The NLP Swish Pattern

Sometimes known as the NLP Swish Technique, you can use the NLP Swish Pattern to help you break habits such as smoking cigarettes, overeating and nail biting or to change what something such as a past event means to you.

After completing a series of Swish Patterns you will still have the option to take part in the behaviour or habit, you just won’t feel compelled to do it!

A great way to understand how the Swish Pattern works is by seeing it as a way to re-code your brain. When you build a habit or an addiction that is what you are doing, each time you take part in the activity (such as smoking a cigarette) the habit helps you code the brain, now you can de-code it.

An example: In the Swish Pattern a smoker would see two images. Firstly they would see themselves taking part in the activity (smoking a cigarette) Secondly, in their mind they will see themselves taking part in an activity that is a lot more pleasurable and rewarding than smoking a cigarette.

The idea behind the pleasurable image is that you will be sending massive, powerful new re-coding signals to your brain, and that you will want to move toward this pleasure and away from the old habit or behaviour.

Ultimately if you want to make behavioural changes you are going to need your brain to work differently, the Swish Pattern will help you to do this.

Prepare to be amazed at how quickly this technique will help you ‘act’ and ‘feel’ about your old unwanted behaviours!

Golden Rules

Make your Swish Patterns Dynamic!

Make them Exciting, Pleasurable and Rewarding.

Association & Disassociation

Association is when you see something as if it is through your own eyes.

Disassociation is when you see yourself in an image or movie.

When you ‘Swish’ see an old image Associated and see the new pleasurable image Disassociated. The reason why you must do this is because your mind will always pull you towards a disassociated image (desired outcome). In your second image you will have chosen something that you are motivated to achieve. This is obviously something you want to be pulled towards.

You may want to take notes as you build your NLP Swish Patterns. There are pages dedicated to building NLP Swish Patterns in the Dynamic NLP Daily Journal

OK lets Swish!

Think of a behaviour or a habit that you want to change. Close your eyes.

Through your own eyes (your mind’s eye) see yourself performing that behaviour (such as smoking) This image must be Associated

Stop, open your eyes. Take your mind of the image for a few seconds.

Close your eyes, view a second image, something you want, and something desirable.

This image must be Disassociated

Stop, open your eyes. Take your mind off the image.

Complete this exercise a few times, this is not a full NLP Swish Pattern, but I want you to just practice quickly making associated then disassociated images before you jump into making some brilliant, powerful swish patterns.

Important Note: Your mind is like a time machine! It can go forwards or backwards in time. You have to decide on which desirable images you are going to use in your Swish Patterns. The fantastic thing is you can design incredibly powerful new experiences that you really desire, want to be pulled towards or if there was an occasion from your past that was superb, empowering or pleasurable then you can use that too. The only rule here is choose something that you find to be highly motivational.

Lets Swish Again!

From now on you won’t be asked to close your eyes and you won’t be asked to stop and take your mind off the image, you will be asked to ‘break state’ , to break state open your eyes, wave your arms about, pull faces, make sure you take your mind off the image you created.

View the image of the old, unwanted habit or behaviour.

Play with the image, make it smaller, larger, make it fuzzy then clear, bring the image right up in front of you, make it huge. You are changing the Submodalities

Break state

View the desirable image, again play with the submodalities, bring the image closer to you, then move it further away, make it dull, then bright, make it warm then cold. Take your time to enjoy playing with the submodalities, you can add in voices and other sounds. Slow down your image and see which submodalities you find to be the most powerful and compelling.

Break State

So far you have practised using association and disassociation and you have begun to start understanding and using submodalities to enhance your images.

Now you can perform your first full NLP Swish Pattern

Make an associated image of the behaviour that you want to change.

In the bottom left hand corner of your vision make a small picture of your desired image

Quickly ‘Swish’ the images, have the second image grow really quickly until it smashes the old image pieces, view the desired image for a couple of seconds

Break state

Do it again!, quickly, unwanted behaviour image, swish, desired image, break state, do it again!

Do it again!, quickly, unwanted behaviour image, swish, desired image, break state, do it again!

The key to being successful with the NLP Swish Pattern is speed and repetition. You will be very quickly in a powerful way be sending massive signals of success and pleasure to your brain.

Quickly smash that old picture again and again.

You are saying to your brain, I don’t want this – this is what I want.

Action Steps You Can Take Now

Practice and perfect your NLP Swish Patterns

Begin to develop your Know what you want - Know what you like plans

(We will work on your goals a little later)

Select Four areas or Four things in your life that you know you must improve or change

NLP Swish Patterns cost you nothing yet they offer you huge rewards very quickly

That was a cuddle, now its time for a kiss!

Its time to Power Swish

Dump the daily grind......Build a fantastic rewarding future for you and your family.

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