In previous article we
talked about what is mind programming and how it can make you super achiever.
We also talked about best time for mind programming. In this article we will
talk about some mind programming methods. As explained earlier in mind programming
we actually don’t control mind but we convince the mind use its infinite power.
We just convince our mind to do those things that we want by attaching pleasure
with those actives and we attaché pain with those activities from which we want
to get ride so here are some of the techniques to associate pain and pleasure
with mind-
Creative Visualization
Visualization is an ability
to form new images and sensations in the mind without perceiving through
senses. Visualization is a very powerful technique to associate pain and pleasure
with certain activities. In this technique you just need to mentally visualize
the benefits you will get from doing certain things or pain that you will
receive from certain things. Suppose you want to reduce your weight then just
visualize yourself that you have reduced your weight and people are
appreciating you. You are star in your circle. Close your eyes and visualize
whatever benefits you will achieve from weight loosing. The mental images
should be very clear. If you have planned to become a public speaker then see
yourself delivering lectures, and listen the claps of audience. Just imagine
people are appreciating you. Imagine how vividly your audience wants to talk to
you. Make a beautiful mental movie. Associate as much as pleasure you can attach
with your public speaking goal. If you want to quit smoking then you need to
associate pain with cigarette so imagine that you are sleeping in a hospital
suffering from cancer.
Imagine your wife and your children are crying. Make the
painful visualization. You have to attaché so much pain with cigarettes that
after some time you will start to hate cigarettes. If you want to learn
swimming then visualizes you are swimming and enjoying and attaché all the
pleasure that you can imagine. If you want to learn driving then you visualize driving
like a free bird. Visualize yourself the benefits you will receive from
driving. You need to create the picture of everything that you will be doing
after learning driving. So whatever you want to do in your life or whatever you
want to stop doing in life you just need to visualize those things.
Try to involve as much as
senses in your mental movie, try to listen the voice, try to smell, feel the
touch. As much the mental movie and images will be clear as much the emotions
will be associated with the object. There is no fix duration for this
technique. You can do it as long as you start to feel enough liking for that
object.
WRT
Technique
WRT is a very simple
technique and used in aid of visualization technique. I used this technique
extensively whenever I started to do something new. WRT simply stands for
Watch, Read, and Talk. It means whatever you want to learn or you want to do,
you start to read about it, you start to watch videos about it and start to
talk with people about it. Suppose your New Year goal is to improve
relationship with your spouse then start reading articles about relationship,
watch the videos on YouTube about happy relationship, talk with friends about
relationships. If you want to learn music then read about the musical artists,
about their life, watch the videos of musical artist performing, paste the
posters and images in your room, talk with the people who have common interest.
This technique works in same manner as visualization technique works. It associates
lot of emotions with the object that you want to achieve. So if you want to
achieve anything new in your life then-
Read about them, read about
the people who have achieved those goals
Watch the videos, movies on
You Tube. Watch the posters
Find the people with common
interest. People who have achieved that goal that you want to achieve or those
who wants to achieve same goal. Talk with them about your goals
Temptation
Bundling
Temptation bundling is a
simple way to boost your will power. There are lot of activities where
visualization and WRT failed to associate emotions then this technique can be
used. Once I set a target to run 3 kms every day. I visualized myself slim, fit
and dynamic. I searched lot of motivational pics on Pintrest about running,
talked with friend but despite all of these I was not able to run. My legs
started to pain and I had to stop. Then an idea completely changed my mindset
and I easily started to running lot more than what I planned. What was the idea?
Due to my busy schedule I was not able to listen music which was one of my favorite
pass time so I made a deal with myself that I will listen the music only when I
would be running. I started to run with my iPod listening music. I just shifted
my focus from running to listening music where already lot of emotions was
attached. As long as I will run I will listen the music so more running means
more music and I started to run a lot more than planned.
This technique is
called temptation bundling where you don’t associate pain or pleasure with the
target activity and in place of that you combine the target activity with that
activity where you already have lot of emotions associated like I combined my
running (target activity) with music (already have associated lot of pleasure).
Once I was in a city where I needed to travel one hour in train to reach my
office. Despite my lot of efforts I was not able to associate pleasure with my
journey and I wanted to avoid it but then I decided to read book in the train
and suddenly I started to enjoy that one hour journey. Infect that one hour
started to become best time of my day simply the magic of temptation bundling.
So whatever you want to do in your life and you are finding it boring then just
combine it with another activity that you are passionate to do.
