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Believe You Can!

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, Edinburgh 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 behavior. Therefore, beliefs have an influence on your emotional state and behavior.

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 generalization that you have made abut the world. Generalizations 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 generalizations 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, Edinburgh people often come to see me at my OT, NLP, CBT and hypnotherapy 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 behavior 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, Edinburgh 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!

Karen Hastings has worked in the NHS with people with mental-health problems. She also practices occupational therapy, CBT, NLP and hypnotherapy in Edinburgh. More information is avaliable at http://www.karenhastings.co.uk

Conversational Hypnosis Techniques

Conversational hypnosis is the process of getting people to do what you want or believe what you using the power of conversations and there are several ways by which you can do this. But the problem most people usually have is that they do not how to do it and they also do not know when it is being done on them. This article will look at some conversational hypnosis techniques.

One of the easy techniques of doing conversational hypnosis is through the use of reciprocation and this is how it works, if you are trying to get someone to do something for you and you know you are likely to get resistance try to do something similar for the person and make sure the person notices it. This way when you eventually make your request you are more likely to get compliance, for instance if you want a person to help you with something you are having problems with try to help the person with something he might also be having issues with, this way when you eventually ask the person for help the person is more likely to say yes.

Another technique is through the use of liking and this works on the principle that people are more likely to do things for people they like. So if you are trying to get someone to do something for you try to do things that would make the person like you and feel comfortable with you, this way when you eventually make your request you are more likely going to get compliance.

Commitment, is another good conversational hypnosis technique and this is how it works, if you are trying to get someone to do something for you and you know the person not too agree try to reduce your request to the point is likely to agree and then you can make your full request later.

For instance if you are trying to get someone to go somewhere with you for 7 days and you know the person would say no, you can ask the person to go with you for only 3 days and after you get there you can then tell the person you want it to be 7 days. This way you are more likely going to get compliance than if you had told the person from start.

Social proof is another conversational hypnosis technique and it works like this, if you are trying to get someone to do something for you try to let the person know of other people who might done what you want them to do.

For instance if you are trying to get people to come to your party by letting them know of other people like them who might be coming to the party you are more likely to get compliance.

All in all, conversational hypnosis is a good thing to know even if you are not going to use it on anyone you can always use it to protect yourself from people out there who might be trying to take advantage of you.

To Read More About Conversational Hypnosis visit http://www.onlinehypnosismastery.com or http://www.conversationalhypnosis.ca

Build Health and Success

The Fountain of Youth World Summit with Geoff Thompson, martial arts guru, best selling author and BAFTA winning screen writer.

Geoff Thompson: What I did find though Kevin is that once I got to the top of my pyramid I was automatically at the bottom of another pyramid because there’s always something out there and if you don’t have any discomfort in your life, or any fear or any adrenaline then you’re probably too comfortable because there’s no growth in comfort.

Kevin Gianni: Right.

Geoff Thompson: And obviously there are levels of consciousness beyond this chemical cocktail and the levels of consciousness that I have accessed intermittently and there are levels of consciousness that I am looking to access more because there is a place above and beyond fear where, you know, where we can be even more successful but at this moment in time I’m still juggling with that and enjoying it. I’m enjoying the challenge. I like to be out there. I like these mountains to climb. You know, it’s because I’ve developed a relationship with it. I realize that, you know, I’m not being punished. It’s like that lovely poem that Rumi did about the chick pea being boiled in the pot and it’s trying to climb out and the chef is pushing him back in with the ladle and the chef says to him you think I’m punishing you but I’m not. He says I’m just trying to make you sweet so you can sit with the rice and the herbs. And when the chick pea realizes that he’s not being punished he says push me in twice because I want to be sweet. And whenever I find myself in a very uncomfortable situation when I’m growing, which is often I always say to myself push me in twice because I want to grow. I want to be sweet, you know, and that’s where the real growth is.

Kevin Gianni: So when you’re in these uncomfortable situations I want to stay around this area here because I think it’s such a fantastic philosophy to actually, you know, lean into the sharp edges, as you say. Let’s talk a little bit more about, you know, ways and say if someone wants to be healthy or say if someone wants to be more successful what are some of the ways that they can lean into these edges? I mean when you feel that anxiousness or that anxiety I mean do you just do the thing that you’re afraid of. I mean and how do you get your head around that?

Geoff Thompson: It’s like lifting weights really Kevin. You start off with light weights, you know, and then you build up. You build up a senue mentality by adding weight to the bar. It’s really as simple as that. It’s just almost like antigravity techniques for your mind. So in the case of my fear pyramid I started off with something that wasn’t too frightening, something that I could achieve like overcoming my fear of spiders. Then I added another fear of dentists. I had a very strong fear. I didn’t go to the dentist for about ten years. So I returned to the dentist and had treatment and was completely desynthetized to it. So I started doing things that weren’t massively challenging but that they were things that were bullying me, things that were beating me up.

Kevin Gianni: Um-hum.

