J.J.OBrien Lic.Ac.

THE LSR ANTI STRESS MANUAL

1

THE L.S.R. ANTI-STRESS HOME SEMINAR

with
Balance is the golden key.

J.J.O BRIEN.

Stop your stress switch.

Stop the release of stress hormones into your blood stream.

Reduce your stress levels. Rid yourself of stress, anxiety and depression.

Enhance your life.

Have a better nights sleep. Challenge emotional eating.

How to finally conquer, stress, anxiety, depression and obsessions.

INTRODUCTION

Hello, Im J.J.O Brien, the originator of the LSR Seminar and the LSR Anti-Stress Technique. In this manuel Im going to talk you through my technique, which will give you the ability to gain control over that part of your brain that is responsible for setting off your stress switch. This technique requires a bit of work, time and effort on your part. But, its not difcult to do and if you can apply yourself it will bring results and it will reduce your stress levels. I know this, because I once suffered from stress, anxiety and depression myself and I have used this method to signicantly reduce my own stress levels by more than 95%.

All I ask is that you take your time and complete the technique in the order in which it is presented to you, as if you were attending a live seminar. So, please could make sure that you have completed each section and fully practiced the exercises before you move onto the next section.

Best Regards,

J.J. O Brien

WELCOME Welcome to the seminar. You are just about to embark on The Home Anti Stress Seminar. This is the seminar that will show you how to....

Capture and to neutralize your own individual stress switch.

Once you learn how to do this you will be able to...

Reduce the amounts of stress hormones being released into your blood stream and thus allow your body to bring itself to a more chemically balanced state.

Reduce the impact of negative feeling in your everyday life, thereby reducing stress and stress related illness like anxiety and depression.

Before we start it is important to know that, no matter what the causes of your stress are , it is scientically proven beyond doubt that stress is a reaction in your emotional brain ( amygdala) that triggers a release of stress hormones into your blood stream.

It is the high concentration of these stress hormones that perpetuate anxiety, depression and the many stress related illnesses like high blood pressure etc. Its all to do with your limbic system, the ght and ight action and a part of your brain called the amygdala. Firstly let me say that this seminar is not about doing this for you, rather, the seminar will show you how to do this for yourself. And, once you have
4

perfected it for yourself you will be able to change your own individual reaction to stress. If you are ready to do this for yourself then lets continue. BALANCE Another purpose of this seminar is to allow you to bring emotional balance into your life. Before I started this work for myself I though that, because I had suffered from anxiety and depression, I had to put things into my life, in order to achieve balance. I thought that I had to ll my life up on the positive side of the scales so that the depression didnt have time to go anywhere inside of me or into any of the holes in my psyche. But, of course anxiety and depression did go into the holes. And the reason it did is because my balance was lob sided due to my own negative stress switch going off.

No matter what I put on the plus side of the scales, once the switch on the negative side of the scales went off, I was imbalanced in an instant. So, I worked on getting rid of the negative as well as applying the positive. I found that once I got rid of the negative that the positive became more powerful and lasting. I applied this way of thinking to both my own personal life and then in my professional life. I found that it brought faster results, facilitated emotional balance and brought about real and lasting change for both myself and eventually my clients.

Be positive, think positive thoughts, by all means. But make sure that you get rid of negative emotional stress patterns at the same time. Emotion always
5

has the ability to override thought because the synaptic connections from the emotional brain to the thinking brain are far stronger that the synaptic connections from the thinking brain to the emotional brain.

GET RID OF YOUR OWN ROTTEN STRESS EGG. I saw stress as my own rotten egg, that one in every bus load , and it was my own bus that I was driving. I though that if I am the one who is driving the bus then I can get rid of the disruptive passenger. So I set about ejecting that disruptive passenger called stress. Once I had found a way of doing that, then I found that my scales were much easier to balance as I did not have to deal with my disruptive passenger, the stress switch, and it became easier and easier to enjoy all the positive aspects of my life. This seminar is designed to get rid of the disruptive stress passenger within you. Its your bus of life and once you learn how to get rid of your disruptive stress passenger then you will automatically nd your own balance. Once you get rid of the negative then you will automatically be in a better position to accentuate the positive. So, before you begin, please make sure that you go through the process in the stated order as if you were attending a live seminar. The advantage of this home seminar over a live seminar is that you can go over things as often as you want . The disadvantage is that you can skip around if you want to. Please dont skip around. The seminar is designed to give you information, knowledge and insights into yourself.

You need to build this knowledge and understanding as you go through the seminar. I highly recommend that you do take your time and then, take more time if you need it. You are doing this seminar because stress is likely to have been with you for a long time. So, dont be in a rush to complete the seminar. There are no prizes for completing the seminar in record time.

Its a good idea to read this manuel in a quiet and relaxed space, preferably in the comfort of your own home and without any distractions.

Section 1
Before you start here are a few other things to think about. STRESS is a reaction in your brain where your EMOTIONAL BRAIN, called The Amygdala, triggers stress hormones like cortisol and noradrenalin into your bloodstream. Its called the ght and ight action . Its not unique to humans as is also exists in the animal world. Its a primary instinct which gives us protection from danger. So, if you see a snake or a wild boar while out for a walk in the countryside then this part of your brain will allow you to react quickly and not pick up the snake or try to cuddle the wild boar as a small child would do. Its the learned emotion of fear that is the initial trigger for your Stress switch going off.

Snake/Wild Boar = Fear and rightly so as both can potentially kill you.

The stress hormone release allows you to react quickly and once the incident has passed and you have reached safety then you will begin to calm down your body will chemically rebalance itself in about three days. No harm done, as your body reacted appropriately to the situation. Your stress switch is meant to go off in this situation.

However, if your stress switch is going off more than once every three to four days then your body never gets a chance to rebalance itself from the stress hormones.

There are three major parts of you brain involved in this process.
8

Your

SENSORY BRAIN

( Sensory Thalamus )

Your EMOTIONAL BRAIN

( Amygdala )

Your MEMORY BRAIN

( Sensory Cortex )

So, you have an experience like seeing the snake or the wild boar , your MEMORY BRAIN visually knows that snakes and boars are dangerous, you feel fear and your SENSORY BRAIN picks up the fear and sends a message to your EMOTIONAL BRAIN.

All this takes place in a split second. Your THINKING MIND gets BYPASSED and stress hormones are released into your blood stream for increased awareness and sensitivity to the danger.

Now, heres the problem.....and this is what causes stress.

The SENSORY BRAIN is set up to react instantly to a strong fear stimulus, no matter what the source of that fear may be.

So, if you are afraid of or had had fearful experiences in normal life situations then the SENSORY BRAIN will react in the same stressful way as if you had seen a snake or a wild boar , stress hormones will be released in your blood stream and your thinking mind will have been bypassed. Your emotional memories take over and you end up with negative feelings followed by negative thought patters about yourself.

For instance, if any of the following cause your stress switch to go off then you are caught in the cycle of stress.

Relationships Work Confrontation Intimacy Authority Being Bullied Bank Statements Crowds Trains Motor-ways Parents Guardians Teachers Speaking your mind Giving your opinion Sex Being Alone Saying No ( to that what you dont want) Saying Yes ( to your needs ) Food Thinking about meals Weight

......and many more of the normal situations that normal everyday life throws at you.
10

None of the above life situations merit a level of fear that causes the release of stress hormones into the blood stream.

And yet, for many people, these situations do cause a stress reaction.

That is because your emotional memory surrounding the incidents have educated your brain to react in a stressful way.

To stop the stress reaction you will need to re-educate your brain to take the fear out of these situation and to react with normal cognitive functions in these situations as opposed to emotional fear based reactions.

The diagram below shows what is happening in your brain.

By using the technique you will be able to re educate your Sensory Brain to recognize the difference between a stress based fear and real fear.

When this happens your brain will be able to take the Non stress Route

11

SENSORY CORTEX non-stress route

stress route SENSORY THALAMUS AMYGDALA

EMOTIONAL STIMULUS

STRESS RESPONSES

If your Sensory Brain has been conditioned to see and feel fear in normal situations then it is always going to take the stress route and this stress route means that stress hormones will be released and your thinking mind will be bypassed.

So, what you need to do is to re-educate your sensory brain to react normally to normal situations. This can easily be achieved in the real life situations with the LSR technique and you will gain the ability to change these real life situations from stressful to non stressful.

12

In order to stop the stress switch from going off in normal life situations you need to reeducate both your Sensory Thalamus and your Sensory Cortex to react normally in normal situations.

Once you this then you will not have a stress hormone release and you will be able to think clearly and act rationally instead of acting with negative emotions and stress.

Its what you do on a daily basis that counts. No matter what has happened to you in the past, you live in the present and it is the present that you need to sort out. You cannot go back and change the past, but you can change the inuence that the past has had upon you. The important thing to remember is that you are not stuck in the past but you may be stuck with the past. Going over events of the past will only serve to strengthen the memory. As well as that, every time you go over a past memory you feel a certain amount of the original feeling as if it is happening to you today. If it is a pleasant memory there is no problem, but, if it is an unpleasant memory then it brings back the unpleasant feelings. Unfortunately, it is the unpleasant feelings that have more of an impact on your body than the pleasant ones. But, you dont spend every day going over old memories.... Or, do you ?
13

If you are unable to process those negative feelings that come up on a daily basis then you are living in the past.

