Modern Jedi NLP Mind Mastery

Posts Tagged ‘anxiety’

This is Emily Bernard’s second post about the NLP personal breakthrough session we did to address the PTSD she was experiencing after having been stabbed 14 years ago. If you’re just joining the story you can get the Introduction and Part 1 here:

• PTSD Case Study Introduction
• PTSD Case Study Part 1

Emily Bernard writes:

“Mark and I began our first session with an interview. He asked me a series of questions about the problems—anxiety, fear, dread—I have experienced since I was stabbed in 1994.

His questions made me think.

They weren’t the usual “What happened? And then what happened?” kinds of queries. Mark’s questions put me in the center, if that makes sense.

Immediately, he was guiding me to reframe the event—and the enduring negative feelings created by my memory—so that I could see myself as having a role—not in what happened (the past is the past, of course), but in my subsequent reactions to it.

I once read somewhere that humans use only a small fraction of their enormous brain power throughout their lifetimes. It wasn’t that I felt my brain expanding as Mark and I talked, but his questions led me to a new doorway in my mind. Suddenly, the literature he sent me about the powers of the unconscious mind began to make sense. We have more control over what goes on inside of our heads than we often believe we do.

After more than an hour of this intensive interview, Mark and I broke for lunch. Again, I was impressed by his gentle spirit, his warmth and sparkle. He was as eager to get back to work as I was. So, after this short break, we began again.

The second part of our session involved reconstructing a timeline. Mark guided me back in time as I explored the roots of negative emotions and limiting decisions. We went further back than I was honestly comfortable with—at first. For me, I think the strength of this work is how much it pushed me to do and think things that I wasn’t comfortable with. It pushed me out of my comfort zone, and all those habitual ways of understanding and narrating myself and my relationship to the world.

Mark and I went into the recesses of my memory, and I found myself able to recount experiences that I had thought I had buried. I was able to speak about things that I had talked only to a few other people about.

Mark was not judgmental; his demeanor was calm and relaxed the entire time. Because I felt safe, I went further and further back. And before I knew it, I was ready to be hypnotized.”

- Emily Bernard

In part 3 I’ll share what those questions were that I asked Emily as well as key ways what I do is different from traditional therapy.

In part 4 Emily will share her experience of being hypnotized…

In the meantime if you’d like to:

Defeat the Dark Side and Master Your Mind For A Change.
Discover How You Can Learn NLP in 17 Minutes A Day For Less Than A Latte

Why did these people take time out of their busy lives to learn NLP?

Meet Real People Getting Rapid Results with NLP

(Each link opens a new window)

#1: Michael Guerin - Overcame Phone Anxiety, experienced exponential business growth.

#2: Len Caiafa - 30 year veteran sales professional impressed by NLP persuasion power as well as effectiveness in helping make major changes where psychology failed....

#3: Kathy McAfee - Executive Coach, ROI from NLP practitioner training in a few short weeks.

#4: Paul Binkley & Aaron Torres - two regular guys from Ohio putting Modern Jedi NLP into immediate practice at work...Please Note: This is a MUST LISTEN! If you watch or listen to nothing else, click this link and LISTEN TO THIS RECORDING!

#5: Joe Schroder Learns NLP, Stops Smoking After 29 Years! No Withdrawal, No Cravings.

#6: NLP Testimonials - real people who've attended a Modern Jedi NLP Training or who I've helped over the years as an NLP practitioner. Don't just take my word for it. See for yourself what they have to say.

Click here:To Learn More And Register for the Next Modern Jedi Online NLP Course

(or you can always click the "NLP Trainings" button above)

Please share this post with anyone you know who could benefit from improving their lives!

Thanks!

- Mark Shepard, NLPT, - Modern Jedi NLP Trainer.

The Following Post is written by Emily Bernard describing her experience working with me in a Personal Breakthrough Session with the intention of clearing her PTSD and anxiety about public places.

Mark Shepard is very tall. His height is the first thing I notice about him when I open the door to let him in. The second thing is his demeanor, which is kind, gentle, and warm. He has a youthful, eager way about him. His smile says, "This is as much of an adventure for me as it is for you."

