What’s With The Drained Energy Feeling?

Many people experience a lack of energy these days. So what causes this feeling of lethargy? There are many factors. Some of the more obvious are poor diet and lack of exercise. Another common energy drainer is dehydration. Eat more fresh fruit and veg, drink plenty of pure water, get outside in the fresh air and stretch your legs every day – It kept your Grandad fit didn’t it?!

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Human beings have an energy system that moves life-force or Chi energy around the body and into the various organs. The Meridians are like pathways or channels for the energies to flow through. When we feel drained, it is due to the life force not being able to flow freely through the energy channels.

One of the best things to do to get your energy flowing good and strong again is to breath deeply. The breath is closely related to the subtle energy flow within the body and most of the time we breath very shallowly, especially when stressed out with work or whatever. So just breath in good deep breaths through the nose, pause and then release the breath with a long exhale. Do this for several minutes and then notice how you feel more energised.

In recent years there has been some interesting progress made in the fields of Energy Medicine and Energy Psychology. One of the most popular and succesful approaches has been a method based on stimulating the Accupressure points in the Meridian System to release energy blocks and create a free flow of the vital life force known as the Emotional Freedom Technique (EFT).

You can read more about this method and how to do it yourself here: http://1-eft.com/Energy_EFT.htm

Your brain has two hemispheres. You may have heard them being refered to as the left-brain and the right-brain. The fact is in our society we are mainly functioning within the left hemisphere most of the time.

Stimulating the other side of the brain is good for your health and will make you feel more energised. Right-Brained activities include:

• Drawing, painting or doodling
• Playing a musical instrument
• Daydreaming or Visualisation
• Listening to high quality music
• Poetry
• Meditation

Now with regards to visualisation I want to bring your attention to archetypal imagery. I was reading Živorad Mihajloviæ Slavinski’s, Transcendence and was impressed with the use of archetypal symbols in his ‘Elements of Transformation.’

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Positive archetypal symbols give rise to spiritual emotions from deep within the psyche. Just by using visualisation you can raise your energy into the spiritual dimensions!

What symbols fire your emotions? A sunrise/sunset, a unicorn, a rainbow, a lion, the starry night sky, an angel, an excalibur.

Now sit for a moment and visualise your chosen symbol, big, bright and clear and notice the positive emotions arising, allowing that energy to amplify even more now…

How to Maintain a Positive Energy Field

Everything is habit or pattern. To increase your energy and maintain a positive energy flow everyday will take a bit of discipline. It will be worth it.

Get an index card and write the days of the week at the top.

Watch this Google Video of World Renowned Energy Healer, Donna Eden, teaching the 5 Minute Daily Energy Routine.

Practice it, do it every day – in the morning.

Learn the basic EFT tapping procedure from the link I gave earlier. And whenever you get a chance do a few rounds of tapping to de-stress throughout the day.

Tick the index card at the end of each day when you’ve remembered to cherish yourself with energy medicine!

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Psychologists and Doctors used to send their ‘impossible’ clients to him and in many instances he helped them to turn their lives around. Dr. Milton H. Erickson was one of the most successful hypnotherapists in the world and is often referred to as ‘the father of modern hypnosis.’ 

One of the factors that set him apart from other change workers was his strong faith in the potential of human beings. He knew that when a person stopped stumbling around with their conscious mind and tapped into the limitless ocean of unconscious resources, people could make wonderful changes.

He used to look at a client and say, “You’ve tried to solve this problem with your conscious mind and failed utterly. Now is the time to access your unconscious resources in a way that resolves this problem effectively.”

One of the common misconceptions about self hypnosis is that you have to be able to concentrate and go into a profoundly altered state. This could be done, however what we are really interested in is accessing other areas of our mind (i.e. unconscious resources) so that we can make certain changes giving rise to our chosen outcome.

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The good news is you can do this very easily and you can give it a go now with the following techniques. No need for deep trance!

Three Magic Doors

This is a classic hypnotherapy technique. I think you’ll be surprised and intrigued at what your unconscious mind conjures up.

Think of a small problem you want to change. For example perhaps there is someone you would like to get along with better.

