Guide to Making Your Mind Movie

Written Exams Fix

Congratulations: you’ve downloaded the hypnosis you will listen to every day (or more!) for the next two weeks (or more!). The next step is to power up that hypnosis by making your personalised visualisations.

You are going to create a Mind Movie to play in your imagination when you listen to your download.

A Mind Movie is a visualisation in the form of imagined moving images – like a movie – which you create to watch inside your mind when you listen to your download.

Calm Focus Mind Movie

Follow the steps below to create your Calm Focus Mind Movie.

This will show moving images (just like in a movie) of you doing an activity whilst feeling calm and focussed.

We are going to use the brain’s “conditioning” function to bring on a calm focussed mindset.

What is the trigger? Exhaling and saying to yourself “calm”.

What is Conditioning?

Our lives contain experiences which, if repeated, trigger an automatic response in our behaviour. In the most famous example, Pavlov, the Russian scientist, rang a bell every time he fed his dogs. After a while, just hearing the bell would trigger his dogs to salivate. An otherwise neutral stimulus like a bell ringing took on a positive meaning for the dogs.

Other examples of classic conditioning might be: standing up when the school bell is rung; or feeling tearful at the sight of a needle because of past painful injections; or a song from the happy moments in the past putting you in a good mood. Put simply, two stimuli are linked together to produce a learned response.

Making a Powerful Mind Movie

Step 1: Identify

Think about a time when you had the ideal calm focussed mindset to perform at your best in a written exam.

Think about how a calm focussed mindset would look to an outsider? How would you hold your body?

How would it feel on the inside? What would your internal emotions be?

Step 2: Relax

Find somewhere comfortable to relax.

Close your eyes.

Take five deep breaths (inhale through your nose for four or five counts, exhale through your mouth at a slower pace).

Then breathe deeply in a way that is comfortable for you, taking breaths from low down in your abdomen. Place your hand on your stomach to check that it is moving up and down as you breathe.

Step 3: Create

Create a Mind Movie in which you imagine moving images (just like in a movie) showing you carrying out an activity with a calm focussed mindset.

Science of Visualisation Explained

Step 4: Detail

Your Mind Movie should be in full colour and last about 30 seconds.

Step 5: Control

Imagine you have a control board in front of you which allows you to play with your Mind Movie.

Practice watching yourself on the screen, as well as experiencing it through your own eyes (jump into your body in the movie).

Trigger: both before and after you watch your Mind Movie, take a deep breath and on the out breath say to yourself “calm”.

Your brain will make the association between exhaling and saying to yourself “calm” and the calm focus you felt in your Mind Movie

Step 6: Repeat

Play your Mind Movie repeatedly.

Work it into your every day activities: e.g. when you brush your teeth, your hair, when you have a hot drink, or take a loo break and so on.

Remember to say to yourself “calm” on the exhale whenever you play your Mind Movie.

Science of Reprogramming Explained

Written Exam Mind Movie Example

Example:

David’s end of year University exams were approaching.

He had revised and felt he knew the material well.

However, in some examinations in the past he had allowed his nerves adversely to affect his performance.

He remembered a test he had taken the year before when he had felt calm and in control. He remembered he had answered the questions in a methodical and calm manner.

He made a mental Mind Movie of his memory of taking this test making sure to include his calm internal emotions and the methodical way he approached writing down the answers.

You are now ready to listen to your download

Listening to your Download