Transcript: how to turn from a negative into a positive thinker using NLP

This can actually be done in two weeks, believe it or not, although it does require some commitment.

Now this idea is not mine; a long time ago I used to have chronic fatigue, and chronic fatigue is both a mental and physical illness. The best way I can describe it is that you’re tired all of the time, you’re in physical pain, and your thoughts are negative 24/7 except for when you’re sleeping, and then you’re probably having nightmares, and I don’t remember my dreams clearly.

Now, I met a woman from Norway, and she was able to cure the chronically fatigued brain, and not in a way you could question or anything like that. These were psychologists, this was scientifically researched, and this is what they would do. Any time you have a negative thought, you create what we call in NLP a pattern interrupt. What that means is you break the state that you’re in.

The way they did that in that particular workshop to cure chronic fatigue (a 3-day workshop and a 14-day application) is to put a rubber band around the wrist, and snapping it anytime you start to have a negative thought or begin to negative self-talk. You can call that a pain impulse, like being punished for a bad thought, or you can call that a wakeup call, an anchor, whatever it is.

You could of course create some kind of anchor for yourself using NLP by which you can interrupt that thought. At that moment in time when you stop the negative thought you then need to pair it with a positive activity. Of course you can go do some cardio, or you can write in your gratitude journal or something like that. I think that NLP wonderfully lends itself do doing exercises in your brain by which you start having good emotions. For example, simplistically thinking, let’s say you start lighting up an incredibly happy moment in your life, or someone you love very much, or floating your awareness inside somebody else’s shoes who love you very much, focusing on senses that are visual, auditory, as well as kinesthetic.

Using NLP, it is possible that when you interrupt the pattern of negative thinking, and then override it with something hugely positive that you do in your mind (remember, the brain can’t tell the difference between what you’re doing inside your brain and what you’re doing in real life), that allows for whole different parts of the brain to fire in a more positive way. Do that consistently for 14 days and you will notice that your brain will change.

Resources

Book

The Upside of Your Dark Side: Why Being Your Whole Self–Not Just Your “Good” Self–Drives Success and Fulfillment, by Todd B. Kashdan, Ph.D

Video

How to increase positive thinking