To find out how
to combine it just take a paper and pen. Write down left side your target
activities that you want to do and right side write down the activities that
you are passionate to do and then try to bundle the left side activity with
right side activity. Some of the temptation bundling examples:
- Only listen to audiobooks or podcasts you love while exercising or driving
- Only use gardening in early morning
- Only get a pedicure while processing overdue work emails
- Only watch your favorite show while ironing or doing household work
- Only eat at your favorite restaurant when conducting your monthly meeting with a difficult colleague
Word and Metaphor
Can we program our mind by just changing the word and metaphors we use? Answer
is yes. As explained the functioning of mind in the previous articles: the
mysterious driver, secrets of subconscious mind and human behavior that
response of mind is automatic whenever we send a information to mind to
process, our subconscious mind automatically send the relevant thoughts to mind
and we know that thinking is chain process that means one thought to second
thought and the another similar thought and chain reaction goes on. So when you
say:
I am not going to lose
Your subconscious mind automatically start to send thoughts related to
lose and chain reaction starts all the similar thoughts related to lose starts
to come in mind but when you use this
sentence:
I am going to win
Then your subconscious mind sends the thought related to win and similar
thoughts started to come. The entire process can also be explained by a
psychological phenomenon: Priming
Priming is a subconscious memory effect in which exposure to one
stimulus influences the response of another stimulus and a chain reaction
starts. Initial research on this subject showed that people were faster in
deciding that a string of letter is a word when the word associatively followed
an associatively or semantically related word. This is a very powerful
technique and affects the mind instantly. All the great leaders and speakers
know this technique very well and know how to control someone’s mind by using
this technique. Just read these two sentences and observe your mental feeling,
though both have similar meanings:
- Time Wasted is money down the drain
- Time well spent is an investment
I know you have much positive feeling in second statement. Positive
words and metaphors associate positive feeling with the mind and motivate us to
work it.
Let Go Method
Delhi is the most polluted city of the world and roads are always stuck
in traffic jam. Driving in Delhi streets is nightmare and controlling mind is
very difficult especially in bumper to bumper driving, lane jumping, dangerous
overtaking and illegal parking leaves you highly frustrated. I invented this
technique to keep my mind calm while driving on Delhi roads and later realized
that this technique has wide application. All the techniques mentioned earlier
are for those who knows what they want to achieve and has set their goals but
sometimes our mind is so disturb that we are not able to set the goal. This
technique is for those people who are under high stress or who are in
depression or who are going through tough phase of life.
This technique is not
a complete mind programming technique but it is in between of mind programming
and meditation. This is mix of lot of other techniques like meditation, pranayama,
self-talk, arousal control, words and metaphor etc. The basic theme of this
technique is just to realize that thoughts are just thoughts and we are not
bound to follow the thoughts. This technique brings you out from the vicious
circle of thoughts. The step by step process of this technique is explained
below:
Step 1: Observe your thoughts. First of all you need to observe to your
thoughts. My guru told me that mind is nothing but bundle of thoughts and mind
is like monkey and keep jumping here and there but when you start to observe,
it becomes still. So the same way you need to observe thoughts. Just observe don’t
judge them whether they are positive or negative don’t think about it. You don’t
need to struggle with them, don’t need to stop them or replace them. Just
observe your thoughts without judging. Initially it may be difficult for you so
if you find it difficult then do pranayama for some days and in pranayama session
observe your breath. After some practice you will be master in observing your
thought
Step 2: Disengage yourself from your thoughts: Now you can observe
thought then next step is disengage yourself from the thought. You just need to
accept that if your thought is “I am failure” or “My life is full of pain” is
just a thought- an electrochemical signal. You are not bound to follow that
thought. They are just past memories stored in your subconscious mind. You don’t
need to take action on that thought. You are not thought. You are present
moment. Experience openness, experience the present awareness you are different
from thought. Just let go your thought.
Step 3: Self – talk. You have rejected the thought and now you need to
give value to your life. You need to talk to yourself and tell what is
important for you. You have to strongly put your values and now you are in
state to order your mind. Tell your mind what is important and ask your mind to
do so.
Step 4: Commitment. Now you have discovered what is important for you
then next step is committing yourself. You have to commit yourself that you
will now work on what is important for you and now you need to take action.
By practicing this technique you can change your long term behavior.
When I am driving and I see people rash driving. I feel anger and frustration but
then I start to observe my thoughts. My thoughts are usually: these are stupid,
don’t give them side, overtake them, and feel angry. I don’t struggle with
these just thoughts. I simply disengage myself from these thought. I don’t need
to take action on these thoughts they are just electro chemical signals in my
mind. I am a cool and calm guy I just need to keep calm and enjoy my music and
by this I let go my negative thoughts and come out from the trap of these
thoughts.
In this article I explained five mind programming techniques that I used
extensively in my life. There must be lot of techniques but basic idea is to
convince your mind and use the infinite power of mind. Now after reading these
two articles you must have realized that why we often fail in our goals and the
main reason is before implementing we fail to program our mind. So the revised
steps to achieve the dreams are:
- Set the goal
- Make the plan
- Mind Programming
- Implement the plan
By using these
techniques, I am sure you can convince your mind and can achieve your dreams.
In my next article I will summarize the learnings of these two articles and
will talk about mind set of winners.