Its those small moments when you.... feel bad about yourself start to have obsessive thoughts tell yourself that you cant do this or dont deserve that when you dont speak up for yourself get that feeling of panic around confronting other people act without thinking about the consequences of your actions All of these things are activated by stress and negative feelings about yourself and once you have the negative feeling then you are emotionally infecting yourself with your past negative memories. Then your past never leaves you, it is never processed and the negative feelings are continually reinforced.

These feelings are a reection of your past experiences and you need to process these negative feelings to stop the invasion of stress. Thats because the strength of the feelings are still there, imprinted in your amygdala, and you give them new strength every time you feel anxious or stressed. Then , you may think the feelings go to the Back of the Mind . But, the back of the mind is the subconscious and out they pop again because they have been pushed aside and not processed.

14

In order to process them you need to bring the to the front of the mind and then extinguish them today, in real time and in the real situations that cause them today. You can process these negative feelings by dealing with them in a positive way. You will be able to do this once you learn the LSR Technique. Now I want you to ask yourself a simple question. WHAT IS IT THAT I AM DOING TODAY THAT MAKES ME FEEL STRESSED OR ANXIOUS? These are going to be small things because your day is usually made up of a series of events that can make you feel good or that can make your feel bad. Make a list of all the things that make you feel bad about yourself and which give you that strange negative feeling in your body. These are the things that you will need to target in the here and now. These are feelings that send you into negative emotion and though patterns. You have lived with them for some time otherwise you would not be reading this right now.

MAKE THAT LIST NOW If you cannot think of the incidents that make you feel bad then take a day or two to observe yourself. Note down the times that you get invaded with bad feelings and note the circumstances that created the feelings.

15

Remember, once you get rid of the negative then your body will automatically respond to the positive and the law of cure will begin to operate. Think of this process as akin to having a pile of rubbish to sort out. Every day the rubbish pile gets bigger because you pile up more rubbish than you can sort out in a day. This makes the pile impossible to sort out. Now its time to stop the daily rubbish from piling up,,, When you stop the daily pile up of negative feelings, this will allow you to chip away at the backlog . Once you start to chip away at the backlog it can only get smaller and smaller until it is gone completely. Stop negative emotions from piling on stress. Causes It doesnt matter what has caused the negative emotions in the rst place. There is nothing you can do about that now. Reading Stress D.N.A. may have transported you back to your childhood or to a time in your life when things started to go wrong. Its good to know what the causes are. There has to be a reason why an intelligent rational person like yourself has irrational anxiety and stress. But, repeating the pattern on a daily basis by letting these negative feelings invade you will only bring back and reinforce the painful memories that will keep you locked into the stress cycle. Let them go by concentrating on the present day.
16

Lets accept the fact that their is a cause and it is likely to have been the emotional inuences of other people, circumstances, bad luck, whatever.. The current fact is that you are a conscious intelligent being who is harming your body every day with stress and anxiety and it needs to stop. Identify your current negative emotional patterns. The answer is to identify what it is your are doing today that is reactive to the your past emotional experiences and throw out these negative emotional habits.

PURPOSE OF THE TECHNIQUE

The purpose of the technique is to regain control of your thinking mind in that split second moment before your stress switch goes off in order to stop the ght and ight action from taking place. By doing this you will stop the release of stress hormones into your bloodstream and stop the negative emotional feelings that go with it. Stress hormones cannot be released while your thinking mind is the dominant decision maker. It is only the emotional mind ( the amygdala ) that can activate stress hormones. Once you learn how to do you this can eliminate that daily stress, anxiety and negative emotion.

17

Its a medically proven fact that when your stress switch goes off your thinking brain gets bypassed by the ght and ight action. Brain imaging technology has proved this beyond doubt. However, what I have discovered is that once you regain control of your thinking brain in that split second before the stress switch goes off then your amygdala cannot release stress hormones. No stress hormone release, no anxiety. No anxiety, no depression.

I have worked out how to regain control of the thinking brain in that split second and that is a vital part of what my technique does. It is very easy and completely safe to do but you must do it in the right order.

NOW, ITS TIME FOR YOU TO DO THIS FOR YOURSELF.

Shall we begin?

18

SECTION 2
THE LSR TECHNIQUE PART 1.

It is your existing emotional memories that created stress and set off the stress switch inside of your brain ! Now, you are going to use your existing positive memories to neutralize your stress switch. A. THE ONE MINUTE MEDITATION

Firstly, I would like you do a very easy meditation that takes very little time to perfect but is crucial to the technique.This is something that I initially developed for people who have a busy lifestyle and is a superb way of meditating on your own anywhere and anytime that you like. And, once you have perfected it, it literally takes a minute. Before you start you will need to get a stopwatch or a minute timer that will emit a sound when a minute is up. The purpose of this particular meditation is to process subconscious emotional memory and to reduce the pile up a of unresolved feelings. It also teaches you how to communicate with your own subconscious and this is what you will need to do in the nal part of the technique. THE ONE MINUTE MEDITATION 1. On your own in a calm space, close your eyes for a few seconds and make sure that you are either sitting or lying in a comfortable position. Set your timer for 15 seconds and press start. Close your eyes and just get used to the sensation of sitting quietly with your eyes closed. Open your eyes when the fteen seconds ends.
19

2. Now set the timer for 30 seconds and repeat the same exercise. Open your eyes after the thirty seconds. 3. Now, set the timer for 45 seconds and repeat the exercise. These rst three exercises are just to get used to the sitting quietly with your eyes closed. 4. Now. Set your timer for sixty seconds. Before you start I want you to say these words in your head. Can my subconscious please send images into my conscious mind. Repeat these words again.. Can my subconscious please send images into my conscious mind. Once more... Can my subconscious please send images into my conscious mind. Start your minute timer now and allow images to come into your mind. Let random images come into your head. Don't think of anything specic beforehand. Just close your eyes and let whatever images that appear in your head come into your mind. ( Some people will have already begun to see images in step 1, 2 and 3. ) Once the images come in, don't do anything with them. Just let them pass through your mind and observe them as if you are watching a movie. Don't think of their meaning or try to analyze the images , just let the images come in for a minute at a time. Then let them go and forget about them. It make take a few goes to get it right but eventually your will see random images in your mind. Do it as many times as it takes to get the images. Some people will see nothing at rst but, if you persist then the images will come. This will teach you how to speak to your own subconscious and is a vital part in regaining control of your thinking mind in that stress switch moment.

Let images come into your mind. Just a minute at a time. Do it several times a day. It is most useful rst thing in the morning and last thing at night.

20

To review... 1. Calm space. Sitting down. Comfortable. 2. Close your eyes and simply tell your thinking brain to let subconscious images come into your conscious mind. You can say these words in your mind before you start your timer. Can my subconscious please send images into my conscious mind. 3. Whatever images pop into your mind...just let them be. 4. Do not think about the images, do not analyze the images. Just let them come into your mind like photographs or a movie appearing in your head and let them exit your mind at their own pace. 5. Set the timer to stop after one minute and stop. On the rst occasion you may need to do it several times or you may get it rst time. I should take anything from an hour to a few days to perfect this meditation depending on circumstances. Just make sure that you perfect it before moving onto the next stage.

Once you perfected the One Minute Meditation the move onto the next step called The Mind Bridge.

MAKE THE ONE MINUTE MEDITATION PART OF YOUR NORMAL DAILY LIFE AND EXPERIENCE THE CALMNESS THAT IT BRINGS TO YOUR MIND. You can do it as often as you like. I recommend that you do it a minimum of six times a day and if you have a busy life then a maximum of once an hour.

21

B. THE MIND BRIDGE.

You will need a pen a some blank pieces of paper for this step.
For this step I am going to ask you to generate images in your mind of iconic locations. Choose seven images from the list below. Generate the images in your mind. Do not google or look them up in books. You will nd that each time you think of them, the same image will come into your mind. For instance picture Niagara Falls or any waterfall in your mind right now. Do you notice how an image has popped into your mind ? Now picture Mickey Mouse in your mind, now Buzz Lightyear or Woody from Toy Story or any cartoon character that you know. Now picture Niagara Falls again... Notice that it is exactly the same image, like a photograph. That's a Memory Doorway. Choose 7 images from the list below and make sure that each choice has a neutral emotion to it. So, if you had a bad experience at Niagara Falls then forget it and choose another image. Let your mind generate the image. Do not use photographs. Choose 7 images and then play them like a visual slide show in your head with a second between each one just like a slide show on your computer but in your mind. Write them down and practice them until you can see the whole slide show in your head without referring to the written list . Its a bit like recalling the alphabet in your head but with visual images. It does not matter what order you put the images in but once you decide on an order then stick to it. Again the images must come from your mind. Here is the list. Go through the list and when you read each one let an image come into your mind. Some images will be clearer than others. Its best to choose the clearest images.

22

Choose 7 from this list and write them down.