Geoff Thompson: And I just started gradually turning into them and I found that if I just turned in the direction of my fear I started to get lots of help. It was almost as though the universe conspired to help me. You know, the right books would land on my desk, the right people would come into my conversation. I’d get an e-mail with an inspiring quote on it or I’d hear something on the radio that would help. Once you turn into the right direction, you know, the universe conspires to make it happen. I remember watching a program with a gardener and he was talking about plants. And he said the great thing about plants is that they want to grow. They want to grow. They want to help you. And I feel as though the universe is like that with us. It wants us to grow. It wants us to achieve. It wants us to fulfill all our dreams but it’s not going to happen if we don’t move. We have to initiate it. So when you turn in the direction of your discomfort, lean into them sharp edges. Even if it’s just gradually you will start to get assistance and that’s when the miracles start to happen. And whether you read in the Bhagavad-Gita or the Bible or Lao Tzu or whether you’re talking to one of the Swamees or the yogi’s they all tell you the same thing. You orchestrate and control your own universe. When you act things change. It’s something Leonardo da Vinci said. He said when a bird lands in a tree the whole world changes. Everything affects everything. So when you act everything changes. And I think that’s partly why people are fearful because they fear change. And what we need to do is not just, like I said about night traveling; we have to engage the change. We have to turn into the change. Well Gandhi said we have to be the change we want to see. People want to change the world but they haven’t got the discipline to change their underpants. So if we want to start doing big things then we have to start working on the little things. So one of the biggest ways of completely changing your world for the better is to start with palette; get your food right.

Kevin Gianni: Okay.

Geoff Thompson: Gandhi went from being a peasant to having two hundred million followers. Two hundred million people followed Gandhi and he built that up from control of palette. He said that if you control palette all of the other senses fell into line. And when you control the senses you control yourself and when you controlled yourself you literally control the world. This is what Gandhi said.

Kevin Gianni: Um-hum.

Geoff Thompson: So he went from being a peasant. He trained to be a lawyer but he was a terrible lawyer. He never won a case for two years. His family thought he might starve, you know; to having two million followers. He did that by educating himself, which is why this program is massively important because information gives you power. He educated himself and then he started controlling himself beginning with palette. So there’s lots of people out there now who are listening to this I’m sure who are overweight or unhealthy because they eat wrong.

Kevin Gianni: Um-hum.

Geoff Thompson: So if they start by controlling their food, which is a very difficult thing to do and it’s very uncomfortable to change. If they start with that they will empower themselves immediately. So once you start controlling yourself then you have a shot at controlling your world, controlling your universe. It’s like we are the conductor but we have to get ourselves in shape first.

Kevin Gianni: Um-hum. So do you believe that food, and palette and everything that you’re eating and taking in controls emotions, and reactions and things like that?

Geoff Thompson: Yeah. Someone said to me the other day I’ve just realized how important palette is in training. I said no palette is the training. It’s huge. It’s massive and it’s not just my theory. It’s science. You know, what you eat affects the adrenals and if the adrenals are active and you’re in sympathetic nervous system, which is far to a flight then you are in a predatory state of mind. It’s very difficult to be positive and to be spiritual when you are feeling in this primary state. You know, when you’re almost back to this hunter gatherers state.

Kevin Gianni: Um-hum.

Geoff Thompson: So not just what you eat but what you ingest, what you watch on television, the conversations you have, what you listen to on the radio, what you read. All of it feeds the body and the mind. One of the main foods of the brain is information. So if you’re having, you know, if you’re having junk food information like tabloids speak or pornography or violence, you know, watching too much violence. All of that affects the adrenals. When the adrenals are triggered adrenaline is released and we go into sympathetic nervous system. The whole physiology is changed; literally, your whole physiology changes. Most people are walking around in a predatory state all the time and they wonder why they get ill all the time. And they wonder why they’re aggressive. And they wonder why have all this displacement. So palette is absolutely vital. I think it’s the big secret because palette just isn’t about the food you put in your mouth. It’s about the information you put in your mind. And again this isn’t just a loose theory. Deepak Chopra says that what you listen to, what you watch actually becomes chemicals in your body and if you watch it actually becomes flesh because, you know, if you start watching too much of the wrong thing or get too much of the wrong information in it leaves its mark on the brain and literally leaves ridges on the brain of memory and track.

Kevin Gianni: Um-hum.

Geoff Thompson: So what you watch and what you listen to is flesh. It becomes real. It becomes physical. That’s why I’m very careful about who I talk to, very careful about what I read, very careful about what I watch, you know. I don’t mind if there’s violence in a film or sex as long as it’s responsible story telling. You know, I write some things with violence in but they’re all responsible story telling. It’s all about showing the real consequences of violence. The real consequences of any access, you know, anything that can over stimulate the adrenals. So it’s getting away from, you know, too much stimulation; bringing ourselves into a more moderate state, having control over ourselves. I think it was Tolstoy who said everybody wants to change the world. Nobody wants to change himself. So start with the self. You know, there’s a great thing in the Bhagavad-Gita, which I live my life by. It says lift the self by the self. Never let the self droop down because the self is the self’s only friend and the self is the self’s only enemy. If you can grasp that then take that. You can literally change the world. There’s nothing you can’t achieve. The minute you start projecting, and blaming and walking around with big placards and trying to change things out there before you change things in here you disempower yourself.

Kevin Gianni: Um-hum. And do you believe that everyone has the power to change the world?

