As a Practitioner of Neuro-Linguistic Programming (NLP) I teach women how to use the mind to control the body and how to use the body to control the mind.
Techniques I use include: anchoring resourceful states, changing unsuccessful strategies, shifting values and integrating conflicting parts of the unconscious mind.
Understanding the power of the mind, plus awareness of the mind/body connection is essential for achieving positive outcomes in your life and work. To heighten the overall impact, all five senses are utilized (sight, sound, taste, smell & touch) in NLP, as well as language patterns that encourage change.
By being mindful of everything you do, you will have greater awareness around what bothers you, what increases your stress levels, and what helps you succeed. By noticing these changes, you can halt the natural stress response and bring your emotional levels back to a state of calm.
The most important thing in NLP is your mindset. Once you ‘believe’ you can change, all your practice will support that belief making it a stronger response than either fear or stress.
Allowing your mind to give suggestions to your body and allowing your body to be suggestible is the key to success. If you get good at being suggestible, you will be able to tell your unconscious mind to do anything, and it will do it for you. It acts like an obedient child that wants to please.
However, you have to be careful what you tell it because if you are constantly saying I’m stressed, I’m tired, or I’m bored, that’s what you will get more of – you may have heard the saying “be careful what you wish for,” this is why!
Some people hate goal setting and see it as a waste of time. Still, the action of physically writing down positive goals as well as looking at them and thinking about them is a powerful combination and a great way to tell the unconscious mind exactly what you want and are striving for.
As mentioned before, there are numerous ways to control our thoughts and emotions. One way is linking them to colours; this is hugely effective and works by making use of the way the brain connects a visual stimulus to thought.
Try this exercise:
- Pick a coloured sticker – blue (imagine ocean and sky) or green (imagine grass and gardens) are calming colours. Other colours have different associations, for example, yellow is seen as speeding the metabolism, therefore not so good for relaxation and red is the most emotionally charged colour, representative of love and danger!
- Stick this coloured spot somewhere you will see it often, but not constantly.
- Stare at the sticker and as you do so, think of a specific occasion when you felt successful. Associate as closely as you can with this memory. Take yourself back there; see what you saw and make that picture in your mind bright, vivid and colourful; feel what you felt, intensify this feeling as you continue to look at the coloured dot. Hear what you heard at that moment, turn up the volume on these sounds. Remember how totally successful you felt.
- Do this for one minute, loading up the spot with this desired, successful emotion. From now on, you will feel instantly empowered whenever you look at this dot. Place these coloured spots around the house or office, as reminders to remain calm and relaxed.