When I called Mark, I was ready. I had arrived in New Haven in July 2008 in order to begin a fellowship at Yale. Within four weeks, I was in Yale-New Haven hospital. The doctors determined I had a bowel obstruction--my second in seven years--and scheduled me for surgery. I was lucky--my intestines somehow untangled themselves from the mass of scar tissue inside my abdomen. After a week's stay, I was allowed to leave.

This was my second visit to Yale-New Haven. Fifteen years ago, I was stabbed in the gut by a stranger in a coffee shop. The perpetrator was sick with mental illness. He was hospitalized; everyone involved survived.

For fifteen years, I have been unable to get past certain fears associated with being in public and interacting with strangers. After one of my doctors informed me that I was just "one of those unfortunates," people who "over heal," or make too much scar tissue, I decided to do whatever I could to turn my fears and luck around.

Medical doctors told me there was nothing to be done; psychotherapy didn't seem to be helping. I decided to look beyond traditional doctor's offices for solutions.

Enter Mark Shepard.

For our first session, Mark agreed to come to my house. His generosity put me at ease, and made it that much more possible for me to take the leap into the unknown world of hypnosis. At that point, all I knew about hypnosis I had read about in books. Mark was recommended to me by a massage therapist who herself had yet to try hypnosis. "When I'm ready, Mark Shepard is the one I will go to." That was enough for me.

Mark and I first spoke on the phone. He was friendly, prompt, and direct. I liked him immediately. He sent me some literature to help me get acquainted with hypnosis, the unconscious mind, and his methods. There were questionnaires to fill out, and homework to prepare so that Mark could come to know more intimately the kinds of struggles that had led me to hypnosis in the first place.

I liked the questionnaires and the homework. I see them as the first stage in the process of the work I am doing with Mark. They force you to articulate your problems, fears, and goals. They help you focus, and they all center around the issue of "change." What Mark does has psychological components, but it is not psychotherapy. He gets you to identify the root of a problem, but also the role you have played in either creating the problem or contributing to its survival. The work is goal-oriented. It takes faith, work, and openness. I believe it is a process--one, for me, that has only begun.

Thanks to Emily's willingness to share her process, you will be able to get a sense of how I do what I do to help people clear fears, phobias, anxiety, PTSD and other Mind/Body challenges. Look for Part 2 next...

I recently was contacted by Emily Bernard who was seeking help in healing the trauma and anxiety left over from an old wound. She was seriously injured along with 7 other people in a stabbing at a coffee shop 14 years ago.

She was in critical condition and truthfully could have died but she survived. However from that experience she was understandably haunted by the possibility of at any moment being attacked again. So she experienced a hypervigilence and unease every time she went out in public.

She also experienced a physical problem at the site of the stabbing in her body at 7 year intervals. There was no logical medical explanation for the physical problems occurring at 7 year intervals and at the same time of year. (note from Emily: "The problem was adhesions, my intestines getting tangled up in my scar tissue.  There is no procedure to solve the problem of adhesions (which are very common), no cure.")

I appreciated that Emily was open to the possibility that the physical recurrence of the adhesions was linked to unresolved emotional material.

Another challenge was that as an exquisitely talented writer Emily was experiencing some challenges with writer's block.

One of the greatest challenges I have as a practitioner is determining who I will work with. Every one expresses the desire to change but not everyone is willing to "get to cause" and accept "response-ability" for their change. I don't "cure" people. I teach them how to "master their own minds for a change". I help them to clear blocks and release old beliefs and patterns. Some people want me to just wave a magic wand and make them all better. Sometimes it seems like that's what I do. Change can be rapid. But ultimately it's the client making the change not me.

Emily seemed like she understood that and was willing to roll up her sleeves and do what Byron Katie calls "The Work".

Another aspect of how I practice NLP and Hypnotherapy is to assign a task that contains in it elements of the transformation the client is seeking.

We agreed to work together and use the blog as an extension of our work. Since Emily is a writer I asked her if she would be willing to share her story through this blog.  I felt it would serve her greater purpose of writing about her experiences in such a way as to facilitate her own healing as well as to serve as a kind of beacon or resource for other people dealing with traumatic events or challenges in their lives.

Ultimately my intention is to support Emily's healing, and transformation as well as to make the work I do more accessible and understandable so that I can help more people who like myself and Emily struggle, or have struggled, with blocks that keep them from allowing their talents and abilities to shine out.