LIST OF IMAGES
THE EIFFEL TOWER , in Paris, France. THE WHITE HOUSE , in Washington D.C. THE HOUSES OF PARLIAMENT , in London England. NIAGRA FALLS , in Canada. THE TAJ MAHAL , in India. THE GRAND CANYON , in the U.S.A. THE PYRAMIDS , of Egypt. MOUNT EVEREST , or any large mountain or mountain range. THE WHITE CLIFFS OF DOVER , in England THE GREAT WALL , of China. SYDNEY OPERA HOUSE , in Australia. EASTER ISLAND , statues. THE ACROPOLIS , in Greece. THE COLOSSEUM , in Rome, Italy. AYERS ROCK , in Australia. THE VATICAN, in Rome, Italy. THE TERRA-COTTA ARMY , in China. STONEHENGE , in England. THE ARC DE TRIOMPHE , in Paris France. THE BRANDENBURG GATE, in Germany. THE LEANING TOWER OF PISA , in Italy. MACHU PICCHU , in Peru. THE KREMLIN , in Moscow, Russia.
23

THE ALHAMBRA , in Spain. THE STATUE OF LIBERTY, in New York. You may also choose your own image if you are not satised with this list. If you do then please make sure that you do not look at a photograph rst and make sure that the image has only a positive or neutral emotional association for you. You dont have to have seen these images in real life to have them in your mind. I have never visited Egypt but I have a clear image of The Pyramids in my mind. The important thing is that the image comes out of your mind.

Once you have chose the 7 images then write them down and number then 1 to 7.

Image 1

Image 2

Image 3

Image 4

Image 5

Image 6

Image 7

24

Now play the images in your mind from 1 to 7. It should take from 10 to 15 seconds. Play the images in your mind as often as it takes for you to be able to play the images without looking at your list. This can take anything from a few hours to a couple of days depending on a multitude of factors. The important thing is to take your time and to learn the images to the point where you can recall them with the same ease as you say the alphabet or count from 1 to 10. To recap so far. You need to have complete these two exercises..

1. THE ONE MINUTE MEDITATION. For exactly one minute let random images come into your mind. Do not think about the images, just let them pass through your mind. Stop after sixty seconds.

2. THE MIND BRIDGE. Generate 7 images in you mind. Play the images in you mind like a slide show. Be able to recall the slide show with the ease of counting from 1 to 10. It should take between 10 and fteen seconds.

25

Section 3
THE LSR TECHNIQUE PART 2.
It is very important to make sure that you have fully memorized the 7 images from the LSR Technique Part 1 before you start Part 2 here. If you have not then you are putting yourself at a disadvantage by attempting part 2.

Please continue to do The One Minute Meditation as part of your daily routine. Please make sure that you can see the seven images playing in your mind at least three times in a row before you continue.

C. THE POSITIVE EMOTIONAL MEMORY MOVIE

Stress is activated by negative memories that give you negative feelings about yourself. In this section you will need to nd a memory that is the opposite to the memories that create your stress.

Please take a few moments to search through your memory for a short fteen to twenty second memory of a time or an event where you felt really true to yourself, without any stress or bad feeling. It could be a sporting moment as it was for me, or it could be when you passed a test, or stood up for yourself. Whatever the event you choose it must be one of your actual memories, it must be something that has actually happened to you or something that you
26

have been involved in. It must give you a condent and good feeling when you recall the memory.

Positive Emotional Memory Movie.

Your positive emotional memory movie can be any memory form anytime in your life. The most important thing is that the memory is a real memory of something that has happened in your life. The memory should be the opposite to that which causes you stress or negative feelings. I personally choose an indoor football game myself because it was the opposite to a number of incidents when I did not take the opportunity to go for what was in front of me. I remember one particular day when I was playing in two tennis nals and lost both. I can still remember the moment when I gave up in both nals. I never mind loosing, thats not what I am talking about here. What felt awful for me, was loosing because I gave up without knowing why. Something went off inside of my head that day and, once it had gone off then there was no way I could get it back and it became inevitable that I was not going to play to the best of my ability. The same thing happened in job interviews, encounters with people in authority etc. Knowing what I know now, I realized that I had a negative thought pattern playing in my head during those tennis nals that told me You dont deserve this... However, if I had been able to stop the switch from going off then I could have countered that negative thought pattern with positive emotion and changed how I felt and thought about myself. I may still have lost but at least I would lost from in a positive way. So, when you choose your positive emotional memory movie, make sure that it represents the positive aspects of yourself. Some people like to call it their Zen Movie as there are certain days, incidents or periods in your life when everything just comes together in that Zen like way.

27

You can call it what you like as long as the memory brings good feeling. The movie does not have to very long, about 15 to 20 seconds. The purpose of the movie is to counter any negative emotion that your emotional brain may be experiencing and to neutralize a negative with a positive. Its like an emotional counterweight. Please remember that it must be positive and have overall good feeling. For instance the day you stood up to the school bully is ne to use but the day you got revenge on someone is not good to use. Standing up for yourself is positive but revenge is negative.

It has to be a real memory and it must still to this day make you feel good and positive even now when you think of it. I repeat the word feel. Make it about fteen seconds long. Time yourself. Make sure it always starts in the same place and try to get it to nish in the same place. For me it starts with the ball coming across and ends with my friends telling me that he could almost see my thoughts.

Practice the movie in your head until you can play it with ease. It may change slightly as it progresses so make sure that it always starts in the same place. For instance, for me it always starts with the ball ying through the air and proceeds from there. The reason why it is important to have your movie starting in the same place is because you need to join together your 7 image slide show and your positive emotional memory movie.

JOINING The Mind Bridge to the Movie.

28

This is very easy to do and just requires a quiet place and a little bit of concentration as your mind will do the work for you.

Play the Mind Bridge 7 image slide show in your head and when you see image 7 just simply play your movie as if it were an extra image in your slide show. Your mind will just do it as long as your movie starts with the same image all the time. Practice this a few times until you can do both together as one. This is what should be happening in your mind.

Image 1

Image 2

Image 3 Image 4 Image 5 Image 6 Image 7

Positive Emotional Memory Movie

29

Now, play these two parts together in your head until they become one. Once you can do this then move onto the next section.

D. SUBCONSCIOUS STRESS TRIGGER IMAGE.

This is the nal part of The Technique.

Before you attempt this please make sure of the following.

THE ONE MINUTE MEDITATION. Are you able to do this? Is your mind generating images when you use the meditation?

THE MIND BRIDGE/ POSITIVE EMOTIONAL MEMORY MOVIE.

Have you joined the two together and are you able to play them in your head.

If not then you will still need to practice.

If you can then lets move on.

MEMORY DOORWAYS.

Before we continue, lets talk about how memory images are generated in your mind. I call them Memory Doorways. During my live seminars some people make reference to how computers work, as if we operate like very sophisticated computers. We are not computers or anything like computers because we have emotion and the capacity to feel emotion. Besides , it was
30

humans who created computers so when the design teams worked on computer memory, they would have subconsciously modeled computers on how human memory works. The memory doorway is the brains way of allowing memories to be led away and then accessed when they are required. For instance you usually do not give a second thought to most of the iconic images listed earlier and yet you are able to instantly recall them once you are reminded of them by simply reading their names.

Think of other things like your old school, a neighbors house, people from history like Abraham Lincoln, Charles Dickens, Elvis Presley, Martin Luther King or old friends and relatives. Again when you think of any of these people you will nd that an image comes into your head straight away.

However, if I were to ask you to think about an emotion it is not as easy to put an instant image to say fear, anger, joy, jealousy, envy, grief etc. Our emotions are much larger than single incidents and it is the accumulation of single incident events that make up our emotional memory.

To be afraid of an encounter with a snake is an appropriate learned fear reaction with which we can associate fear even when thinking about a poisonous snake. I can see a cobra appearing in head as I think about it now. The cobra in my mind is free and in a desert background, but, I have never encountered a cobra in the wild, I have never been ti the desert, and I have only seen cobras behind glass in the zoo. My image is probably something I saw on television or at the movies. I dont know exactly how and where the image was formed. But, what I do know is that it is stored in my subconscious and appears when fear of snakes is mentioned.
31

Its the same with other emotions. When I felt anger at the people who mistreated me at school it always brought up an image of the outside of the building.

Grief for my uncle who died recently brings the image of his face in the cofn.

Try it yourself right now, with emotion, and you will see how the feeling will generate the image. Dont upset yourself. Choose something that has a small avor of emotion. For instance, I have long gotten over what happened to me at school and do not get angry when I think about the place. I have great and fond memories of my uncle, he lived into his eighties and accepted his death. But I can still see both images clearly. The difference now is that I dont get upset by the memories or the images.

Choose a few memories and see how the images pop into your mind. You may nd that it is more than just the snapshot image that you got from the Eiffel Tower etc. For me there is a little movement in both of the images I have mentioned above.

Now you need to get the subconscious stress trigger image that is part of your stress memory. Heres how to do it !

Please make sure that you are in a calm place. Preferably somewhere with neutral colors and decoration. The best place would be to sit and face a blank wall, preferably white or a solid neutral color. Have a jug of water with you in case you need a drink.

32

To do this exercise you need to have spent some time practicing The One Minute Meditation to the point where you able to get random images appearing in your head. If you have not done this and you have just kept reading this document then you really should stop and do the preceding exercises, otherwise you will be putting yourself at a disadvantage.

A. The One Minute Meditation

B./C. The Mind Bridge and The Positive Emotional Memory Movie.

Start by doing the One Minute Meditation at least three times. Leave two minutes between each meditation.

