Feeling ANXIOUS? Transform It Into CALM!
Personal Development Unplugged
Hey, beautiful souls! This week on the podcast, I’m taking you on a transformative journey from anxiety to calm. Not just theory—we’re diving into a PRACTICAL process you can use anytime those anxious feelings start creeping in.
What You’ll Discover in This Episode:
- The body-mind connection of anxiety and why identifying WHERE you feel it makes all the difference
- A powerful guided visualization that transforms anxiety into something completely different (and yes, it WORKS!)
- How specific colors can become your secret weapons against anxious thoughts
- My step-by-step approach to rewriting the stories that keep anxiety alive
This episode isn’t just about feeling better for a moment—it’s about developing a TOOLBOX you can use whenever life gets overwhelming. I’ll walk you through the entire process with the gentle guidance I’m known for, helping you access resources you already have within yourself (even if you don’t realize it yet!).
I’ve seen this technique change lives in my therapy practice, and now I’m bringing it directly to YOU.
If this episode resonates with you, please share it with someone who might be struggling:
https://personaldevelopmentunplugged.com/440-imagine-anxiety-spinning-away/
Shine your light today! ✨
Paul
Ready to Connect?
Questions, thoughts, or breakthroughs to share? I LOVE hearing from you! Drop me a line at feedback@personaldevelopmentunplugged.com or leave a comment.
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Important Note: While I’m a qualified therapist, this podcast is for educational purposes only. The hypnosis tracks aren’t suitable while driving, operating machinery, or for those with epilepsy or psychiatric conditions. Always consult a healthcare professional when needed.
Music credits: Wataboi, DreamHeaven, ccjmusic, and others via Pixabay
And the transcript WARNING if you’re a lover of the written word this may make you frustrated, or angry – you have been warned – is it an ‘ism
Imagine this. Imagine you’re a client of mine, but you’re not. But imagine this coming into my clinic, comes through the door and there we are. You’ve got this lovely seat, doesn’t. It’s not a lay down seat, but it’s one of those reclining seats, really comfortable. And you’ve come in, talk about this negative emotion you’ve been feeling. This feeling is, you know, it’s anxiety. Now anxiety as we know is really general. It just means so many different things to each and every different person, I guess, doesn’t it? Everyone will experience anxiety in a different way and it will be caused by different things triggered in different ways. Because everyone, I guess, is unique, isn’t it? Aren’t they? Aren’t you? And I’d ask, so if you had just two sentences, what do you really want from this session? And they’d say, something like, well, I just want to feel so less anxious. And I’d say, well, just less anxious, a little bit or a lot. And they go, well, of course I don’t want to. I want. And then get stuttery because that’s what happens sometimes because we’re anxious. And I’ll say, well, what would happen if we could change that feeling of anxiety to something really comfortable? So you could deal with different situations where you used to be anxious in the past and you could feel differently, what would that be like? And of course the obvious answer is, well, that’ll be awesome, Paul. Can you, you know, can we do that? So I can’t do it. I can for myself, but I can guide you to it. You see, I’d explain. I’d explain the feelings, you see, Think now, when you think back to that feeling of anxiety, where’d you feel it in your body? And people go, oh, I haven’t really thought about. It’s always in my head. no, no, no, no, no. It goes to your head and creates that internal dialogue, that internal voice, those that the internal movie that we make of all the worst things happening, but that comes from somewhere else. It starts from a feeling. That feeling is triggered by something. And that feeling comes and then it tends to spread to your head into your mind. So just think back if you had that feeling right now, not at a 10 out of 10 scale, 10 being the worst, but a 4, 4 out of 10. So we know what it is, but it’s Something we can deal with easily and effortlessly. And then sit in that comfortable chair and go, well, actually just about here. Just about here. And I said, well, put your hand on it because I want to know exactly where it is. they put their hand on the place where that feeling is. And I say, I bet you didn’t realize the emotions, good, bad, indifferent, negative, positive, all seem to move. They move in a circular motion. They start somewhere, they go somewhere and they come back. So if you can imagine it going round in a circle, and I take my finger and point to a similar place on my body, where there. And I just move my hand in a circular motion, like CL. Clockwise in front of me. And I say, it could go this way and then I’d reverse it the other way or this way, or back to front in a circle or reverse. But it just moves. And the thing is, when we find the direction of your anxiety, we can change it. And then look at me a bit puzzled, but I says, okay, all you have to do is follow my instructions. So what I want you to do is see. I’ll explain what I’m going to do. I’m explain. I want you in a moment to close your eyes and imagine a big movie screen in front of you. And what I’m to ask you to do is bring to mind a memory, a specific memory, when