Geoff Thompson: Oh, cocky yeah because everybody’s connected. Whether you look at the Bible, which says we’re all one or science in string theory, which says everything’s connected. You know, everything’s affected. That’s what I said about Leonardo. You know, when a bird lands in a tree everything changes.

To read the rest of this transcript as well as access The Fountain of Youth World Summit experts just like Geoff Thompson please click here! Kevin Gianni is an internationally recognized health advocate, author & film consultant. He has helped thousands of people take control of their own health naturally. For more information visit raw food diets and holistic nutrition.

Making Permanent Changes Today For Tomorrow, With Resources Shared by Award Winning Author

The Fountain of Youth World Summit with Geoff Thompson, martial arts guru, best selling author and BAFTA winning screen writer.

Kevin Gianni: That’s great stuff. If you were to give someone three books to read what would they be?

Geoff Thompson: The Doudhi Gi.

Kevin Gianni: Okay.

Geoff Thompson: I would have to say The Shake Shifter as well. I know it’s my own book. It’s the only book at the moment that goes heavily into palette and the actual real process of success, which is about fully immersing yourself into what it is you want to become and get an expert tuition and dedicating your bones to it. So I will say Shake Shifter; and the third one Psycho-Cybernetics by Maxwell Maltz.

Kevin Gianni: Absolutely.

Geoff Thompson: You know, my friend – I won’t say his name because it doesn’t matter but he sold his business for 50 £ million and he puts his whole success in business down to the principles in that book about seeing what you want.

Kevin Gianni: Um-hum. It’s a fantastic book. I recommend it to just about everybody.

Geoff Thompson: One of the all time greats.

Kevin Gianni: Yeah.

Geoff Thompson: And all of this stuff’s in the Bible. It’s in the Bhagavad-Gita. It’s in the Koran. It’s in all the great religious texts but it’s also in great books like, you say, from Maxwell Maltz and people like Normal Vincent Peale spoke just so much truth and it’s unfortunate sometimes that people kind of think it’s whimsical to think positively but to me that’s how you create your world, how you think.

Kevin Gianni: If you were to want someone to take one thing from this call moving forward what do you think that would be?

Geoff Thompson: Lift the self by the self.

Kevin Gianni: Okay.

Geoff Thompson: You know, stop looking outside. Look in. Everything you want and everything you need is contained within you and the moment you start to use that and take responsibility for yourself your whole world will change. It will change so dramatically that it will shock you. I think something Nelson Mandela said; people aren’t afraid of failure. They’re really afraid of success because success means change. They’re not frightened that they can’t do something. They’re terrified that they know they can. They know they’re powerful beyond their belief. People really are. They call it the Jonah complex. It’s called the fear of success. People are afraid to succeed because success means change and change creates discomfort and people avoid discomfort. But when you recognize that change is the only constant, is the only constant then that encourages you to embrace change and to go out and hunt change and be the change rather than wait for things to come to you and wait for things to happen. Actually go out there. Not for me. I was very frightened of sending my scripts off to people for whatever reason. It just created a tremendous amount of fear in me of rejection and also of success because of the responsibility of that. So what I did was I just kept sending my scripts out to everybody until end the end the scripts would come back some with good points, some with bad points but I was indifferent to it. If it came back I’d put another name on it and send it back out again.

Kevin Gianni: Took the front cover off and…

Geoff Thompson: Yes and just start all over again because it’s not personal. You know, everything that comes into your life is not difficult. It’s there for you to grow. It’s just another disc on the bar. It’s developing a relationship with our discomfort or with that suffering. There’s a really great book actually by Victor Franco called Man’s Search for Meaning.

Kevin Gianni: Okay.

Geoff Thompson: Which is amazing and it talks a lot about developing our relationship with discomfort and understanding discomfort and recognizing that within that discomfort there is always a massive growth within that restriction. When life restricts you it’s giving you the opportunity to really, really break out of your stratosphere. A typical life restriction is when someone like Lance Armstrong had cancer, a huge life restriction but within that not only he found that he could cure himself he went on to win, I think, eight Tour de France. He was so good at the Tour de France that they actually changed the route several times just to give the other competitors a chance. You know, he was just so affective at what he was doing and that’s because within the restriction he had, which was cancer, he found huge growth. I do it in training. I fight people when we’re doing, say, boxing training. I force people to sit on the floor and punch because they can’t use their hips. They can’t use projection. You know, and when they sit on the floor and punch they’re force to find something else. They’re forced to develop power and find another resource. So that’s what I call restriction training and when they do that people suddenly find that the ability to punch harder from a seated position, which is very restrictive, than they do when they’re standing up. But if you think of life as exactly the same if you have an illness, or financial worries or relationship problems with that restriction if you’re prepared to immerse yourself into the belly of it you will find gold.

Kevin Gianni: That’s fantastic. That’s a fantastic message. If someone was to write something down or do something right now tangible what would that be? Would that be to put their pyramid or to grab a particular book or…

Geoff Thompson: I think everybody’s a little bit different. I just think the first thing people should do, I think, is to write down the things that they perhaps they don’t want to acknowledge. You know, the things that are uncomfortable that they don’t want to look at.

Kevin Gianni: Um-hum.

Geoff Thompson: And then just the act of writing down and only look to them is an act of like turning in that direction.

