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"How to Raise Self Esteem: Part One"

Copyright: Colin G Smith
http://www.NLPToolBox.com
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Have you ever felt bad about yourself? Most people have at some point
in their life, including the most exceptional of characters. It's part
of the human experience.

A person that regularly experiences negative feelings such as, self-
hate, guilt, shame and embarrassment is commonly referred to as having
low self esteem. One of the main problems with breaking out of these
emotional habit patterns is that a person with low self esteem tends
to 'beat themselves up' with overly critical self-talk such as, "I
shouldn't be feeling like this" or "Why am I feeling like this", and
unfortunately this creates a looping effect which re-enforces the
crappy feelings!

So just how do you snap out of that kind of low energy level
wretchedness and raise self esteem? Well, one of the master keys to
using your brain is to keep in mind the fact that it goes in
directions. Your thought patterns are 'directionalised.'

Allow me to explain. If you kept having thoughts along the lines of,
"I am a useless person", then that would become a self-fulfilling
prophecy. Because you'd set that up as the direction for your brain to
go in you would keep finding 'evidence' that proved it was 'true!'
There's a great quote from philosopher, Robert Anton Wilson; "What
ever the thinker thinks, the prover proves."

Basically you need to adopt a new thinking pattern that heads in an
empowering direction. A really quick way to do this is to use a
technique known as disassociation.  

Think of situation where you would like to raise your self esteem
feelings and notice what you can see in this experience. Now imagine
stepping outside of yourself and pushing that picture off into the
distance over there onto a movie screen. So you can see yourself, in
that situation, on the movie screen.

That's great! Notice how your feelings have already changed. It's as
if you're having feelings about the feelings and this frees up your
inner resources so you can gain new self - esteeming perspectives and
insights.

Looking at that movie with you in it ask yourself, "If I were to learn
something useful about this situation what would it be?" And you can
also ask the very powerful question, "If I act as if or pretend there
is a positive intention behind my behaviour/feelings what would that
be?"  Don't struggle with it. Just guess if it helps you get an
answer. The main point is does it get your mind going in a more
positive direction: Does it feel better?

Why not run through some other scenarios with the procedure above and
become aware of just how much more you really can raise self esteem
with a little bit of effort.  

In part two of this Article I will introduce you to a very powerful
technique from the field of NLP that is one of the fastest and most
effective methods of creating change.

-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-
Author Bio:
Colin G Smith is a licensed Master Practitioner of Neuro-
Linguistic Programming (NLP) and author of 'The NLP
ToolBox', a personal development book that enables the
reader to master any area of their life with amazing speed.
Complete information on Colin G Smith's books are available
at his website, including a FREE personal development eBook.
http://www.NLPToolBox.com
-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-

Get Your FREE "NLP ToolBox" Personal Development Course!

It's a Five Part Mini-Course revealing Powerful Secrets to Boost your Self-Esteem, Increase Your Confidence and much
more....

-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-
"How to Raise Self Esteem: Part Two"

    Copyright: Colin G Smith
    http://www.NLPToolBox.com
-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-

In this second part of the article about how to raise self esteem I
would like to introduce you to a wonderful technique from the field of
Neuro Linguistic Programming (NLP) known as 'The Swish.'

Using this technique you can re-program your thought process's to move
away from the unwanted behaviour (i.e. "I am a useless person")
towards a healthier thinking process such as, "I am learning to be
more resourceful." It's one of the quickest ways to re-direct your
habitual thinking patterns!

To give this process a go right now please answer the following simple
question: Think of a specific situation where you feel low-self
esteem, for example standing in a long queue or speaking in public or
asserting yourself with someone.

Become aware of the first picture you see through your own eyes just
before you feel the crappy feelings. We'll call this the cue image.

Now put that aside for a moment and ask yourself the following, "If I
were to think of something that made me feel good how would that feel
now?"

It's important to remember that this doesn't need to be something
perfect. The question is, "Does it feel better than the low self
esteem feeling?" If you're having difficulty accessing a good feeling
try the following:

Think about your favourite pet/animal.
How many things can you feel gratitude for?
What is your favourite food?
Who do you admire?
Which music turns you on?

That feels better right? So if you were to symbolise that good feeling
what would it look like? It can just be a colour if you wish!

Notice that when you look at that symbol and make it bigger and bring
it closer and crank up the colour and brightness it makes you feel
even better doesn't it.

So the next step to re-program you mind is about to begin!

Picture that cue-image again if you will. You know the one that cued
up the crappy feelings. Bring it closer and make it bigger and
brighter.

