Vaknin - change limiting beliefs

It may be hard for an egg to turn into a bird: it would be a jolly sight harder for it to learn to fly while remaining an egg. We are like eggs at present. And you cannot go on indefinitely being just an ordinary, decent egg. We must be hatched or go bad.

- C.S. Lewis

One afternoon, while I was editing this book, my four-year old daughter came into the room and asked me what I was working on. I told her it was a book about limiting beliefs, to which she immediately replied with a shout, " limiting beliefs are yucky!!! ", and ran away. That's actually a pretty good title for the book, I thought to myself.

This book is a purely practical-oriented book. This is not a thesis about beliefs, and you will not find here any psychological theories or text fillers to make this book thicker. The bookstores are filled to the brim with such books, so I really don't see the need to write another one.

Our beliefs exert a significant influence on our thoughts and behavior. Whether negative or positive, beliefs work behind the scenes and seem to be involved in every decision we make.

Stress, self-doubt, critical inner voice, anxiety, and so much more-are often times the product of limiting beliefs, which are simply consistent cognitive processes we have learned-unconsciously-and been brainwashed with since childhood. We now have the tools to track them down, and change them.

The first volume of this book covers all the most efficient techniques with which I have practical experience as a private therapist. The techniques are provided in 12 sessions. By all means, you don't need to go through these sessions one by one, or even in order, and definitely you do not have to experience all of them in order to get results.

If you're working with a client, simply follow the instructions. If you bought this book in order to work on your own limiting beliefs, you can record the instructions on your smart phone or a computer and listen to them later when you're ready to work through the procedures.

The second volume contains a collection of the most frequently encountered personal beliefs, both positive and negative, that I have heard from clients over the course of my 25 years in private practice. Many times, were not fully aware of our beliefs-one way to pass that filter is to explore other peoples belief systems-thats what its about.

Open Vol.II on any page and pick a random phrase. If a sentence rings true to you, its a belief you hold. If its a positive statement and your mind goes yeah, right, Im the opposite of that!-you just found a triggering observation, for which further exploration might be in order.

The reason why two volumes are preferable to one large book is so that you, much like I do in my private practice, could give the second volume to your client so they may browse it at home and highlight the phrases that they feel are most applicable to their experience of life. This will assist you in establishing treatment outcomes and therapeutic milestones, and it will increase your client's satisfaction with the intervention you provide.

I've done my best to make the explanations as easy to understand as possible, using the minimum necessary jargon of NLP. If you find some instructions hard to understand, please revisit your knowledge of the basics of NLP, or consider reading the book NLP: Start Here before you continue.

My advice before we begin: keep your eyes on the prize. It's not always very simple or easy to change hard-core limiting beliefs that you have carried with you since childhood, and the process can become quite messy, or as my daughter accurately described it, "yucky". However, if you approach the process with a positive and well-formed outcome in mind, and persevere, there is no doubt in my mind that you will come out the other side as a different, highly congruent person.

To download free NLP related resources, visit my website at: www.nlpkb.com

Reality what a concept

- Robin Williams

Session

I

Belief systems serve as the overarching framework for any transformation activity that you do. You can teach someone to sing as long as they are conscious and able to provide feedback on their progress. People, on the other hand, who truly believe they are unable to do something, will find an instinctual means to prevent the change from occurring. They'll figure out a way to interpret the results in a manner consistent with their current beliefs.

In this session we will work with synesthesia in order to alter the perception of a limiting belief into a learning experience. As a reminder, synesthesia is the process of intentional representational systems overlapping, as manifested by phenomena such as sight-feeling pathways, in which a person develops sensations about what they see, and sound-feeling pathways, in which a person develops sensations about what they hear. Any two sensory modalities can be connected in this way.

Select a limiting belief to work with.

Note the physiological markers and eye position related to the belief.

Determine what occurs internally in each of the representational systems (VAK) throughout the belief framework.

Eye Accessing Cues (if the person is situated in front of you):

V c = Visual Constructed Up Left

V r = Visual Remembered Up Right

A c = Auditory Constructed Lateral Right

A r = Auditory Remembered Lateral Left

K = Kinesthetic Sensations - Down Left

A d = Auditory Digital Internal Dialogue - Down Right

No eye movement - already accessed the information.