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Awareness In the last edition of Reflections I spoke a little bit about how memory is formed, and how these memories are used to form instant reactions in the future. The following will hopefully help you to understand, and answer some of the questions people have asked themselves at one time or another. For example: "Why do I feel stupid when my friend brings up the subject of math and how much fun it is?" Or, "My girlfriend is excited about meeting a new man, and all I can feel is dread about dating someone." One way of thinking about our instant reactions more clearly and understanding them is the following. The brain is using previous experiences to classify future experiences. This insight may help you to understand why some people don't consider sweaty hands and shaking legs when in the presence of 'widgets' as appropriate. So some classify the sight or touch of widgets as life threatening; and others don't. The difference in the more or less instant reactions is primarily due to kinesthetics, or physical reactions of the body. These signals are transmitted at some 250+ miles per hour (300+ kilometres per hour) via the nervous system, to the evaluator; the brain, which will then translate the signals into thoughts and words and influence behaviour. When John says, "Let's go hang gliding this weekend," he has it classified under fun, excitement, etc. Tom, on the other hand, may have it classified as suicidal, ridiculous, insane, etc., and seeks to avoid "certain death" based upon the signal evaluation/translation. Remember, these signals are moving very fast; therefore even a signal from one of your toes will only need some very small part of a second to reach the main processor/evaluator, the brain.
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So each of us continues to classify and respond to events, circumstances, possibilities, ideas and people, based largely on previous imprinted, or emotionally biased, memories. Further, we don't need conscious recall of the original "programming memories" to do so.
The first step in learning to change uncomfortable or unwanted responses, then is awareness. It doesn't hurt to add a dollop of common sense, either. I personally become a tad nervous in windstorms whilst standing on the edge of a cliff; and find no reason that suits me to change this. It is said that human beings process some 60,000+ thoughts a day. Some of the thoughts we are aware of (conscious of) and most of them we are unaware of (unconscious). And yet, all thoughts hold the potential to affect our moods, state of mind, and behaviours from moment to moment.
To begin to 'catch' the thoughts that negatively affect you, here is an exercise designed to expand your awareness potentiality. Take a seat. Get comfortable, and as you do... Begin to imagine you are watching a show on television (for the options oriented person feel free to imagine you are reading a book, sitting in a theatre, or attending a play).
You are developing a new level of awareness that I like to call the Observer. Once you are able to do this reasonably well, you can then shift to Observer position in conversations with others, that is, some part of you can now serve as a feedback circuit to self as to how you are feeling, responding moment by moment, or even shift partially to the environment you are in. Imagine the Observer saying to you: "Oops, you're getting uptight or uncomfortable... breathe, relax, breathe, relax." Practising the above through repetition makes it second nature, and will serve to alert you earlier to when your buttons are being pushed. Next month we'll explore some of the simple techniques for changing strong unwanted responses that you now have become more aware of, and learn how to change them so the next time you are in a situation that used to be somehow uncomfortable, isn't. The nice thing is your vigilant brain will now file more and more experiences as fun, pleasant, etc. As Dr. Deepak Chopra says, "The body is the place memories call home." I'd like to add:
"You are simply learning how to clean the house, therefore making it
a much more pleasant place to live." Practitioner Listings on Our Website There will be a special section for EFT Practitioners and the listing will include:
Here is an example of how the listing will appear on our website:
There will be no monthly or annual fee charged for this service, but there will be a one-time nominal administration fee to cover costs of adding the information to our site. Plus, we would ask that you put a link to our website on your website (if you have one). Offering this service to you is one way for us to say a big "Thank You" for your continued support of our endeavours over the years. Listing on our site is also a win-win for everyone, and as most of you that know us, we like it when it’s a win-win! What I mean by it being a win-win for everyone is we are promoting the fact that we have trained many people over the years and are proud of that fact, and you as the practitioner will have access to the thousands upon thousands of people that visit our website every month! People contact us from all over the world, so whether you’re a practitioner we’ve trained in Spain, England, California, the Vancouver area, etc., people will be able to seek you out and contact you directly. To post your listing on our site, email or phone us at lees@dralexless.com or 604.542.6277 We look forward to proudly displaying your information on our site!