Now in the middle place a small, postage stamp sized image of the
'good feeling symbol.'

This is the exciting part; the actual swish.

Imagine zooming the crappy feeling cue image off into the distance,
noticing it getting smaller and dimmer as it goes off away from you.

AND at the same time bring the good feeling symbol closer and make it
bigger and brighter.

Then blank the screen. Simply imagine you've blanked your inner mental
screen. Some people seen a big black board or others see a white
screen.

Do the actual 'swishing' several times until you can imagine doing it
in less than half a second.

The final steps are to break your current state: Think of something
totally different like what you ate for breakfast or do times tables
in your head.

And now think of the original cue image and notice that your feelings
have changed!

I have used a simplified version of the NLP Swish technique in this
article because the standard procedure utilises the visualising of a
desired self-image which I know can be quite challenging to achieve if
a person is feeling very low. The full step-by-step version of the
technique, along with many more tips, can be found in "The NLP
ToolBox" and "The Half-Second Rule."

Low self esteem and it's associated 'victim behaviour' have a tendency
to re-enforce themselves resulting in a person suffering with feelings
of low energy. To break out of these kinds of habitual patterns and
raise self esteem it is necessary to do something different. Anything
else to break the patterns!

The NLP Swish technique is a very effective tool for breaking out of
destructive patterns along with NLP's many other useful change
methods.

-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-
Author Bio:
Colin G Smith is a licensed Master Practitioner of Neuro-
Linguistic Programming (NLP) and author of 'The NLP
ToolBox', a personal development book that enables the
reader to master any area of their life with amazing speed.
Complete information on Colin G Smith's books are available
at his website, including a FREE personal development eBook.
http://www.NLPToolBox.com
-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-

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"The Swish Pattern: Change Habits Quickly With NLP"

Copyright: Colin G Smith
http://www.NLPToolBox.com/
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The Swish Pattern was discovered by using Neuro-linguistic programming
(NLP) to model what people do inside their minds. So the fact is you
actually do "Swish's" already! The Siwsh Pattern Technique will enable
you to consciously create the changes you want in a powerful way.

Have you ever heard the phrase, "you get more of what you focus on" ?
I'm sure you have because it's a popular phrase that is an accurate
description of how the mind works. For example if I were to ask you to
remember a favourite holiday experience and as you recall it now I
could get you to focus on more and more aspects by asking what
specifically did you see, hear, smell, taste and feel in the
experience.

So what happens with behavioural and thinking habits is that the mind
focus's on something and goes in that direction; rather like a guided
missile. Of course not being perfect enlightened beings just yet our
minds acquire unwanted habits. We can use NLP's Swish Pattern
technique to re-direct our brain away from the unwanted focus, towards
a new wanted directional focus.

This 'away from X, towards Y' principle creates a very powerful
motivational strategy known as a propulsion system. The Swish Pattern
makes full use of this principle to generate quick and effective
results.

One of the great things about the swish pattern is that it creates
generative change. Remedial change is where you fix problem X, such as
a phobia of dogs, and that is that. Generative change on the other
hand generalises change into other areas of your life. Because the
Swish Pattern utilises Self-Image as part of the technique you can
look forward to greater self-esteem in other areas of your life.

To clarify what I mean imagine you used 'the swish' to resolve a habit
of feeling low self-esteem when asserting yourself with your partner.
Because of the generative aspect of the technique you would probably
be pleased to discover feelings of greater self-esteem in other areas
of your life too. For example when talking to a certain colleague.

You know, your mind learns quickly! The Swish Pattern makes use of the
Half Second Rule principle which allows your mind to be reprogrammed
in such a way as to make the change stick and become automatic! Just
imagine that, no need to keep consciously remembering to focus on the
new direction. Once you've done the Swish Pattern you will have re-
wired your brain and the new habit will be on auto-pilot!

-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-
Colin G Smith is a licensed Master Practitioner of Neuro-Linguistic
Programming (NLP) and author of 'The Half Second Rule: Your Master Key
to Safe, Rapid & Effective Change', his NEW Special Report that
empowers the reader to quickly easily and safely make profound
personal changes using the principles and techniques of the half-
second rule.
http://www.NLPToolBox.com/
-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-

Get Your FREE "NLP ToolBox" Personal Development Course!

It's a Five Part Mini-Course revealing Powerful Secrets to Boost your Self-Esteem, Increase Your Confidence and much
more....

