Music
affects both the mind and the body. It affects our brain waves.
When we are relaxed, our brainwaves are slower. Music with around
60 beats per minute corresponds with the human heart at rest.
When you wish to get into your calm relaxed state, you might play
some tranquil classical pieces such as Chopin's Berceuse in D
Flat Major, or Bach's Air on the G string.
Baroque music is good for creating a state of relaxed awareness.
Try largo and adagio passages in pieces composed around 1600 to
1750, e.g. Bach, Mozart, Handel, etc.
~~~
Our memories
are stored as associations with our senses. For example, aromas
are particularly powerful. Perhaps you used to wear a certain
perfume or aftershave? Now the smell of it takes you back to the
time and context in which you wore it. Was there a time in your
life when you felt calm, relaxed and confident during which you
wore a certain scent or used a certain shower gel or maybe fabric
softener? We make positive and negative associations or ‘anchors’
all the time, including with scents.
How to get calm
Read through
this technique before you do it, so you’re clear what to
do.
Remember a
time when you felt at peace and in control, when you felt really
calm. Fully return to it now:
~ See what
you saw
~ Hear what you heard
~ Feel any physical sensations you felt – cool, warm…
~ Smell any aromas you smelt
~ Feel how good you felt
~ Feel how calm you felt
Can’t
remember a time when you were perfectly calm? Imagine how wonderful
it would be to be peaceful - calm, comfortable and in control
– where that would happen, what it would look like, feel
like, sound like.
Play this
experience in your mind again. This time make the colours richer,
the sounds crisper, the feelings more intense. When you’re
feeling these good feelings, squeeze your thumb and middle finger
of your right hand. In doing this you’re associating this
specific pressure with this specific feeling.
Run through
this memory at least another five times, squeezing your finger
and thumb together as you enjoy the experience of feeling calm,
comfortable and in control. You’ll know when you’ve
done it enough times, when all it takes is to squeeze your middle
finger and thumb together to regenerate those lovely warm calm
feelings in you.
Now when you
feel a little stressed or anxious, fire off that calm anchor by
squeezing your middle finger and thumb of your right hand together
to flood your mind with feelings of easy and comfortable calm.
Warm wishes,
Louise Goddard,
Confidence Coach,
Licensed Master Practitioner of NLP and Certified Hypnotist