you felt that feeling. Not a 10 out of 10, 4 of 4 out of 10. So we know we’re on the right way. We know we’re dealing with that specific feeling, but not at its intent. It’s most intense. And I say what I’m going to do then is ask you to play a movie of that experience, that memory, as if you’re looking at a movie of yourself. So you’d see yourself on that screen beginning to go through that memory. And as you do that, I’ll say I want you then to float out into that movie. And then what I’ll do is I’m going to ask you to point with your finger at, that place in your body when you feel that feeling and notice which way it turns. And I want you to turn that hand in front of your body in that circular motion. And if you don’t quite get it, you can guess a little bit. It’s all intuitive. And when you get it, I’m going to ask you to speed that up just a little bit. Not a lot. So you just speed it up, say 10%. And as we begin to speed it up, you’ll find if we’ve got the right direction, it’ll get a little bit more intense. Not a lot, just a little. And the you nod your head to say, yeah, I’ve got that. I’ll say slow it down. And then I don’t tell them what’s going to happen next. It’s really weird. And at the end of it, something quite marvellous happens. Hey, it’s Paul from Personal Development Unplugged. Did you like that? Did you do a little bit of it? Did you think about it? Well, here’s the thing. If it’s okay with you, why don’t we do that now properly, as if you were a client of mine. But remember you’re not a client of mine and I’m a therapist, but I’m not your therapist and it has to be right to do so. And you have to make that decision that we’re not doing a 10 out of 10 because that would just be silly because this is a process of changing anxiety. So we don’t need full blown anxiety to do that, we just need a snippet of it as it were. So if you’re up for that, I’ve told you the start of it. Remember we’re going to make a movie.
Using visualization to get rid of anxiety is a fast process
You’re going to. Well first of all you’re got toa get that feeling. Then we’re going toa have eyes closed movie screen, press play as it were, run the movie. You’re going to float out of your body into that. You on the screen feel the feeling and begin to move your hand in that circle. Then not telling you what happens next, but I’ll do it with you. So if you’re up for that, make sure you don’t need anything that needs your attention. No driving, no machinery involved or anything that needs your attention. You’re not walking, not doing anything because it’s eyes closed. You could do it with your eyes open but there’s too many distractions. I like to do it eyes closed. So just get comfortable. So if you’re up for this, find a comfortable place to sit, take a nice in breath with me, hold it for a second or two, and as you let it out, just let your eyes close. There you go. And remember a time, a specific time when you felt that anxiety. We’ll call it anxiety for the moment. You might call it something else, you might call it scared, fear, whatever is’just for me. We’ll call it anxiety and remember a specific time. A specific time. And it’s only a four out of ten. Remember ten being the worst zero being not, don’t feel it. And when you remember that specific time, imagine out in front of you a lovely big movie screen. And if you’ve got like a TV control, you press play and you begin to see that memory with you in that screen going through that memory, just about to experience that anxiety over there. But you’re not in moment because you see, I want you now, as you see yourself on that movie screen, to flow out of your body into that you on the screen, see what you saw, hear what you heard and feel those feelings, those four out of 10 feelings. That’s the intensity, four out of 10. And as you feel that feeling, just point your finger to the place on your body where you can feel it. And as you do that, let your unconscious mind and your conscious mind, but your unconscious mind begin to move that hand in that circular direction. That could be clockwise, anti clockwise, forward and back in a circular motion. But just imagine that you know which direction it is and allow your hand to move. Just let it move. Could be slowly, but don’t do it fast. Not fast. This is not a fast process in the manner of. That is a fast process of getting rid of anxiety. And as you do that, you notice your hand begin to move. And if it isn’t moving, just imagine that you do know and guess, because your guesses are pretty good. And as you begin to move that hand, just speed it up a little bit. Not a lot. I go mad. Just speed it up a little bit. And as you speed it up just a little bit, notice that feeling. Does it get more intense or not? If it gets more intense, you’ve got it. And slow it down. You now know the direction. If it doesn’t get more intense, just go back to that feeling and begin to move your hand in a different way. Speed it up a little bit until you find. Until you find the direction where when you speed it up a little bit, that negative emotion of call anxiety gets a little bit more intense. Now you’ve got it. Yeah, slow it down. And I want to ask you the question. What colour is this feeling? It’s weirdn’t it? What color comes to mind? Just like that, what colour is anxiety? Yeah, you got it. Now here’s what I want you to do. I want you to have the hand that’s turning and turning to move out away from your body. So you’re still turning, but you’re effectively like pulling