Beautiful Body, Beautiful Mind
The Power of Positive Imagery

The Franklin Method, devised by author Eric Franklin, uses positive imagery to change the quality of our thoughts, body, and daily life.Take a moment to scan your body and ask yourself, “How does my body feel?” Now ask yourself how you would like to feel. Set goals and create a vivid plan for how this new experience would feel and look. When you use The Franklin Method, you implement that plan through positive thoughts, imagery, and movement.

Not just any imagery, however, and not just any thoughts. Focusing on body structures and systems—the joints and cartilage, the bones, the muscles, the organ, the glands, the brain and nervous system—Franklin first provides a concise yet considerable description of their anatomical function. Just knowing what the parts are and how they work is extremely valuable—for example, how many of us know what releases our endorphins, the “feel good” hormones, or how to imagine stimulating this release?

This anatomical overview gives us specific biomechanical images to focus on, which are then combined and interwoven with metaphorical imagery (…breathe deeply into the heart and imagine it floating easily, like a small balloon, or as if suspended, like a cloud…). Subtle movements, either literal or mentally simulated, accompany the positive imagery, providing embodiment and feedback. Positive words and phrases also accompany the positive imagery (“I breathe gladness in to my heart; I breathe ease and relaxation into my heart”). When you put all of these components together, along with motivation, breathing, and relaxation in a consistent practice, you can achieve a direct experience of enhanced flexibility, posture, and health of joints, muscles and organs. All of which adds up to staying young!

The Franklin Method mobilizes vitality in the body and well-being in the mind: which in turn generates vitality in the mind and well-being in the body. It is an embodied, energetic synergy—a graceful and powerful dance of mind and body. I personally have found it to be a pivotal point in my return to health and well-being and would encourage anyone to discover this for himself or herself. The ten-day beauty program outlined in the book is a great way to get started.

Eric Franklin, who developed the method in 1984, is a dancer and movement educator, teaching and conducting workshops at prestigious universities and arts educational schools around the world.