Kevin Gianni: That’s pretty easy to some degree.

Geoff Thompson: Yeah and once you’ve done that and turned in that direction just gradually keep moving towards it. So if you you’re frightened about sending a script off or if you’re frightened to talk to your partner then just gradually start seeing yourself doing that. Start to see yourself doing it the way you want to do it. Again, that Maxwell Maltz, Psycho-Cybernetics is a great book to read because it’s all about seeing the outcome you want, seeing what you want to happen and just start moving towards it.

Kevin Gianni: Hmm, that’s great. Well, Geoff we are running out of time here though I want to thank you for that. I know I’m going to actually when we’re done with this call I’m going to sit down and I’m going to write down some of those fears that I have too. I think it’s just a fantastic exercise. I’d never heard of that before.

Geoff Thompson: See, because that’s where everything gets hidden behind that because everybody turns away from that and it’s like they’re thinking so where’s the secret? Where is success? It’s right where that discomfort is. That’s where it is. My children ask me what should I do and I say see all them people, you know, all them 95% of people walking that way. And they say yeah. Then walk the opposite way because you don’t follow the crowd because they’re all looking for comfort and you will not find any growth in comfort. And once you develop a relationship with discomfort and you become comfortable with discomfort it’s no longer uncomfortable. It’s like a body builder. When a body builder lifts weights he knows that the growth is in the burn. That’s when the muscle tissue breaks down and builds back up again.

Kevin Gianni: Um-hum.

Geoff Thompson: And because he developed a relationship with the burn he knows that the burn equals growth. He will find the burn very quickly and he will stay in it long and he comes out of it saying oh, that was fantastic. That was a real good burn. So he learned to really like the burn. You know, what they say is that they say is that the top five percent of people in the world, the top five percent in business and sports, particularly, are the people that have developed a relationship and have become comfortable with discomfort. And the top one percent are the people that have learned to like discomfort.

Kevin Gianni: Okay.

Geoff Thompson: So I love discomfort.

Kevin Gianni: That’s a fantastic affirmation.

Geoff Thompson: Yeah.

Kevin Gianni: I love that discomfort. That’s a fantastic thing to say I think.

Geoff Thompson: That’s where all the growth is. That’s what I’ve found and that’s what I continue to do. But, you know, what they say in the Kabala, we all experience the forgetting. So two or three days down the road we’re in some discomfort and we desperately try to get back out of it again because we forget that there’s a message within the discomfort of our growth. So we have to do is keep reading, keep studying, keep talking to people or keep reminding ourselves that everything that happens to us is good.

To read the rest of this transcript as well as access The Fountain of Youth World Summit experts just like Geoff Thompson please click here! Kevin Gianni is an internationally recognized health advocate, author & film consultant. He has helped thousands of people take control of their own health naturally. For more information visit raw food diets and holistic nutrition.

5 Attack Techniques to “KICK” That Habit. Part1.

How to make your habits work for you and discard the harmful ones

What is a habit.

When an action is repeated often enough and becomes automatic in its response it is called a habit. There are good habits and bad habits. If a slouch is acquired through a painful shoulder brought about through an injury that would be a habit formed by an accident. But if we’re learning to type and pressing certain keys over and over again until we’re able to type automatically that would be considered a good habit.

How to Change Your Habits

You need to have habits. Without them life would be a never ending strain upon your nervous system. The right habit is our friend, a saver of time, effort and energy. A bad habit is a vice, and a hard task master. Habits are easy to form but once set and established are very difficult to break.

But there is hope. Let us assume that you’re a chain smoker and for reasons of health must break that habit. You may have a strong will power and stop smoking because you will it so.

But in most cases the craving will remain and to ignore the craving will be too strong to ignore. Somewhere along the line you’ll be tempted to take one sneaky smoke and then another and then you’ll find yourself back to “square one” again.

But there is light at the end of the tunnel. To successfully crack the solid wall of a habit; is to attack it gradually, consistently on one or more of the following fronts;

1. The “time-delay” attack.

Introduce a time change in the usual smoking routine. Start with a five minute interval between smokes. Make it five minutes to the second. When you have accomplished this time delay congratulate yourself and enjoy your cigarette. . Keep up this five minute interval between smokes, consistently, until it stops being a hardship and becomes the new habit, of lighting cigarettes five minutes apart. Lengthen the interval between smokes to ten minutes and then to fifteen minutes each. Only lengthen the time span when it has become a habit.

2. The “time-check” attack.

Use your clock or your watch as a reminder, to curb or confine your smoking to certain periods. Maybe it could be on the half hour and the full hour during the day. In the evening it could be the quarter hour or the three quarter hour. The purpose of this is not to turn you into a clock watcher but to give you a measure by which it will help you put in place a time element into your smoking schedule. The purpose of the “time check” attack is to interfere with your established smoking habit.

3. The “time-out” attack.

Set aside a certain period of time during your waking hours when you’ll reject to light a cigarette regardless how strong the urge. . Let it be a “break” a “stay-away” time when you use your self-will, and place yourself under complete control for that period of time. The period selected is not as important as the deliberate step that you have taken to stand against the habit and your conscious effort to hinder your smoking routine.

