1 Think of something that you believe strongly. (That the sun will come up tomorrow.)
2 Notice what images, sounds, and feelings arise when you think about this belief and your certainty in it.
3 Go down through the list of submodalities below and note all the qualities of the belief.
4 Think of something that you doubt or are not sure of. (Maybe this, maybe that.)
5 Notice what images, sounds, and feelings arise when you think about this thought and your uncertainty about it.
6 Go down through the list of submodalities below and note all the qualities of the thought.
7 Note especially the differences between the strong belief and what you are uncertain of.
Now that you have your list, let’s take a look at it. What you know now is the difference between what constitutes a strong belief and what constitutes something that you’re unsure of. Once you know the difference between these two, you can get a semblance of control. If you’re reading this book there are probably some things about yourself that you want to change, therefore the first step is to make yourself believe that you can.
Start out and think of a problem you believe you have. It doesn’t matter what kind of problem it is. If you believe that you don’t have enough confidence or if you believe that you’re insecure, either would work. The odd thing about believing that you’re insecure is that people are always secure in the knowledge that they believe that they’re insecure.
For our purposes here, what we want you to do is to start out and, just like the belief that the sun is coming up tomorrow, you probably believe that you’ll have this problem tomorrow. Look at your problem in the same place that your belief was and the first thing to do is to look at it and say, I’m tired of this. Over the years, I’ve discovered that the moment people really change is when they simply decide that enough is enough.
Most people are not fed up enough with their problems. They may seem to be frustrated beyond belief. I’ve had people with Obsessive Compulsive Disorder whose every moment, every morning, noon, and night, was consumed with rituals designed to find comfort. They had to lock and unlock the door fifteen times, wash their hands a thousand times in a day but they became so frustrated that they finally said, Enough is Enough. I’m just not doing this any more. This is the moment where people really change themselves. But we’ll come back to this later.
The first thing that we want to do is to take a look at what it is that you want to get rid of and what you want to add. You want to get rid of your self-doubt and add more belief in yourself. You want to get rid of your fears and add more confidence. Whatever it is, when you think about your problem, you probably have believed that you were going to have it for the rest of your life.
When you look at this belief that it is going to be here for the rest of your life, I want you to do a few small things with it. Literally, push the picture off in the distance and move it over and pull it up into that place of uncertainty so, when you look at it, and you think, Am I gonna be stuck like this for ever? You say, Ehhh, maybe yes, maybe no.
In order to make it so that it sticks in any other position, it’s important that you do this very, very fast. So, to make it that you can place this old, limiting belief inside your uncertainty, you have to take a hold of the image and do something with it. You have to push it all the way off so that it’s twenty feet away, move it across your midline and pull it up on the other side into the submodality qualities of uncertainty so that what was a strong belief becomes uncertainty.
Then you need to do the opposite. You need to take the image of what you want to believe, such as that you will be free from this problem and happy and well in the future, and push this image out twenty feet, move it over and pull it up into the position and submodalities of your strong belief.
This allows you to change your beliefs and begin to believe in yourself and in a brighter future. When you have control over what you believe, you can start generating new, resourceful beliefs that help you to live happier and better than ever before. When you follow the steps to this exercise, you’ll find yourself with a plan that you can implement to help you change your expectations of the future.
The Belief Change Technique (Belief Swish Pattern)
1 Think of a limiting belief you no longer want to have. For example, that you will have your problem for the rest of your life, or for quite a while at least.
2 Think of a resourceful belief that you do want to have. For example, that you will be free from your problem for the rest of your life and live very happily.
3 Study the submoda lities of certainty and uncertainty that you have already elicited.
4 Imagine the limiting belief you want to get rid of firing off into the distance and snapping back into the submodalities of the uncertainty.
5 At the same time imagine the resourceful belief firing off into the distance and snapping back into the submodalities of the strong belief.
6 Repeat this a number of times, each time quickly.
Most problems that we face in life, as I have said already, happen in our minds. Furthermore, problems generally exist in our concept of the past and the future. The past and the future don’t exist except in our minds.
When people mentally suffer, they usually do so by feeling bad about the past, feeling stuck in the present, or feeling scared or worried about the future. In language, we talk about ‘getting over’ things and putting things ‘behind’ us. We talk about getting through what’s right in front of us. We talk about getting ‘to’ things and looking ‘forward to’ our future. For many, this is an indication of how they actually represent time. In order to change how we think about and process the past and the future, let’s explore the concept of timelines.
TIMELINES How You Mentally Code Time
Timelines refer to your own ability to code time. We think about time in certain ways. The images of the past will be in a different place than the images of the future. If you think about events in the past and imagine events in the future and notice where they are located in your mental space, you can draw an imaginary line from the past to the future and that will be your timeline.
For example, think about you brushing your teeth five years ago. Notice where you represent the image. Next, think about brushing your teeth one year ago. Notice the location. Think about brushing your teeth today. Again, notice where the image is. Think about brushing your teeth in one year and then again in five years. When you notice where each image is you can create an imaginary line linking all the images. This is your timeline and it shows you how you think about time spatially.
Generally, there are two main types of timelines. One is where time is spread out with the future in front of you and the past behind you and the present inside of you. This is referred to as ‘in time.’ The other is when the past is to the front of you located on your left, the present is straight in front of you, and the future is in front of you to your right. This is known as ‘through time.’
The differences between locating your timeline in these two ways are that there is usually a difference about how you approach time. For example, people who code time ‘in time’ generally don’t remember the past very much or very often – they put the past ‘behind them.’ People who tend to code time ‘through time’ on the other hand, can usually remember incidents easily and tend to be pretty punctual.
Discover Your Timeline
1 Think