Your Ear Has Superpowers!
We are in stressful situations all the time! I know I want to change the way I am feeling at the moment so I can feel better and keep on going. Here is something interesting about that.
Your Ear Lobe Has Unexpected Powers
by Dr. Kim Redman, PHD, as published in SNAPD Aurora
Have you ever noticed how certain songs and memories have really good feelings attached to them? How powerful would it be if you could transfer those powerful good feelings to other more stressful situations to ease your fears?
It can be done!
And it is FUN and EASY too.
In NLP we call this anchoring, which is basically a stimulus-response for behavior. This is not new news. Dr. Twittmeier published that paper in 1902 and most people are familiar with Ivan Pavlov's work with dogs; he rang a tuning fork and gave them meat. Later on, the dogs reacted as if there were meat present if they heard the sound of the tuning fork. These were some of the founding studies behind behavioral psychology as well.
We are all stimulus-response masters. Advertisers and marketers know that if they can create an intense enough feeling with their advertisements and simultaneously show you a product, then the two will become linked forever. It's the same thing as smelling cookies and suddenly remembering being at grandma's house, or hearing a song from high school and feeling the feeling of being back in that time.
Unfortunately, we also have negative anchors that stimulate negative feelings for us. If you had a negative experience the last time you spoke to your boss, the mere act of being in the same location may bring those old negative feelings back too.
Here is the good news. Since the most intense states are naturally occurring states, you can play with a little experiment! For the next few weeks, every time you find yourself in a resourceful state (falling down laughing, feeling pumped up, powerful, motivated, excited are all good choices) squeeze your ear for 5-10 seconds while you are in the state. Really. I'm serious. While you are laughing, squeeze your ear. While you are feeling pumped, squeeze your ear. This creates a resource anchor which is several resourceful states in the same place. So squeeze the same place on your ear each time.
After that is done you will have a resource anchor that you can add to for the rest of your life like a rechargeable battery.
How do you use it? Simple. Before you face an anxious moment or even a fearful moment like speaking to your boss, simply squeeze your ear for a few seconds. All those resourceful feelings will flood your neurology, putting you in a very powerful place from which to engage your boss or other such fear.
Enjoy your resource anchor and let me know how it goes!
Priya here. I have used this method since I took my NLP courses and it works! I use it whenever I need it and I love using it. I pump it up when I can! Recently a friend of mine burst out laughing hysterically and we both held our ears to anchor it in. Then when we would test it to see if it worked by touching the same spot - the feeling of laughter would bubble up inside. Do it! if you are not sure or if it isn't working, let me know and I will guide you through it.