Now do the combined Mind Bridge/Positive Emotional Memory at least three times, again leaving two minutes between each time.

This next exercise is only going to take less than fteen minutes so make sure that you are not interrupted if possible. At the very least, switch off phones etc.

Ready?

You know that feeling you get when you are stressed. It a specic feeling and is the same feeling every time you feel stressed. Its a feeling that has been with you for a long time, so, you know you should know it well. It is usually accompanied by a sensation in a part of your body. For me, it made my head twitch and I would immediately begin to sweat. For others it is a feeling in the stomach, chest, back, a slight shake of the hand etc.
33

Generate that feeling now. Some people will be able to do it instantly, while others will need a little time. If you cant get the feeling then think of the most recent incident where you felt stress.

Hold onto the feeling for a few seconds and then let it go. If you cant let it go then do the Mind Bridge/Positive Emotional Memory Movie in your head until the feeling begins to recede.

Take some deep breaths, in through your nose and out through your mouth. Have a drink of water if you need to.

Leave two to three minutes and repeat the above exercise.

You see how it is the same feeling and the same physical reaction each time.

Now, do it again, only this time when you feel the feeling and the physical reaction... say these words in your head.

CAN MY SUBCONSCIOUS PLEASE GIVE ME AN IMAGE TO CORRESPOND TO THIS FEELING

CAN MY SUBCONSCIOUS PLEASE GIVE ME AN IMAGE TO CORRESPOND TO THIS FEELING

Now do the One Minute Meditation and within the rst few seconds an image should pop into your mind. It could be anything. Some people

34

need to do it a few times until an image pops into their head. I doesn't matter what the image is as long as you have that stress feeling in your body when you ask for the image. Once you get the image then make sure that you can see it in your mind just like the 7 images in the Mind Bridge. You can stop the meditation once the image has appeared. Now, make sure that you can see the image as single snapshot. See the image in your head, now think of a few cartoon characters like Shrek, Mickey Mouse etc. Now look for the image again. It will appear in your mind, now ask for Mickey Mouse etc. again, then the image. Do this a few times until the image becomes clear in your mind. Call this new image MY SUBCONSCIOUS STRESS IMAGE. You dont have to analyze what the image means. It may make sense and it may not. People get all sorts of images from doors to pictures of a record sleeve, fairground attractions, tennis ball ( me ), goldsh etc. As long as you have generated the image while you were feeling that stress feeling then it is the correct image. This image is what your subconscious sees in that split second before your stress switch goes off. This is the subconscious image that is responsible for bypassing your thinking mind. Now that you have the image you can use it to divert your stress switch away from your emotional mind ( amygdala ), thereby stopping the ght and ght action that is responsible for releasing stress hormones into your blood stream. Now, you must now add this image onto the start of your slideshow. Once you have completed this then the slide show will become your positive stress reaction and you will be able to neutralize your ght and ight reaction in those real life stress situations.

35

From now you must play the slide show with the Subconscious Stress Image rst, then the Mind Bridge images followed by The Positive Emotional Memory Movie. You must play them all as one and it should take a maximum of about thirty seconds.

Here is a diagram to remind you...

Subconscious Stress Image

Image 1

Image 2

Image 3

Image 4

Image 5

Image 6

Image 7

Positive Emotional Memory Movie

36

Now, you need to practice this and make it a single event in your head.

Once you are able to do this without referring to your written list then you are ready to begin the process of neutralizing your stress switch. You will be amazed at how quickly and how easy it works. The whole technique should take less than 30 seconds to do from start to nish.

Subconscious Image, moving into...

7 Images, moving into...

Good Feeling Movie

Played in your head as one.

Please practice it and do it as many time as it takes for you to be able to do in your head at will. Dont be in a hurry to test it out, just make sure that you can do it rst and then once you apply it to the real life situation that activates stress and anxiety in you it will be able to turn off your stress switch there and then.

37

Please read the rest of this document before you start to use the technique in real life situations.

Have you made that list of the incidents and events that cause you stress ?

Are you ready to challenge stress !

Remember, it is your emotional and visual memories that create stress and it your emotional and visual memories that you will now be using to neutralize your stress switch.

Changing Stress with The LSR Technique.

It is now possible to quickly change your reaction to stress by using the LSR Technique. 1. Have you made that list of the actual triggers that activate stress and anxiety within you. Even in the last few days while you have been reading this manual and completing the seminar there have probably been incidents where your stress switch has gone off. If so, then the memory will be fresh in your mind so, go over the incident(s) and examine what happened. 2. Try to identify what the trigger was. If you cannot identify the trigger then
38

think about what happened just before the trigger went off.

It always happens if someone raises their voice.... Its worse when I start thinking about a certain colleague at work.. I wind myself up into a state by thinking about the same thing all the time... Whatever it is, even if you think it too small an incident to be relevant, please note it down. It is the small things that count.

2. Have you fully practiced The Technique from start to nish and can you recall it in your head at will.

Now you are ready to proceed and to make the technique work for you.

USING THE TECHNIQUE IN REAL LIFE.

The beauty about The Technique is that it can be used immediately as long as you have practiced it and can play it all the way in your head. You MUST ALWAYS start with the Subconscious Stress Switch Image and end with your good feeling movie. In the rst few days you will need to practice the technique as much as possible. Just like anything that you have learned , PRACTICE MAKES PERFECT.
39

So, please keep practicing the technique from START TO FINISH at least 10 times a day for the rst three days. Please excuse me for repeating myself but, make sure that you always start the technique with your subconscious stress switch image and end with your good feeling movie. Play your movie all the way through in your head when you practice the technique. It is vital that you practice the technique at least once before you go to bed at night and at least once in the morning after you wake up. You need to do this because you are re-educating your subconscious and you will have greater access to your subconscious during sleep and just after you have woken up. If you take a nap during the day, then do the technique before and after your nap. Make the technique be the last thing that you do with your mind before you go to sleep. Then when you wake up make it the rst conscious action in your head.

Some people with sleep problems may need to do the technique several times before going to sleep. WORKS AUTOMATICALLY FOR SOME PEOPLE For some people the technique will automatically work without you having to do anything. You will nd yourself in a stressful situation where normally you would have reacted with stress and the stress will be gone. If that is you then you are the exception and thats great. But, for most it will take just a few days for it to start working in the real life
40

situations. Before you start using the technique make sure that you are able to bring all of the images clearly into your mind. If any of the images are fading slightly then that is not a problem as long as it remains as the same image.

If you are condent that you can play all the images and the movie in your head at will, without reference to your notes then you can start using the technique, If not, then you will need to go over it again until your are absolutely sure that you can play it all in your head. Now that you have learned The Technique, lets apply it to your real life situations that cause you stress. The Technique has been developed to work best in real life stress situation.

USING THE TECHNIQUE IN REAL LIFE STRESS SITUATIONS. If you have not already done so then start by making a list of the situations that cause you stress. Start with the small things, the habitual routines...
The house is not tidy and it throws me into a spin.

When you clean the house from that spin feeling you have experienced stress and you will have noticed that it never leaves you feeling good about
41

yourself. Usually at the end of a stress induced activity you will not feel satised, even after all that effort, and you will look for something immediate to satisfy you. The easiest and most immediate thing is food. Instead of getting to this point where you will eat, why not stop this action from taking place in the rst place. Once you do this then you will feel better about yourself and are more likely to do something that is emotionally positive and emotionally satisfying. Stop and apply the technique when you start to get that feeling of going into a spin. Play the technique in your head a couple of times until that spin feeling begins to recede. Now, start to think it through. Yes, you need to clean up your house but you dont need to do it from that feeling of panic that sends you into a spin.... Now, clean the house if you want to or go for a walk, read a book, phone a friend and meet for a chat, go to a class. But, do so from your conscious mind and not your emotional mind. I let people in front of me on the train, the bus, the supermarket queue... Start to capture the moment when you step back and let other people in front of you. You dont have to push your way in front but, rather, take the place that is rightfully yours. Apply the technique in your head and just step into your rightful place. Just do it there and then in the moment. Dont plan it out in your head beforehand, dont hesitate. Just DO IT.
42

You are probably doing this from a lack of sense of self. Each time you do something from a lack of self you give in to the negative and you loose your own power. Shift the power balance in your favor by stepping up. If you dont do it the rst time then you will be able to do it the next time. Once you have done it a few times you will then start to do it automatically. What other situations in life are there where you let people in front of you?

If you are letting other people in front of you and it is making you feel negative about yourself then you must stop doing this. The best way to stop this from happening is while it is happening. Just at the moment when it is happening, play the technique in your head and step into yourself .

You will feel so much better and you will stop the invasion of the negative feelings that make you feel bad about yourself. PROCRASTINATION Ill do it tomorrow... You get a lethargic feeling and you cant be bothered. Once you get that feeling then you need to neutralize it as quickly as possible. Again, you know this feeling as you have had it many times, maybe even on a daily basis. When you get that lethargic feeling, start by capturing the moment. Stop, look around and focus on a single object, any object that is neutral. Right now I can see a stool, for instance. I am looking at the stool, it has 3 wooden legs
43

and it is covered with a light tan leather top. It is sturdy and looks to have a lot of wear and tear on it. It has taken me just a few seconds to focus on the stool. It is enough time to make me stop and think. Now once you have diverted your thoughts... Start the technique and do it a few times in your head. That lethargic feeling will already have started to dissipate. Your thinking mind will re engage and the lethargic feeling will begin to disappear .

