If you look up Neuroscience on Wikipedia you’ll see the following information:
Neuroscience is the scientific study of the nervous system. The view that the heart was the source of consciousness was not challenged until the time of the Greek physician Hippocrates. He believed that the brain was not only involved with sensation—since most specialized organs (e.g., eyes, ears, tongue) are located in the head near the brain—but was also the seat of intelligence. Plato also speculated that the brain was the seat of the rational part of the soul.
What does this mean?
It means that science now says that you can reprogram unwanted brain patterns. You can actually create new neural pathways so that instead of your brain creating anxiety your brain can learn to program calm. Instead of self-blame and negative thoughts that lead to self-doubt – new brain circuits can be formed so you will be on your own side. Imagine having a feeling of self-worth and motivation even when facing frustration or difficult problems. It’s sort of like creating a shield around your true inner core so it is safe.
What can you do with NLP?
One NLP tool I use changes an upsetting emotion in just seconds. I’ll show you how to use this tool in a moment. For now let’s just see what your brain is now up to when you think about an upsetting event.
To understand this:
1. Think about a situation that was upsetting, perhaps someone was rude or unfair to you, something simple not the biggest trauma you’ve experienced.
2. When you think about the situation, notice what happens.
3. Notice how does it feel in your body.
4. Do you find you feel upset or angry just thinking about what happened.
If a situation is triggering a reaction you want to change it the exercise below will show you a quick sketch of how to use NLP to take the charge out of an upsetting event, so you can move on and not continue to be triggered by it. Of course, you’d only use it on things you want to feel different about, or when the emotions are getting in your way of moving forward.
My client Carl (name changed) used this tool to stop the pain of thinking about a girl friend that broke up with him over a year ago. His thoughts were so upsetting that he just couldn’t find peace. After using this tool he was amazed, he felt free for the first time in a year. Of course he still has the memories of what happened, what he isn’t doing is suffering with is his thoughts and feeling of despair and loneliness.
And this is just one small part of what is possible using NLP techniques. Neuroscience and Neuro-Linguistic Programming (NLP) gives you very powerful ways to use your mind. For me as a hypnotherapist it feels like science has finally caught up with and proved what I’ve been saying for years – brain patterns can be changed. The newest lingo for this type of work is called Neuroscience which is the scientific study of the nervous system.
NOTE: Because we are using a very powerful technique if you have any medical or emotional conditions I advise you to check with your doctor before using any of these advanced tools or exercises. Also, This is so powerful that some people feel more comfortable having someone trained in these techniques to help them the first time.
A few things that we do first before changing the emotion.
Overview for today’s exercise: Full Directions will follow.
1. First you need to have a memory that you want to work with. One that create some distress, not a trauma.
2. As you think about the event in the memory
You’ll rate your emotional level on the zero to ten scale. 0=calm ________ 10 = panic attack
3. Then you’ll write down all the elements (pieces) of the picture. (more on this in a moment)
4. Once you have the elements (pieces) we’ll begin to change them (NLP tool).
5. The next step we change one element at a time.
6. It’s very important to follow the directions and to change only one element at a time.
For more exciting ways to use the mind to get relief from panic, anxiety and stress check out our books.
NOTE before starting: When working with a memory or image of something that brought on negative feelings, some elements changes can make the feeling more intense, some will make it feel completely different (better, lighter, no emotion left) . and some will have no effect. That is why it is so important to change just one thing at a time.
This is so powerful that some people feel more comfortable having someone trained in these techniques to help them the first time. I am happy set up an appointment to do that. Click here for information on the free consultation, Or contact me at askdraudrey@gmail.com.
Part 1: Recap for changing negative feelings:
1. Neuro-Linguistic Programming (NLP) gives a very powerful way to use your mind. What we will be experiencing today is just a small part of what is possible using NLP techniques.
2. In a previous article I answered questions to help you to recognize the elements or parts that make up the picture that causes distress (old situation). Some of the parts we talked about were: color, size, focus, brightness.
