The Mind-Body Integration (MBI) Technique

Introduction

In 2012 the book, Raising Talent: How to fast-track potential into performance (Penguin) written by Tim Goodenough with Michael Cooper was released.  The book’s focus was to integrate cutting edge talent development theory with Neuro-Semantic techniques and principles to create a powerful How-to book for anyone looking to develop their talent or the talent of others.  Two of the key patterns of the book were The Lightning Rod Pattern and the MBI Technique. Even though the focus of this article is the MBI technique, it is important to understand the principles of the Lightning Rod technique to use the MBI Technique effectively.

Meaning is mapped at multiple levels

From Alfred Korzybski’s book Science and Sanity, Dr L. Michael Hall articulated the distinction that we human beings map meaning at three different levels. The neurological level (the body), the representation level (the movies we create) and the conceptual level (the meanings we hold of the movies we make.) In effect, this means that we can hold beliefs, including limiting beliefs, on 1, 2 or 3 distinct levels – each of which may have their own sub/meta-levels. As such it is important to have a pattern to not only release limiting beliefs at whatever level(s) they may be, but also have a technique to discover those limiting beliefs pro-actively so that you can effectively prepare for a critical meeting, life goal, presentation, key life moment, pressure situation or final.

The discovery of limiting beliefs technique is called the Lightning Rod Technique and the releasing limiting beliefs at whatever level you may find them is called The MBI (Mind Body Integration) Technique.

The Lightning Rod Technique is based on the principle that extreme scenarios reveal beliefs and the more vivid, exaggerated and/or meaningful the scenario is the more we go into state. When we go into state we can discover our beliefs related to the scenario.

Conceptually many people can identify with being scared of heights, however if you were to imagine standing on the top of a rickety iron tower that smells of rust and decay and that is creaking in the wind, the same wind that you can feel on your face and that this wobbly structure is 20 stories tall and the platform you are standing on is starting to give, and whilst you feel the weight of your feet slipping  you can just make out the people on the ground looking up at you with fearful eyes …

If this scenario got you into state, you can use the state indicators (breathing, tension, anxiety etc) and other behaviours, to find the frames and beliefs that got you into state and review if they serve you.  So whilst using this technique might be useful for “negative” events, it can be much more useful in revealing any beliefs that might interfere or limit extremely positive events or the development of trained ability or performance in pursuit of related positive goals.  Discovering if you have any limiting beliefs about being a millionaire may be the first step to moving towards a more positive bank balance. Discovering if you have limiting beliefs about long-term success may be the first step to closing today’s big deal.  The Inner Game of beliefs needs to combine with the Outer Game of performance to get High Performance, this technique focuses on the Inner Game, developing the Outer Game is up to you.

This technique is especially useful in routing out old and subtle, yet still powerful limiting beliefs that ‘quietly’ sabotage your goals and intentions as they haven’t been fully identified or dealt with.

Life Lighting Rod themes: Some options to consider using with the MBI technique

• Seeing 10 million on your bank account statement.
• Celebrating your thirtieth wedding anniversary and you are more in love than ever.
• Spending a day where your opinion is respected both at home and at work and you feel valued and are intellectually and emotionally engaged and fulfilled.
• Going on an amazing date with George Clooney/Jennifer Aniston.
• Being the model on a photo shoot for the cover of Shape magazine or Men’s Health (or whatever magazine works for you).
• Going for a full medical check-up and the doctor is amazed with the shape and health of your body and can’t believe you are the age you have on your patient records.
• Handling a highly charged confrontation with love, calmness and elegance
• Experiencing a sense of unconditional worth and love from yourself around the person/people/scenario who/which triggers you experiencing less than that

Elicitation Questions:

What is something significant that you are working or moving towards that you feel is just not getting the progress or momentum you would like?  What would be an “Absurdly” positive movie that can be used to identify any limiting beliefs related to this?

What is an area in your life that you really want to be more successful with, but just can’t seem to get beyond a certain “invisible barrier” or limitation? What would be an “Absurdly” positive movie that can be used to identify any limiting beliefs related to this?

What big goal do you have that you feel you aren’t 100% mentally aligned with? What would be an “Absurdly” positive movie that can be used to identify any limiting beliefs related to this?

What do you really want, but feel you don’t deserve it – and that you are now ready to deserve? What would be an “Absurdly” positive movie that can be used to identify any limiting beliefs related to this?

Distinction to note:

Removing limiting beliefs won’t suddenly give you that performance necessarily, unless you have already developed that trained ability (performance); it will just remove the mental barriers that are limiting the development or performance of your current ability in the context of the movie you created.