Imagine there are three closed doors in front of you: Door one is labelled, “usual way”, door two is labelled, “another person’s way” and door three is labelled, “wacky way!”

In a moment you are going to imagine walking through one of those door ways and your unconscious will then present you with a solution or new creative insights.

So as you look at those doors notice which one you are drawn to. Would you prefer to solve the problem in a, “usual way”, “another person’s way” or a “wacky way!”

And then just allow your unconscious to create an experience behind that door that will give rise to what is known as a “ah ah” eureka moment when you walk through to the other side.

When you feel ready imagine opening the door and walking through, becoming aware of what you are presented with. What do you see, hear, smell and feel? And as you look around what is it that you haven’t noticed yet?

You may or may not know at the conscious level how this experience is going to help you, but you can if you wish ask yourself, “How does this experience help me?” or “What new ideas, insights and perspectives does this give me?”

Whenever we are stuck it’s as if our mind is locked into a groove. We can snap out of it and gain creative solutions by accessing the unconscious regions of our mind.

There are many techniques and methods that enable us to achieve this goal such as the ‘three magic doors.’ Here are some a couple of other ideas for you to practice:

What’s on the back?

Picture something you’d like a creative insight into.

Have you ever wondered what is on the back of your images?

Simply imagine turning the image around and become aware of what is on the back?

The Wall

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What is it that you’d like some help with?

Imagine a big wall in front of you.

Just allow your unconscious or the creative problem solving parts of your mind to manifest some useful insights on the other side of the wall.

When you feel ready imagine jumping up and looking over the wall. You may have to jump up a few times to gather all the new information!

Playing around with these kinds of self hypnosis techniques will enable you to learn to access more areas of your mind. And as you continue to do so you will find yourself becoming more capable of solving problems creatively.

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Tip 1: What makes you really happy? What lights you up? What activities make ‘time disappear?’ For some it is painting. Others making music, cooking, running, surfing.

Think about one of your favourite pastimes and then ask yourself, “What is important about this?”, “What do I value about this?”

eg) I feel at one with the world. Giving to others. Exhilaration. Absorption.

Answering these questions reveals your values – Deeply meaningful and motivating drives within yourself which give rise to natural happiness!

Tip 2: Goals! You’ve heard it before but it’s true. All the successful people in the world set goals. Come up with a big inspiring Goal. Now break it down into ‘bite size’ chunks or sub goals. Set deadlines for each sub goal. Take action right away on the first stepping stone towards the big goal. You will feel an increasing sense of achievement and happiness with each step!

And Remember: It’s been discovered that simply writing a goal down increases your chance of achieving it by 1000%. Yes you read that right, that’s 10 Times!

Tip 3: Hang around with happy people. Seek out happy people. And throughout the day, when you see or hear something that makes you feel good ‘tap it into your 3rd eye.’ (This also helps establish a good habit for the way you view the world.)

Tip 4: Things go wrong. Self pity and dwelling on the negative are a waste of time and energy though.

A good rule of thumb is the idea that “There is No Failure, Only Feedback.” Or in other words you can always learn something useful from any experience if you just look for it.

That’s where empowering questions come in useful:

• “What can I learn from this experience?”
• “If I knew what I needed to learn from this experience in order to let go of all the resentment, what would that be?”
• “What would I have needed to have learned from this situation to be able to feel better about it now?”
• “How many ways can I view this experience in a new and surprising way that delights my soul?”
• “As you think about it now, how does the fact that you feel you made a mistake, actually allow you to learn something of benefit?”

Tip 5: Spend a few minutes each day thinking about things that you are grateful for and make you happy. Write a list – carry it around and read it at intervals throughout the day. If appropriate put your hands on your heart and breath deep breaths with each happy thought.

Tip 6: Why Not? Rose Tinted Spectacles

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• Think of something that you like a new perspective on.
• Select a resource that you would like to experience in the above. (eg creativity, relaxation, skill, happiness etc.)
• Represent that resource with a colour.
• Now imagine in front of you a pair of sunglasses which are coloured with the colour you selected in step 3.
• Put them on and look at the thing you selected in step 1 with this new coloured perspective.
• Enjoy the new learnings you’ve gained. Perhaps try it again with other shades.
• Would it be useful to have those ‘shades’ on in future situations? You can future pace by imagining a future situation, see what you would see and hear what you would hear as you imagine the situation through those coloured shades.