-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-
"Fast Phobia Cure: Get Results Within 10 Minutes"

Copyright: Colin G Smith
http://www.NLPToolBox.com/
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Even now that fact is hard for many people to accept! The truth is
though, the Fast Phobia Cure has now been in existence for over twenty
years and has been used successfully on 100's of thousands of people.
From simple Poodle Phobias to more extreme cases such as Vietnam war
survivors with horrific traumatic memories. Gone  are the months of
psycho-therapy, reliving pain and spending loads of your hard earned
cash.

I suspect you've probably heard of NLP by now. To keep it simple NLP
is a technology that enables people to model human excellence. The
original co-creators of NLP, Bandler & Grinder created the Fast Phobia
Cure by modelling people who had had phobias and gotten rid of them.
NLP states that, "What one person can do, another person can learn to
do the same": Modelling.

So Bandler & Grinder asked these people specific questions to discover
what went on in their heads and created the Fast Phobia Cure
technique. The First part of the process involves disassociation. That
is, you see yourself in the phobic situation as if on a movie screen.
Just this one step is very useful because it allows you to have
feelings about the feelings: Meta Feelings. This enables you to gain
useful insights and access more resources.

The next part of the process involves re-organising the structure of
the phobic response: The anchored associations and triggers that make
you have the phobic response. The way this is achieved is by imagining
the movie being rewound, so you experience everything backwards. This
is done very fast utilising the Half Second Rule.

Doing this process scrambles the phobic associations and re-organises
your brains synapses so that you learn to have new responses. The
entire technique can be learned and applied in less than 10 minutes.

Classically the technique is known as the Fast Phobia Cure, however I
prefer to call it the Anxiety Removal Machine because it can be used
to successfully remove anxious feelings associated with future events
and not just phobias.

I believe many more people need to know about this amazing technique
along with other rapid change techniques that utilise the Half Second
Rule. There are many people suffering in the world who would be very
pleased to learn about techniques that can 'fix them' within 10
minutes!

-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-
Colin G Smith is a licensed Master Practitioner of Neuro-Linguistic
Programming (NLP) and author of 'The Half Second Rule: Your Master Key
to Safe, Rapid & Effective Change', his NEW Special Report that
empowers the reader to quickly, easily and safely make profound
personal changes using the principles and techniques of the half-
second rule. http://www.NLPToolBox.com/
-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-

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"The Half-Second Rule"

Copyright: Colin G Smith
http://www.NLPToolBox.com/
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The mind learns fast. A very powerful way to view life is to
experience everything as a learning experience. I think it
was Dr. Richard Bandler (co-creator of NLP) who first made
me realise that Phobias are in fact a learned response. The
mind of the Phobic has learned to associate a stimulus (eg a
Wasp) to a response (eg Panic!)

The more you ponder this idea the more profound you will
realise the implications.

And here's the deal. Does a person develop a phobia of wasps
over time? You know, do they see a wasp one day and then the
next week they see another and decide they don't like them
and get more and more afraid of them?

No. Phobias are 'learned' very, very fast. Out of
consciousness, in less than half a second!

They have an intense emotional response which becomes
associated/anchored to the stimulus in such a way that that
state is AUTOMATICALLY triggered whenever they
see/hear/feel/smell/taste the stimulus again!

This is incredible! The persons mind will from then on
automatically go into a very altered state, within half a
second of experiencing the stimulus.

Now I think you'd agree, phobias aren't exactly useful,
right?

But, what if you could use that same Stimulus/Response
mechanism to create automatic states of Joy, Ecstasy, Fun
and Bliss.

Would that be useful to you in any area of you life? ;)

Now for sure they are many other ways of creating effective
change. Some methods use different concepts and are slower
to implement. With this article I wanted to introduce you
to the half-second rule concepts because they are less well
known than other "change-technologies" and they lend
themselves well to generating more fun because they are
playful by design.

The following technique is a really fascinating NLP tool
because it makes great use of your unconscious resources.
I only discovered it recently and was surprised to learn
that many 'NLP veterans' didn't know about it either!

Merging Metaphors
(Adapted from a technique called 'Spinning Icons' developed
by Joe Munshaw and Nelson Zink.)

1. Select a problem state. 

2. As you think about your problem state what visual image
comes to mind? Notice where it is located in space. 

3. Break your current state: eg) Remember you phone number
backwards or look up and notice the patterns on the ceiling.
Now think about the desired resource state (or outcome, or
goal) you would like instead. Notice how you represent this
as a visual image. Pay attention to where it is located in
space.

4. Now allow your mind to turn the first picture (problem
state) into a metaphorical symbol or icon. Keep it in the
same location in space. (This visual metaphor could be quite
complex or it may be as simple as a colour. Just trust your
unconscious.)