that feeling out of your body, still turning. And as you do that, 1, 2, 3, flip it and turn it the other way. Turn it the other way. And as you turn it the other way, begin to bring it your hand back towards your body with it turning the opposite direction. And then think what colour is calm? What colour is calm and make that turning that colour and bring it back into your body. And as you bring it back into your body, really make it that colour of car, your colour of carb. And as you do that, notice what happens inside your body. You’re now spinning this feeling the opposite direction and you’ve giving it the color of calm. Where’s the feeling going? It’s disappearing, isn’t it? I know it is. I know it is. Really visualize that feeling of calm and spin it maybe a little bit faster. I don’t mind this one spinning a little bit faster because that just makes calm even more intense. And as you do that, and you’ve got this feeling of calm, imagine rewinding that movie with this feeling of calm. And now run that movie from just before it started, that event started. And have this feeling of calm and this feeling spinning the opposite direction of the old way a little bit faster. And now go through that memory and notice how different it could have been if you’d have had this feeling this way. Spinning this way round and feeling of calm. Yeah, just notice how different it could have been. How much easier it is to go through it now. And when you’ve done that, keep that hand turning by the way, turning the opposite way that it was at the beginning. And then if you want rewind that movie to the beginning again maybe 10 minutes before it even started. And now you know what that movie is. And knowing that calm is calm, what would you add to come as a most wonderful feeling that would enhance come and would have made that memory even more comfortable. And when you think of that emotion, you’d add to that. That feeling you’d add to that cup.
Use these techniques to help your unconscious mind learn new ways to process memories
What color is that? And that hand seal spinning and it’s color of calm. And now add that new colour of that new wonderful positive emotion and allow them to blend together to crackle, to sparkle. Feel that feeling get even more empowering. And then as you do that 10 minutes before that movie, just run it now run that movie. And notice as you run that movie with these two resources now, two feelings, two emotions, how much easier it is now. How much easier is and go through that movie noticing how easy it is now, how more. So much more comfortable it is. Yeah. and Then slow it all down. Open your eyes and Say thank you. Cloughie. No. There you go. And the question is, I know the answer to this, but was it better the second time with calm than the first? And the answer is always yes. And the number four out, of ten could have gone down to zero. But when you add that other colour that you know would have been the best resource to have, you’re making like a recipe now with calm and its foundation as you were, how much different that memory could have been. And we haven’t changed the memory, but we’ve changed your learnings and we’re changing the learnings of the unconscious mind. Because the unconscious mind did that, anxiety for a reason, to keep you safe. But we’ve now shown you unconscious mind two better ways. So out of the three ways, there’s two better ways. And maybe if you said this or something better, there is a myriad of a cocktail of wonderful positive emotions that you could have a recipe, as it were, of wonderful feelings that would address any situation in the future. That where in the past you would have had those anxious feelings and you’d have acted anxiously. But now you can imagine going through anything in the future now that where it used to trigger in the past that old anxiety, now it would trigger one of the myriad wonderful ways, if nothing else would just trigger calm or trigger calm. And so your unconscious mind can learn because it has a prime directive to protect you. And we’ve just found better ways than anxiety to protect you. So again, say this and something better and just wonder what it be like. What would it be like at any time in the future, in the now, if you were to come to a thing that in the past where you would have been anxious in, what would it be like to access these wonderful feelings, what would that be like? And just let that go. I mean, you can do this as many times as, like, rinse and repeat, rinse and repeat. So you can’t get that old way back. in fact, the old ways trigger the new ways. So you can go back over what we’ve just done, make it even faster in the wonderful different colors, because you know the direction now, don’t you? You don’t have to go back and find the old way and then take it out and bring it back, you know, the new way and just rinse and repeat. Think of a time in the past where you had that little bit of anxiety. Remember, four or five out of ten, no more. As you think of that time, spin it this new direction, the opposite direction, you know what you’ve got. Add the Most appropriate colour of calm and anything new which you feel would be great and just keep rinsing and repeating, rinse and repeating because it’s like, I think we’ve said it before like if you had a cd, the old CDS that used to play music on and if you scratch them enough times they would never play the same and this is what you’re doing to the memories. but you’re learning each time by learning new ways.