Tip 7: Keeping good health is essential for high levels of happiness. Just going for a 20 minute walk in the fresh air can do wonders for your health and well being.

Tip 8: You deserve to be happy. It is your birthright. If you feel unworthy of happiness it is due to subconscious ‘limiting beliefs.’ You can change them…

Tip 9: A dose of Rapid Humour Therapy with the…

Ridiculous Behaviour Generator

• Think of a situation where you want to have more fun.
• See yourself over there in the situation, like you are watching a movie.
• See yourself having more fun, maybe joking with the other people in the movie.
• Go back to the start of the movie and try out a different way of having more fun. Perhaps notice something you haven’t seen/heard before that makes you chuckle.
• Now, again from the start, see yourself in the movie and do some behaviour(s) that you would never do in reality. Get really silly with this one. Do something outrageous that just makes you crack up laughing.
• Break state. Think of the situation again and notice how you feel better about it and look forward to having even more fun in the situation in the future.

Tip 10: Centering Exercise – The Hook-Up

I learned this excellent process from Donna Eden’s Energy Medicine. When you are feeling ‘out of balance’ or emotionally confused give this a go – It only takes a couple of minutes.

Place the middle finger of one hand on your third eye (between your eyebrows above the bridge of your nose). Next place the middle finger of the other hand in your navel. Now gently press each finger into your skin, pull it upward, and hold for 15-20 seconds (or more if you desire). Often a spontaneous sigh or deep breath signals that the energies have hooked up.

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The way we walk through the world is heavily influenced by the Neuro-Linguistic models we create in our mind. What this means in plain English is that our experience (which is created by our senses of sight, sound, smell, taste and touch) is transformed into linguistic labels and visual icons/metaphors.

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We have to do this generalisation process to be able to cope with the complex nature of reality. Converting our intricate experiences into a visual metaphor enables us to remember that information for quick recollection and processing.

It’s true – a picture tells a thousand words.

We create metaphors for all kinds of things. You just have to listen carefully to any conversation and you’ll hear them pop out:

“I felt like I was on top of the world.”

“It felt like a great weight was lifted off my shoulders.”

“You are the sunshine of my life.”

You can probably think of your own favourites.

Now where it gets really interesting is with what is known as life metaphors. One of the most well known in recent times was Forrest Gump’s, “Life is like a box of Chocolates…”

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A couple of others:

“My life is like a broken record, things just keep going round and round in a monotonous loop.”

“Life is a great big canvas, and you should throw all the paint you can on it.” – Danny Kaye

Now because these metaphors represent a generalisation of all aspects of ‘life,’ when you change this life metaphor, you can change your whole attitude to life!

That’s quite powerful right?

So what is your life metaphor? Maybe you have an idea already? You can find out easily enough by asking yourself the following question, “As I think about it now my life is like…”

When you describe it, notice the corresponding visual imagery; Where are the images located in space? Is it in colour or black and white? Can you see yourself in it or are you seeing it through your own eyes? Is it still or moving?

Now think about what you would really like your life to be like?

“Ideally, life to me would be like…” and notice the visual imagery.

What you can do now is enrich your current life metaphor in a way that heads towards your ideal future.

Picture your current life metaphor and notice the ideal life metaphor at the same time. Now what’s the first thing you need to do in that first image to enhance it towards the ideal. What do you need to remove, add or transform?

For example if your current life metaphor is a bit dim and dingy, what happens when you add in some bright spot lights and pan the focus back so you can see, “the big picture.”

By playing around with the imagery you can imagine yourself in a little story or journey that goes towards the ideal life. Actually imagine what steps you would need to make to go from A to B. Allow yourself to go through the journey, noticing new insights and other learnings as you change the metaphorical landscape.