I know that my clients and the readers who find this site are incredible people who have much to share with the world. I also know that the talented, sensitive, imaginative, creative types who have so much to give to the world often find themselves blocked. It is my belief that this blocking and subsequent healing journey is not unlike the classic "hero's journey" that fills ancient and contemporary literature.

Stay tuned to the next several posts as Emily and I share the story of working together and clearing old patterns of thought and behavior as well as reinforcing and repatterning the new ways of thinking and being. Be a part of the process as we dig in and check our progress along the way.

In the next post Emily will introduce herself and give her account of her personal breakthrough sessions with me.

• PTSD NLP Case Study Part 1
• PTSD NLP Case Study Part 2
  

Are You A Victim or Are You A Volunteer?

This video by Robert Smith does an absolutely fabulous job of explaining how we create our pain and problems as well as how we explain our screwed-up-ness to ourselves and how we maintain it.

Please watch this carefully and take notes. Let me know your thoughts. - Mark

This Week the economic meltdown is all around us. The Stock market is at 1980's lows. Companies world wide are falling like bowling pins. Millions of people are out of work or facing imminent layoffs. The news is full of grim experts like "Dr. Doom" predicting the end of the world as we know it. As I checked my yahoo e-mail this morning I was greeted with this headline:

Even 'Dr. Doom' Is Scared: Economy Much Worse Than Roubini Predicted

Don't follow the link above! I only put it in here to improve my search engine ranking. )

So a few thoughts and some options that I am using myself to stay hopeful and positive

1. STOP LISTENING TO THE NEWS! or at least use a grim news story to improve your search engine rankings like I did above. After all that's what the news folks are using to make their businesses prosper. Think about it! What businesses do you know are still doing really well? Who benefits if you are freaked out? The more eyeballs the News media can get the more advertising they can sell. So I'll say it again. STOP WATCHING AND LISTENING TO THE NEWS! BTW do you know what city is booming and growing in these hard times? Washington DC! Talk about thriving in a crisis!
2. Listen to positive, hopeful stories and music. I posted a special, hopeful song for you this week at www.MarkShepardSongs.com called Rose Colored Glasses. Download it FREE to your mp3 player or burn it to a CD and play it all day. Burn it into your Rostromedial Pre-Frontal Cortex. While you're there check out some of the other tunes I'm giving away free for your spiritual refreshment. I've also posted a hilarious "Trickster Tale" called "Monkey & Leopard" at www.DrumSongStory.com
3. Make a list of the miracles in your life and all the abundance you have right now. I've said this before but it bears repeating. You did not have to mine your own salt eh? You have people who do that for you! If you are reading this that means you have a computer and access to the world wide web! You are RICH. Focus on right now. At this very moment do you have clothes? Do you have running water? Do you have enough food for today? Do you have heat? Got shoes? Socks? It sounds simple but it's all about shifting your focus from one of lack to one of abundance. Speaking of the internet, there are huge opportunities for people who understand the new Web 2.0 social media and how to connect to prospects and customers on line. BTW if you are interested in learning what I've spent the last year absorbing and implementing in order to get the word out about my various projects, let me know. To date I've had over 50,000 views of my stop anxiety series as well as thousands of visits from 53 countries to my music site. I'm thinking about offering an affordable weekly coaching club for small business peeps so you can avoid all the dead ends and time wasters I had to work through. Web marketing costs almost nothing and can take your business or career to the next level despite the gloom and doom boys dire forecasts. Interested? E-mail me at mark [at] markshepard.com or call me at 203-495-8808
4. Say this to your self and write it out by hand 100 times (yes 100 times): "Why Does It Work Out Better Than I Can Possibly Imagine?" This will begin to re-program your unconscious mind to filter for good news rather than bad. Go ahead. I dare you. No. I double dare you. No. I double dog dare you! This is one of my own most used anti-anxiety practices
5. Go to www.ClearFear.com and watch the How To Stop Anxiety in 10 Minutes or Less Video. It's Free and it works: 50,000 people have already viewed it . The whole thing takes a little over 10 minutes. What do you have to lose? In addition to the video I have a lot of other info there that might be of help to you.
6. Register for this month's CRUSH Anxiety Call
   Wednesday, March 11 at Noon Eastern Time 

   or

   Thursday Night, March 12 at 7:00 pm Eastern Time

   For a one time fee of only $97 and get my Crush Anxiety E-book and complete audio set as my gift ($197 value). If you've been on one of these calls before you are welcome to come back any time or as many times as you want for free. Lines are limited so register now.

