Team Meetings

This post is about an extremely powerful yet simple technique that has worked well for me. The technique is taken from "Using your Brain for a Change" by Richard Bandler.

Before using this technique I can remember sitting at weekly team meetings waiting for my turn to tell everyone what I'd been doing for the last week. I only had to speak for a couple of minutes and I knew everyone there very well. I didn't have to stand up to speak, I just had to say a few simple words and then it would be on to the next person. Simple, huh? Yeah right! Not for someone that suffers from panic attacks.

I would be taking slow deep breaths, saying "relax, relax, relax," to myself. I was so fired up that I was sweating, my hands, arms and legs were all shaking below the table as my turn approached. I was fully aware of everyone in the room. There were twelve people seated around that table and I knew exactly when each one was breathing in or out. My peripheral vision detected every movement. Very little of what was said registered with me. Each time someone finished talking and the next person around the table start, my heart rate would move up another notch. I would sweat more and tremble more and pray that I wasn't about to be told something that I needed to write down. I would feel a wave of heat flush through my body and then worry that people would wonder why my face had gone all red. Now I'm the next in line to talk and I swear I'm about to have a heart attack. The pulse in my neck is pounding violently as I glance at the exits. You can probably guess what happened next...

I believe that I can now get through these meetings due to the Swish pattern. I've used it successfully in many other situations as well. It works by linking a cue for an unwanted experience with the desired outcome. The example given in the book is for a person who bites their nails. The cue is them raising their nails towards their mouth. This cue is then linked to an image of them as a person who doesn't bite their nails. This doesn't just mean an image of them with long finger nails but an image of who they would be, and how they would behave if they no longer had this habit.

Click here for details on how perform the Swish pattern. Practice it. It only takes about five minutes and has worked for me.