4. The “interference” attack.

Change the usual mode and manner of smoking by introducing different interrupting factors. For instance, if you enjoy smoking best by sitting down or leaning back in your seat, get up and remain standing or start walking around the room while puffing away at your cigarette. If you are in the habit of taking long, leisurely puffs, change to short, nervous pulls at the cigarette. If you usually inhale stop doing it. The object of the exercise is to change your way of smoking from one cigarette to the next. Mix things up. Do it systematically, purposely, and consciously. To interrupt the old smoking habit you want to introduce as much confusion as possible.

5. The “substitution” attack.

Change brands of cigarettes, from a regular to a King size, to a filter type, to one having mint or menthol in it, to a brand milder or stronger. If that does not help much change to a pipe. Then, in between, pop a piece of hard candy or a stick of chewing gum into your mouth instead of a smoke. Give your lips and your mouth something else to do for the time being. Continue such substitutions until your system begins to accept them as part of the old smoking habit and eventually its hold upon you will be weakened.

These five ways of gradual frontal attack and deliberate interruptions with your set pattern of the smoking habit can be adapted to attack and interfere with any other non-desirable habit and prove just as effective in breaking its hold upon you.

With tenacity and belief in yourself make these “attack” techniques work for you to kick that habit.

I will leave you with a positive quote:

“Out of our beliefs are born deeds; out of our deeds we form habits; out of our habits grows our character; and on our character we build our destiny.”

- Henry Hancock.

Lynn Zingel is the author and editor of http://www.icando.co.nz. Here you will find words of encouragement, inspiration, and challenge to change whatever you focus your mind upon.

Pheromone Critique

Today many men and women purchase pheromones to enhance their ability to attract the opposite sex or to improve their relationships. The human body naturally produces its own pheromone chemicals through the armpit and the groin area. However, in this modern era, human pheromones become diminished through daily hygiene and the use of deodorants. This is the reason people purchase and use pheromones in the same way they use perfumes or colognes to enhance their own natural chemicals.

Worn on strategic areas on the skin, the pheromone sends out a chemical signal to trigger a response from the opposite sex. The magnetic pull of using these special chemicals can be measured over a period of time. More often an individual wearing pheromones will have that extra edge to attract the opposite sex. A recent documentary conducted tests with identical twins. The twin wearing pheromones had more interest from the opposite sex than the twin that did not wear any pheromones.

However, there are some important variables that must be considered. Not all pheromones are alike and not all produce the same results. There are also some myths that are being propagated by some manufacturers that may cause some consumers to experience disappointing results. Many pheromones are not as powerful as they should be or as the manufacturers would like you to believe.

Some manufacturers give you the impression that using their product is better because it contains more pheromones. The fact is, more is not always better and can sometimes produce undesirable results. Some manufacturers produce inferior products that need to be loaded up with pheromones in order to achieve any effect. Unfortunately, products loaded up with pheromones can often be detected by smell and can have an unpleasant odor, causing the product to act as a repellent rather than as an attractant! Ideally, the highest quality pheromones should be chosen so that less may be used to obtain positive results. In the end, the product should be stealthy or undetectable so that it performs as intended.

Manufacturers harvest both animal pheromones (usually pig or monkey pheromones) and human pheromones. The animal pheromones are not the most effective to attract the opposite sex, although they may give the wearer limited success. Harvested human pheromones may act as repellents because in many cases their unpleasant smell can be detected.

The ultimate pheromone product should be synthetically produced to mimic pheromones mother nature created to attract human beings. High quality synthetic pheromones will minimize the pitfalls of other types of manufactured pheromones.

It is highly advisable to follow the manufacturers instructions to get the best results. Some products are already premixed with a fragrance that you sparingly apply to your skin. Some pheromones are designed to be mixed into your favorite fragrance, albeit cologne or perfume. Consumers who follow the manufacturer recommended mixture ratio will get the best results. The consumers who subscribe to the theory that more is better and mix too much pheromone into their fragrance or apply too much will be disappointed with the results.

It is important to choose high quality pheromones that are not easily detected to attract the opposite sex. More importantly, when it comes to pheromones, more is not better and less can be very powerful!

If you found this article informative, you may enjoy reading more about pheromones and libido supplements.

Learn To Make Your Submodalities Work For You!

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 pink, fuzzy, vibrating ball, 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 at my practice where I offer NLP, Edinburgh. NLP is effective in treating a whole range of psychological and behavioural difficulties.

Karen is an NHS experienced occupational therapist. She runs her own practice in Edinburgh where she provides NLP, CBT and hypnotherapy treatments Edinburgh. Karen is registered with the HPC and BAOT. Karen is also a master NLP practioner. Her website is http://www.karenhastings.co.uk

Philosophy And Mental Illness

“I think therefore I am” – Renee Descartes (1640)

It is a beautiful summers day and you are walking in the countryside. In a clearing to your right you see a cherry tree, the red fruit peeping from under the lush green foliage. You walk up to it. You touch it, feeling the rough bark under your fingertips. You can hear the breeze rustling the leaves, and smell the odour of the fruit. You take a cherry and pop it in your mouth, savouring the sweet juice as it floods over your tongue.

