56 Part I: Introducing NLP
- Notice what you see, hear, and feel when you bring back the memory.
- If the memory is a picture, adjust its quality by making it bigger,
brighter, and bringing it closer.
If you’re observing yourself, try stepping into the picture to see whether
this makes you feel even better.
You can find out about ‘stepping into the picture’ in Chapter 10.
Adjusting the qualities of the picture helps you to heighten the positive
emotions.
- Take note of any sounds in the memory.
Does making them louder, or imagining that you can hear the sounds
either inside or outside your head, increase the positive feelings?
- Examine any feelings you have.
Where in your body are you experiencing them? Do they have a colour,
texture, or weight? Does moving the location of the feelings or chang-
ing their colour, texture, and weight alter these feelings? Adjust these
parameters to enhance the feelings.
This exercise allows you to manipulate the qualities of past experiences.
More importantly, you see that you can change the structure of your memo-
ries in order to re-experience and heighten joyful ones, which means that you
can also diminish the effect of negative experiences.
Of course, not all memories are good ones. This second exercise shows you
how to change the qualities of an unpleasant memory and distance yourself
from it. By altering the attributes of a negative memory, you’re able to release
negative emotions that may still be holding you in their grasp. Follow these
steps:
- Recall a memory that’s only marginally unpleasant.
For this exercise, and until you become more practised at NLP tech-
niques, use a memory that isn’t too unpleasant. Please leave heavy-duty
memories such as traumas to when you’re with an experienced NLP
practitioner or therapist.
- Notice the pictures, sounds, and any feelings that the memory
brings up.
- If you’re in the picture, step out of it to become an observer.
We discuss stepping in and out of a picture in Chapter 10. For now, imag-
ine that you’re behind a video camera, filming yourself acting out the
memory.
- Change any sounds so that they’re softer, or perhaps make people in
the picture speak in ridiculous voices.
