“Next in importance to having a good aim is to recognize when to pull the trigger.”
(David Letterman)

My sister works with children and when I spent some time with her this last weekend she had the remainders of a bumper pack of sweets they had used as an end of term treat. The majority of these sweets I didn’t even know they still made and had great recollections of them from my childhood.

Just one taste seemed to transport us back to a school disco, or the excitement of a birthday.

You may have noticed that specific smells can immediately have an effect on how you feel because of what you associate with them. Perhaps every time you smell a particular perfume or aftershave you grin because of who it reminds you of, or maybe it has the opposite effect.

Then off course you may have a particular piece of music – I found myself grinning the other day because of an old TV jingle was being played. There are the tunes that you feel great when you hear them because of what you associate with them. Maybe there are also songs that have the opposite effect if you connected them with an old unpleasant experience.

These associations or connections between a trigger and a feeling are often set up without any conscious deliberate thought. What I’m going to invite you to play with this week is a way to give you a deliberate way to set up a trigger so that you can use it to your benefit.

You can do this with any feeling you want though I suggest something positive that you can then use. Maybe you want to play with confidence and use it when speaking in public. Perhaps you’d like to pick relaxation and fire it off before a job interview. It’s up to you what you pick.

You’ll get most benefit from playing with this if you pick a time when you are not going to get disturbed. This will allow you to easily set up a lovely strong feeling without anything else getting in the way. Initially imagining a state of relaxation before you set up a trigger for example is much easier without 100 kids screaming, the phone ringing and the dog running around you 😉

1. Having picked the feeling you want to have at your beck and call, vividly imagine what that feeling is like. By all means close your eyes if that is easier, and remember a time or a place where you felt that strongly – notice what you saw, the colours, people, etc, become aware of what you heard, the noises, tones etc.

As that feeling intensifies make it a full sensory experience by noticing if there are any aromas, perhaps there are tastes to savour.

2. Take as long as you like to really get a strong and powerful sense of this feeling. When you have a full sense of that strong feeling squeeze together your thumb and little finger.

3. Repeat this process several times, remembering to get a really strong feeling before squeezing your thumb and finger together. (I’m sorry, you’ll just have to feel that good feeling again ;))

4. Squeeze your thumb and finger together on it’s own and notice how that good feeling automatically follows. You have created a trigger, or anchor for you to fire off when ever you want to.

Have a week full of great feelings

Love

Jen

This was originally posted on www.YourChangingDirection.com