I have worked with people who have gut challenges, skin conditions, panic and anxiety attacks, severe stress and burnout, which all have a variety of physical symptoms that are a loop of mind talking to the body and, in many ways, the body expressing the state of the mind. What you think you will feel.
The Anxiety Antidote
One of the major themes of Neuro Linguistic Programming (NLP) is the mind–body connection. For many years, various individuals considered the mind to be separate from the body. This we now know is definitely not the case. There is a constant flow of communication between the mind and the thoughts that are being formed, as well as the body to the brain, through feelings, emotions and
The physical sensations that you feel, whether it’s churning in your gut, jelly in your legs, a weight on your shoulders or a general whole-body freeze, can be physical communication for you to focus on your thoughts. In changing your thoughts, the way that you are thinking, from what you see in your mind and hear yourself saying, you can immediately change the physical experiences in your body. It’s not just the brain and your thoughts that communicates to your body through producing physical experiences, it is the body talking back and even calling out to the mind.
Let’s experience the mind–body connection now with some exercises that allow you to change how you feel by changing your thought patterns.
Anchoring
Recalling past memories with positive states is known as “anchoring” in NLP, and I use this technique quite often to help people quickly shift their mental and emotional state.
Let’s try it now:
1. Bring to mind a specific time with family or friends where you were laughing uncontrollably and feeling happy.2. Take a moment, think back and now bring it to your awareness.
3. Hear the laughter and notice the positive shift it creates in your body.
4. Close your eyes and picture the memory. See it in your mind, hear the sounds and feel the shift in how you feel.
5. Label this memory (example “fun time with family”) so that you can recall it quickly anytime you want to feel these feelings. The more often you think of it, the stronger the feelings that you’ll feel.
As you may have just experienced to some degree, you can direct the focus of your thoughts and transform the feelings and emotions in your body from what you’re choosing to focus on. This is helpful, because you can’t feel anxiety when you’re feeling joy. You can’t feel anxious when you’re feeling grateful. In changing your thoughts, you can change how you feel, and quickly.
Use the prompts below to come up with a bank of past memories to recall when you need help to shift your focus away from your anxious feelings to then access more resourceful states.
1. Think of two places where you feel safe, calm or relaxed.2. Think of two places where you feel the environment is peaceful.
3. Think of two specific times when you were really laughing.
4. Think of two specific times when you felt happy and content.
Now use the previous steps 1–5 on the previous page each with two examples you have just listed, where you label each example, to anchor and access the desired emotional state.
From the pictures that you see, the mental movies that you watch, the inner sounds you hear and converse with, these elements of your thinking all contribute to your emotional experience both positively and negatively. Now you can actively create more calming, reassuring, positive and empowering pictures and sounds with your thoughts so that you can dissolve any feelings of anxiety.
Kamran Bedi is a Mental Health Practitioner who utilizes Neuro-Linguistic Programming, Integral Eye Movement Therapy, Mindfulness and Hypnosis in his work as a Transformational Life Coach. His past and present clients include: Love Island, This Morning, X-Factor, CEOs, lawyers, fathers, mothers, teenagers and so many more! The Anxiety Antidote is out on 13th September priced £12.99 and is available in all good bookstores.