Paul uses NLP to help clients access emotions and beliefs
And here’s a question for you and this is a question I always ask my clients when they look at me in amazement with that feeling gune and they look at that old memory and they go o that memory is different now because I know how it could have been, how I could have used the resources I’ve got now and how I will in the future. And I’ll ask them the question well, who did that? And initially they started to say well you did cluy they didn’t call me cluy, they called me Paul. You did Paul. I’m thinking well did I know the feelings you were experiencing? Well, not really. I showed you where it were, pointed to him Paul but that’s all. Did I know the movie, the content of that movie? No, not at all. Did I know anything about that second emotion? Not at all. So who did it? And it then just comes well of course I did it because you see when I say ay that’s them m saying ay because you did it, didn’t you? You did it. See, I was just a guide that’s all guiding you through a wonderful easy process. And one thing about this process is it has no content, does it? No words. So you don’t have to explain things, you don’t have to try to describe things, you don’t have to go through anything that is negative. Relive the past because you’re not reliving it at all really. because we’re just going through a process of 4 out of 10. But the more you think about these new ways times in the past that would have costused you a lot more than a 4 out of 10, 5 out of 10 if they came in the future now you know you’re going to breathe through it by because you’re going to access the most appropriate emotion, behaviors, thoughts, beliefs and your beliefs about how you’re going to approach life are going to change now because beliefs change in a second in that little click they change there. you go and you think here’s the real kicker because I love this process, I really love this process. I do it with every client just to show that they have the power, they have their own empowerment as it were, to change the way they feel, the way they act and what they believe in. Now a lot of people just think, well all these processes is a lovely NLP process. It’s all about changing subm modalities if you want another technical bit. But I always say to my clients, well that’s great because see my mum used to do this, bless her when she was alive, when she had to go to hospital a few times and they used to bring the doctor round or the doctor used to bring around all these learning doctors I guess you call them, studying doctors or whatever, doctors in practice, whatever. And she would get really anxious and I taught her this. Now bless her, she wanted to do it with a hand because she knew it worked so well. So every time they come round she’d ask them, before you say anything, could you just stop for a moment? Because I want to close my eyes, I have to get this feeling and I have to point my finger towards it and then I have to turn my hand around and then bring it out, turn it over, make it calm and bring it back in. And when my brought it back in I’ll nod to you and you can start talking. And she would do it every time, bless her because it was like her anchor to calmness. She didn’t need to because it, the sight of those doctors now would have turned on the calmness but she just loved doing it. Used to tell him, my son told me to do this so I’ve got to do it, bless. But the thing is, here’s, as I said the kicker. A lot of people think that using these processes ah, are only used with negative emotions. And that’s such Bs. That’s just short sightedness, that’s lack of creativity. You see. What about if you had a good feeling so you know you’re going to say an event in the future and there’s something where you want a little bit of confidence, not overconfidence but competence, where you’ve accessed all the information you want. Say you’re doing a presentation so you go back at times when you’ve presented, doesn’t have to be the same type of presentation but where you’ve talked to people and you’ve just been so comfortable being able to access the information you want to communicate and you go back into that feeling, notice which way it turns, notice what color it is. But this time instead of taking it out and reversing the spin. This is a good feeling. So spin it faster, spin it f and make the colors even brighter so you feel that feeling so intensely. And then imagine going through that future event with this feeling, spinning this fast, and learn from it. And maybe just play around with adding different feelings to it, spinning it even faster. And notice how you could go through that movie of a future event, feeling so comfortable, saying in the immortal words this or something better. And then just wonder with your internal voice what would be like to have access to all these wonderful feelings and even better ones when I actually do and go through the event I’ve been thinking about. And then