12 Days of Cheer
12 Days of Cheer
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Day 5 - The Mental Picture
Day 5 - The Mental Picture
When coherence comes into focus
Clarity often arrives as recognition before explanation. The mental picture is the moment when ideas, roles, and interests suddenly make sense together, even before language catches up.
This is a reflective exercise designed to help you notice that moment of recognition and trust it.
THE VISUAL COHERENCE MAP
THE VISUAL COHERENCE MAP
Not all clarity arrives as words.
Sometimes it shows up as a mental picture. A sense that certain ideas, roles, or directions belong together before you can explain why. If you’ve ever made a vision board or sketched a mind map, you’ve already experienced this kind of thinking.
You're not being asked to create anything perfect or polished.
This exercise is about noticing how coherence appears for you.
1. Choose a focus
1. Choose a focus
This could be a project, a creative direction, a season of life, or a question you’ve been holding.
2. Notice what comes into view
2. Notice what comes into view
What images, moods, colors, or concepts appear first?
What feels central? What fades to the edges?
3. Group without explaining
3. Group without explaining
Cluster elements that feel related. Resist the urge to label or justify yet.
(This may feel similar to mind mapping. That’s intentional.)
4. Observe a pattern
4. Observe a pattern
What repeats?
What connects naturally?
What feels out of place?
5. Put it all together
5. Put it all together
Complete the sentence:
When I allow myself to see before I explain, I notice ___________________________.
Developing a mental picture is coherence forming.
Download the The Visual Coherence Map
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