I recently traded my car for a bus pass and I’m getting a lot of reading and writing done on my commute. The only
problem is that sometimes when I read in a moving vehicle I start to get car sick. When I start feeling bad I put the book up and immediately start to feel better. Yesterday I went to pull my book out at the bus stop and the very sight of it made me feel ill. I was confused because my mind wanted to read the book but my body was telling me to put it away. It dawned on me that I subconsciously associated the book with motion sickness, so even looking at it made me feel bad.
I mean I’m as sick as a dog and I’m reminded of Alex McDowell in A Clockwork Orange when he’s shown the images of sex and violence while being given the medicine that makes him nauseous. And when he’s released the very thought of sex or violence make him want to throw up.
I started to wonder if I could make it work the other way and (mostly out of desperation) I decide to do an experiment of my own. This morning at the bus stop I held the book in front of me, I closed my eyes and forced myself to feel good feelings. I made myself feel excitement, happiness and gratitude and when I opened my eyes I kept the feelings going. In less than 30 seconds I was cured. It was that easy and that just proves that positive feelings are more powerful than negative ones. I undid weeks of negativity with less than a minute of positive thinking.
From what I understand, that is the basic premise behind NLP (Neuro-Linguistic Programming). You can quickly change the way you feel about something by simply visualizing it or thinking about it in a different way. How can we apply this to other areas of our life? Can this method work when it comes to people or places? Absolutely it can, and you should give it a try. Start with something small and start to work your way up and each step of the way you will realize how much control you actually have over you mind and your body.
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