7. If you need serious help ask for it. Either from me or from another NLP practitioner. Sometimes a big part of making significant changes is simply the act of asking for help.Even though most of my focus these days is on my Life In Song Project and my DrumSongStory performances, I am still working with a select few clients one on one over the phone. Many of my clients have learned how to destroy their fears and anxious thinking patterns and gone on to double, triple and even quintuple their incomes (even in these scary times). If you need help I can often get people significant relief in just one or two NLP phone sessions. Some folks need more support. I charge either by the hour or a flat fee. I will also consider barter. So please do not let your current beliefs in "lack" stop you from getting help. E-mail me at mark[at] MarkShepard.com or call my office at (203) 495-8808

So just a few thoughts and resources for you. Please take advantage of whatever feels right for you. Remember:

• We can not change the world but we can change how we respond to the world.
• We can change how we perceive the world.
• We can change how we interact with the world.
• We can use these challenging times as a motivational tool to think outside the box of our old patterns and routines.
• We can use these times as opportunity triggers.
• Are there problems you can help other people solve?
• Are there talents and abilities you've always wanted an opportunity to use?
• Now's the time to start giving yourself permission to explore them.

I love you all and send you my best wishes and hopes for you all day every day!

Mark

I found a great site today that I think you might want to check out. It's called Anxiety Culture www.AnxityCulture.com in particular there was a great article on "How To Stop Worrying" that offers some very helpful techniques along with quite a bit of welcome humor.

Because I know you have so much to worry about right now and probably won't click through to read the article I'll do my best to summarize it for you.

According to the author, there are 2 obstacles to getting over worry.

1. Happiness has to be earned and therefore we don't "deserve" to be happy:
   "Centuries-old cultural conditioning has given us a nasty neurosis: the belief that happiness must be "earned". It can be "earned" only by enduring unpleasantness (eg work, pain, misery). But how do you know if you've endured enough unpleasantness to deserve happiness? Another unspoken game rule: "responsible adults" can never endure enough unpleasantness to truly deserve happiness."
2. The idea that worrying serves a purpose.
   "You won't stop worrying if you think it serves you. So it's a good idea to distinguish the fight-or-flight response (a healthy bodily reaction to immediate danger) from worry (a psychological problem). By making this distinction, you're less likely to overrate the value of worrying."

In my own experience with anxiety (really just a more intense form of worry) as well as working with hundreds of anxiety sufferers over the years is that one of the key beliefs is that "if you care about someone then you will worry about them." This is particularly true of parents and their children. Nobody wants to be thought of as "uncaring". My mom used to tell me she would lie awake worrying about me imagining me lying in a pool of blood...Essentially that kind of worrying is like a "negative prayer." So letting go of some of these old beliefs and cultural "programs" is essential in worry and anxiety relief.

The author of the article then goes on to give two techniques to reduce worry.

The first one is:

"The trick is that whenever you feel plagued by a worrying thought, note it down on a "worry sheet" (a piece of paper set aside for the purpose) – you can then forget about it, knowing that you plan to worry later."

I have not personally tried this technique but I'd love to hear from any of you out there in cyber space you might want to give this a try.

The second one is based on the understanding that  your mind can't process a negative (something I've said about a gazillion times before). Even though you consciously don't think you want it, telling yourself to not thinking about crashing the car causes your unconscious mind to think about crashing the car. So the Anxiety Culture author uses the analogy of drinvg a car with one foot on the brake and one foot on the accelerator...and your feet are tied together. So in order to stop one you have to stop both but your mind refuses...so the author suggests the solution is

"You somehow have to persuade (or con) your brain into thinking it's safe to lift both feet from the worry pedals."

No solution is given on how to do that...which is fine because that's where I come in. In my r experience, the way to persuade your mind to lift both feet off the pedals is available through the combined modern jedi mind mastery tools of NLP, Time Line, EFT and Hypnosis.

Of course if you're like most anxiety sufferers you worry that NLP, Time Line Therapy, EFT and Hypnosis are effective for other people, you worry that you won't be able to afford it...or you'll worry that you'll pay a lot of money but not get the relief promised...do you see how worrying just messes with your mind?