3. As we discussed in the last post, we will be changing small parts or elements of your “stress picture.” This is the image that creates upset when you think about it. It can be something that happened in the past or something that you are worried about happening in the future. Remember as you do this exercise that changing each element will have a different effect. Changing some elements will create a change in a positive direction, some will have no effect, and others might even make the feeling worse.
4. If you have any concerns, it would be best to have a person trained in these techniques to guide you through on a one to one basis. Feel free to send any questions to me before continuing with the exercise at askdraudrey@gmail.com.
Part 2: NLP Exercise.
1. Think of the event or situation that typically causes you stress. (If you didn’t do the “2 for 1 Exercise for Stress Relief” it might be helpful to go back to that post and practice it before continuing).
2. The very first thing I have my clients do is to rate their level of stress before doing any exercise. To rate your emotion using this scale is very easy. Imagine that there is a scale that goes from zero to ten. With zero meaning no emotion or you can do what some of my clients do and think of the 0 as being calm. Ten would then represent the highest level of emotion. Ten could stand for panic, anxiety, sadness, fear or whatever emotion you are rating.
3. Rate the level of emotion as you think about the negative memory. For example: If it is towards the calm side of the scale it could be in the 0 to 3 range, some anxiety could be 4 to 6 and beginning of panic could be 7 to 10. You just pick the number that best represents the emotional level for you. This is your rating gauge, so for example if we were rating fear and typically you are at a 9, but today was a good day not much fear, you’d say you are at a level 2. Just rating what is it for you in the present moment as you think about the event you have chosen to work on.
4. Rate how intense the feeling is on a scale of 0 _________ 10. As you think about the negative event or memory.
(Zero representing calm and Ten representing the highest level of emotion).
Note: Write down a number that represents your level of emotion. Since this is just a slightly negative memory the number will probably be between 3 to 6.
5. Remember, for this exercise use a slightly negative memory, not a major problem. We are using this as a practice exercise, so you can experience what happens when we start changing the elements in the picture.
6. The questions that follow are designed to help you to uncover the elements of the picture that we will be changing. Answer the following questions to learn about the elements or parts that make up your picture:
a. Is the picture in color? Or is it in black and white?
b. Is the picture bright or dim?
c. Is it in focus or out of focus?
d. Is anything in the picture smaller than life? Larger than life? Or is everything life size?
e. Are there any sounds in the picture? (For example: people talking, cars, birds chirping, the wind)
f. If there are sounds are they pleasant or disturbing. Loud or soft, fast or slow?
g. Is it a snap shot- still picture – Or is it a moving picture (movie, small video)?
h. Is any one else is in the picture? Who?
i. If there is someone else, notice their expression?”
j. What feeling does it create?
Once again rate your discomfort (feeling) on a scale of 1 to 10.
With 1 being totally calm and 10 feeling the emotion. (ie. annoyed, angry, scared, irritated, fearful, sad)
Next post will give the details for Changing the Elements for an amazing experience.
This article gives one small part of what can be done to change neural pathways. The reason I ask you to rate your level of emotion is because, it is vital to know where you are on the emotional scale before using any tool, so you can measure the level of success after using a tool. Even a slight change will be obvious when you use the rating scale before and after using a tool or exercise.
In my other articles we discuss ways to use your mind to stop negative thinking. This is a very different tool. Each tool I teach in my articles can stand alone, yet they flow more easily when you do each exercise in the order I have set up.
This is my simple and quick definition of NLP : “N” stands for Neuro (or neurology) “L” stands for Linguistic (or language part of NLP) and “P” stands for programming. NLP is a way of using language to program (or reprogram) what we want into our neurology (body reaction).
Knowing NLP and combining it with hypnotic techniques gives you a wide range of ways to use your mind. NLP gives a powerful way to change from anxious to calm and relaxed in just seconds.