Anxiety Control Center

Detailed Directions for the  “2 For 1 Exercise”

To  stop stress and anxiety caused by thoughts of events that haven’t even happened yet, use this really powerful   technique.   Yes, it is true that this exercise will take a bit of work in the beginning, but with practice you will find it becomes an automatic habit.

OVERVIEW:
Step 1:  Make a list of any negative thoughts that go through your mind.  Use just one situation or event.

Step 2:  To help yourself to create enhancing thoughts, think about other possible “stories” about what might happen in the future.  Create 2 positive “stories” for each negative “story” you had created.

Step 3: Using the new positive thoughts will help you to  change the habit of negative thinking.

Full Directions for The “2 for 1″ exercise:

1. Write down any negative thoughts you have going through your mind, about a situation.  Write down any thought or “story” that causes stress or leads to other uncomfortable emotions.

It is important to write down the thoughts and images.  By putting them down on paper  you don’t have to keep going over them in your mind.  In a few moments you will begin to think of other possible outcomes that could also be possible.

2.  After identifying a negative thoughts or stories -  STOP -  and focus on the feelings they produce.  As you become aware of emotions notice where the feeling is “held” in your body.  Make a note of what words or images go with the thoughts or feelings.

3.  Sometimes a negative “story” or thought goes through the mind so quickly, that at first you might not even conscious of it.  Sometimes you will notice the physical reaction before even realizing there was a thought.  So take a moment to search for these thoughts, and the physical reaction to them.   If there is trouble finding the thought, just go back in your mind, to the event causing upset.  Then, go to the moment just before the emotion was felt, and let you unconscious mind bring to the surface any images, sounds or memories.

Being curious is the best state to be in to bring thoughts and images into awareness.  Write down the thoughts, negative “stories” or images that move through your mind.

Negative thoughts can create a vicious cycle as more negative thoughts pop up to support the first one.  This creates unnecessary anguish and stress.  People can create many negative thoughts in just an instant.  By recognizing a thought, it becomes possible to stop, and correct the negative thought process.

4.  When you feel a bodily reaction, such as tightness, pain in the stomach, head, chest, etc. ask yourself: What are you saying in your mind?  Remember there is always a trigger for bodily reactions.

5.  As you become aware of any negative statements answer the following questions
a.  For one day, pay attention to how many negative thoughts you create.
b. How often in a day do you have negative comments flowing through your mind?
c.  Would you talk to your best friend this way?  Would they still be your best friend ?
d. Is there a benefit that comes from speaking to yourself in this negative way?  What do you gain?
e.  What is the negative result of thinking in this way?
f.  If you believe there is a benefit, can this benefit be gained in a different, more self-enhancing way?

6.  Create 2 positive believable possibilities for every negative thought.

7.  Every time a negative thought moves through your mind, replace it with two positive ones.
a.  The positives need to be something that is believable.  For instance, saying “I’ll handle it” is a positive statement that is believable, since we do handle things that come our way.
b.  It will not help to say, “everything is OK” if you do not truly feel this way, for then it is not a believable, positive statement.

8.  Whenever you catch yourself thinking a negative thought, use the power of your own mind in a productive way.  Think of A BIG RED STOP SIGN, and hear the word “STOP,” shouted out in your mind.  Then, say two of the positive thoughts that you have written down to replace each old negative one.

REMINDERS: ‘2 for 1” EXERCISE
a.  Changing negative thoughts to positive ones is done at the conscious level at first. Eventually the habit of changing negative thoughts into positives ones happens automatically, almost without any thought.

b.  The positives need to be believable.

c. It takes time to change any habit.  Just as an athlete practices to be good at his sport, this technique takes practice as well.

d.  Practice this for three weeks, and be amazed at how automatic this positive habit becomes.

e.  Over time the “2 for 1 technique” creates more self-acceptance, calm and confidence.

Next week we will discuss another way to use your mind to stop negative thinking.  If you would like a head start, add the following to your exercise.  You might find your answers in the next exercise to be interesting, since you are beginning to look at the smaller elements that make up thoughts and images.    I will discuss what to do with the answers in my post next week on using advanced  NLP techniques for stress relief.