Now, do that which you are putting off doing. It is usually a small thing like ling out a form or cleaning out that cupboard. Do it there and then. Do it now. You will nd that once you complete the task it will give you a good feeling and you wont have that bad feeling that comes from wasting time.

NEGATIVE THOUGH PATTERNS

I get bullied at work all the time. I cant stand up for myself. Im just a

doormat. These are negative thought patterns and you need to challenge them head on. Dont just walk up to your boss or work colleague and tell them that you are being bullied and that it needs to stop. That will just lead to a confrontation that you dont need.

44

The negative though pattern is caused by negative feelings within yourself, so, you need to confront the negative feeling within yourself to change the though pattern.

You know that negative feeling, its been with you for a long time and now it is time to get rid of it by applying the technique in the real life situation. Now, in the past you will probably have have planned to stand up for yourself and even played out the scenario of how you will stand up for yourself in your head only to nd yourself in the same situation again. Or, at night before you sleep you may have replayed a scenario that happened in the day and changed the events in your head to make you come out on top... There is no need to do anything like this any more. Heres how to deal with these situations.

Before you go out or start you day, sit down quietly for a few moments. Take several deep breaths, in through your nose and out through your mouth.

Do your One Minute Meditation three times to relax your mind. Leave two minutes between each meditation.

Now, bring that bad feeling into your body in the same way as you did when you did the nal part of the technique. As soon as you feel the feeling then play the technique in your head, all the way through to the end of the movie. Do this as many times as it takes for the feeling to leave you or reduce by
45

80%. Dont think about what you are going to do when the next stressful situation happens. Just forget about it and get on with your daily life. Then when the situation happens you will nd that the technique will come into your head, either immediately, or within a few seconds. Once you do the technique in the actual situation you will gain valuable seconds where you will be able to think and to respond in a way that is positive to you. You wont just blurt out your usual response but rather you will be able to think and to respond appropriately. Once you have stood up for yourself you may nd that the other person is a bit shocked by your change of tone. It may be a little uncomfortable for a few seconds, but you are now in control of your thinking mind and you will have stood up for yourself. Again, dont rehearse this. Trust your thinking mind, it will know what to do in the real life situation. And, no matter what, even if it brings conict, it will be a hundred times better than saying your usual yes when you mean no or no when you mean yes. It may take you a few times to get this right so dont worry if you dont get it on the rst attempt. I guarantee you that you will get it by the third time at the most. Once the situation has passed, do your One Minute Meditation to calm your mind. Congratulate yourself and get on with your day.
46

WORRY I am a constant worrier. I get worried at the slightest thing. A friend of mine once said.... Every worry is a waste of a good worry. And indeed, he is by and large correct...

What is worry? Worry is undigested thought. When you worry you extract all the goodness from your thoughts and your thoughts become useless. Your thoughts are your mental food and your thoughts need to be digested in the same way as food needs to be digested. If your food spends too much time churning and churning around in your stomach then, by the time the food gets to your small intestine there will be no goodness to extract as it will be saturated by acidic juices.

Dont let your mind over digest your thoughts... Stop the worry! Up to now you havent been able to stop. But, you can stop worrying when you do the LSR technique and you can learn how to stop the worry patterns in a few days. No matter what you worry about it always give you the same feeling. So, you have lots of different kinds of worries but only that one feeling, no matter
47

what you worry about you get The Worry Feeling. Now, lets concentrate on the The Worry Feeling. Because once you get rid of that worry feeling then you can get rid of the pattern of worry.

Once you become aware of this you can easily capture the feeling. Its there every day so its not going to be difcult to observe.

CAPTURE THE FEELING. Once you capture the feeling you can stop the worrying because the worry is caused by your feelings and not by your thoughts. . Capture the feeling as you nd yourself worrying .

Concentrate on a single object in your immediate enviornment like my stool for 30 seconds to neutralize your mind. It can be any object, now look at the object, notice its color, shape. Think about how it is made, who would have constructed it, where the raw materials would have come from. Really engage fully in the object.

Now, do your One Minute Meditation. Now, do the technique a few times in your mind and you will nd that The Worry Feeling will dissipate. Next, examine what you have been worrying about. Whatever it is, it will have an outcome. The outcome can be positive or negative and if you worry

48

then you will always assume the negative outcome. ( 9 times out of 10 there will be a positive outcome to worry ) Reach a conclusion and give it a positive and realistic outcome and you will stop the worry cycle. Once you have digested your thoughts you will have a positive feeling and you can move on in your day.

Beware of Your Thoughts

There is an old Chinese saying... Beware of your thoughts, they may come true. I am all for positive thinking. It does bring results and you are more likely to achieve your goals if you apply positive thinking to your life. However, before you start thinking positively you need to eliminate any negative thinking. To do this you also need to make sure that your overall way of thinking is not infused with negative emotions. Because, what may appear like positive thinking can actually be negative thinking if the emotional emphasis is of a negative pattern. Lets take a common example. I am going to be successful, work hard and make a good life for myself. This is a positive statement that a lot of people will use a a modus operandi in life.
49

However, when you examine the emotion behind the statement you may nd something entirely different... I am going to be successful, work hard and make a good life for myself...... Because I dont want to end up like my father. Because I want to live the dream and no one is getting in my way.

Because I am going to show them that Im not a failure.

Because I hate this place I come from and I want to get as far away from it as possible.

So, what appears to be positive thinking, is not positive thinking at all because it has negative emotional emphasis behind it. Emotion has more power over your thoughts than you realize and you need to make sure that your thoughts come from positive emotion. Take someone who has food issues. I am going to make sure that I eat healthily today. Ill have muesli for breakfast, I wont have that mid morning snack that I usually have. Then as I have to go out for lunch I will make sure that I choose the healthy option from the menu and have a starter rather than a desert. Then in the evening I will just have a salad and some fruit. Now, diet wise I see nothing wrong with what the person is eating. I totally
50

advocate a healthy and normal eating routine. But, as food is emotional you also need to have positive emotion in your thought structure surrounding food. The rst part of this thought structure is positive. The it goes into negativity with... ...I wont have that mid morning snack... In this context the word wont has negative emotional emphasis. You are depriving yourself and thereby sending a negative emotional message to yourself.

THINK POSITIVELY You can enhance positive thinking by using positive emotional emphasis. Thinking works, it brings results, it makes things happen. If you think positively, then positive things will happen, but if you think negatively, negative things will happen. Your mind and your thoughts are inuenced by emotion, so you need to have the correct emotional emphasis on your thought structure for positive thinking to be more effective. Start by eliminating the negative and make sure that you have the correct emotional emphasis on key words. For example, I taught my children how to ride bikes in about an hour by using emotional emphasis and positive thinking. It's scary for a parent to let a child off on a two wheel bike on a hard road surface for the rst time, because you don't want them to fall and injure themselves. However, I never mentioned
51

the word fall because I knew I would have said the word with my own emotional emphasis of fear. Because I was fearful, my fear emotion would have been projected in the tone of my voice. When you have emotional emphasis on a word, the subconscious will often only hear that key word, in this case the word fall. If that word is a negative then the subconscious mind will respond to the negative before the positive. In this case the children would only have heard the world fall and inevitably they would have fallen over.

I might as well say, Right girls! Get on your bikes and fall over.

Instead, I asked them to stay upright. 'Upright' felt like a solid and positive piece of advice. Stay upright, and lean back slightly to get a good balance.

As it progressed, I even felt more solid and upright in myself. We all had a hugely positive experience because I changed the emotional emphasis from

don't fall', a fear-based emotional emphasis, to stay upright', a solid and positive emotional emphasis.
They were speeding around by the time we nished.

For positive thinking:

Make sure that you have positive emotional emphasis on your thought

structure
Examine your own sentences and identify any area that contains a
52

negative and turn it into a positive

Positive emotional emphasis for enhanced positive thinking.

Listen to the tone of your own voice and make sure that the emphasis is positive.

Locked In Thoughts / Over Thinking

If you think all of the time then you will not be able to think about

anything but your thoughts. If you were to record your thoughts, like one of those 24 hour reality TV shows, you may be surprised at what you think about. If you nd that there is a lot of repetition then you are locking yourself into your thoughts and they will usually be negative thoughts. If you are stressed, depressed, anxious or emotionally eat then you are more than likely having negative repetitive thoughts. You may also nd that you already have had the negative thoughts before you even realize it.

Negative thoughts bring negative results. If you think that you are no good then you will feel useless about yourself. If you think that you are fat then you will feel fat..
53

If you think that you cant achieve then you will never achieve.. GET RID OF THE NEGATIVE THOUGHTS STOP THINKING ABOUT THESE THINGS STOP GENERATING NEGATIVE PICTURE AND MOVIES IN YOUR HEAD Start by identifying the pattern...

Do you...

You go over and over traumatic events of the past. Think about someone who has hurt you and you plan what you are going to do or say when you see them next... Get xated on food and think about food all of the time. Constantly play the same memory scene over an over in you head like a movie that is stuck on a loop... Check the news all the time waiting for disaster and then play the scenes form the disaster over and over in your mind.