TOP TIP: It can be useful to ask yourself, "What is this
problem state like?" This often allows a metaphorical
representation to arise.

5. Do the same thing with the desired resource state you
selected in step 3, making sure to place the new metaphor
symbol in the same location in space as the original image.

6. Now see the two metaphor symbols at the same time
noticing their locations in space. Next slowly rotate them
around each other. Keep rotating them around each other and
do so faster and faster. Do this spinning for about 10
seconds allowing the rotation to be so fast that you can no
longer track the images and you may even feel a little
confused.

7. Now allow the images to merge together, that's right. And
push this merged image out in front of you where you can
view it easily. Describe the new image briefly, quickly
moving to step 8.

8. Immediately begin telling WHATEVER story comes to mind.
Just allow yourself to start telling a story. It doesn't
matter what it is. It could be a real memory, a story or
just simply made up ramblings. The point being is that this
process taps into your vast unconscious resources.

9. Now ask yourself, "How is this story relevant to my
problem/challenge?" or "How can this story help resolve my
problem?" (This step can help to give you conscious insight
into how the previous steps have made some useful changes.)

Isn't that a great technique! You know it's got that
magical spirit of curious wonder to it hasn't it?

So I wonder how else could you use a tool like that to
add more magical sparkles to your life?

©2006 Colin G Smith

-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-
Colin G Smith is a licensed Master Practitioner of Neuro-
Linguistic Programming (NLP) and author of 'The Half Second
Rule: Your Master Key to Safe, Rapid & Effective Change',
his NEW Special Report that empowers the reader to quickly
easily and safely make profound personal changes using the
principles and techniques of the half-second rule.
http://www.NLPToolBox.com/

Get Your FREE "NLP ToolBox" Personal Development Course!

It's a Five Part Mini-Course revealing Powerful Secrets to Boost your Self-Esteem, Increase Your Confidence and much
more....

-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-
"The Swish Pattern: Change Habits Quickly With NLP"

Copyright: Colin G Smith
http://www.NLPToolBox.com/special_reports/hsr.htm
-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-

The Swish Pattern was discovered by using Neuro-linguistic programming
(NLP) to model what people do inside their minds. So the fact is you
actually do "Swish's" already! The Siwsh Pattern Technique will enable
you to consciously create the changes you want in a powerful way.

Have you ever heard the phrase, "you get more of what you focus on" ?
I'm sure you have because it's a popular phrase that is an accurate
description of how the mind works. For example if I were to ask you to
remember a favourite holiday experience and as you recall it now I
could get you to focus on more and more aspects by asking what
specifically did you see, hear, smell, taste and feel in the
experience.

So what happens with behavioural and thinking habits is that the mind
focus's on something and goes in that direction; rather like a guided
missile. Of course not being perfect enlightened beings just yet our
minds acquire unwanted habits. We can use NLP's Swish Pattern
technique to re-direct our brain away from the unwanted focus, towards
a new wanted directional focus.

This 'away from X, towards Y' principle creates a very powerful
motivational strategy known as a propulsion system. The Swish Pattern
makes full use of this principle to generate quick and effective
results.

One of the great things about the swish pattern is that it creates
generative change. Remedial change is where you fix problem X, such as
a phobia of dogs, and that is that. Generative change on the other
hand generalises change into other areas of your life. Because the
Swish Pattern utilises Self-Image as part of the technique you can
look forward to greater self-esteem in other areas of your life.

To clarify what I mean imagine you used 'the swish' to resolve a habit
of feeling low self-esteem when asserting yourself with your partner.
Because of the generative aspect of the technique you would probably
be pleased to discover feelings of greater self-esteem in other areas
of your life too. For example when talking to a certain colleague.

You know, your mind learns quickly! The Swish Pattern makes use of the
Half Second Rule principle which allows your mind to be reprogrammed
in such a way as to make the change stick and become automatic! Just
imagine that, no need to keep consciously remembering to focus on the
new direction. Once you've done the Swish Pattern you will have re-
wired your brain and the new habit will be on auto-pilot!

-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-
Colin G Smith is a licensed Master Practitioner of Neuro-Linguistic
Programming (NLP) and author of 'The Half Second Rule: Your Master Key
to Safe, Rapid & Effective Change', his NEW Special Report that
empowers the reader to quickly easily and safely make profound
personal changes using the principles and techniques of the half-
second rule. http://www.NLPToolBox.com/special_reports/hsr.htm
-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-