Anchoring For Emotional Balance

By Karen Hastings

Most people experience life as a roller-coaster of different emotional states, accepting without question that emotions are something that just happen in response to life events.  In any given day, you may experience a range of states, some positive and some that are negative or distressing.  The emotional state we are in is so important as it affects how we behave and the results we get.  If you are feeling positive and happy, of course the whole world seems better and more interesting and the way you behave will reflect this.

In fact emotional states are not something that happen to us, rather we create them based on how we view the world.  We all know a really positive person who takes everything in their stride or a friend who seems to get upset at the slightest concern.  In these modern times, it is how we respond to perceived threats that cause us stress and problems.

Imagine being able to control and regulate your emotions so that life is more balanced or being able to access resourceful emotional states when you need them. Neuro-linguistic programming (NLP) therapy is a way that you can learn to manage your emotional state and change it at will in order to experience emotional freedom.   When clients come to see me for NLP Aylesbury, Edinburgh, I am able to teach them the tools of anchoring so that they can bring harmony and emotional balance to their life.

Anchors are naturally occurring associations between an external stimulus and a behavioural or emotional response.  They occur because the human mind constantly seeks to make sense of the environment by looking for patterns and associations between things.  It is likely that you have had the experience of hearing a certain piece of music that reminds you of a person or event from the past or have smelt perfume or some other smell that reminds you of someone you know. Hopefully, most people see a red traffic light and automatically know to stop!  Not all anchors are positive.  People learn to make negative associations between things, such as feeling anxious or worried when they are asked to go to their bosses office or when they are required to give a presentation to colleagues.

NLP deliberately makes use of anchors in order to empower people to have control over their emotional states.  There are specific NLP techniques in which a stimulus is used to trigger and link an emotional state.  The stimulus is usually external and may be a sound or touch.  Through these techniques it is possible to for an individual to build up a resource of positive emotional states, which they can access in any situation in which they need them.  It is also possible to completely collapse negative anchors so that external stimuli that cause you negative emotional states will no longer be a problem. 

You will already have all positive emotional resources within you that you need.  NLP, Aylesbury, Edinburgh, can enable you to make use of these.  Having this control will have a profound effect on all aspects of your life, particularly your relationships.  You will find that you are able to behave in new and flexible ways.  If you feel learning to use anchors would benefit you, it would be advisable to see an NLP practitioner.  Anchoring is something that you can learn to self-administer and is a life-long skill that will get you better results. 

The process involves remembering specific times in the past when you have experienced the emotional resource you wish to anchor.  What great is that you can borrow positive emotional resources that occur in response to certain situations in your life and use them in other situations where wish you had them! So, the motivation that you felt in planning a particular holiday can be borrowed and used as the motivation you need in order to get you to the gym! 

Why not spend time now thinking about specific times in the past when you have felt happy or have been laughing so hard it hurts! You will be amazed at all the positive emotions you have experienced and how it is possible to re-create these feelings again just by thinking about them. Do this and you are well on your way to being the boss of your emotional state.

Submodalities Work For You!

By Karen Hastings

As human beings, we make sense of the world through our five senses (sight, hearing, touch, taste and smell).  This is the only information we have about the world and this information is used to make up our internal representations of the world.

What this means is that every thought, memory or use of imagination, contains information from our senses.  So, it may comprise pictures, sounds, feelings, smells or taste.

Furthermore, the information from our five senses contains lots of different qualities and distinctions.  So for example a picture can be moving or still, bright or dim, black and white or colour, a good or poor contrast, 3-D of flat.  In fact, many more distinctions can be made for pictures and all the other senses. 

If you have not heard about Neuro Linguistic Programming (NLP), you may never have given much thought to how you code information in your brain.  NLP has a name for the finer distinctions of our senses –submodalities.   Its not something that we really think about, but it is extremely valuable to know about.

This is because it is possible to modify or change how memories are coded in our brains and as a result change the meaning of the memory.  By making changes to the coding, memories and imaginings about the future can be made more or less intense, positive or negative, more desirable or less real. 

Have you ever had the experience of thinking about a past event, or suddenly remembering something and feeling intense unpleasant feelings?  It may be that you have a fear of something, and some kind of trigger, a word, smell or sound etc may set you off, so that you experience all those unpleasant feelings.

NLP, which is an understanding of how we code experience in our brain, has a range of techniques, which can be used to reduce or eradicate the intensity of remembered experiences.  Its possible to take an unpleasant memory, examine how it is coded and then make changes so that it is no longer unpleasant and the emotion can just drain away.

If you suffer from unpleasant memories or fears, an NLP therapist can help you deal with this, via submodality work.  These treatments are available from my therapy practice, where I use NLP, Edinburgh. 

You can also learn to be aware of the impact of how you code experience yourself.  The best way to learn about submodalities is to experience them. 

Try the following:

Have a think about something that is unpleasant or uncomfortable for you, it doesn’t have to be something really intense, it could be thinking about something that annoyed you recently.

When you think about it do you have a picture? 

If so, where is the picture located, is it near or far? -If it’s near make it far and if its far, make it near. 

How does that feel?  Place the picture wherever if feels best. 

You could make other changes to the picture, try turning the brightness up or down,

if its black or white make it colour and vice versa. 

Do you see yourself in the picture, your whole body?  Or are you re-living it, as if through your own eyes.  If you are seeing yourself in the picture, try becoming associated so that you are seeing through your own eyes and vice versa so that if you are associated, try viewing the picture dissociated with your whole body in it.

Are there any important sounds to go with the picture?

If there is a voice, try changing it to something funny, perhaps Donald Duck, or a really sexy husky voice!

You can turn the volume up or down, make the tonality and quality clearer and even change where the sounds are coming from.  Again just play around to see what changes make the memory more pleasant.