This can cause a very beneficial change because you are working directly on your, primarily unconscious, deep structure map of reality! By the way you can solve problems quickly with the use of metaphors as this tool from page 61 of the Awesome Mind Secrets! Treasure Chest demonstrates:

What is that like? Metaphors

1. What is your problem like? eg) It’s like a brick wall or It’s like I’m stuck in mud.

2. Allow yourself to become aware of this internal metaphor. There is a lot of unconscious information in this image that can help you solve the problem. Notice the colours, size, distance, texture. Any sounds?

3. Now what could you do to enhance this imagery? Can you pan back and ‘see the bigger picture’ ? Or simply add in some blue sky with fluffy clouds and shining sun beams. What happens if you add a soundtrack?

4. Play with this metaphor until you feel something shifting. Often the whole metaphorical image will change at some point.

5. Think about something totally different. And then think of the original problem and notice how it has changed.

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What would be the best advice that you could receive from your wiser future self?

A great imagination experiment to do is to pretend to step into a you from the future, it could be a couple of decades from now or, if you allow yourself to be open enough, future lives!

Doing so can reveal amazing insights that will profit you in the here and now.

One of the amazing things about reality is that Time doesn’t really exist. There is only the present moment. If we think about a past event, we are of course, really experiencing a representation of that event in ‘the now.’

By using our mind we can create an approximation of the future. And it could be LIFETIMES from now! Such is the power of our imagination.

Let’s say you are doing a project and could use some creative insight. By stepping into a ‘future self’ you can look back at that person in the ‘present’ and ask questions to gain insight in how to move forward.

As the future self ask:

• “What does that person need to do to solve that problem quickly and easily?”
• “What kind of person does he need to become to resolve that issue?”
• “What does that person need to do to move forward?”
• “What would that you have to have learned in order to solve that problem?”

Let’s face it – problems are going to keep coming. So we need to maintain a powerful determination.

What would happen if you were to imagine having a conversation with your wiser future self, gaining a new understanding of how to keep motivated and determined?

If you were to step into that wiser self you could also experience those feelings of determination and resolve.

What happens if you were to do that now and then allow an image to appear that represents those feelings.

Now you can pass that gift (the image) to your present self. Where in your body would it be best to store that resource? Your heart?

You can then tap into those positive feelings any time you feel the need by bringing the image to mind and allowing those feelings to arise.

Can you think of any specific situations in the future where it would be useful to experience those resourceful feelings?

Pick one: And then notice what the first thing you would see is. Maybe it’s a door or a logo sign.

As you hold that thought, bring to mind the symbol you came up with for the resource and feel those good feelings as they become associated with the first thing you will see in that upcoming situation.

Why not do this for 3 other situations so the process generalises…

We’ve all heard this old phrase many times. It originates from the cart driver’s who used to motivate their Donkeys to draw the cart by threatening them with a stick to their rear-end (away from pain) and dangling a tasty bright orange carrot in front of them just out of reach (towards pleasure).

The fact is, as humans our motivation works in a very similar way to the humble Ass.

How many times have you had the experience where you ‘had to get away from something?’

A job you were sick of. A dead-end conversation. A crap film. Poverty.

“I’ve had enough of this. This sucks. Fuck It!”

The key point here is that it’s when you hit that powerful emotional state, that often involves a swear word, the useful Away-From Motivation kicks you into ACTION!

A kick up the ass so to speak.

Now this is often the first stage of getting motivated, but then you need to quickly utilise that newly freed up energy into a positive constructive direction.

The Towards-Motivation is generated by the Goal you are heading towards. And the more clearly you define this goal, the better.

When you’ve got both Away-From and Towards Motivation functioning together you’ve got the best motivational process for continuous success…

A Propulsion System.

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Discovering Your Emotional Rocket Fuel

What you value in life (your values) drive your emotional reactions. These emotions power your motivation.

You can easily discover your own motivating values by asking simple, yet powerful questions.

Away-From Examples:

What specifically about poverty do you want to get away from? What specifically about being in debt do you want to get away from? What specifically about being an employee do you want to get away from?

Misery, Boredom, Wretchedness, Feeling like shit, Slavery, Low self esteem etc.