If you sincerely can't stand being controlled by the worry, anxiety, panic monkey on your back any longer and are willing to let go of some of the old notions that "worry" is noble or good or whatever. Then drop me an e-mail at mark [at] MarkShepard.com or call my office at 203-495-8808 (9-5 Eastern US Time)

In the meantime if you're curious how the media feeds your worry every day check out www.AnxityCulture.com

or Read the full article "How To Stop Worrying"

As always, please leave a comment below and share this post with "Stumbleupon", "Digg", Facebook etc.

Yours truly,

Mark Shepard, NLPT

Today, I don’t know where to begin. I have a lot to say.

So I’ll just jump in and hope you'll join me for a few moments because this is one of the most important announcements I've ever made.

By now it’s pretty hard to avoid the panic and the fear all around us. It seems in so many ways to be the worst of times...We may know intellectually that within each failure there lies the seeds for greater success but sometimes it’s really hard to feel it. It's a full blown "Crisis".

A wise man once pointed out to me that the Chinese character for "crisis" is a combination of the symbols for "Danger" & "Opportunity".

As the blanket of Christmas slowly gets pulled up around us and the stories of hardship and uncertainty gather like storm clouds, some of it is hitting pretty hard and close to home. For me personally, the holiday season has always been bittersweet. This year even more so.

In fact the very nature of the traditional Christmas is solemn and beautiful and sad.

A family of meager means, finds lodging in a stable. A child is born without proper medical attention who would soon be the target of assassins, and who would grow up to meet a painful and harsh end.

Even if you are not remotely religious, you can not help but relate to the story.

And so in the face of what can only be called a “major financial challenge” I found myself at the end of my savings. All the marketing and advertising I’d done had basically fizzled. Staring at my bank balance and the pile of unpaid bills on my desk felt really bad.

This wasn’t supposed to happen. I’d learned NLP in order to increase my income as well as to clear the junk that was holding me back from getting my music out. Unfortunately it seems like in order to properly honor NLP it would mean putting my music back on hold.

So here I was not feeling very resourceful. It felt like the end of a road that didn’t take me where I thought it was going to take me. Still there was the glimmer that perhaps it had taken me where I needed to go.

As I sat pondering how to pay my past due rent, how to stay positive and hopeful…

As I contemplated how I was going to feed my 3 kids who were coming to visit next week…

As I contemplated how I was going to feed myself…

I got an e-mail.

It was from my friend and mentor, Kathy McAfee, who had commissioned me to do a video of “Motivation” (the song I wrote inspired by her work). She had just sent it out to her list and one of her contacts, Fran Capo, had seen it and wanted a theme song too.

So I got in touch with Fran and began to learn more about her and what her mission and message is.

Get this: she’s the Guinness book of world records “Fastest Talking Female” she also holds the records for deepest book signing (at the Titanic) and highest book signing (on Mt. Kilimanjaro).

So I got inspired. I wrote her a song in a very short time. Because everything about Fran is about speed, and just getting stuff done. And living every day as if it is your last. I sang it to her over the phone and she loved it. By chance, my recording engineer, Joe Mennonna was available that afternoon so I drove over and recorded it. By 6:00 pm the song was mixed and ready to play.

You can hear it here. Listen To Adventure Girl - Fran Capo Theme Song

But that’s not the point of this post!

For me the message was clear. As I was sitting that morning asking for guidance, I was going back and forth between what I thought I “should” do and what my heart was “calling me to do”.

I have worked my brains out the last 5 years to build an NLP practice and an NLP training program. I’ve helped quite a few people and the work is rewarding. But the business model doesn’t work very well. I help people transform their lives and then they don’t need to come back any more! Many of the people I want to help can’t afford me. And I couldn’t help them for free and still pay my bills…In NLP we call that a “double bind”.

The talk therapy business model where the client comes back every week for eternity is much better (at least for the therapist).

But the fact is that when I asked myself a very specific question the answer got my attention.

Here’s the question: “If I had only 6 months to live what would I spend every one of those last precious moments doing?”

The answer had 3 parts:

1. I would record every single one of the almost 400 songs I’ve written that have yet to be recorded. I don’t write the music down so in order to preserve them I need to record them. Even if only my kids were able to listen to them it would be worth it.
2. I would get my butt out and perform every chance I got even if it meant going from Starbucks to Starbucks or finding a street corner.
3. I would spend as much time with my friends and family as possible.

