Welcome to this free NLP Ezine
Hi everybody, and welcome to "NLP: The Secret Science of Self- Empowerment." This Ezine is designed to bring to you techniques, theories and exercises from the fascinating field of Neurolinguistic Programming.

About This Issue
Last week we started a new subject: Representational Systems. This is a vast topic that is very much connected to the core ideas, techniques and exercises of NLP. In this issue, I want to give you an exercise that will allow you to experiment with your representational systems.

This Issues Article: Exercise: Weakening the Impact of Negative Memories

To do the following exercise, take some time off and relax. Choose a moment where you can focus and turn your mind inward, uninterruptedly.

The first step is to close your eyes and remember a happy moment in your life. As the memory comes to you, pay attention to the representational systems of seeing, hearing, feeling, smelling, and tasting. Have a piece of paper ready to write down your experience in detail.

Let's say you chose a memory that involves your best friend and a particularly happy event. What we are interested in is the exact way in which your memory represents itself to you.

Let's start with the visual representation: What do you see? Still pictures or movies? Black and white or color? Bright or dark colors? Sharp or unclear? Are you seeing the memory through your own eyes or from a meta perspective, i.e. from a position outside your body? Write it down.

Play around with these categories and see how that changes the way the memory feels. For example, make the colors brighter, change the perspective, zoom in or out, switch from color to black and white, etc. Determine which set of conditions let's you enjoy the memory the best.

Next, move on to sounds. What are you hearing, as you experience your memory? Sounds? What sounds? Voices? What is the volume like: Loud or quiet? Are the sounds high or low pitched? Clear or unclear? Again, play around with these categories until you find the setting that lets you enjoy your memory the most. If your experience of your memory improves when you turn up the volume, turn it up. If quieter feels better, turn it down. And again, write down what you experience.

Next, notice any kinesthetic representations that come with the memory. Can you feel warm sunshine on your skin? Cold wind breezing through your hair? Raindrops on your head? How does your body feel? Warm, cold, exhausted, refreshed, etc. Go deep into your memory and experience the bodily sensations you felt back then. Again, shift the intensity and focus of these impressions until you feel you have the best experience.

Do the same for smells and tastes, if there are such sensations attached to the memory. If not, don't worry about it, or make an effort to create some sensations from your imagination and add them to the memory (for some people this will be easy, for others not so much).

By now you should have a pretty good idea of how your representational systems influence your experience of a memory. And since the brain uses the exact same process to experience memories, imaginations and reality, you might find it interesting to think about how rep systems play into your experience of reality. You can play around with the rep systems in real time, just like you did with your memory. Direct your focus on any part of your sensual experience until you feel you have the right mix.

The real purpose of this exercise, however, is to deal with negative memories. Now that you have experienced a positive memory, choose a negative one and do the same steps you did before. Check in with each rep system and notice the details of your experience. Write down the details of how your negative memory presents itself to you. Notice how it might have a completely different set of rep system characteristics as the positive memory.

Now, play around with the characteristics and see how that changes your experience. Change the colors, sounds, perspectives, feelings, etc. and see what happens. More specifically, change the rep system characteristics of your bad memory to those of your positive one. This is what NLP calls "mapping across." Experiments have shown that in many cases people are able to weaken the negative emotional charge that comes with negative memories, by changing the rep systems to the setting of a positive memory.

In the next issue, we will look more closely at submodalities, the building blocks of which representational systems consist. In the meantime, examine your negative thoughts and experiment with weakening them by using the technique you just learned.

References:

Strategies of Genius, Vol 1, Dilts, R. 1994.
Using Your Brain, Bandler, R. 1985.

All the best,

Christoph Schertler
NLP Trainer/Coach - Founder PEC, LLC

Christoph Schertler has published an ebook on how to use NLP to build confidence. The NLP Confidence Builder contains over 100 pages of powerful NLP techniques and concepts that can help you overcome limiting beliefs and bring forth the life-transforming power of confidence from deep within you.

Get your copy today:

Christoph Schertler was recently published in "101 Great Ways to Improve Your Life, Vol. 2" alongside John Gray, Jack Canfield, Richard Carlson, Bob Proctor, Alan Cohen and many other leading Self Improvement experts.

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About the Author

Christoph Schertler is a certified NLP Trainer and NLP Coach with a passion for helping others to empower themselves and bring forth their power and genius from within. He has trained with some of the biggest names in the field and is a firm believer in the transformational powers of NLP.

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DISCLAIMER
The contents herein are solely the opinions of the editors, and should not be considered as a form of therapy nor advice. There is no guarantee of validity or accuracy. Personal Empowerment Coaching, LLC assumes no responsibility for injury and specifically disclaims any warranty, express or implied for any products or services mentioned. If expert assistance or counseling is needed, services of a competent professional should be sought. Copyright (C) 2006 by Personal Empwerment Coaching, LLC. Permission is granted to reproduce or distribute this newsletter only in its entirety and provided copyright is acknowledged.