Teleseminars We want to put the SELF back into self-help and/or self-improvement! The purpose of our new teleseminar program is to help you, help yourself. No two people are alike... one person may take to learning a technique (for example - EFT) like a duck takes to water... and some others may not have as much success as they would like. From our experience it seems that most people have questions, and they need answers so they can continue growing and learning. So, we wanted to find a way of thanking you all for your support; those of you that read our newsletter and send us wonderful comments about how much you enjoy it, those of you that have attended our workshops and those of you that have been our clients. We came up with
the idea of doing teleseminars. We think the format is an excellent
one because you can talk to Alex while you are in the comfort of your
own home, and you could even be in your jammies. The Advantages for You:
The Benefits to You:
The Format:
When:
Where/How:
The Cost:
We feel that the teleseminar is a great way to help and teach people so they can help themselves and others. Our aim is to do teleseminars on a continuing basis, so how often we do them will depend on the level of participation and feedback. Depending on how the teleseminars go, in future we may divide them into two groups:
But that’s down the road a bit. We’ll see how the first few teleseminars go, and then decide. One last important bit of information - the teleseminars will be limited to five people so you can all receive individualized attention.
Need more information, or to register
please give us a call at 604.542.6277
Berit's
Corner As some of you may be aware, Alex and I are embarking on a new course also. We're focussed on creating a new program which will encompass all the things we've been talking about, and teaching, for the past 20 years. But, instead of specializing in one are or another, we are going to combine them. Our philosophy has always been that there is no one area, topic, or technique that is "the best," or does everything. Usually, a combination of information and skills is the most useful approach. And, this is most true when it comes to self improvement. For example, knowing some NLP will greatly improve your communication skills, knowing EFT will enable you to deal with unwanted emotions, knowing about the Mind/Body Connection will help you understand how your minds works in conjunction with your body. There are also many other techniques that are useful and powerful, and can be found under the umbrella of the new field of Energy Psychology. We have many options and avenues to pursue on our journey of self improvement. We have choices, and it's a great time to be living in this world! But, it can also be a titch confusing. In some ways I think the public has been lured into thinking that "This technique, or that one, is THE best!" Or, "Our technique is the ONLY one that will help you." Or, "If you buy THIS product, all your problems will be solved." I think that's a bit misleading, because there is no magic bullet! Combining techniques or modalities, using some of this, a bit of that, taking the best parts, is much more powerful than using them alone. It's the combination that usually works the best because you've covered all the bases. So, that's the direction we're heading. We're going to combine the best bits or parts of many different areas (techniques/modalities) and put them together in a format that will help you in your personal journey of self-improvement. Once we figured out what we wanted to do, we had to decide on the first step. We bounced around various ideas, and to our surprise the decision was made very quickly... write THE book! Alex has talked of writing a book for some time, but there never seemed to be enough time to do it. As with all things, the first step is to decide to do it! And, once the decision is made, you just find the time. We are now well
into it having written several chapters, and it's fun! Alex has so much
information in his head, that one of the "problems" is how to organize
it, and put it into a format. If left to his own devices, he could write
and write, and write some more. So, my job is rein him in, fine-tune
and edit him. I've teased him and said the book may be written by "Dr.
Alexander R. Lees" but I think it should also say, "With a little help
from my wife Berit." So far, he's going along with my suggestion...
we all know that behind every successful man, there's a little woman
telling him what to do! Take care, Till next month... P.S. If you haven't already read the info about our new Practitioner Listings and our new Teleseminars please have a look and give us your feedback.
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We
are now full swing into 2007; one month down and 11 more to go. How
are you all doing? Well, I hope! The beginning of a new year is the
time that many people start a new project, decide to make changes in
their lives and/or hope to improve on what they are already doing.
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(C) 2007 - Dr. Alexander R. Lees & Associates Inc.