If so then you are stuck in negative thought patterns. However once you have identied the pattern then you are in a position to stop it from repeating it.
54

You can stop this by doing the technique a few times in your head and then do The One Minute Meditation.

Meditation is the art of not thinking. It relaxes the mind and stops the invasion of stress and negative emotion. MRI scans prove this.

If you dont engage with or think about the images in your One Minute Meditation then you are meditating and not thinking. When you meditate you dont think. When you dont think you clear your mind. When you clear your mind of negative thoughts you leave room for positive thoughts.

RELATIONSHIPS If relationships are your stress source then you need to confront aspects of the relationship that are causing the stress. It could be something very simple or it could be something major. Either way you have to confront the stress that it is causing you. Dont rush to any conclusions.

55

Its the small things that count. Its those little things that happen on a day to day basis and that go unsaid, never discussed , you just let them be for whatever reason... If they are giving you stress then you need to change the stress reaction in yourself and not try to change the relationship. So, when you feel that uncomfortable feeling that your partner evokes in you..

DONT IGNORE IT! IF YOU IGNORE IT IT WILL GO INSIDE OF YOU. Once you feel that uncomfortable feeling then do The Technique in your head a few times and you will stop the feeling from going inside of you.

Do your One Minute Meditation... Now you can discuss what is really happening because your thinking mind will be working. Heres the best thing to say. I felt uncomfortable a few moments ago when you did, said xyz ...

I need to talk about something that I feel in not right in our relationship...

Pose a question as opposed to making a statement. This will start a conversation because you have been able to say how you feel and no one other than yourself knows how you truly feel. People can inuence how you think but no one can tell you how you feel because you are
56

feeling it and only you know how you feel. So, if something make you feel odd inside then it makes you feel odd inside. Tell someone.

You are more than likely to get a positive responses if you say how you feel when you feel it. No point in letting it build up as it can only come out as something else, usually resentment. Even if you get a negative responses like, What are you talking about... you will still have had a positive reaction as this will tell you where your relationship is ..

Talk about it now...

Do not let it build up indie of you or it will become something else.

Annoyance will become anger. Anger will become fury...

Rejection will become grief. Grief will bring isolation...

Relationships are about communication and the most powerful aspect of communication is emotional but no one will know how you are feeling if you dont express yourself.

Dont let it go unsaid. Say it in the moment and it wont build up.

FAMILY Every time I talk to my mother/father I am left with an empty feeling.

57

My sister still treats me like a teenager... My brother makes me feel uncomfortable in his presence. Your family are always going to be your family and there may be differences of opinions and ways of being among people from the same family. Okay... ...but, a family member, no matter how close has no right to cause you stress or to Make you feel bad about yourself. I have heard the expression ...makes me feel bad about myself , many many times in my clinical practice. This has to stop because it only leads you to that negative place where you start to damage yourself with food, alcohol, cigarettes etc.. But, you need to change the stress reaction in yourself and not try to change the family. Apply the technique in the situation where you feel family stress and you will nd that you will be able to stop yourself from picking up on the stress. This will allow you to observe what is going on as opposed to engage in the negative family dynamic.

So, if your family is stressing you out, you need to see the bigger picture and in order to do that you need to have control of your thinking mind in the real life family situation. By doing the technique in real time you will gain the ability to put a fresh mind on the situation.

58

Your sister may still be treating you like a teenager because maybe she is a worrier and wants to protect you. If you let the stress inside of you may eventually get annoyed with her, shout at her and tell her to leave you alone.

However, if you can read the situation with your thinking mind you can smile and tell her that you have grown up now, how you appreciate her concern for you but would rather make your own decisions.

Your mother may be a fusspot or a drama queen but it may be because she has a trauma in her past that she is unable to resolve and this is her way of being as a result. There are many reasons...

Understanding is the key. If you understand the nature of other peoples stress then you will be in a position to discuss rather than to take it inside of your self.

In order to understand you need to be able to stop the stress from invading you.

You dont have to do therapy on your family. The best thing is to ask someone how they feel. They may or may not tell you. They may or they may not be able to tell you. But, youll never know if you dont ask and youll never ask if you run the risk of letting their stress inside yourself.

Taking on Other Peoples Stress

It is possible that a certain amount of your stress is caused by other people.
59

Some people throw stress around and pass it onto those around them. If this sounds familiar then it more than likely happening to you. You experience stress when you around a certain type of person or in a certain type of relationship. You know it has to be them that is causing your stress, because of how they make you feel. You know that you were not feeling stressed before you came into their presence. But, as soon as they appear then there is stress in abundance. And, they get away with it because they are usually unable or unwilling to admit that they are stressful people. You may even have challenged them on occasion only to be met with a certain look or a perfectly normal. Actually, when they say that they are normal they are telling the truth because that is how they are normally. Their normal condition is one of stress, narcissism, selshness or the many other ways that cover up true feelings. They often appear at family gatherings or they may be present at your Sunday lunch. They lurk in factories and ofces. They inltrate sports clubs or they can be schoolteachers or shopkeepers. But, no matter where they appear in life they are usually oblivious to the affect that they have on other people. What are you talking about. Im not stressed, Im

Once you start using the technique you can learn how not to be affected by these people. Use the technique when you come into their presence or before you know that you are going to meet them, phone them etc. and you
60

will start to reduce the negative emotional charge that they give off. These people often represent a part of your subconscious that activates a negative feeling about yourself. You may nd yourself saying. that person has a terrible affect on me... Heres how you can use The Technique to stop this from happening to you. Firstly, the feeling in you is being activated by their behavior, or more specically, their emotional behavior towards you. TONE OF VOICE Now, peoples emotion is always reected in the tone of their voice and as your Amygdala, your emotional brain, picks up information from your senses you can use this to stop other peoples stress getting hold of you. If you just think about the people who make you feel like this, you will notice that their tone of voice is always the same. It has a certain quality that is able to set off a switch inside of you. You may even be able to hear in your head as you read this. Next time you come across a person like this, start to lter out the actual words that they say and focus on the tone of their voice. If they are in contact with you by phone and you have a message on your voicemail then listen to that message a few times and you will see how the tone has a certain quality to it. If there are a few people who this happens to you with then do the same with them and you will hear that tone repeated with all of them.
61

Now, you can start to eliminate the affect that this particular tone of voice is having on your emotional subconscious. So, forget about the person for the moment and think of that person in your mind as... THAT TONE OF VOICE Do The Technique immediately after this for a few times until you get used to what the the tone of voice sounds like. Now, tell your subconscious that this tone of voice has no right to make you feel stressed about yourself . Just say these words to yourself Can my subconscious please know that this TONE OF VOICE has no right to make me feel stressed. This is not my feeling. Its theirs and they can have it back. Do this in the morning before you go out and then dont think about it until you meet the person in question. Then, when you meet or encounter the person in any way you will start to hear the tone of their voice as something non threatening and it wont affect you in the same way as it did. Do the technique in your head a few times when you are encountering this person to strengthen your new positive reaction. After a few encounters you will nd that the person has ceased to induce the stress reaction within you.

62

Dont forget to do your One Minute Meditation after any type of encounter.

FANTASY
One of the most dangerous things that you can do in life is to indulge in fantasy and daydreaming. It may seem a harmless thing to do at the time, but, in actual fact, it is one of the things that can keep you locked into your emotional default patterns. Fantasy keeps you locked into your damaged emotional past. Fantasy perpetuates your negative stress habits. Fantasy stops your adult emotional development. USE THE LSR TECHNIQUE TO STOP FANTASY Fantasy is part of our make up and it is a difcult to master. As children we use fantasy so that we can learn to integrate into the world that is controlled by adults. There is nothing wrong with a four year old wanting to be a mummy or a daddy and bossing their teddy bear around, or dressing up as a princess or a ninja warrior etc.. Its all part of the progression of life. As you get older you leave the fantasies of your earlier years behind and accept the reality of your life development. But, more and more people these days are holding onto to fantasy and letting it into their adult lives. Let me give you some examples....

63

G..... trained for the marathon for a full year. He was a good athlete as a teenager but lost interest due to a variety of factors.. He imagined himself crossing the tape at the end of the marathon alongside the professional athletes. He saw it clearly in his head, the cheering crowd, the television coverage of the unknown thirty-something doing an amazing feat...

