Boosting Self-Esteem #1

I’ve picked up a number of mind-hack techniques over the years — it’s something of a personal interest — so I thought you might be interested in one of the more surprisingly wonderful and powerful ones :)

The technique is called re-imaging, and it requires no preparation. Sit or lie down somewhere comfortable, close your eyes, and take several slow, deep breaths. Think back to a time in your past where you missed out on something, screwed something up, accepted some chore you didn’t want to do or otherwise created a problem or made a mistake that you feel bad about. Once you’ve identified a suitable memory, think back over the situation from start to finish in as much detail as you can.

Now, once the memory is complete, go over it again with full concentration and visualisation. This time, edit the memory as you go. See yourself full of confidence and power. When you get to the point where your will failed you last time, see yourself make the empowered choice. Run through the rest of the scene, making it up as you go along. In your image, everything turns out ideally for everyone concerned. No-one is left hurt or disappointed, and you get the best possible outcome for yourself. Really concentrate on this, visualise as clearly as possible, and quieten your internal dialogue, so that there’s no little weasely voice in the back of your head going “…but”. As you go through the revised version, tell yourself that this is the true memory, this is what really happened. If there were possible long-lasting consequences, play them out to your best advantage in your memory editor too.

(Image swiped from one of about a hundred different Help Yourself websites *grin*)

This technique really does work to edit out bad memories and sources of poor confidence and self-esteem. Psychologists and neuroscientists have suggested that as much as 82% of our memory is just plain wrong – even regarding some quite major aspects of our life – so who is to say what is real anyway? You can re-image any part of your life for any quality you feel you lacked. If you positively reimage one negative memory a day for four weeks, feeling free to return to memories a few subsequent times if you feel the need, I guarantee that you’ll feel – and be – significantly more confident, positive and assertive by the end of the period.

Let me know here how you get on with it, or if you have any problems!

Note: As the wonderful Scary Boots just pointed out to me, this technique also works wonders for phobias, traumatic memories, and in fact just about any other aspect of your past-map that’s causing you problems.