I just did the process on on The Unwinding Path (http://www.theunwindingpath.com/?p=106). What I discovered is that the process helped unjumble a lot of things that were beginning to block me. It sort of gave me a new way to refocus a bit. Many of the things that came out of it for me are things that I can use in my self-hypnosis practice, so I will definitely combine the two.

The other thing is that I do utilize affirmations with clients in a similar way to what David suggest doing. I have them put their goal (change) around in various places. Rather than contemplating them, though, I use them as more of a subliminal idea. Eventually the affirmation (or goal) just blends in and one is less consciously aware of it).

My belief is that when the will and imagination conflict… Will loses out. Therefore, if you sat in a place during your day to day life and kept affirming to yourself “I want my mouth to water, I want my mouth to water…” I do not think it is likely that it is going to happen…

However, if you sat in the ame place, used the same energy and engaged your imagination vividly… Imagining a lemon, glistening and cool from the fridge… Sliced into sections and then imagined sinking your teeth into it, feeling the juice flwoing around your gums and under your tongue… With its sharp, distinctive and tart flavour zinging through your mouth… Your mouth starts watering.

When you engage more of the senses, when you utilise more of thr brains capacity, much more occurs on many levels.

With language… How many people truly make an effort to utilise the words that get them into progressive states?

If you asked someone to explain someof their most blissful, ecstatic and joy-filled moments… The words that punctuate that description are those that are likely to induce more of a response… yet how many people actually use those words in their affirmations?

How many people affirm about things they do not want, rather than what they do want?

How many people elicit the language that engages all their senses and elicits responses on many levels when using affirmations?

of course, there are counter-examples and many who do employ this wonderfully well and of course, David does indeed have a lovely handle on amking people aware and rephrasing… I agree it is indeed priceless for many, and I think it is an excellent exercise for many - I am not suggesting otherwise.

I just think that using a modality such as self-hypnosis, employing the full range of senses, stepping right over the conscious faculty and using supercharged language that resonates with your unconscious mind is something that consumes the same energy and has gotten me and my students much more impressive results.

Only my own experience and much of my own opinion of course - a heavily biased opinion at that

Best wishes, A.

Good to hear from you!!! Thanks for the input. I am still all cottony-minded this morning, so please bear with me. I see your point about how language can limit things, but I do think David has a lovely handle on making people aware of negative thoughts and rephrasing things more positively. This alone is priceless for many.

Just for the sake of education, would you explain a little more about the idea of multi-sensory processes and using language to evoke positive responses?

Ellie

Ok, I love to see people encouraging others to create cahnge in their life and take some action, sincrerly, it is fabulous to see people investing energy in such endeavours…

My experience has been that affirmations are rather one-dimensional… That is, no imagination is engaged through words alone, they have no real depth and do not seem to access that part of the mind where change and self-improvement really aggregate.

Plus, I find that affirmations are also inherently limited by the often limiting patterns of language people use… Those of us used to this field heavily punctuated with the influence of linguistics, transformational grammar and progressive language of varying types are sure to know how to use our own language for maximum effect… However, we do tend to assume sometimes that the limits of one-dimensional language used by most people on a day-to-day basis is not going to affect their affirmations and subsequent effectiveness.

I’d love to see the same level of gusto and enthusiasm used showing people how to engage the full power of their minds with multi-sensory processes and instruction on using the language likely to elicit the most evocative and exciting responses.

Just my initial thoughts… I hope many people derive much success from this process… I just think the same energy could be used to elicit far greater and more enjoyable ways to attain the same outcome.

With my very best wishes to you both,

Ellie’s number one fan, Adam.