Looking at Feelings

Here's a simple fun visualisation technique that you can use to change the intensity of feelings associated with a specific event. This may be useful for you if you want to increase the intensity of a pleasant experience and can also be used to literally distance yourself from minor unpleasant experiences.

In NLP we talk about being associated or dissociated, this simply means when you recall the memory of an event whether or not you are associated in the event,  ie looking through your own eyes; or dissociated, this is where you can see yourself in the picture.

Ok so here goes, recall a happy memory from the past, once you have the mental image of the picture notice whether you are looking through your own eyes or can see yourself in the picture. Once you have this notice what feelings are present and notice the intensity of the feelings. Now here's the magic, if you find that you are looking at yourself in the picture just step into your body so you are in the event looking through your own eyes and notice how the intensity of the feelings change to become even more intense.   If you find that you are already associated, have a go at stepping out of your body, so you see yourself in the picture and notice how the intensity of the feelings decrease. Step back in to your body again to get the most intense feelings before coming back to now.

We can use this Visual (V) Kinaesthetic (K) dissociation/association in a number of ways. It is possible to use it on future memories, for example in sports coaching to provide the most compelling images of success in an event, this is visualisation in its simplest form.

VK Dissociation is really effective on unpleasant memories from the past, it allows you to to literally step away from an event, seeing yourself in the event rather than being in it will dramatically reduce any emotions. This can be taken a stage further by stepping out of your body twice or more to watch yourself watching yourself in the event. Have a go with something minor and notice how the feelings almost totally disappear.

This is a very safe simple and effective technique that you can use to make memorable events even more memorable and to reduce the feelings on minor unpleasant events from the past. If you have more significant things in your past that are unresolved and you would like them to be, or if you are struggling to get the results you need, get in touch with on of our NLP coaches at The Transformational Changes Team www.thetransformationalchangesteam.com and we will be able to help you get the results you deserve.