The Mind-Body Integration (MBI) technique

Pattern

1. Create the detailed 5 to 10 second HD quality mental movie of the “absurdly” positive “Lightning Rod” performance you are looking to experience and include all your senses to make it as real and as vivid as possible.  Most people who do this exercise prefer to see it from their own eyes as it is more powerful; however some prefer creating the movie as if they were watching themselves on TV, in 3rd person. This allows them to more easily ‘step into’ the movie in Step 3, and with that they are able to more easily get body feedback. Use whatever style works best for you. If there is any form of resistance or discomfort whilst creating and imagining your movie go to Step 4 to review and possibly release the obstacles and then return to Step 1 to continue creating the HD movie.
2. Supercharge your movie (also know as climbing the meaning ladder), by focusing on the highlight of the movie and answering the question, ‘So what does that mean to me?’ as many times as possible. Be sure that your meanings are all positively stated. If you find an answer like I am not going to be scared anymore, then convert it to a positive, if you aren’t scared then what are you? –  make sure there are no Not’s in your answers.
3. In your mind step fully into the picture of yourself that is represented in the movie and ask your body for feedback ; how does your body feel in this movie? If there is no resistance or discomfort jump to step 6. If you are viewing this from 1st person, theoretically you should be viewing this movie from your own eyes already, and if you have been doing this, go inside and give yourself full permission to get feedback from your body  and notice what your body is telling you as you connect with it fully in your movie. If you have been viewing this from 3rd person, literally step into your body in the movie in your mind and then ask your body for feedback.
4. If there is some form of resistance or discomfort, focus on that part of your body/mind where the resistance and/or discomfort is and ask yourself the question, ‘What is that about?’ An example of this resistance or discomfort might be stomach tension, shallow breathing, back tension, stiffness, heaviness, a tight chest, etc The resistance may be in the form of something in your mind, a word, a hesitation, a memory, a thought, a feeling. Give your mind or body time to give you feedback; sometimes it’s in the form of a theme, a word, a feeling, a sentence, a memory or another sensation elsewhere in your body. Notice what your body is telling you; if you need to, speak out loud the story of what you are experiencing. Once you have the initial feedback, focus on that feedback and ask the discovery question, ‘So what does that mean to me?’ again and again, referring to the previous answer until you have run out of answers. Write your answers on a piece of paper, starting at the bottom. Occasionally your body feedback will hold no significance, if for example you are a bit sick the pain in your chest may be from the sickness and nothing more. If you battle to find any meanings or any info, ask yourself the question whilst focusing on your body feedback, “Is this significant or important for this exercise?” and your body will give you feedback about that, if it is not significant, tell yourself in your mind, “Ok so this is other information.” and go to step 3.
5. Review your answers (from Step 4) and focus on the top/highest or CEO meaning in the stack and if you don’t want to keep it say to yourself, ‘I give myself full permission to let *this* go fully and completely’. *This* is the CEO meaning that is not working for you. If you can feel a shift, or feel it letting go then go to Step 3, else if there is some resistance, discomfort or if something is stopping you, go to step 4.If you do want to keep your CEO meaning and body feedback go inside and let your body know that this is a positive indicator (eg butterflies in the tummy can be a sign of healthy and positive nerves), you do this by focusing on your body feedback and telling yourself, “This is a positive for me” then go to Step 3.  Maybe you only want to keep part of what you discovered, and release the rest. Make that distinction in your mind about giving yourself full permission to let go part of it, and then say yes to the rest. For example saying yes to desire to be the best, and letting go of hyper self criticism.  Another way to let go of something is to use the feeling of letting go about it. Remember the last time you were carrying a lot of heavy shopping bags and what it felt like to let them go, and use that feeling to let go what you don’t want.

   Once you have released any unuseful CEO meanings, go to Step 3 to see if any other obstacles or objections have emerged.

6. If you have gone through more than one stack of obstacles/obstruction and now the latest stack of obstructions/obstacles is now clear, use this time to see if you can give yourself permission to let go those obstructions that were in the previous stacks that were discovered through the process. Make sure you have cleared all the obstacle stacks before going on to the next step.
7. Focus on how your body holds the positive meanings of this performance: are your arms and legs relaxed or do they have some tension? Do you have energy? Where? What are your shoulders like? Your jaw? Your stomach? Your focus? Your hands? Your legs? Your breathing? Your vision? Your sense of coordination? Notice any other part of your body that holds important information for your performance and then plug all this info into your movie and notice how the movie shifts. In what way is the movie different? Better? Once you have played your movie again with this extra body detail, supercharge your movie again by asking ‘So what does this mean to me?’ until you run out of answers. You may have exactly the same meanings, and that is okay. It is important to integrate the body’s positive indicators (neurological) with the new movie details (representational) and then reinforce the (conceptual) meanings.