Of course he did not nish beside the professional athletes. He nished the race alongside thousands of others. This made him feel awful about himself for having wasted so much time on an impossible dream and he sunk into a depression. It was the same depression that he had suffered in late teens and early twenties. In fact, when he talked about his life he realized that he had always used fantasy as a way of escaping from his feelings. Then when we talked further he realized that it was not his feelings in general that he was escaping from as he had a lot of different feelings. It was a specic feeling, THAT FEELING. He could not describe it but he knew it like an old friend/enemy and the only way he could get relief from it was to go into fantasy. He knew that the feeling was old and had been with him for a long time. I got him to identify the feeling and apply the LSR Technique each time he got the feeling. He stopped indulging in fantasy in a few days and his life began to change in the matter of a few weeks. A..... nds that when she is in a relationship she constantly looks around for someone better, more handsome, more interesting. The more involved in the relationship she gets the more the fantasy increases. She then has relationships in her head with people she meets briey and even people she only sees on the train to work. She had lots of therapy and knows that the problem is one of a fear of
64

intimacy, but had failed to understand that she was perpetuating her fear of intimacy by indulging in fantasy. I asked her to stop the fantasy and she did so by applying the LSR Technique each time she went into fantasy. It took her a few weeks to fully get rid of the fantasy as she was in a daily habit of doing it. But, once it had gone she started to allow herself to feel intimacy without fear. Her relationships with her family and those closest to her started to improve immediately and it took her a only few months to start a proper relationship with a non fantasy man. He was not the man of her dreams, but then he was the man of her reality. M.... puts photos of a supermodel on her fridge and dieted and dieted until she got to the same weight as the supermodel. She imagined how wonderful she would feel as she walked down the street looking like her fantasy supermodel. She never got that wonderful feeling when she walked down the street as no one other than the people she knew noticed her. Feeling despondent she put all her weight back on again. I asked her what feeling she expected to have once she got thin and she did not know. She just wanted to feel good about herself. We then examined why she put weight back on again and she knew exactly why as she felt bad about herself and just gave in to the bad feeling as she had failed to make herself feel good. She had this bad feeling all of her life and found that fantasy was the only way of getting rid of it. But, every time she failed at fantasy, the old bad feeling returned . M. was constantly setting herself up for failure and each time she failed she increased her own sense of lack of self worth. Even as we spoke she would interrupt me and say that If only I can stay thin, I would feel better. I asked
65

her to challenge and identify the bad feeling and to apply the technique every time she got it. It took a bit of time as she did not want to let go of the fantasy, but, eventually she let it go and stopped setting up her failures. She then embarked on a realistic program of healthy eating and daily exercise which brought her weigh down and allowed her to keep it down. Reality will always break the Fantasy You see, fantasy will give you a temporary good feeling by releasing endorphins in your blood stream. This is the same as taking a drug because fantasy is not natural and has to be articially created by the pleasure centers of your brain.

I say articial because fantasy is not a real and lasting pleasure. Fantasy in adults is driven by a wanting to escape from reality and negative feelings. Cut out the negative feelings and you will not have any need for fantasy. When you nd yourself wanting to indulge in fantasy you need to use the Technique to stop the fantasy feeling from invading you. Then you will be able to accept and deal with reality.

Keep using The One Minute meditation every day even when you are feeling good.

Bullying
66

The Dali Llama is a very wise man. Forget about the fact that he is a buddhist and a religious leader and one of the most respected people in the world. He is a also a very emotionally balanced man and has been recorded giving this advise on bullying at school. If you are being bullied, run away. If you continue to be bullied, run away and hide. Then if the bullies nd you, hit them. The same is true for adults. If you are being bullied as an adult it is usually because you are not standing up for yourself, whether that be emotionally, physically or mentally. As a child you can run away to another part of the playground and hide. But, as an adult the playground is life itself and it is not easy to nd a place to run away and hide. So, the tendency is to run away and hide inside of yourself. This is a dangerous thing to do as it can lead to anxiety and depression. Running away and hiding inside of yourself will only serve to strengthen the bullies hold over you and in doing so it will further strengthen the negative feelings that you have about yourself.

Its time to stand up and ght those internal negative feelings. Its time to hit them. Hit them within yourself and hit out ( not physically ) at anyone who may be bullying you. Once you get that feeling of being bullied the hit it with the Technique. You know that feeling of being bullied and you know the people who bully you. Dont start a physical ght, its too late. You should have done that in the playground. Fight it within yourself.
67

Observe the feeling of being bullied and when you feel it and apply the Technique in that exact moment that the feeling hits your body. Hit it hard, play the technique in your head as often as it takes to overcome the bullying feeling. Then you will be in a position to challenge the bully, whether that bully is your own internal voice, a relative, a partner, a boss or a friend.

Once you extinguish the bullying feeling inside of yourself with the Technique then you will be in a position to speak up for yourself.

Using The Technique to combat The Emotional Void.

If any of the following is familiar then it is likely that you have been affected by the emotional void and you need to use the technique to combat this... 1. Without realizing it, you nd yourself in a trance like state, where you get lost in negative thought. This in turn gives you negative and depressive like feelings. 2. Without realizing it, you nd yourself activating negative feelings with your thoughts by going over the emotional trauma for both your recent and long term memory. 3. You have difculty concentrating because you drift off into your own world. 4. You purposely make yourself feel negative by replaying in your head,
68

negative incidents that have happened to you.

You may be doing one or more of these things on a daily basis, you may be doing these frequently throughout the week or you may do one or more of these after you have had have had a stress incident. Not matter what the frequency, if you are doing any of the above then you have an overdeveloped Emotional Void and you will need to use the LSR Technique to overcome this. If The Void has become part of your negative emotional default patterns then you need to combat this because.... Spending time in The Void, the trance like state, will only serve to make it stronger and more powerful and this is not something that you want to give power to...

Spending time in The Void is the equivalent you attacking yourself. Spending time in The Void stops you from being in reality. YOU NEED TO ELIMINATE NEGATIVE PATTERNS BECAUSE THEY HAVE NO USE OTHER THAN TO KEEP YOU LOCKED INTO THE NEGATIVE EMOTIONAL STATE. The Void state is a negative pattern and you need to start to eliminate it now.

THE FIRST STEP IS TO RECOGNIzE THAT THE PATTERN EXISTS

69

STEP 1. IDENTIFY IT. Most negative emotional patterns come from the subconscious and are not always easy to identify. They can be with you for years without revealing themselves as being of a dangerous nature.

But, when you nd the negative patterns and bring them into your conscious mind then you can eliminate them very quickly. Some people will just be able to stop by identifying the problem. If you are one of theses people then thats great. Just throw it out of your life and watch how much emotional freedom it will give you. STEP 2. BRING IT INTO THE CONSCIOUS MIND. Next, you need to create a Memory Doorway for the negative pattern in your conscious mind. The best way of doing this is to give it an image. Now, lets see what image we can give it. A Thief A Robber A Puncture A Leak A heavy Burden Chose whichever of these images that is clearest in your mind or choose one that you are more comfortable with. See the image in your mind.
70

Play the image a few times in your mind until you have a clear image that you can recall at will. Now, give this image this name. The Void Image. Now, bring the feeling that you get when you enter into the void state and associate this feeling with your chosen image. If you cannot get the feeling at will then do so when you next nd yourself going into the void state. STEP 3 Make a mental or a written note that you need to challenge The Emotional Void in yourself every time it tries to invade you. Now, bring the Void Image into your head and say these words to yourself.... THE VOID IS A DANGEROUS PLACE TO VISIT EMOTIONALLY I DO NOT NEED THIS NEGATIVITY IN MY LIFE I DO NOT NEED IT INSIDE OF ME You can say the words out loud or inside your head. It is more powerful to say then out loud. ( If you feel a bit silly saying them out loud then just repeat them a few times. You will get used to the sound of your voice.) Now, say the words with meaning and purpose. Shout if you want to. You really need to give yourself a strong message that this is a dangerous activity
71

and it need to go.. Again THE VOID IS A DANGEROUS PLACE TO VISIT EMOTIONALLY I DO NOT NEED THIS NEGATIVITY IN MY LIFE I DO NOT NEED IT INSIDE OF ME Now, when you next go into the void state you will see the Void Image appearing in your head. Once this happens, leave a few seconds pass and then as a separate exercise, play The Technique in your head a few times until you come back to reality. N.B. Dont join the Void Image to the Technique. Always leave a few seconds between seeing the Void Image in your head and doing the Technique.

Finish by doing your One Minute Meditation.

The Limbic Stress Release Home Seminar. End.

72

ANY QUESTIONS Taken from live seminars.

Limbic Stress Release Seminar ANY QUESTIONS. I have listed questions that I have experienced at the end of my live seminars as I want the questions and answers to feel more like a conversation that a Q and A list. I have also tried to anticipate any other questions that you may have.

Q. Is stress a medically proven condition. A. Yes. The top research facility is in New York. I recommend that you listen to a man called Joseph Le Doux as he is the most experienced in the eld of The Amygdala. It is worthwhile reading his book, The Emotional Brain, which explains how the chemical reaction takes place in your brain. Its a very interesting book and easy to read. Q. So, if it is a medically proved condition then why is it so difcult to treat.

A. The action of the Amygdala stress hormone release is chemical and science is advancing more and more every day to correct the chemical balance of the body.
73

However, stress is largely caused by emotional stimulus and is inuenced by how the mind works. The chemical treatment alone is not enough to treat the ongoing causal aspect of stress in many people. Stress has a wide ranging set of causes, you might even say that there are as many causes as individuals because everyone has a unique emotional prole. You cant design a treatment that is specically tailored to every single individual. I have been in clinical practice for a long time and have many times witnessed these things rst hand by observing my clients. With all of these conditions there is one thing that seems to be consistent and that is the presence of the stress switch for people. I dont believe that you are born anxious or depressed. There is still no hard and fast scientic evidence to show that a rouge gene in responsible. Also, there has to be a reason for everything and I have yet to nd someone suffering form anxiety or depression who does not have a history of stress in their life.

Q. Is is possible to stop the stress switch even if you dont know why it goes off.

A. That is the biggest advantage of this system. While it is better and more advisable to understand what has happened to you, the actions of the amygdala is still responsible for the activation of the stress switch and it is by stopping this switch from going off that allows you to to reduce the affect of stress on you.