Exercise for Next week.  After becoming aware of the thoughts underling uncomfortable feelings, answer the following questions:
a.  Is the image in color or black and white?
b.  Is any one else is in the picture? What is their expression?
c.  What effect does their expression have on your feeling?
d. Is anything smaller or larger than life, or is everything life size?
e.  Is there any sound in the picture?”
f.  Is it a snap shot or a moving picture?
g.  Is the image bright or dim?  Is it in focus or out of focus?

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Sorry for the delay in this post. Some family issues came up.  Luckily my family members are familiar with many of  the stress relief exercises I teach and they told me how much it helped to have them ready to  use in their “stress relief tool box.”  Happily things are fine with my family now.

There are many ways to reduce stress.  In the  following exercise we will be changing negative  thoughts and images to change the anxiety/stress  cycle.    By making changes using the conscious part of your mind,  you can begin to re-program your reactions.   The beauty of this exercise is that it can help change old patterns of thinking, without your having to do deep change work on the unconscious level.  The down part is that it does take work to change a habit on the conscious level, but you will find it is well worth your time.

The exercise I am describing today stops the stress cycle at the cognitive level  by changing scary  “thoughts”  into equally possible images that will serve to create calm instead of fear.  There are other exercises to release anxiety at the physical and emotional part of the stress cycle which use hypnotic techniques to get to unconscious information at the root of the problem.

It is important to understand that your own thoughts create physical reactions.  Even a quick thought can generate a physical reaction in the body.  For example, when you  imagine biting into a lemon your body creates a puckering in your mouth as you “taste” the lemon.  Your thoughts touch off and trigger a physical reaction.  Although there wasn’t a “real” lemon, the reaction was the same “as if” there was.  If one never had tasted a lemon, there would be no reaction..

Thinking about someone you love will create a very different reaction or vibration in the body than thinking of a situation that caused upset.    What you think has an impact on the “vibrations” that go through your  body.

Therefore the way you use your mind can lead to positive vibrations, which lead to feelings of happiness, joy and contentment.   Or to uncomfortable vibrations which lead to feelings of anger, upset, hurt or anxiety.

Use this exercise to change thought patterns.  Whenever an old unwanted thought pops up,  change it to a more positive image and then  “steps into” the new desired image, as if it were real.  You are already good at this if you have created anxiety using your thoughts, we are just using your thoughts in a way that will work better for your health and well begin.    The more you use this technique (by stepping into the positive image)  the more power the image will feel.

Using your imagination to “be in the positive future image” works in a number of ways.  It not only changes the negative image – it also actually begins to creates a new “memory.”  The mind stores the new image, as if it had already happened.  For this type of technique to be effective, the new positive image needs to be just as strong as the old “scary” image.  There are  hypnotic ways of creating powerful images that you can also learn,  they will be more powerful and work more quickly than just using the conscious part of your mind,  but this is a good place to start.

In my next post I will give a detailed worksheet for using this method of changing negative thought to positive ones.  It is called the “2 for 1 Exercise” because you will need to create 2 positive thoughts for each negative you.

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Question:  Are there different techniques that can be used to get relief from worry?
There are many different ways to stop negative thoughts that results in  stress and worry.  We can break the stress cycle in three different areas.  There are techniques that work on the thought or cognitive part of the worry cycle.  I will give an example of something you can put to use right away for this part of the worry cycle.

There are also techniques that are easy to learn for the physical part (that includes the reactions of your body).  One technique is designed to change the breathing pattern and is called the HAAA breath.

And there are very advanced techniques that be used on emotional part of the cycle.  These usually involve the help of someone trained in techniques of hypnotherapy, time line and vibrational healing.  These techniques go to the root of where reactions come from and heal them there.  After doing this type of work people say that is feels like a weight is lifted off of them

The technique I will share today breaks the worry cycle by changing thoughts that create stress.

The secret to getting relief from worry.
You have a special gift inside of your own mind, just waiting to be opened.  It is one you can learn to use to stay in control of your state of mind, no matter what is going on around you.

This secret is what Viktor Frankl used, that allowed him to survive the holocaust and maintain his mental balance.   It is what author Napoleon Hill weaves into his famous advice on achieving financial success in “Think and Grow Rich.” And it is something that you have within yourself right now, like a gift, all wrapped up waiting for you to unwrap and put into immediate use.

Anyone can learn to use this gift.  And the really amazing thing about this gift is that it never gets used up. The more you use it the more powerful it becomes.

