Pictures And Words: The Two Levers Of Feeling
How you feel about anything is down to just two things — the pictures you make and the words you use
- Difficulty
- Easy
- Time to result
- ~days to results
- Steps
- 3
- Confidence
- 90%
Peer distils all of therapy into a moment: the way you feel about everything comes down to only two things — the pictures you make in your head and the words you say to yourself — and both are yours to change. Vegans can't eat meat because the picture is wrong; a plane feels dangerous because of the words and images, though the cab ride is riskier. She adds three things to know about the mind: (1) feeling is driven by pictures and words; (2) the mind is hardwired to return to the familiar and flee the unfamiliar (but anything can be made familiar by repetition, like contact lenses); (3) the mind does what it thinks you want — so get specific about what you actually want, or it acts on the wrong signal (illness for attention).
Origin
Peer, who has trained thousands of RTT therapists, condenses the method into pictures-and-words because clients change fastest when they see feeling as something they control.
Core principles
- 01Feeling is produced by pictures and words, both changeable.
- 02The mind returns to the familiar and flees the unfamiliar — but familiarity is trainable.
- 03The mind does what it thinks you want, so specify it.
- 04Change the picture or the word and the feeling changes.
How to run it
- 1
Notice the picture and the words
When you feel something, ask what image you're making and what you're saying to yourself.
- 2
Change the picture
Deliberately install a new image (boiled-down Coke looks like oil) so the feeling flips.
Pro tip Make an unwanted thing repulsive in your mind's eye and you'll stop craving it.
- 3
Make the new choice familiar
Repeat the new behaviour until the mind treats it as familiar, and tell the mind clearly what you actually want.
Pro tip Be specific — 'I want a passionate relationship' means little without the detail.
In the wild
Bartlett stopped drinking Coke after seeing a clip of it boiled down to an oily residue; the new picture made him afraid of it.
→ A single changed image ended the habit.
Common mistakes
Believing feelings are complicated and fixed
Treating emotion as mysterious and uncontrollable ignores that it's produced by pictures and words you can deliberately change.
Is it for you?
Best for
Anyone wanting a simple, controllable model for changing how they feel about food, fear or themselves.
Not ideal for
Clinical conditions where feelings are not primarily cognitively driven.
From the transcript
“the way you feel about everything ... is down to only two things the pictures you make in your head and the words you say…”
From the episode
World Leading Therapist: 3 Simple Steps To Remove Your Negative Thoughts: Marisa Peer
World Leading Therapist