Towards Examples:

What would doubling your income do for you? What do you want specifically? What would that give you?

Peace of mind, Sense of Freedom, More Fun!, Dignity, Respect, Optimism etc.

SMART Goals

The fact is you are continually setting goals in your mind without even knowing! It’s a function of the mind to set goals and then head towards fulfilling them. Nothing would get done otherwise. In fact you’d be a vegetable!

Get up make cup of coffee. Make phone call. Type letter, print out, put in envelope, post.

You are already an excellent achiever of goals! You’ve been doing it your whole life.

I’m sure, like me, you’ve set some ‘proper goals’ before and had some success’s with it.

SMART Goals are really good because it’s a straight forward process to set one and they’re really effective. Plus as you’ll discover, as you read on, by combining the process with a Propulsion System, you’ll then have, in a very short time, an incredibly Powerful Motivational Force that gushes forth from the Well-Spring Within!

So if you’re interested in learning more, checkout my New Special Report: Beyond Motivation, now.

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The Void. Emptiness. Zero Point. The Infinite. Oneness. Source. Pure Potential.

Many Spiritual Traditions talk about a state of mind that is beyond the self (Ego-Mind), using different labels.

It has been said that all the pain, fear and frustration we feel is due to our Ego-Mind. Meditation gives us the key to enter through the doorway into the special states of mind beyond the Ego; Selflessness and Inter-connectedness.

Being able to sit down and access this state of mind has many benefits, including reducing fear and stress and boosting the immune system. And when your mind is balanced you are able to think more clearly, make better decisions and be more productive.

Here’s a clip of Brain/Mind Power Pioneer, José Silva, talking about Brainwaves and States of Mind:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=SwVgkneLbJo

I learned an excellent way to relax more quickly into deeper levels of mind that activates Alpha Brainwaves from Peak Performance Coach, Dr. La Tourrette. It involves noticing the space between two sides of your body such as the space between your eyes.

I’ve included the process in the following 3 Step ‘Infinite Space’ Meditation that follows…

Infinite Space Meditation

1. Sit down, close your eyes, breath deeply, relaxing more…

Notice the space between your eyes from behind your eyes.

Notice the space between your ears from behind your ears.

Notice the space between your elbows from behind your elbows.

Notice the space between your knees from behind your knees.

Notice the space between your ankles from behind your ankles.

2. Focus attention on your Heart Centre. Imagine the whole world/Universe dissolving into white shimmering rainbow light. Imagine your body dissolving from the top of your head into your heart and then dissolve your body from the bottom of your feet upwards into your heart.

3. You are now pure Consciousness. Imagine being pure white rainbow light emitting light rays outwards from this Heart Centre into Infinite Space.

* As you get more used to focussing and becoming one with this heart centre you’ll find it easier to find the sweet spot, giving rise to greater feelings of love, oneness and even a little taste of bliss! This location in the Heart Chakra is known as the Indestructible Drop in Tantric Meditation Practice.

When you access the feelings that are way beyond your normal self (Ego-Mind), you are getting a glimpse of your true nature and pure potential.

Everything arises from this space. This is our ‘Real Self.’ Everybody else comes from this space too!

Reminding ourselves of this reality everyday is a good idea, so why not make this meditation a daily ritual? Even 10 minutes is very beneficial.

Of course when you leave meditation and are back in the ‘real world’ it’s easy to be pulled back into the left-brain prison matrix. So what can you do outside of meditation to remind yourself of the Infinite Space?

Pavlov’s Dogs.

When meditating and you find the sweet spot, anchor that state of mind by squeezing your finger and thumb together. So that now, in the future whenever you squeeze that finger and thumb together you will re-access some of that ‘sweet spot.’

So go ahead…

OCCUPY – Infinite Space Today!

This has become quite a well known idea but how can you actually make real use of it? We all possess a wealth of unconscious data: Failures we’ve learned from, success’s, dreams, ideas, concepts, beliefs, habits, memories. All of it is available to us if we learn how to access it in the right way. And is it just possible to be able to access information beyond our own unconscious mind?