There are 2 things you need to open and use this wonderful gift to control your emotional state at will.  The first is an understanding of how the mind works, both on the conscious and unconscious level. And the second is the step-by-step method of creating what you want in your life, instead of what you don’t want.

To understand the way your mind works, it’s important to know the two major ways that people create negative, uncomfortable feelings.

1) Thinking about upsetting past events.
2) Thinking about awful things that might happen in the future

When you concentrate on all the possible negative scenarios that have happened in the past or might come about in the future, the thoughts, pictures and memories that move through your mind trigger feelings of worry, sadness, overwhelm, fear and insecurity. Thoughts can even create pain in the body. Sometimes you are aware of the thoughts, and at other times you are completely unaware.

The good news is that you can get relief from even the most painful feelings by learning to change thought patterns that bring them about.   More on this in my post tomorrow

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The news reports tell us that we’re in a recession, people all around are losing their jobs, and maybe you are feeling that you can’t trust mortgage companies, brokerage houses, even the bank, your retirement is in jeopardy so how is it that millions of people are still smiling?

You might be thinking that they have found the secret to financial security.  No, that isn’t the reason for their smiles.  They do have a secret and it has nothing to do with the size of their bank account.

Their secret will be revealed in this article. Their secret will be revealed in in my next post.  It is one you can learn to use to stay in control of your state of mind, no matter what is happening with the economy. No matter the stressors, no matter the up and downs of the stock market, it is something that no one can take away from you.  More to come . Excerpt from article by Audrey Sussman PhD

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Here is the first in our series of weekly posts to answer your questions.  Keep sending your questions to askdraudrey@gmail.com or go to anxietycontrolcenter.com and leave a comment.

(Excerpt from email)

Dear Dr. Sussman,
I thoroughly enjoyed your seminar this Saturday and would love to meet with you for a consultation. . .
There were also a few questions I was unable to ask at the seminar. . .

QUESTION: If you fall asleep during a hypnotic therapy session do you wake us in order to move forward, meaning is there an awake participation that is required throughout the therapy session?

ANSWER:  During the hypnotic work we will be doing, you will be awake and aware, just in a slightly altered state so we can access information from the unconscious.  It is similar to when you are watching TV and you’re “in the action” so to speak,  but if someone asks you for the time you would be able to respond easily.

QUESTION: Do you practice EFT at all?

ANSWER: I am familiar with EFT and do some techniques that are similar.  But, I like to be able to “see” what is changing, and discuss it with you.  There is a lot of interaction as you watch the changes happening in the old emotions.  Your be amazed as new learnings, and beliefs are incorporated on your time line, all the way to “the present.”

QUESTION: My insurance company allows for so many visits a year for mental health, would this be a part of that? Do you submit to any insurance companies?

ANSWER: As for insurance.  The way we work it you pay as you go, then you submit a receipt to your insurance company and they reimburse you, whatever your plan provides for.  We can give you some codes so you can check with your insurance company.  HMO type insurance typically does not cover.

QUESTION:  Are there any books that you recommend? I already had written down your book, the Power of Thought.

ANSWER:   There are many great books I recommend.  I am happy that you felt stimulated to continue your education, that was the second goal of the workshop on Saturday.   As we work together I’ll talk to you about specific books that you’ll find helpful in continuing your education about he power of your own mind.

Some books are very scientific somewhat technical, and others are helpful and easy to read.  And of course many along the spectrum.  My book “Power of Thought, untold secrets of the unconscious” can only be ordered through me at this time. For a scientific type of author look of Ernsest Rossi. For books on NLP look for either Bandler or Grinder, they have some great books on NLP.  We we speak I’ll give you names of books and authors that are specific to your needs and learning style.

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10 ESSENTIAL REMINDERS TO REDUCE STRESS

1. Inner peace is possible, even in the midst of a stressful event.

2. Stress originates in the way you think about things and what you say to yourself.

3. The experience of stress is the result of thought.

4.  It is your mind you can use it to your benefit.

5.  You can reprogram thoughts so they are enhancing and inspiring.

6.  Use the anchoring technique to create a state of excellence with the resources you already have.

7.  When you start to tap into your inner creative potential, you will feel uplifted and empowered.

8.   Even when you can’t change the situation, you can change the way you think about it.

9.   Stress is not something that happens to you, but rather something that develops because of the thoughts you have.

10. To begin to reprogram negative thinking.  Stop for a moment, and create two possible positive thoughts for each negative one.

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