Let me tell you a story of a client of mine who we’ll call John. He came to me for several reasons, but most importantly, was this nagging, doubting negative thoughts he ALWAYS had whispering in his ear. It gave him a severely negative attitude.
It seemed that everything John did was wrong with this negative thinking. Sometimes it would get so bad the voice would become a chorus singing to John of his imminent demise (his words).
Now, as I explained to John, we all have these negative thoughts in one form or another. Some people hear a voice, some people have negative images intrude on their positive thoughts, and some people get a negative feeling somewhere in their body.
For John, his negative thinking was ruining his life. He was nearly a complete shut-in.
He couldn’t go out and enjoy life at all. This nagging voice nagged him so severely that his life had become entirely joyless.
I knew that for John, to be able to work with me at all, we had to dampen this voice, at least. So I taught him a simple NLP technique that you can use to.
First, I asked John “where” in his head the voice was.
He told me it was behind his right ear.
So I asked him, “What would the voice sound like if it were behind your left ear.”
John thought about it and said it was much quieter, and it was, in fact, harder to understand what the voice was saying.
I said, “That’s Great!” and to just go ahead and leave it there behind the left ear for now. I also informed John he could move it back after our session.
The next week when I asked John to move the voice-over to his left ear again, he looked at me with surprise and said, “I completely forgot to move it back to the right after our session!”
So I asked him how his week went.
And John told me it was the best week he had had in years. The negative thoughts subsided quite a bit.
Then we agreed that for this week’s session, we could move the voice about a foot away from his left ear …just until the end of the session and then he could put it back.
Long story short, every week, we moved that voice a little farther away…
…And now, John knows that whenever that squeaky little negative thinking voice is bothering him, all he needs to do is push it farther away. Just for a little while.
And whenever he’s done doing what he needs to do, well then he can move it back… That is if he doesn’t forget to remember.
Of course, John’s case was extreme, and he had many other issues that we’ve cleared. The point is you can use this technique too!
It works equally as well with a nagging voice, with disturbing images, and even feelings.
Just move the negative thoughts or sensation a little farther away, or to another part of your body.
It doesn’t have to be forever, just long enough to accomplish whatever it is you happen to be working on, and then go ahead and move it back …unless that is, you FORGET TO REMEMBER.
Use this technique, and I know you’ll have a great week too!