you ll just let it gouse your unconscious mind will, as soon as it comes to that event, will trigger those feelings. You won’t have to do it, but if you want to, just to get it. Because it’s a great way to feeling good. And it becomes as if it’s a memory. Because your unconscious mind find it very difficult to find the difference between the real thing that’s happening and your visualizations. So it begins to think, well, we’ve done it this way before and it’s good. And it can start to imagine doing things even better. There you go. That’s something I do in my clinic. But do remember I’m a therapist. Not your therapist and all that stuff. And only ever do it for yourself. A four out of ten. Ten being the worst. But you can have fun with this. And this is the whole point about these processes. They are very simple. They do take a little bit of effort. You have to, I always say, have the will to do whatever it takes, but just do them and notice the difference it makes. And then play with the good feelings in the future. Cause you see if you keep playing with the good feelings when you have them thinking about things, it’s a bit like planting flowers, isn’t it? And pulling up the weeds. The more good feelings you spin in your life, the more energy you have. You. It’s like that vibration. You are vibrating at a different energy or a different vibe. Frequency, I think they call it. I’m, not into that stuff in the technical thing, but I do know that once you start feeling good, good things happen to you. Synchronicity, you know, things just happened, are’t they? Coincidence? No. This is you practicing to be good, feeling good, being successful in whatever you do and then having that successor. and good feelings being attracted, to you. And then all the new opportunities too. Because that’s what it means. I hope, I always hope this that I communicated this in a way that made it easy to follow. If I didn’t, please let me know because I need to improve my communication. So if there was anything that I didn’t make clear, please email me feedback personaldevelopmentunplugged.com. and then I’ll rectify that with another podcast. I’d love to hear about your experiences once you’ve done this. Just let me know.
Please share this podcast so we don’t need anxiety in our lives
Same email address feedback@personaldevelopmentunplugged.com. and maybe if you got something out of this, it resonated, it makes sense. You did it and you just knocked it out of the park. Please share this with as many other people so they we don’t need anxiety in our lives. There are better resources to use to deal with the events in our lives. Anxiety used to protect us. Now we’ve got so much, so many better ways to do it. Some of the best skills, emotions that we can access. So please do share this and maybe explain it to other other people too, so you get to learn it even more deeply. But please share the podcast and if you haven’t done it already, which I’m sure you have, please of ###e follow whatever the button is on your on your thing of app of choice. So you get these podcasts weekly, okay? So have more good feelings than you can stand, more spinning the wonderful way, more brighter than you could ever imagine, and wallow in the success and the good feelings that you have and ah, will have in the future. Because it’s now time to fly. I’ll see ya. Bye bye now.
Paul Clough puts hypnosis tracks on a separate website
So the 90 seconds of hypnosis tracks why I put hypnosis tracks on a separate website. Well, it’s so simple really. I wanted you to have them all in one place so you can look through them all. You can find the particular one you want. I’ve even made them downloadable so you can put them on any of your playing devices that you prefer. You don’t need WI fi, you don’t need the itunes or whatever. You can put HM them anywhere you like. You can even burn them onto dis if you want. Where’do you get them? Well, there you go. I told you, it’s paulcloughonline.com podcast. If you’re worried about your email address, please don’t be because they stay totally safe with me. I only use them to send you out that email and give you access. Simple as that. I send you a link, a special link so you, and only you, can access those hypnosis tracks. Because I want them just for you. And the other thing about this is you’ve taken responsibility. I don’t want to make these open to everyone, just random. You have taken responsibility to listen and be part of this community of personal development. And I want to help you. I want to help you personally to get your dreams, your goals. And therefore, I’m giving you these tools, these protocols, these paradigms, whatever you want to call them, but in deep hypnosis. So just enjoy. Have more fun than you can stand with hypnosis. Warning, you are now leaving the unplugged mind of Paul Clough. It’s time to fly on your own. Be brave, my friend. Personal development unplugged.
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