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One of the quickest routes into the unconscious database is with the use of ‘empowering questions.’ The mind moves in a direction. That is, it is goal orientated. By asking a well formed question you can direct the mind to open up the Gold Mine of Information!

How can I solve this problem? What new creative ideas can I come up with? How could I view this in a new empowering way? What do I need to do to change this situation around?

Now asking these empowering questions and allowing the answers to start entering into your conscious mind will give you access to new resources. That is great, but how cool would it be if you could go a step further and gain access to the wisdom of genius’s?

In Napoleon Hill’s classic, “Think & Grow Rich,” he talks about using the power of imagination to create a ‘Master Mind’ group. A person visualises being in a meeting with their chosen role models and imagines communicating with them about their projects, gleaning gold nuggets of insight.

You could of course choose Genius’s dead or alive, real or fiction. Doing the imagination experiment and asking good questions some how enables you to unlock amazing creative resources!

Now imagine what would happen if you could get all your favourite genius’s and role models together to form a ‘Personal Hypnotic Coaching Team.’ That would be pretty groovy right?

Have you ever experienced an hypnotic ‘double induction’? This is where you have two people on either side of you giving you positive suggestions as you sink into trance. It’s quite a profound experience. Don Quan and his Shamanic merry men used to play around with it back in the day…

Anyway I came up with a very neat Self Hypnosis Technique that I call, “The Wheel of Knowledge” that makes use of ‘Good Questions,’ ‘The Master Mind,’ ‘Hypnotic Double Induction,’ and ‘Hypnotic Suggestion.’

It’s a great technique that enables you to access your inner resources and just possibly from out there! The first thing to do is set your intention. What is the outcome you want to achieve? Then come up with a good question to ask the Genius Role Models.

The Wheel of Knowledge

1. Relax into Trance

2. Set Intention and think of a good question to ask your Role Models: eg) “I want to…”, “How can I…”

3. Choose Role Models / Genius’s

4. Visualise a Big Wheel (Like the London Eye?) on your Left & Right

5. Place Role Models alternatively left & right onto the Wheel. As you do so establish contact with each Role Model with eye contact. Say Hello.

6. Start hearing answers and suggestions to your Question /Intent.

7. Start moving the wheel while continuing to hear suggestions.

8. As the wheel begins to go faster and faster you won’t be able to decipher the ‘Double Induction’ so just allow your unconscious to integrate the suggestions…

*You may well become confused as the wheel and suggestions spin really fast. This is fine though as confusion often precedes new understanding and the technique utilises this Hypnotic and Half Second Rule Principle.

Because this is basically a Self Hypnosis Technique you can expect some interesting things to happen in your future! Look out for spontaneous combustions. Err nope sorry, I mean spontaneous changes and ‘ahhh haaa’ moments. Pleasant surprises and insights.

And depending on what you intended and asked for, you could have wonderful things happening in your future. Things get unconsciously ‘future paced’ by the Hypnotic Genius’s! So why not give this a go on the Wheel of Knowledge: “How can I enjoy life more?”

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When you’re stuck in a creative mental block or ‘problem state’ you are only using a limited portion of your mind. And the fact is the problem remains so because you try to use the same neural circuits to gain creative insight, which is futile. As Einstein famously said:

“The significant problems we have cannot be solved at the same level of thinking with which we created them.”

So how can we think about problems or projects from different perspectives in a way that gives rise to useful new understandings?

One of the first things to do is to stop dwelling on the problem. And one of the best ways to do this is to become aware of the structure of the problem. In other words, how does your mind create the problem state: Where are the pictures located in space? How big are they? Are they in colour or black & white?

Focusing on the attributes of your internal thought process’s enables you to go to another level of thinking.

Doing this alone can bring about creative insight but you can go much further by manipulating the internal images.

A powerful way to do this is with the use of Metaphorical Images or Icons.

Let’s say you were stuck with new ways to move forward with a project. If you were to become aware of your internal images you may see yourself in a small, dim and distant picture looking frustrated…

So if you were to ask yourself, “What is that like?”, you may think it is like being stuck in a muddy bog. That becomes your metaphorical image or icon for the ‘stuck state.’