That’s it. Pretty simple.

And I actually am doing that on a small scale. I’ve gone into the studio a lot recently and I just did my first concert in 2 years. But I wasn’t truly giving it 100% because I was so busy with all the other things…

But the main reason I hadn’t given 100% of myself to it was a limiting belief. It was a belief that I couldn’t make enough money to pay my rent and all the other bills I had by merely singing my songs.

But at this point, all the marketing and promotion and advertising I’ve been doing to attract people to my NLP trainings and Anxiety clearing work wasn’t paying the bills either.

In NLP we have a concept that basically says: “You get what you focus on. So focus on what you want.”

So I asked the universe for a sign. What do you really want me to do with my life? How can I serve the most people in the highest way while taking really good care of myself and my family? How can I honor this gift I have of writing songs? (I mean it’s really kind of a “healthy compulsion”. I write songs like a horse gallops or like a bird flies. It’s just totally and complete natural for me. Duh! )

Moments later I got the e-mail that Fran Capo wanted a theme song.

If that isn’t an answer I don’t know what is.

So in the next few weeks I will be packing my stuff away and putting everything I own in storage.

I will be letting go of my beautiful apartment overlooking Wooster square and I will be staying with a series of generous friends and family members (see number 3 above).

And I will be using all of my NLP skills to book myself at coffeehouses, and colleges and churches and libraries and yes…Starbucks.

I’m going to be asking you for your help.

• It may be as simple as asking you to pass a song along to a friend who might need to hear it.
• It might be as affordable as downloading a single song for $2. bucks.
• I’m definitely going to ask you to invest in one or more of my CD's. And when you do I’ll send you a 2nd one for FREE that you can share with a friend. 
  Mark Shepard's CD's Available Here
  
• I’m going to invite you to come see me perform and I’m going to ask you to bring a friend. Please join my mailing list at the top right hand corner of this site so you'll get advance invitations.
  
• If you have a big enough house, I’m going to ask you to consider having a house concert and inviting all your friends. Together we can change the world. Call me today to get started. 203-804-1208

If you've been reading my stuff for a while you know my message is about hope and empowerment and healing and transformation and joy.

Yes, I’m a little scared. Not of performing any more (thanks to NLP that's totally gone) but of moving out of my comfort zone. And that’s a good thing. We all tend to get comfortable and it soon becomes a rut. Eventually a rut can feel like a prison.

So let’ use these challenging times to challenge ourselves. What would you do if you had only 6 months to live? Leave a comment below and let me know.

And ask yourself honestly “How can I start doing that now? How can I start even in a small way living my life on purpose today?”

Thank you for your support and encouragement!

Mark

p.s. Please leave me a comment below and “stumble” or “dig” this or e-mail it to a friend.
Thanks!

One of the challenges with anxiety or depression or any other stuck state is to find a way to break out of the neurological pattern or "Program".

NLP ( Neuro Linguistic Programming ) is all about "pattern interrupts" which give us behavioral choices. Change your physiology and it changes your internal world. change your internal world and it changes your physiology. The mind and the body are totally linked. We also have a choice of what to focus on and what to do in response to any external situation.

A friend of mine, Melanie Rudolph has recently introduced me to a growing movement cal

led Laughter Yoga which fits right in to the idea of change your physiology and your behavior and it changes your reality and experience of the world. (key NLP concepts BTW)

Melanie hosts a call every single night at 9 PM Eastern Time and you can call in to 712-432-3900 and enter this passcode: 6071292#. She guides the group in various laughter patterns. I'm planning on calling in tonight so I hope you'll join me! 6071292#

Here's Melanie's Site: www.WellnessForYouFirst.com

But wait! There's more! There are a bunch of other calls you can get on throughout the day so no matter where you are or what your schedule is you can take a laughter break to blast throug

h whatever you need to blast through to stay balanced and focused on joy. Talk about CRUSHING anxiety!

Best thing about it?

It's FREE! Here's the link to learn more: www.LaughterYogaUSA.com

Have an awesome, Joyful day!

Grin, smile, chortle, chuckle,tee hee, ha, ha, ha, ho, ho, ho, guffaw, ha, ha,hee, hee, snort...

Ahhhhhhh!

- Mark