But does the cherry tree exist? You can see it, hear it, feel it, smell and taste it’s fruit – but this is not enough. You may be hallucinating, or asleep and having a particularly vivid dream. How would you know?

You wouldn’t. All our experience of the world and “reality” is governed by our five senses (I leave aside any discussion of a “sixth sense”). These senses are our only connection with the world outside our selves. A blind person has no visual contact with the outside world; somebody with a severe cold has little taste or olfactory contact with the outside world. And these senses are basically biochemical machines designed to send information to our brain. For example, the eyes collect and focus reflected light onto the retina (at the back of the eye). Receptors in the retina convert this light into electrical impulses (this electricity is produced by chemicals in the receptors). These electrical impulses are then fired along a network of nerve cells to the brain. The brain, another very complex mass of interconnected nerve cells, analyses these impulses – their strength, their rate, their pattern and frequency – and generates an internal picture based upon them. It is this brain-generated picture that we “see”. It is a similar case with the sensation of touch. Receptors in our skin are stimulated by physical contact and produce electrical impulses that are sent to the brain – what we “feel” is the result of the brain’s analysis of these impulses. And so on for taste, smell and hearing.

So the tree that we saw, felt, heard, smelled and tasted isn’t actually “out there” in the world – it is in our brains. More accurately, it is the brains image or impression of the tree constructed from the impulses it receives from our senses. Whenever our brain received this particular pattern of impulses from the senses, it would construct an image of a tree – colour, shape, smell, taste, touch and sound – whether or not a tree was actually there.

There is little controversy in stating that our brains can be deceived. We can block the path of the electrical impulses as they pass from the sense receptors to the brain – this is the case with local anaesthesia, where a patient can watch as his appendix is removed without pain. Or we can interfere directly with the brains analysis of the sense impulses – a drunken person is aware that he has fallen over, but it doesn’t hurt (until the next day!). And we don’t need alcohol or drugs for this deception to occur – at some point, most of us have believed, albeit briefly, that we’ve seen or heard or felt something that has turned out to not be there.

It was this sort of reasoning that led Descartes to question the very existence of a world outside our selves. In light of modern science, Descartes is questioning the existence of a world outside our brains (our bodily sensations such as feeling hungry or having an aching leg are also mediated by our senses). In these terms, our own bodies are considered as part of the outside world. If all we see, hear, touch, feel and taste in the outside world is but a representation in our brains, and this representation is based on information from our senses, and these senses can be deceived, then we can never be sure that the outside world exists. Descartes talked of the possibility of us being hypnotised by a demon who is tricking us into believing we are moving around in a world with trees, houses, other people etc when in fact we’re locked in a dungeon somewhere. The film “The Matrix” provides a technological alternative.

So we can’t know if the outside world exists – it could all be in our brains. But in that case can we know that anything exists? Thankfully, yes. We can be sure our thoughts exist. How? Because we think them. There seems no way that we can be deceived about our thoughts existing – in the very act of having a thought, that thought exists. The thoughts may be based on deceptive information from the senses, but they are still real, they still exist. It is difficult to conceive of deceiving someone into believing they have thoughts when, in fact, they don’t. You need to have thoughts to be deceived.

So we can safely say that our thoughts definitely exist! Descartes moved on from this “rock of certainty” and went on to “prove” the existence of the outside world. Unfortunately, this further “proof” is highly suspect and relies on the notion of a beneficent and all-powerful God – but then Descartes was writing on behalf of the Catholic Church! Most modern philosophers discount this extension of his theory, but they do still accept his earlier reasoning - “I think therefore I am” has stood the test of time. If we are being pedantic, Descartes quote is better rendered as “There are thoughts” – just because I experience thoughts doesn’t mean they are mine! But this isn’t as memorable as the original.

So what has all this got to do with mental health? Well, if the outside world doesn’t exist as such and all we have is thoughts, then (potentially) the world is what we think it to be. I’m not saying we can change things dramatically. It would take a lot of effort to “create” a thought-world where trees can talk and people fly by flapping their arms – for this to be “real” one would have to interact constantly and consistently with trees and people as though they could do these things. Rather, I am talking about how our thoughts and feelings can “colour” our experience of the outside world (I am using the terms “thoughts” and emotional “feelings” interchangeably here). Depressed people (i.e. people with depressed or depressing thoughts!) experience the world differently to others. They see colours less vividly, food can seem tasteless and unpleasant, and harmless everyday situations can appear threatening. They predict bad consequences from actions and events where others see only benefit. A depressed persons world is very different to a happy person’s, but to an observer they will seem one and the same.

A person with depressive thoughts who is looking to “get better” has three courses of action open to him.

Firstly, he can accept the “medical model” of mental illness and depression. This model sees the brain (rightly) as a complex neurochemical structure, and postulates that depression and other psychological illnesses are due to defects or malfunctioning in this system. The brain, when examined anatomically, consists of millions of various cells, each of which is in turn composed of smaller structures. When these structures are examined in turn, they are found to consist of chemicals (as does all physical matter). The medical model thus presumes that it is a defect or malfunctioning of these chemicals that adversely affect the brains cells, leading in turn to the malfunctioning of the brain and finally a “malfunctioning” of thinking – depression or whatever.