Q. Why is it so important to generate the images in my mind as opposed to you supplying images on a screen.
74

A Stress is activated in your brain from your own actual memories. Memories are created by using the neurological pathways in your brain and because it is a memory then it is already embedded in your brain. If I showed you a pre made slide show then you would have to create a new memory and reinforce it and you would need a lot of time to do this. By using your actual memories your brain is able to respond faster and more powerfully. It is your response to your memories that activate your stress switch and I have found, through experience, that it is more powerful to use actual memories rather than create new ones. Besides, if I showed you a slide show then your mind would have to create a new memory and it is not new memories, but old ones, that activate stress. Q. How long does it take to remember the images. A. It depends on the individual. Some people can instantly recall the images while others may take a few hours or even a few days. At the live seminar some people can feel under pressure to perform and it can take until the following day before the even begin to remember. But, everyone gets there in their own time. You are under no pressure as you are doing this seminar by yourself. You can remember the rst image without any problem so that leaves six. If you nd it difcult to remember all the images at once then do the rst two or three and practice these two or three for a while. the add in an image at a time until you have built it up to seven. The important thing is to make sure that you can remember the images in your mind and play them without any help. Q. What if I cant remember all of the seven images. A. This does sometimes happen for people. They get to say image 5 and get
75

tripped up. If this happens then replace that image and then start again. You can adjust things at this stage. Q. What if I cant remember 7 images and I only get to 5. A. You can only do your best but try for 7 as I have found this to be the best number.

Q. Is this a form of hypnosis. A. Not at all, but, I can see why people ask this question. Hypnosis involves suggestion. There is no suggestion here at all. You are not asked to imagine anything and you are in complete control of your mind at all times. With Memory Doorways you are accessing your own actual memories as they exist now. You are not being asked to remember past trauma but to look at how the trauma is currently represented in your brain. Q. Will it interfere with the working of the rest of my brain. A. By no means. In fact it will enhance your brain just as your brain was enhanced by learning when you were a child. It creates new neurological pathways in your brain. Also, if you notice I have asked you to visualize iconic landmarks from around the world. These images are generally neutral memories for people. Q. What if I have had a negative experience while visiting one of these places. A.
76

In that case then please use a different image. You need these images

to be as neutral as possible.

Q. What if I just cant think of a good feeling movie. A. This does sometimes happen to people who have experienced a lot of stress in their lives, especially recent stress. Your memories are there, you just need to activate them. Ask someone close to you, look through a photo album. Give your memory a positive stimulus to work with. Q. What if I cant get the bad stress feeling to come into my body. A. You dont have the full on version of the bad stress feeling, if you just get a avor of the feeling it will be good enough as long as it is the same type of feeling that you when that feeling of stress comes over you. Q. If I am still nding it difcult to even get a avor. A. Then think of the most recent incident where you get this feeling in real life and replay it in your head a few times until you get the feeling. Q. What type of image do I expect to get when I ask my subconscious stress image to come into my mind. A. There is no standard image. It comes out of your subconscious so you will probably only have seen it in your dreams or it may be something from your past. For instance, I got an image of a tennis ball coming towards me. But, it came out of the dark and did not represent an actual memory. It was more of a representation of the dark part of my psyche. Other people have an image of something from childhood.. I have come across people having of a popular record that came out the
77

year of his parents divorce. A series of moving lights, a door, a sh.... The important thing is that you let the image come into your mind. Q. What if I cant get an image. A. This does happen to people at the live seminar and it is usually because they are trying too hard or may be experiencing some performance anxiety, or tell themselves that it is not going to work for them. Just take a break and come back to it in half an hour. Q. What happens if the images fades after a few minutes. A. It can fade but it wont fade completely, you can use the faded image.

Q. How long do you need to do the technique for. A. It not a question of how long you have to do the technique for. Its about making the technique part of your life. Once you start to use the technique in real life situations it will start to become part of your normal response to stress. Once this happens the you will be able to stop the invasion of stress and think more clearly. So, initially you will have to do the technique several time a day and then it will start to become more automatic. Think of it like learning how to ride a bike. You have to practice a lot at the start to nd your balance and then when you get going you are able to balance automatically when you get on a bike. Q. Does it work for depression. A. Yes. It works very well for depression. If you are clinically depressed you may need some medication for a while, so consult your doctor. But, once you start using the technique you will nd that you can reduce and
78

eliminate the daily triggers that induce depressive feelings. Stress and anxiety lead to depression. Once you stop your stress switch from going off you can stop anxiety and when you stop anxiety you reduce the circumstances that lead to depression. Q. Whats the difference between sadness and depression. A. Sadness is a normal emotion and should be appropriate to the incidents that cause it. Its sad to hear about natural disasters where people die but, it should not make you depressed. If you loose someone close to you then it is normal to grieve but the grief should pass with time. If you continue to stay in sadness then you have become depressed.

Q. Explain Memory Doorways again. Memory Doorways When you begin to learn the LSR Technique you will need to use Memory Doorways as a way of accessing your actual memories. This is a relatively easy thing to do. however, like any aspect of the human brain it takes a certain amount of practice. A Memory Doorway is the opening image that you see in your head when you are stimulated, either mentally or emotionally. With the passage of time you are constantly generating more and more memories and you cannot possibly remember all of them at once, so your brain has to store them. Your experiences of life and memories get stored away in the what is often referred to as the back of the mind . In computer terms a memory doorway is a sort of File Name to your memories.
79

( N.B. We are not like computers! Its the other way round, computers are like us as we created them. ) Memory Memory is stored in your brain and is the record of mental and emotional experiences represented in your brain. There are many forms of memory that related to the various parts of the brain. There are long term memories and short term memories, sensual memories, emotional memories, but , all forms of memory are based on changes in synaptic connections within the neural circuits of each memory system. The strength of memory is highly inuenced by emotion. So, the stronger the emotion at the time the memory was created the more impact the memory will have on you. If you have repeated experiences of the same type of memory it gets even stronger as it uses the same neural pathways. Thats why habits can be so hard to shift because they are created by repeated experiences and dig themselves into the channels in your brain. MEMORY ACTIVATION Memories are mostly activated by circumstances, especially emotional memories. You meet someone on the street who you havent met for a long time and the memories of your previous encounters come ooding back in an instant, even though you may not have thought about that person for a long time. The act of randomly meeting the person will have activated the memories. If, in the past, you have had positive encounters with that person
80

then you will nd that the encounter will be a pleasant one. Nice to see you again, all the best now. You will be left with a warm feeling and your day and your mood will have been enhanced.

However, if you had unpleasant dealing with this person then the opposite will happen and unpleasant feeling, or anxiety, anger or frustration will immediately invade you. Your memory will not be as clear and you may only remember a few of the nasty encounters with this person. You may respond in a variety of ways.. Avoid the person. Speak to them and pretend that everything was okay on the past. Confront them. Be over nice to them.

SESNES / THOUGHT Your senses can activate memories, a familiar sound or song can bring back memories of places, events and even periods in your life. Then of course, you can activate memories by thought alone. Think of someone you havent seen in a long time, like an old school friend that you have lost contact with. Once you have activated the memory then you will nd yourself seeing a single image of that person, like a photograph in your mind. You will notice an image coming into your head once you have decided on who you are choosing to remember. Once you start to remember your previous encounters with that person then the image will change as you recount the times that you have spent together.

81

Now, stop thinking about your old school friend and think about something else for a moment, what you did yesterday, what you had for breakfast this morning...anything at all to change the subject of your thought. Now, think about your old school friend again.. Do you notice how the same opening image appears in your head. This will happen time and time again when you remember or have a reminiscence about the past. THATS A TYPICAL MEMORY DOORWAY. IT WILL STILL BE THERE TOMORROW. Remember the time we went to Blackpool beach and you wore that silly hat... Remember that outt you wore... Whatever the memory, it will always open up with the same image. Even a short term memory like what you had for breakfast this morning will have the same opening image. Try a few more memories and see how it works each time. Your rst car or bike, your old school building, your local park, your favorite beach or hotel, your local shopping centre etc. Now, think of them again and there it is; the same image. Try this a few times throughout the day and you will nd the same image coming into your mind again and again. There may be slight changes to the image as you reignite the memory but by and large it will be the same.

82

These are Memory Doorways and they are activated by a stimulus. The stimulus in this case being simply reading this and being asked to activate the memories. EMOTIONAL AND MEMORY The strength of the memory is dictated by the strength the overall emotion when the memory was created. Think of a really nice wedding or christening or party that you have been to and it usually evokes a good feeling alongside the memory.

Again the memory will open up with the memory doorway single image and then you will start to play the scenes from the event in your head. You cant remember every single incident from such a day but, do you notice how the highlights are coming into your head as you play the memory. More importantly, do you notice how the memory is giving you a nice feeling. Do you notice how negative memories seem to have a greater impact and the negative feeling you get from an unpleasant or traumatic memory stays with you for longer. You automatically want to forget negative memories but if you are unable to because of daily stress then you need to use a technique in order to do this. Sigmund Freud said that we can learn to forget traumatic memories. Now you can with the LSR Technique. _____________________________________________________________ Finally I would like to thank you for taking the seminar. Regards, J.J. O Brien Lic. Ac,
83