Troubleshooting

1. What if I can’t create the positive movie I want?This could be because your visual skills aren’t well developed. Try adding the feeling and the sounds of your movie first and then add in the pictures.  This could also be because your mind literally doesn’t believe you can have or experience some or all of what is in your movie, or perhaps for you it is unsafe to imagine it.  Either way try putting the sentence, “I give myself full permission to fully visualise what I want” or “I give myself full permission to safely visualise and experience X in just the way I want” (Where X is the part of your movie you can’t picture, or doesn’t play the way you want it to) into Step 4 of the pattern
2. What if my meanings I discover keep on coming up as negative whenever I ask, “so what does that mean to me?”It is likely that when exploring objections and blocks that, those meanings may be negative, however when you supercharge your movie, if you discover any negative meanings attached to your positive movie, evaluate them after discovering the CEO level meaning that is holding the negatives in place, and if you don’t want that CEO level meaning use step 5 to let it go, then supercharge your movie with positives again to test; it will either be positively integrated or you may find another set of negative meanings held in place by another CEO level meaning. Continue this process until your mindset is fully supportive of your movie.
3. What if I don’t get any feedback from my body/ What if I can’t get any answers from my body when I ask the question, “So what is *that* about?”If you are struggling to get body feedback the first step is to try a different camera view in Step 1. If you tried viewing the movie from your own eyes (1st person) and you didn’t get any feedback, change to 3rd person view and try again. Or if you tried the 3rd person view and got no feedback, change to the 1st person view.

   If you are still struggling to get body feedback it may be because you don’t have permission to connect with your body. To work on this try the following statement, “I give myself full permission to connect with my body and to safely hear what it has to say to me,” and work with whatever emerges. This absence of body feedback may be the result of some trauma, and if so it is strongly advised to see a psychologist or mental health professional.

Advanced

1. What if I do this whole exercise and I can’t shift important things in my mindset, in fact it feels like I may be stuck in a loop?
   There are four possible reasons for this type of stuckness.
   1. Unspecified Verb. We often say things to ourselves and other like, “I just want to be heard.” Or “I just want to be noticed.”  “I have this voice inside my head.” If the mindset is holding meanings like this, to explore them more fully we need to get more detail, more specifics, and then use the discovery questions to understand things better. When you are exploring a meaning stack, as soon as you discover an unspecified verb, ask the question to find the specified verb, and when you have that answer, carry on using the discovery question, ask “So what does that mean to you?” as many times as you can. Example:” “I just want to be heard.” – “Heard by who?” – “So what does that mean to you?”  “I just want to be noticed”, “Noticed by whom?” – “So what does that mean to you?” “I have this voice inside my head”, “whose voice is it and what is it saying?” – “So what does that mean to you?”
   2. Cognitive Distortions. Cognitive distortions are when our mental filters that we use to make sense of things and create meaning about things in our personal lives create distorted experiences, thoughts, beliefs, decisions and emotions. Even just one cognitive distortion can create limitations and negativity, often people have more than one cognitive distortion operating in different contexts of their lives. Examples of cognitive distortions is the style of all-or-nothing thinking (I have everything or I have nothing), awfulising, which is the style of imagining the worst possible scenario and making it even worse by referring to it as awful, without actually defining what awful is.  These patterns can be subtle to pick up, especially if you are trying to discover your own patterns. What is recommend is that you read this brief article on Cognitive Distortions by Dr L Michael Hall at www.coachingunity.co.za./cogdistort.pdf, and then review your stacks of meaning that you have written down to see if you can find any that are limiting you, the article includes some tips and strategies to step out of the distortion.
   3. Needing to understand to let go. This was my personal (TG) limitation for a long while, I wouldn’t be able to let go of something negative until I had analysed it and understood it, which was very hard to do for the negatives that were created from my childhood as I literally didn’t have movies, or memories for many of them. When I explored why I was doing that, I discovered the hidden benefit that was locking this limiting style in place. I believed that if I fully understood a negative, from all angles, then it would give me ‘insurance’ that I never needed to go there/experience that again, and until I did have that full and deep understanding, I had a fear that this negative would return. Not useful and not true.  Sometimes letting go of a negative is just about unlearning something that is not true and doesn’t work for you.  If you are struggling with this use the statement “I give myself full permission to let go of negatives that are holding me back without having to fully understand them, negatives don’t need to be understood to be let go of completely.” If there is any resistance or objection to this statement go to Step 4 in the MBI technique
   4. Patience. If you are impatient, frustrated or aggressive with yourself you will not get the same results that you could using these techniques. Take your time, don’t rush anything, be patient and treat yourself well when you are working in this space. If you are still struggling to make progress, i.e. your blocks/obstacles are bigger than the skill levels you have developed so far to shift them, consult a local Meta-Coach.