On this model, the course of action is clear – correct the malfunctioning of the brain. This is done using drugs that enter the brain and interfere with the cells chemical structure and functioning. This all makes perfect sense. Unfortunately, there is a vast gulf between the theory and the practise. Medical science just does not know enough about the brain at present. There are numerous different cell types, numerous different chemicals in and around these cells, and numerous different interactions and connections between each cell and the others. No test has been developed that shows which chemicals/cells/connections are malfunctioning. The best that the scientists can do is make an educated guess as to those chemicals/cells/connections seem likely to be defective, and choose drugs that act on these. The initial guesses (based on drugs that were found in the 1950’s - by accident!) are still the main focus of research today. The result is predictable – a large number of different drugs that work seem to work sometimes and not at others and have side effects (because they are also affecting perfectly healthy cells). This is likely to remain the case for the foreseeable future.

A second course of action for the depressed person is to change the outside world i.e. their circumstances. This makes perfectly good sense. If you are feeling depressed because you hate your job or your relationship, then change it. If you feel depressed because you’re overweight, then diet. Of course, this is rather flippant. If it were that easy to do, people would just do it. And it must be acknowledged that depression often saps the will and motivation to change just these sorts of situations. Further, many situations cannot be changed by our own actions – the loss of a loved one, poverty, ill health, war, famine etc. The outside world can be very resistant to change.

The third course of action takes a leaf out of Descartes book. We are what we think – a depressed person is no more and no less than someone with depressed thoughts. If they stopped having depressed thoughts, then the depression disappears. It is possible for people to be happy, or at least content, even in the direst of circumstances. Most of us have known people face up to unpleasant and distressing events with resilience and even cheerfulness. We say they are “naturally happy” or are “positive people.” One can also say that they think “happy thoughts” or think “positive thoughts.”

Perhaps they were born like that. Or perhaps they learnt to think like that as they grew up (I believe this is more likely). Either way, though, they enjoy life a lot more than many of us. But this needn’t be the case – if we can learn to think a little more like them, learn to think in a more pleasant, positive way. It seems unlikely that depressed people are “born like that”, just as it is unlikely that happy people are “born like that.” Even the wackiest psychiatrist will hesitate to diagnose a baby as depressed! Young babies can’t think as we do – and they can’t have depressed thoughts. As they grow, their thinking abilities develop under the influence of their parents, siblings and peers. Patterns of thought are developed, ways of thinking, with each person having their own particular patterns, unique to them. By the time adulthood is reached, these patterns are likely to be “ingrained” in us, to the point where we’re not even aware of them – we automatically process situations, events, and interactions with others in terms of these thought patterns. The thoughts we actually think (and are aware of) are the results of this processing. Therefore, if this processing is “set wrong” (e.g. if it constantly produces thoughts that are depressive), then psychological problems are likely to follow.

This is the basic theory on which are based the cognitive therapies for psychological problems. With the prompting and guidance of the therapist, an individual is taught to examine his or her thinking patterns, searching for maladaptive and detrimental ways of thinking. This is not an easy task – the patterns are usually “automatic” (like a habit) and the individual is likely to be unaware of them initially. An important task for the therapist is to elucidate these “faulty” patterns. These can then made explicit to the individual, and the first steps taken towards challenging these ways of thinking. The aim of the cognitive therapies is to minimise or remove entirely the identified faulty patterns, and for the individual to learn more adaptive and helpful ways of thinking in their place. A successful therapy can change a persons life forever – when a person no longer automatically thinks depressive thoughts, they are insulated and protected from becoming depressed in the future. Karen practices Cognitive Behaviour Therapy Edinburgh and NLP Edinburgh.

Karen has a degree in Psychology and is also a qualified mental-health occupational therapist, with NHS experience. Karen is registered with the HPC. Karen practices privately and offers Cognitive Behaviour Therapy Edinburgh and NLP, Edinburgh. Visit http://www.karenhastings.co.uk

Hypnotherapy And NLP: Unscrambling The Link

Neuro Linguistic Programming (NLP) and Hypnotherapy are very closely related and could be considered to come from the same ‘family’ of therapeutic approaches. In fact, if you are considering having hypnotherapy and are currently searching for a therapist, you will probably find that many hypnotherapists now-days, practice NLP to some level and conversely that most NLP practitioners who have completed certified training courses, will also be familiar with using hypnotic techniques during therapy sessions.

How are these therapies similar?

Hypnotherapy utilises hypnotic techniques in order to bring about therapeutic change. Hypnotherapy enables a person to solve personal problems by bringing about a deeply relaxing state of mind. When the person is deeply relaxed this allows the unconscious part of the mind to use its resources to find solutions. It also allows the person to focus their attention completely on the therapists voice in order to follow the positive suggestions and guidance the therapist is making. In hypnotherapy this relaxed state is called trance. All people experience trance states on a daily basis. Trance simply refers to the experience of being really relaxed. It also involves focusing your attention so that it is highly selective. Reading a really good book and being completely absorbed in it, is an example.

Have you had the experience of being totally immersed in the characters of the book, being able to vividly imagine what they are like, whilst at the same time being able to ignore other noises and distractions going on around you? If so, you have experienced trance. Using your imagination and day-dreaming are other examples. Any time that you ‘go inside’ your own head you are in a light trance. If you’ve ever had the experience of having a problem that is constantly with you, so that it feels like all you have or all you are, is this problem, then you will know what it is like to experience a bad trance.

