to Israel, colleagues’ connections to Israel, and the feeling that we need to start imagining peace NOW led me to write this blog. We all need to take a collective inhale, and as we exhale imagine world peace. It is possible, as I learned from my work in mental imagery with the late Dr. Gerald Epstein.

I first met Dr. Epstein in 1990 through his book, Healing Visualizations (Epstein, 1989), when I began to use mental imagery as a healing technique to control asthma triggers. Dr. Epstein’s American Institute for Mental Imagery, now run by his wife Rachel, teaches people to use their minds to heal and transform their lives. Mental imagery helped me to heal my asthma and eventually run in the New York City Marathon. My work with Dr. Epstein has been the catalyst for so many personal transformations, as well as for the FUN™ program I created to help my clients do the same.

Dr. Epstein began exploring the concept of mental imagery for therapeutic use in 1974, under the tutelage of Madame Colette Aboulker-Muscat in Jerusalem. The Gerald Epstein Medical Model (GEMS) evolved from this training and encompasses a wholistic approach to healthcare in the Western Spiritual tradition. Our physical ailments are trying to tell us something- through mental imagery we can get in touch with that message and begin to heal ourselves in concert with any modern medicine that is required.

If we can heal ourselves through mental imagery exercises, by getting in touch with the stories and memories and social and moral issues surrounding what ails us, then it stands to reason we can heal our collective turmoil in the same way. Peace begins within. If we can find peace for ourselves, we can radiate it out to those around us.

When faced with violence like what we are seeing from the recent attacks on Israel, we can get lost in fear and helplessness. What if, when we feel that fear and helplessness, we pause?

Take an inhale
As we exhale, imagine world peace

Really imagine it. What would it look like? How does it feel, in the body, mind, and spirit? What is it like to wake up and read some good news? To read about people helping each other and living peacefully and not in violence and turmoil. Breathe that in and out, holding that image.

I am one person. But I am someone who has spent decades using these practices to heal myself and developing programs to help my clients do the same. This work is my contribution toward a more peaceful society; one where we are healing ourselves and sharing that health with those around us. Eventually it will touch the far reaches of our world.
Dr. Epstein’s work and research in mental imagery can be found here: https://www.drjerryepstein.org

Stay tuned for more about my FUN™ program, and learn more about my work here: https://limitlesspotentials.com

Limitless Potentials

Jupiter Bay Plaza

351 S. US Hwy One, Suite 100

Jupiter, Florida 33477

Phone: (561) 799-6789

Email: kathy@drshafer.org

Located in Jupiter Bay Plaza