Exercise 3: Recognizing Projected Positive Qualities
Again, visit your Film Matrix. This time look at
Quadrant III. Since it can be difficult to recognize a
quality or capacity you saw in a movie character but
you are not fully conscious of in yourself, you may
need to use a couple of “tricks.”
- Remember a time in your life when you
experienced “the exception to the rule.” At
that time you actually experienced in yourself
the same positive quality or skill that you
admire in the film character. - Ask supportive friends whether they see at
least traces of these characteristics in you. You
might be surprised about what you find out. - Ignore the qualities or capacities that you see
in the movie character, which seem absolutely
foreign to your own.
Take some slow deep breaths and listen inwardly.
Describe how the movie character’s attributes or
skills remind you of yourself, even if you just
experienced them only in exceptional situations.
Note the situations you remember in which you
were in touch with these qualities to some degree.
Do this for every quality and capacity you
mentioned.
Did you discover that the attributes or skills you
admired are absolutely different from yours? Can
you accept this? If it is hard to accept, what might
help you learn to accept yourself as the person you
are?
Ta ke the most important points of your exploration
and write them into Quadrant III of your Self
Matrix on page 138 at the beginning of this
chapter.
Self-Discovery Through Film Characters — The Self Matrix 143