Richard Bandler (a computer scientist) and John Grinder (an associate professor in linguistics) developed NLP in the 1970’s. NLP was created after they spent time studying and modelling therapists who were considered to be extremely effective at getting good results. One of these therapists, was the Psychiatrist Milton Erickson. He was also an extremely talented hypnotherapist. Erikson’s style of indirect hypnotic suggestion and skilled use of ambigous and vague language patterns, has become known as Ericksonian hypnosis. Since NLP was developed after modelling Erickson, many NLP techniques involve Ericksonian hypnotic approaches. Like more traditional hypnotherapy, NLP works with the unconscious part of the mind in order to find solutions to problems. NLP therapists are also trained in using Milton Model language patterns in order to induce light trance states in clients. This is very useful at getting a problem moving when a person is stuck in a bad trance. Other hypnotic techniques that are common to NLP include metaphorical story telling and utilising the client’s imagination in order to bring about a highly focused state of attention during change techniques – a trance state.

How do NLP and Hypnotherapy Differ

You will find that they are more similar then they are different. During hypnotherapy you are much more likely to be seated in a comfy chair, perhaps reclining with your eyes closed! During NLP you often get more involved with the techniques on a practical level, so you may be standing, or be required to do or say certain things related to overcoming your problem. You may still get to close you eyes and you will certainly get to use your imagination. NLP techniques utilise hypnotic elements but usually in a more subtle way, the NLP therapist will empower you to draw on resources you already have in order to bring about new options in thinking.

When you see an NLP therapist you will find they often use more traditional hypnotherapy techniques as well. At the end of your NLP session, after all the hard work, you will often get to recline back in your chair and experience relaxation so that you leave the therapists office feeling positive and ready to go on with your day.

Karen offers NLP Edinburgh and hypnotherapy, Edinburgh and is trained to master practitioner level. Karen is trained to use Milton Model hypnotic techniques during NLP and Hypnotherapy, Edinburgh.

Karen has a degree in Psychology and is also a qualified mental-health occupational therapist, with NHS experience. Karen is registered with the HPC and is a member of the BAOT. Karen practices privately and offers NLP Edinburgh and Hypnotherapy Edinburgh.Visit http://www.karenhastings.co.uk

How Are You Maintaining Your Anxiety?

Worries and anxieties are normal and familiar to all of us. They are necessary to our survival as they prepare us for coping with stress and danger. When we perceive danger, changes take place in our body, in how we think and also in how we behave. These changes are triggered by the release of the hormone adrenalin and are crucial as they prime us for action.

Problems arise when the stress response becomes chronic, or excessive and symptoms of long-term anxiety include the following:

Muscular discomfort – headaches – difficulty swallowing – chest pains – stomach cramps – blurred vision – ringing ears – nausea – dizziness – shortness of breath.

So what causes chronic anxiety?

The actual trigger for the stress response might be real or imagined, for example, a person with a social phobia may feel just as panicky at the thought of having to walk into a big party as actually walking into a big party. Whether the trigger is a real or imagined threat, the key to persistent anxiety is you and the cycle that you maintain. This usually takes three forms,

1. Bodily symptom cycles: worrying about the physical symptoms of anxiety so much that this worry re-triggers the stress response and the physical symptoms.

2. Biased thinking cycles: overestimating the threat of danger and underestimating your coping resources. Common thinking biases include; black and white thinking, catastrophising; exaggerating, ignoring the positive. Biased thinking can further increase distress and anxiety, which in turn enhances thinking distortions even more!

3. Behavioural response cycles: avoidance is a common response to anxiety, it is natural to want to escape to somewhere safe and comforting. The problem with this is that avoidance keeps the problem going as the you will never get to learn that you can cope.

Which of these cycles best describes how you keep your anxiety going? Once you have identified which cycle you tend to maintain you can begin to plan to break the cycle.

When clients come to see me for cognitive behaviour therapy Edinburgh, I have a range of techniques in my toolbox that are useful in breaking the anxiety cycle the person is maintaining. An example of techniques include the following:

1. Bodily symptom cycle: controlled breathing, relaxation training, expanding awareness techniques, hypnosis, psycho-education, introducing exercise as a coping strategy.

2. Biased thinking: belief change process, thought challenging, distraction, teaching use of clean language, communication model, sub-modality work, hypnosis.

3. Problem Behaviour: graded exposure, goal setting, swish process, fast phobia cure, problem-solving strategies.

I also work with clients to enable them to develop coping strategies, during Cognitive Behaviour Therapy Edinburgh and NLP Edinburgh, that can be used in the longer term. If you are experiencing anxiety that is impacting on your functioning and well-being it may be useful to see a cognitive therapist. Therapies that focus of changing negative patterns of thought are now considered key methods in overcoming anxiety, phobias and depression.

Karen has a degree in Psychology and is also a mental-health occupational therapist, with NHS experience. Karen is registered with the HPC. Karen practices privately and offers Cognitive Behaviour Therapy Edinburgh, NLP Edinburgh and Hypnotherapy Edinburgh. Visit http://www.karenhastings.co.uk

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