Useful Habits from the NLP Master Course

Here are some tips for improving your life through kinesthetics. Kinesthetics (the sensations from our bodies) is one of the slowest-changing representational systems. If you feel a “stone” in your chest, it’s not easy to get rid of that sensation quickly. The actions described below will help reduce the number of negative internal experiences and bring you many pleasant moments in life.

1. Anchor Positive Sensations in Your Body

When you see or feel something pleasant, pause for a moment and pay attention to your body—notice where this pleasant sensation is located and keep your focus there for a little while. For example, if you’re walking down the street and notice the beauty of snow on the trees, take a moment to focus on your body and identify where you feel the pleasant sensation, its size, and its intensity.

Our bodies are naturally wired to notice and react more to negative signals from the environment—this is how nature designed us. However, thanks to our consciousness, we can reverse this tendency and start to feel more positive sensations and emotions.

2. Find Ways to Make Negative Sensations Disappear

All sensations in our bodies change, disappear, and reappear. However, some negative sensations come back again and again. For example, interacting with a certain colleague or coworker might irritate or even infuriate you. You may experience a whole range of negative sensations in your body not only during but also after these interactions.

Start closely observing these sensations (devote some time to this) and track how they change over time. Most importantly, notice the moment when they suddenly weaken or disappear. Remember what happened to the sensations right before they disappeared: how they changed, where they moved, and through which point they left your body.

Next time you feel those same negative sensations, simply change them as if they are about to disappear. Do this several times, and you’ll notice that the “stone” in your chest disappears much more quickly.

3. Develop the Skill of Looping Positive Sensations

The next, more advanced habit is to develop the ability to loop positive sensations in your body. We already know that a sensation starts somewhere, goes through certain changes, and then ends somewhere. A positive sensation from the beauty of nature will also eventually end and “go away.” However, when you firmly “hold” a positive sensation with your attention, instead of letting it leave, you can direct it to circulate through your body in a loop.

For example, a pleasant feeling from admiring nature might start in the center of your chest, expand throughout your chest, move into your arms, and then disappear. Instead of letting it disappear, after it expands, you can direct it back to the center of your chest, where it can start expanding again. You can repeat this cycle almost endlessly.

By using these simple techniques to work with your sensations in everyday life, you will significantly increase the amount of positivity and the wonderful feeling of being alive.