Creating is Anticipating

When we create we anticipate. Anticipation is a double edged sword. It is important that our expectations are colored and the color of them determines how our life will be experienced. This is one of our main ways of tuning into our reality. Let me explain what I mean. When we anticipate a thing or a circumstance there is generally only 2 ways to do it. We can focus or anticipate through a negative lens or a positive lens. We can plan for trouble showing up or we can plan for harmony. It’s that simple. We can expect the best or the worst. There really is no in between ground. This focusing happens first at the thought level and then flows out into our actions. Our belief systems get wired around this and then set up feedback loops that keep us in these grooves. Over time our belief systems sit upon scaffolding of either lack or abundance. We either expect to get what we desire or we do not. What groove are you in? Are you in a positive or a negative groove. This kind of taps into the old saying from the 60’s “feeling groovy.” But of course in that sense it is meant to be a harmonious groove.

If you find yourself stuck in a negative groove and you want to change it, there are some great ways to do it. First of all take note of how you talk both to others and more importantly, to yourself. Our inner dialogue is one of the first areas we begin to refashion that groove. Whenever you notice that your language both inner and outer is not in line with your desires, notice it and correct it right away. Your thoughts can and will break their bonds. By engaging in this practice you will rewire your tendency from the glass is half empty to the glass is half full which in turn has profound implications on how you code reality and thus experience it.

We can also borrow some profound techniques from Neuro- Linguistic Programming. What we metaphorically do in this regard is to jump that negative groove in a way that it can never play in that way again. One such technique is called the swish technique

The Swish technique enables us to quickly dissolve the feelings attached to unwanted thoughts and to deal with undesired thoughts, feelings and actions. Basically it changes our belief system in a way that we represent things in a different way.

With the swish technique we are able to upgrade our thoughts to more useful, harmonious ones that serve us much better. It is a powerful way to make an edit to your inner code so that your reality is experienced differently. The power in the swish method is that it can, in most cases, works very quickly.

Here is the how the swish pattern works (borrowed from nlp-now.co.uk)

1. Select a replacement image

First select your Replacement Feeling – ask yourself How do I want to be instead.

Having selected the Replacement Feeling see and hear a detached and associated version of yourself experiencing this feeling. It is quite important that this image is dissociated. Enhance the detail and the quality (submodalities) of this until the image is quite compelling.

2. Find the trigger for the unwanted mood

What is it that you respond to? How you know when to have the unwanted response or reaction?

Ask yourself What occurs just before this negative or un-wanted state begins? This time, you want an associated image of what is going on immediately before you engage in the unwanted activity.

3. Put the replacement in the corner of unwanted image

Imagine a small postage-stamp sized version of your replacement picture in the bottom corner of the unwanted picture.

4. Swish the two images

Now you want t make both images change simultaneously and with increasing speed. (Experienced NLPers will select two critical submodalities to use here. However simply making the images change size and distance from you will work most of the time.)

Have the ‘negative’ image become smaller and shoot off into the distance. At the same time have the ‘positive’ replacement image become larger and closer until it replaces the negative image completely. Imagine a “swish” sound as you do this – hence the name. That’s one Swish sound.

(Do this fairly slowly at first taking, say, 5-10 seconds to do it. Then continue, doing it a little faster each time, until you are swishing almost instantaneously – in less than a second!)

5 Clear your mind

After each Swish round blank your mind, fully! Think of something else or visualise your favourite colour. Breathing easily as you do this since some people tend to hold their breath while concentrating on doing the Swish. It is crucial to the success of the Swish to clear your mind or turn your attention outside before you do each next round.

6 Practice 5-7 times

Repeat steps 3 to 5 up to about seven times until you have difficulty in maintaining the unwanted image.

‘I don’t visualise’

This is a common belief. You can do an Auditory or a Kinaesthetic Siswish, too. So if you (or the other person if you are assisting someone else) believe that you have difficulty in visualising you could accept this belief and use a kinaesthetic or auditory swish.

Alternately, and often more effectively, you can act ‘as if’ you are visualising – i.e. you pretend that you visualising and simply follow the steps listed above. Curiously, this will often work just as effectively!

Other ways to shift this groove from negative to positive outlook and thus positive life experience is through modalities such as hypnosis, metaphor work, shamanic journeying, emotional therapies such as EFT, Tat and others.  Guided imagery can be of assistance as can certain kinds of meditation where we quit the mind and train ourselves to notice the inner chatter.  This gives us more inner silence and then gives us the ability to transcend the negative groove altogether.