What you can then do is remove or add things directly into that image. Play with it and change it. This can be a really nice and easy way of changing unconscious structures which can free up your creative resources.

Below I have included an excellent technique from “The Half Second Rule” Special Report that enables you to quickly shift problem states into new creative insight utilising the power of metaphorical imagery.

Give it a go now because I think you’ll enjoy it!

Merging Metaphors

(This is a really interesting technique that makes full use of your unconscious resources. You can use it to help you resolve ‘stuck states.’ Adapted from a technique called ‘Spinning Icons’ developed by Joe Munshaw and Nelson Zink.)

1. Select a problem state.

2. As you think about your problem state what visual image comes to mind? Notice where it is located in space.

3. Break your current state: eg) Remember you phone number backwards or look up and notice the patterns on the ceiling. Now think about the desired resource state (or outcome, or goal) you would like instead. Notice how you represent this as a visual image. Pay attention to where it is located in space.

4. Now allow your mind to turn the first picture (problem state) into a metaphorical symbol or icon. Keep it in the same location in space. (This visual metaphor could be quite complex or it may be as simple as a colour. Just trust your unconscious.)

TOP TIP: It can be useful to ask yourself, “What is this problem state like?” This often allows a metaphorical representation to arise.

5. Do the same thing with the desired resource state you selected in step 3, making sure to place the new metaphor symbol in the same location in space as the original image.

6. Now see the two metaphor symbols at the same time noticing their locations in space. Next slowly rotate them around each other. Keep rotating them around each other and do so faster and faster. Do this spinning for about 10 seconds allowing the rotation to be so fast that you can no longer track the images and you may even feel a little confused.

7. Now allow the images to merge together, that’s right. And push this merged image out in front of you where you can view it easily. Describe the new image briefly, quickly moving to step 8.

8. Immediately begin telling WHATEVER story comes to mind. Just allow yourself to start telling a story. It doesn’t matter what it is. It could be a real memory, a story or just simply made up ramblings. The point being is that this process taps into your vast unconscious resources.

9. Now ask yourself, “How is this story relevant to my problem/challenge?” or “How can this story help resolve my problem?” (This step can help to give you conscious insight into how the previous steps have made some useful changes.)

Did you like that? It’s great isn’t it! Making use of your own metaphorical icons to shift your internal states is an excellent way to harness the power of your vast unconscious resources.

So what else could you now use this technique on?

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I believe, along with many other people, including medical doctors, that humour and laughter are one of the quickest escape routes out of states of anxiety and stress.

A stressed out brain lacks blood and therefore oxygen in the frontal lobes. That’s why you can’t think clearly, the ‘brain fuel’ has left the brain and is flowing through your muscles instead; The flight or flight response.

If you were to stop for a moment and allow yourself to indulge in a pleasant memory of a wonderful holiday experience, what’s that like?

It’s likley the location you were in was more simple than your everyday life. Maybe you were on a beach relaxing with the sounds of the ocean, feeling the warmth of the sun baking down on you or maybe you were surrounded by beautiful scenery with panoramic views.

The point being most of our normal life is lived in very busy, stressful, polluted environments. So obviously it’s no surprise we have difficulty dealing with anxiety and stress in those kinds of circumstances.

But how can we deal effectively with the reality of everyday stress? There are different ways but the use of humour and laughter is one of the quickest and easiest routes.

When you are feeling anxious about an upcoming event, one way of understanding it is that you are being over-serious about some aspect. This narrow focus is what causes the stress response.

Have you ever had an experience where someone was really rude to you, maybe a total stranger, and it irritated you? Yet the next day or a few days or weeks later you actually found the ‘funny side’ of it.

Isn’t that an amazing capability of the mind! Can you imagine if you were able to consciously use this ‘humourising mechanism’ to find the ‘funny side’ of any future stressful event before it had happened, wouldn’t that be useful?

With proven techniques you can indeed learn how to re-program your mind to deal with stress utilising the power of humour. And it is surprisingly simple when you discover the secrets which can be learned and applied literally within minutes.

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