Think about the feelings that go with the memory

Where are they located?

Try, moving the feelings to somewhere else, say your little toe.

If they are moving, try making them still or vice versa

What shape are the feelings? You could make them into a purple, fuzzy, vibrating blob, the size of an apple pip, located in your little toe!!  Notice the change in how they feel as you play around with them.

I use NLP submodality techniques during NLP, Edinburgh.  NLP is effective in treating a whole range of psychological and behavioural difficulties.

Believe You Can Change 

By Karen Hastings

In any therapeutic intervention that is designed to achieve change, it is important to have an understanding of the beliefs and values held by the person wishing to change.  NLP therapists are able to work with clients to eradicate limiting beliefs.  NLP therapists are available to provide NLP in Edinburgh.

Have you ever taken the time to stop and think about your beliefs and values.  Ask yourself – where have my beliefs originated? How do they guide how I live my life? Do my values and beliefs serve me?

Beliefs and Values form the essence of your identity and you should ask yourself these questions for the following reasons:

Beliefs are like a pair of glasses

Put your glasses on and they filter how you view the world.  Beliefs act in the same way.   You will have beliefs about yourself, your skills and capabilities, how others see you and what type of person you are. You will also have beliefs about other people, how they operate, how to communicate with them, what drives them.  Basically, you have beliefs about everything, including the world, politics, social issues, concepts, and religion.  Beliefs underlie your internal representations, which is your map of the world.  Your beliefs also filter sensory data that you take in from the environment and favour sensory data that supports and confirms your beliefs.  We know form NLP models that the internal representations people hold effect their emotional state and behaviour.  Therefore, beliefs have an influence on your emotional state and behaviour.

Beliefs and Values are your motivators

The core beliefs you hold are your motivators, they are the basis from which you function in the world.  People tend to works towards things that they value.  For example, if you value having a high-powered career this may take priority over other aspects of your life such as time with your family.

Beliefs distort how you view the world

Every belief and value is basically a generalisation that you have made abut the world.  Generalisations are distortions.  Often when a client presents with a problem, there is a distorted belief or value behind it.  For example, “my partner doesn’t phone me enough, this means he doesn’t love me”.  Once you are able to become more aware of the distorted beliefs you hold, it is possible to begin to question them and challenge them.  NLP therapy has a specific tool called the meta-model that is able to uncover the troublesome distortions and generalisations that people are making.

Beliefs and values determines what happens to you

Beliefs about the world and yourself can actually determine what happens.  They are not just thoughts but effect what you focus on.  We know in NLP that what you focus on your more likely to get.  This is because your unconscious mind cannot understand negatives.  So for example, if you focus on not being in debt, your unconscious mind will be on the lookout for debt in the environment and various ways to bring debt to your attention.  NLP therapy teaches people the importance of communicating in the positive when you are thinking.  This means saying what you do want not what you don’t want. Most people have heard of the placebo effect.  This is a phenomenon in which a pill is given which contains no active ingredients.  There are many studies that show that people given a placebo will experience a therapeutic benefit and in some cases get well based on the belief that they will be well.

Changing your beliefs

As an NLP therapist, people often come to see me at my NLP practice in Edinburgh because they are having problems with limiting beliefs, e.g. “No one could find me attractive”,  “I cant lose weight or give up smoking”, “I’m useless in social situations”, “I’m bad at presentations”.    Of, course, they are often not aware that their belief is the source of their unhappiness when they initially come to see me.  Limiting beliefs hold people back and prevent them from doing things they want too.  When we believe we cant do something our behaviour will usually confirm this. As discussed above, you will act in a way and look out for evidence to confirm your beliefs.  NLP and CBT therapy has effective techniques for changing illogical and limiting beliefs that can allow you to move on and experience the world through a new pair of glasses.  There is no excuse to let your limiting beliefs hold you back any longer!

Emotional Freedom with Change Personal History 

 By Karen Hastings

Change Personal History, is one of the most powerful techniques in an NLP practitioners toolbox.  When clients come to see me for NLP, Edinburgh at my NLP practice, Edinburgh, it is possible to empower them to achieve emotional freedom using this technique.

Human beings only exist in the present.  What we know is that we are constantly bombarded with sensory data from the environment.  In order to make sense of this information, we filter it and store it as an internal representation or map.  Anything not being experienced in the moment is a memory.

Often when individuals come to see me, for NLP in Edinburgh, it is the memory of past events that are causing them a problem in the present.   Specifically, it is the way the person re-experiences the past event during the process of remembering that accounts for distress in the present.

Change Personal History works by enabling the person to re-evaluate and make changes to the memory of past events.  What’s more, the person is able to make use of current resources and knowledge that they have now, but didn’t have access to at the time the event occurred.  So, whilst it’s not ever possible to change what actually happened, it is possible to change the meaning of past events and hence the effect this has on an individual’s behaviour.

During the Change Personal History process, the client is supported in re-living the event firstly in a dissociated state and secondly in an associated state, with the aid of a stacked resource anchor.  The anchor is carefully chosen and built by the client and NLP practitioner.  The client is giving the opportunity to imagine speaking directly to those involved in the event (this is done out loud), enabling the client to express what they needed too but were unable too at the time the event occurred.  The client is supported to make changes to the event, to make it how they want it to be, with the benefit of the chosen resources.  Other steps are included in the process, depending on the nature of the problematic past memory and unique needs and goals of the client.

In my experience, this technique is very effective and there is no longer any need for people to allow past memories to keep impacted on life in the present.  If you feel you may benefit from experiencing the change personal history process, it may be worthwhile booking an appointment with an NLP practitioner.  This technique is available at NLP, Edinburgh.