Mommy, make it go away!
The purpose of this NLP exercise is to prevent uncomfortable memories from pushing themselves into consciousness and taking over how you feel.
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This exercise is similar to the NLP Whiteout Technique and you may wish to experiment with both these exercises along with the usual submodality shifts to find out which of the NLP exercises work best for you.
It is important to understand the steps so that you can perform this exercise without any doubt as to what you are doing and why.
It is a good idea to read the NLP Submodalities and NLP Memory Manipulation lessons before attempting this exercise so that you have an idea of the kind of change you're trying to achieve.
So is there a memory that keeps forcing itself into your conscious attention, and makes you feel bad? Maybe something that happened and you feel bad about how it went, or how you responded to it. Often situations where we feel we should have responded differently fit this method as we often get stuck thinking about different ways we should have acted.
Well, as you think about that memory now, notice that the image in your mind has a location in space.
The image could be directly in front of you?. It could be to the right or left, or even behind you. Some people also project images around them as if in a surround cinema.
Now attempt to move the picture towards you slightly then move it back into its original position.
Did that work easily?
Now you have control over the image, imagine in front of you a giant slingshot.
“The easier you can make it inside your head, the easier it will make things outside your head.”
And place the picture so it nestles in the center of the slingshot.
Either in your mind or actually using your hands, reach forward and pull the slingshot back towards you.
Feel the tension in the elastic build as you stretch it all the way back, pause, and then let it go with a loud twang.
Now watch the picture shoot off until it's just a dot in the distance.
Think about something else for a moment such as what you ate last, anything really to break your state, then think of the memory again.
Is it in it's original position or has it moved?
“We need to learn to treat our own brain better – understanding how it works will help us do that.”
Pull out your slingshot again and give it another go.
Keep doing this until the memory has no effect on your state at all and stays a dot in the distance when you think of it.
In my mind I keep a trash can and when I have a memory that is really annoying me I imagine it on a piece of paper, then reach out and scrunch it up, before dropping it into the trash can to my left with a satisfying crash.
Note: The noises are not just for my own amusement.
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