Yesterday, NLP Financial Coach, Dennise Williams of Financially Focused, interviewed me on her radio programme – the question was, how can we get past Survival Mode? For me, “Survival mode” equals the “Grey Zone, which is also called the “Comfort Zone”.
One of the key roles of the unconscious mind is to keep us safe. From a physical perspective, this activity is related to what is known as the Reptilian Brain – the oldest part of the brain, the brain stem and the cerebellum, which together control basic body functions like breathing and heart rate and take charge of physical needs such as reproduction and safety. The Reptilian Brain also takes care of those activities which we do with a certain automaticity once we have learnt them – for example, driving a car or putting your keys in the same place every time.
That means that even though we may be stuck in a loop of negativity and just barely making ends meet, the unconscious mind likes the familiarity of the known world. We are hard-wired for the path of least resistance! That means that change, even if for the better, is normally resisted.
Does this then mean that the reason I am in the mess I am in (i.e. the negative spiral) is actually my fault? The truth is that if we really want to make change in our lives, the first step is to admit that we are ALWAYS cause to our experience. This does NOT mean beating up on ourselves however! It merely means that we accept responsibility for the situation in which we find ourselves and recognize that since we ‘caused it’ we can ‘un-cause it’ which is a very empowering perspective, isn’t it?
However powerful the unconscious patterns of thought and behavior that we display are, the great news is that we always do have the ability, through the exercise of our higher level consciousness (or the use of our Pre-Frontal Cortex) to over-ride the Reptilian Brain. We can do this by a variety of means:
- Make the unfamiliar, familiar– this means that we must practice the thoughts, feelings and behaviours that we would like to do instead. The positive affirmations, feeling the feelings of being successful and prosperous and behaving in ways that model the values and actions of successful persons. When these patterns begin to feel comfortable, we will find that we are less resistant to the changes we want to make.
- Expand your Comfort Zone – Decide to do at least one thing every week that is outside of your comfort zone and, importantly, enjoy the excitement of the different experience – for example, this could be as simple as talking with a stranger, or taking a different route to work – and connect with some pleasurable aspect of doing the activity. By doing this, the unconscious mind begins to enlarge our ‘safety net’ and becomes more open and trusting to doing things that are different and outside of the norm.
- Reframe failure as learning –A lot of the negative feelings we experience are due to the MEANING we give to situations where we have achieved less than the desired results. Our ability to reframe those experiences as learnings will allow our unconscious minds to accept them as just that and to shift our attention naturally to the benefits we have gained. This helps us to move away from feelings of guilt and shame to growth and development which, in turn, will help us feel more motivated to continue to pursue our path, despite the challenges.
- Practice Mindfulness or Meditation– These practices teach you how to detach yourself from the experience you are going through by seeing yourself from an external perspective. They allow you to see your thoughts and feelings not as an intrinsic part of you, but to see them as simply being triggered by some external stimuli and to appreciate that unconsciously, you are just following a programme that has become embedded in your brain and unconscious mind. You can then more easily choose a different response in order to get a better outcome.
You can check out Financially Focused here: www.financiallyfocusedmedia.com
To learn more about how you can change your thinking, feelings and behaviour to get the results you want, plus kick-start your career as an NLP Coach, register now for my NLP Practitioner Certification Course, starting July 20! Take advantage of the Early bird pricing extended until June 21! http://limitlesstransformationja.com/training/8-day-nlp-practitioner-and-coaching-certification-programme/
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Elizabeth Terry
NLP, Time Line Therapy®, Hypnosis Trainer and Master Coach
Flow Consultant, Entrepreneur’s Institute
www.limitlesstransformationja.com
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