CIRCLE OF EXCELLENCE

The Circle of Excellence is a basic NLP Exercise.
Using this technique helps you build a powerful place for your weight loss.

1. Draw an imaginary circle on the floor or if you like, you can draw the circle in chalk. Make it large enough to step into.

2. Now, picture experiences where you felt thin or  beautiful or powerful. Use any positive state where you felt balanced and centered.

3. Place those memories of feeling young, capable or beautiful in your circle.  Use a  picture of yourself thin or a picture of a thin person you admire. Place anything into the circle that makes you feel the way that you want to feel.

4. Step into the circle. What do you see?  What sounds do you hear? Get in touch with the positive emotions that you have created.

5. If you would like to add additional positive memories or atributes, repeat step four. Continue  adding positive, powerful memories, people and things to your circle, one at a time. When you have put enough resources there, you have now created your Circle of Excellence!

6. Add this powerful technique to your weight loss toolbox! A client of mine picked up her imaginary circle off the floor, folded it up and put it in her handbag. She takes it with her everywhere and places it on the floor whenever she needs it!

©Christina Florence – August 2012

Here is the second exercise In my “Your Perfect Weight Loss” series. Read the first exercise here.

Before you do this, it is good spend some time in “pretend” mode. Spend 15 to 30 seconds each day pretending that you are are the weight that you want to be. You know how it feels, you have been there before. Pretending helps you remember the way it feels… go on, do that now. Be a kid again and pretend!

Now try this great weight loss excercise.

NLP SWISH PATTERN

1. Create a close-up image of the current way that you see yourself. Since this will act as a trigger for the new behavior, it should be seen through your own eyes.
2. Create a distant image for the desired image of yourself. i.e you at your perfect weight. You want to feel yourself move towards this, so the “desired” you should be seen as if it is through an outside observer’s eyes.
3. Now, “Swish” the two images – rapidly push the current you into the distance, and bring the desired you right up to the to your face. For effect, you can actually make a “swish” sound as the images change places and pop into place Or you can clap your hands loudly when the new you “pops” into place.
4. Allow the images to settle for a minute in their new places.
5. Clear the your mind by counting backwards for 5 or 10 numbers or say your phone number backwards. This clears you for the next round.
6. Repeat steps 1 through 5 until any thought of your current body image leads directly to the image of your desired body image.

©Christina Florence – July 2012

For the next five blog posts I will sharing some weight loss tips from my upcoming e-book “Be Alive in Five and Your Perfect Weight”.*

First Tip: Let’s love our bodies first, then change the way we think about food.

People somehow think that “crash” diets are the best way to loose weight. “Crash” is a good word for it, because these diets are usually an anger response! Perhaps you are angry at yourself for being overweight, so, for the duration of the diet, you punish yourself by depriving yourself.

I say: Love your body first, then change the way you think about food!

My friend went on what seemed like a very reasonable diet and stayed really thin for an entire year. When her mother died she got really stressed and  gained back all of those lost pounds and then some.

Here is an exercise from my book “Be Alive In Five.” to help you feel good about yourself:

COMPUTER CHANGE PROGRAM

1. Start by deciding what it is you want to change. For instance, you want to change  the weight you are to the weight that you would like to be. So you are going to talk to you subconscious mind, which I call your Super Computer.

2. Say to yourself, “Super computer, we will now change the program in which my weight is xxx amount.”

3.Think about what you want to change the program to. Talk to your subconscious mind. Say, “Computer create program. My weight is now always at xxx amount”

4. In your mind hit the enter button three times. You are entering the new program.

5. Three or four times a day, say to yourself, “Computer, run program. My weight is XXX.” Snap your fingers to indicate that the program is running.

You can do this for anything that you want to change. Just remember it takes a minimum of 30 days to change a program.

©Christina Florence – July 2012

*still in the works.

