LESSON 6: Change Your Focus
Two ways to change your focus come to mind, but they both result in changing what you
are thinking about, in fact everything in Time Out, from the previous lesson, does that,
too. The reason this helps, is because what you are thinking about, is what is causing the
stress. Change those thoughts to something more enjoyable and you can start to relax.
You can do the following wherever you are.
1. Observe something you enjoy.
a. Something in nature
b. Your pet
c. Your kids…
2. Think an enjoyable thought, at least, a more enjoyable thought.
a. Past
b. Present
c. Future
3. Just focus on your breathing. Take deep, slow breaths. This is how we breathe when
we are calm.
4. ‘MY Pattern Interrupt’
a. Choose a positive phrase, word, sentence, mantra
b. Repeat it silently in your mind
c. For me it vanishes when I am feeling good again
MY Pattern Interrupt is one of my most recent discoveries. It is one of the most valuable
practices I’ve come across recently. My Inner Guidance calls it “Pattern Interrupt.” I
mentally repeat a positive phrase, silently, in my mind, until I am done, until I’m feeling
better.
I knew that Pattern Interrupt is a term used in NLP, but I didn’t know exactly what it meant.
About a week after I’d been practicing MY Pattern Interrupt, I learned from a friend who
knows about NLP (Neuro Linguistic Programming) that Pattern Interrupt is a technique
that you learn to use on other people. You say something that interrupts a pattern that
they are displaying.
I can see how that would work, and that’s why I call this MY pattern interrupt, because it is
not used on someone else. This it is just for me to use on myself, to interrupt my patterns.
When I find myself feeling a way that I don’t want to feel, I use MY Pattern Interrupt until it
just fades from my awareness. Then I discover that I am feeling a way I like to feel.
I also use it when I find myself thinking thoughts that I know are going to make me feel
ways I don’t want to feel. I repeat the phrase in my mind, until… well, it usually just stops
on its own. At some point I become aware that I am not using it anymore and my thoughts
don’t bother me.
Soon after I discovered MY Pattern Interrupt, my sister told me that she had started using
a mantra she created in a class she had taken. It seems to have a similar effect for her.
So it seems that you can find your own phrase (mine is a phrase), word, sentence,
mantra that suits you and use it to change your state of being.
MY Pattern Interrupt helps me calm down when something triggers stress or a negative
emotion.
If this sounds helpful, give it a try. Let me know how it goes.
Just remember, knowing and following the 1 Rule is all you really need to create harmony
between you and your kids.
Questions
1. Write a scenario of everything being just like you would like it. Read this to
yourself as often as you like. Imagine it being true. It is true, in the thought realm.
2. What action plan do you have for when you are stressed out? Write it out. Have
you explained this to your kids?
3. Make a list of things you might think or do to change your focus to something
more enjoyable. Add to your list daily.
Two ways to change your focus come to mind, but they both result in changing what you
are thinking about, in fact everything in Time Out, from the previous lesson, does that,
too. The reason this helps, is because what you are thinking about, is what is causing the
stress. Change those thoughts to something more enjoyable and you can start to relax.
You can do the following wherever you are.
1. Observe something you enjoy.
a. Something in nature
b. Your pet
c. Your kids…
2. Think an enjoyable thought, at least, a more enjoyable thought.
a. Past
b. Present
c. Future
3. Just focus on your breathing. Take deep, slow breaths. This is how we breathe when
we are calm.
4. ‘MY Pattern Interrupt’
a. Choose a positive phrase, word, sentence, mantra
b. Repeat it silently in your mind
c. For me it vanishes when I am feeling good again
MY Pattern Interrupt is one of my most recent discoveries. It is one of the most valuable
practices I’ve come across recently. My Inner Guidance calls it “Pattern Interrupt.” I
mentally repeat a positive phrase, silently, in my mind, until I am done, until I’m feeling
better.
I knew that Pattern Interrupt is a term used in NLP, but I didn’t know exactly what it meant.
About a week after I’d been practicing MY Pattern Interrupt, I learned from a friend who
knows about NLP (Neuro Linguistic Programming) that Pattern Interrupt is a technique
that you learn to use on other people. You say something that interrupts a pattern that
they are displaying.
I can see how that would work, and that’s why I call this MY pattern interrupt, because it is
not used on someone else. This it is just for me to use on myself, to interrupt my patterns.
When I find myself feeling a way that I don’t want to feel, I use MY Pattern Interrupt until it
just fades from my awareness. Then I discover that I am feeling a way I like to feel.
I also use it when I find myself thinking thoughts that I know are going to make me feel
ways I don’t want to feel. I repeat the phrase in my mind, until… well, it usually just stops
on its own. At some point I become aware that I am not using it anymore and my thoughts
don’t bother me.
Soon after I discovered MY Pattern Interrupt, my sister told me that she had started using
a mantra she created in a class she had taken. It seems to have a similar effect for her.
So it seems that you can find your own phrase (mine is a phrase), word, sentence,
mantra that suits you and use it to change your state of being.
MY Pattern Interrupt helps me calm down when something triggers stress or a negative
emotion.
If this sounds helpful, give it a try. Let me know how it goes.
Just remember, knowing and following the 1 Rule is all you really need to create harmony
between you and your kids.
Questions
1. Write a scenario of everything being just like you would like it. Read this to
yourself as often as you like. Imagine it being true. It is true, in the thought realm.
2. What action plan do you have for when you are stressed out? Write it out. Have
you explained this to your kids?
3. Make a list of things you might think or do to change your focus to something
more enjoyable. Add to your list daily.
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