Your body leads your mind and your mind leads your body.

Mum and Dad won every competition they were eligible for.

Your body leads your mind and your mind leads your body.

M’reen Hunt ©

Below Tony Robins describes how he used his body to affect his mind.

I don’t imagine that for one second he uses those methods now

but they make a good and exciting demonstrative story.

When describing the trance state to clients or the learning state to Inner Mind Reading students

I often use the following examples as these identical states mean moving from the chatty active state of beta brain wave to the slower meditative state of alpha brain waves.

This is a process you cycle through many times a day and is most easily recognised when you drift into sleep and drift into wakefulness. Or when you are ‘miles away’; totally absorbed in a book, film 

or conversation so that the rest of the world melts away and when you find that you have driven

for miles and cannot remember the last roundabout or intersection.

In all these states and stages of alpha you have behaved perfectly safely and in control

because alpha is a perfectly normal brain wave sate for you to experience.

It is not an on/off switch but more of a balance of degree, the flow of water through a tap.

The chemicals of your body can be altered in nano seconds and they obviously affect your emotional ability to the degree of their alteration.

If you are sitting, look down, put your  elbows on your knees and your head in your hands and let your shoulders slump and in this recognised depressed body posture science records that your depressed chemicals flood though your body – fast!

This is an example of the body leading the mind.

Now think of something wonderful, for me it is the vibrant laughter in my grandchildren’s eyes,

think of something exciting, laughter inducing or whatever brings joy to your mind.

Your body will raise; your body chemicals will alter in a split second, your muscle tone

and everything physical and therefore emotional will change.

HOW TO GET FROM DOWN TO UP.

A friend hypnotherapist used to complain of a bad back and stand when speaking with a depressed client as it caused them to look up. Depressed people look down! So when you find yourself walking along looking at the pavement absorbed in your unpleasant thoughts simply look up. Observe the skyline, the tree tops the roof lines; I bet you didn’t realise just how interesting roof lines can be!

Your mind is now otherwise engaged; your eyes are no longer downcast but are the opposite

to depressed and over concerned; they are open to more light – an important consideration.

Whistle. It is physically impossible to be depressed or unhappy when you whistle. Now you may not be the world’s greatest warbler but you can whistle inside you mind and if you are like me

it takes quite a bit of concentration and you will end up laughing inside.

Another body leading the mind strategy is to pretend to physically belly laugh; that is to exaggerate the movements of laughing like a clown. Put your fist on your tummy and breathe out loudly ha, ha, while simultaneously jogging your head and shoulders forward. I clearly remember the first time

I tried this, exactly where I was standing and the thought of, ‘what if someone was to see me

do such a silly movement’ this caused me to laugh out loud genuinely. And that simple memory always caused the rush of laughter within my body – in NLP terms this is known as an anchor

or in hypnotherapy as a trigger – a traffic light is a trigger as when it flashed red  you stop

you don’t think - you simply stop.

Tony Robins describes how he used his body to engage his mind in a positive, can-do, invincible attitude that was actualised in his voice, words, posture, demeanour and ultimate success.

Bruce Springsteen describes a mind trigger when he said that if he didn’t feel nervous before

a performance he wasn’t ‘pumped’ and he needed that excitement to perform and to engage

with the excitement from the crowd.

Look at a little child, their bodies brim and bristle with emotion particularly around the age of 18 months to two when often such exuberance is socialised out of them.

Think of exercise, dancing, smiling, listening to exciting music and any other physical activity that lifts your mood and just play it through in your mind maybe with a John Cleese Ministry of Silly Walks background.

Remaining with body triggers (think of a light switch) I always end a trance session in the same way as this serves two principal purposes. Firstly the person knows that their body and mind is to return up to the active waking state and secondly, should they have been consciously or subconsciously resisting the therapeutic values they have paid for, their mind thinks, ‘OK that‘s it, time to go home now,’ and they drop their defences and the therapy work slips in. Magic! During this time I also add some other features including: “whenever you stop at a traffic light, your shoulders drop a little and any stresses of the day simply fall away like water off a duck back.” I think I describe the benefits of this elsewhere. So you can consciously employ these physical techniques to everyday stressful situations of your own. From DOWN to UP or UP to DOWN.

HOW TO GET FROM UP TO DOWN.

Sometimes this is as simple as relaxing your body even if you have to force your body to relax.

When I start a relaxation process I am often surprised to find that I am, in fact, holding tension in my muscles.

Hypnotherapists often use body relaxation to help people enter the trance state of alpha.

The therapist simply starts at the top of the head and works down the body or starts from the toes and works up describing the state of relaxation in detail. I don’t generally do this as I find it to be

a waste of time and not particularly interesting. But when I‘ve experienced this myself

I will be consciously thinking, ‘just a minute my shoulders have not relaxed and you’re talking about my tummy!’ While I’m busy concentrating about my shoulders and arguing inside I’m not paying any attention to the rest of my body which is happily relaxing into trance and eventually there is more

of me relaxed than not and my shoulders eventually give up and go with the consensus.  

However, one girl dramatically jerked back into full alertness when I reached her tummy

so after discussion I asked her and when we reached her tummy I asked her tummy if it was OK

for it to stay alert while the rest of her body relaxed and this worked well.

In everyday situations some people advise you to clench a muscle and then let it relax however

this can raise your blood pressure while the relaxation above actually reduces your blood pressure, body temperature and chemical activity.

Employ the opposite of The Ministry of Silly Walks and behave as if or imagine yourself as if you are the calmest person or animal or feeling that is possible for you and score yourself and then see if you can become even calmer.

You may find these to be helpful.

	www.ourinnerminds.blogspot.com			www.innermindreading.blogspot.com
	Memories are made up of little moments	26/10/13
	My glimpse of death	02/11/13
	Magic, chocolate and hypnotherapy	10/11/13
	Happy gardens	17/11/13
	Analysis versus feeling	21/11/13
	Grounding by centering in your space	24/11/13
				02/12/13	Purpose is the driving force of life
	Grow to accept people	03/12/13		03/12/13	Grow to accept people
				04/12/13	Broken spines
				07/12/13	Powerful magic of bubbles
				11/12/13	Choosing  an appropriate book
	How do you decide what is the most important aspect of your concern right now?	12/12/13		11/12/13	How do I know if I have a problem and how big it is?
				13/12/13	I’m smarter that the average bear.
				15/12/13	Hay fever or Newmarket nose?
				16/12/13	If I had to wander this earth for eternity
				21/12/13	Anniversary stress and illness
	Words that can get u into and out of trouble	26/12/13
				28/12/13	Give gifts
	How to say what you need to say	29/12/13
	What can u do about the stress in your life	02/01/14
				04/01/14	Dragon story
				11/01/14	Problems flow into and out of your arm
				18/01/14	Your body leads your mind.