Pity party anyone? In the last post, we talked about not letting other people’s stuff get to you, but what about your own stuff? I have certainly spent plenty of time letting my own stuff get me down. Haven’t you? We have all moaned and groaned and whined ad nauseum until we see our listener’s eyes glaze over.

What if you decided to allot only so much time to feeling sorry for myself. It ‘s okay to feel bad, whine and vent to someone, but please, give yourself a time limit or you will lose those good friends! I have even made a pact with certain friend that we can be each other’s listener, but at a certain point we have to change the subject; for instance, after 2 days it’s time to move on!!!

How do you handle feeling sorry for yourself? Do you call all your friends and family every time something bad happens to you ? Do you make sure to tell all of your coworkers how crappy your day is going?

The next time you have a pity party,  make it an early night and only invite one friend!

©Christina Florence – June 2012

Here is the third tip of five from my previous posts:

Most of us have to work for a living and most of us work with other people. Have you ever noticed that you go into work some days feeling bright and happy and you come home feeling dark and gloomy? You’ve probably taken on some other person’s emotions.  A good many of us whether we know it or not are like human sponges. . We pick up the frequency of other living things. That can be both good and bad, for obvious reasons.
If you are like me you have at least one person in your life who has to call and detail all the drama in their life. So you listen politely and twenty minutes later you are totally drained of energy. Should you hang up on them? I myself have certainly needed a friend to “download” to.  I would want my friend to hang up on me, so…….

Here are a few tips:

1: Here is one way to stay detached: let your friend talk without agreeing or disagreeing. let the words flow over you like like water on a duck’s back. They just need to vent!

2. If the person asks for advice, calmly remind them of other things that they can do to get out of the funk they are in. Suggest some tools from my previous posts.

Here’s another point: Don’t let your stuff affect other people and get them down. That will be coming up in my next blog post! Until next time, stay compassionate and detached.

©Christina Florence – June 2012

Here’s another tip continued from my previous post on May 10, 2012.

2. You’re sitting in a chair at 3 in the afternoon, still dressed in your pajamas, sans shower, teeth brushed, feeling sorry for yourself. Maybe you are angry at yourself because today you are feeling like a slob. Or maybe you just feel sad or depressed. Don’t lose hope! This is the time to remind yourself that life is full of possibility and you can choose other options. Make a list of some ways to take you out of your funk. Just making a list of options can bring you up!
Here’s mine:

Go for a walk
Take a long hot bath (or shower)
Go for a drive in the country
Call a friend.
Go to a matinee movie
Put on some kick ass music and dance around your house
Go to a kiddie park and swing on a swing.
read a great book
Watch an old, funny film
Now it’s your turn. Go ahead, make your list.
Look for my 3rd installment coming next week.

©Christina Florence – May 2012

Maybe you are asking yourself the question, ” Why am I not happy? ” Do you do this often? Asking yourself this question implies that you are supposed to be happy, which is true. Every body’s supposed to be happy, right? However it also implies that happiness just happens, the way a cold might. It comes on fast and can go away just as fast.

I believe happiness doesn’t just happen. It’s a choice. Once you realize that it’s a choice that is yours to make you can take the steps to make yourself happy all the time.

So the question is, “How do you remind yourself to choose to be happy every day?”

Let me give you 5 tips:

1. Chart your feelings. Notice when you are feeling the most ‘down’. Is it in the morning when you wake up, or in the middle of the day? Or is it at night or before you go to sleep?

Now start to notice what brings you ‘up’ during the day. This contrast makes you more aware of what happiness or well being feels like to you, even for a fleeting moment.  Grab on to that good feeling, even if it is just 5 seconds.

This reminds me of when I was little and my mom would drive us down the hill fast! She would yell out a big “wheee!!” as we went down, intensifying the rush. That is one of my  5 second happy feelings and I still use that feeling today.

This is part of a technique used in NLP (Neuro-Linguistic Programming).

So today I wish you many 5 second moments and I will have another tip for you soon.

©Christina Florence – May 2012