you act in a way that totally matches how you define yourself, but the problem is you've programmed yourself to see yourself in a negative way without even realizing it. So, you try to change yourself on the conscious level by setting goals and intentions to become your ideal self, but you constantly feel as if you're up against an invisible enemy. Well, it's because you are. The invisible enemy is your subconscious programming. But the good news is you can reprogram it. Because in order to change anything, you must change how you interpret it, how you feel about it, and how you respond to it. But to change all these three, all you need to do is change how you think about it. So, within the next few minutes of your time, this is what we're going to explore together. But first up, what do we actually mean by subconscious programming? Well, this subconscious programming we're referring to is otherwise known as your self-image, defined as the idea, conception, or mental image one has of oneself. And there are four elements to your self-image. Up first, we have your self-image. So, this is

how you view yourself. Number two, you have your ideal self, so the ideal image of the person you would like to be. Perhaps you want to be more confident or more expressive, whatever. You have your real self, which is the feedback you get from others about who you are. And then you have your Looking Glass self, which is how you perceive the feedback you get from others. That was a bit of a mouthful, so let me give you an example. Let's imagine you currently see yourself as boring, so that's your self-image. But you would like to become more interesting, so that's your ideal self. This gap between your current self-image and who you would like to be is where you currently exist, which creates tension and undermines your self-esteem. So when you hear the phrase reprogram your self-image, what it means is bridging the gap that we just showed. To go one step deeper, there are six dimensions to your self-image. You have the physical dimension, which is how you evaluate your appearance; psychological, how you evaluate your personality; intellectual.

intelligence skills, how you evaluate your social or technical skills, moral, how you evaluate your values and principles, and lastly, the sexual dimension, which is how you evaluate your fitting into society's masculine and feminine norms. But let's go back to the main issue you're currently facing. The main issue you face in changing your behavior or getting what you want out of life is your conscious goals don't align with your self-image. For example, your conscious goals might be to be more confident, but you've always seen yourself as a loser. Your conscious goal might be to make more friends, but you subconsciously see yourself as a loner, and you push people away. Or maybe you want to get rich, but your self-image is that you've always been poor. Lastly, perhaps you want to talk to strangers more, but your self-image is that you're boring and that no one likes you. It becomes a self-fulfilling prophecy that we're going to get into in a few seconds' time, but before we elaborate with

further examples. There's one thing I want to make as clear as day: your self-image is not real. It's a construction of the thoughts you choose to think about past experiences. This is going to seem very condescending, but let me say that one more time just so it sinks in: your self-image is not real. It's a construction of the thoughts you choose to think about past experiences. Additionally, what you choose to believe about yourself has power over you, regardless of whether those beliefs are true or not. So, your self-image is nothing more than a byproduct of you hypnotizing yourself with your words and your imaginations, right? Just before we cover the practical details in terms of how you can reprogram your self-image, there's just one tiny little thing I want to elaborate more on because the more understanding you have as to how all of this works, the less you'll need me to stand here and say, Here's a step-by-step guide on how to reprogram your self-image. Because sometimes, to understand a problem is to solve it even

though we're still going to go into the step-by-step guides on how to reprogram it. As we've covered already, your self-image interprets the feedback you get from your environment, meaning it determines how you interact with the world. Now, this goes one step further by outlining some feedback loops and differentiating between how machines process feedback and how we process feedback. So, a machine, obviously devoid of emotions, sets a goal, achieves it, stores the positive and negative feedback in order to become more efficient to achieve the goal, right? No interpretation needed necessarily. As humans, we receive feedback from our environment, but we interpret it through the lens of our self-image, as mentioned. And in a further sense, our self-image determines whether we release negative or positive feedback to our self. Here's an example which is quite extreme. Let's take the example of the horrible experience of someone being bullied. Okay, so they were bullied when they were younger. They then notice how when they were bullied, they didn't receive support, so their self-image becomes lonely and

victimized because that's what they associate with. And then, when they try to form new relationships, they experience intense difficulty because their self-image makes them act aloof and hostile to other people. And then, this creates distance between them and others and serves as proof that no one wants to connect with them, thus further fueling their self-image. And then, it fuels the belief that they hold as a consequence of their self-image that they need to protect themselves from other people. So, your self-image, when programmed negatively, is just one big spiraling feedback loop of negativity and negative interpretation. Because if this person who identifies with this self-image now wants to set the conscious goal of building deeper relationships and connecting with people and being more liked by others, until they change this association, they're always going to create these two spirals of being aloof and hostile because they're always going to be alert to slights and s that other people don't like them. So, they create more distance between them and other people when really their goal is to connect. So, to

reiterate the point one more time. In order to change your self-image, you need to make sure your self-image aligns with your conscious goals. So, how do we do this? I hear you ask. Okay, the discipline we're going to use in order to reprogram your self-image is something called NLP, otherwise known as neuro-linguistic programming. The neuro stands for how you gather data from the world using your five senses. The linguistic refers to the way you interpret and make sense of that data, and then programming refers to the behavioral patterns you learn throughout your life. Yes, by the way, I am recording this over a span of a few days, which means my hair and mustache have grown. I've had a shave and otherwise, yeah, that was the elephant in the room. Because remember what we said at the beginning of this video: in order to change anything, you need to change how you interpret, feel, and behave towards it. But to change all three of those things, you need to change how you think about it.

this is what NLP helps us to do. By the way, I was on a train once coming from London to where I live in my hometown in Kent, and I was speaking to these four older people. As I got up to say goodbye, one of the BLS handed me his business card, and he said, All right, son, well, if you ever need help with anything, I'm into NLP, so here's my business card. 'Cause that's how people from where I'm from can't speak. I thought, What the bloody hell is NLP? Sounded like snake oil he was trying to sell me until I learned what it actually is. So, there are four tiny things NLP teaches us about how your brain works that you need to understand before you go about your reprogramming. Ladies and gentlemen, I just wanted to jump in and say the next 15 minutes of this video are quite in-depth, so feel free to skip straight to the practical tips in terms of how to reprogram your self-image, which start at 2444 if you want to skip the

understanding, of course, the more understanding you have about how your brain works, the better. However, if you find explanations boring, I want to give you the opportunity to tap out now. Let's get back to the Whiteboard, okay? Oh, by the way, I'm growing my hair as well, which is why I look like I've just come out of prison. The first thing you need to understand about your brain is that it is always processing data from your environment. That's a brain, not a blob. But due to the complex nature of this data coming in, your brain's absorption of that data is not always an accurate representation of reality. Which means, yes, your thoughts aren't an accurate representation of reality. They're just a representation of how your brain has interpreted that data in relation to your self-image. Your brain has collected every experience that has happened to you up until this point. Let me just readjust you so your self-image, as we've mentioned, is nothing more than a reflection of how you've chosen to think about these experiences. But here's the tricky thing. Your brain

cannot absorb all of this data perfectly; otherwise, it would explode. Why do dogs have to bark every time I'm talking about a Bloody Brain? It can't absorb all of the data perfectly, so it needs some cognitive shortcuts. Here are the three main ones that your brain uses, okay? The three main cognitive shortcuts your brain engages in are: one, simplifying. This is where your brain generalizes the data it's absorbing by identifying patterns based on existing data you already have. This happens in order to reduce complexity. Let me give you an example. These are dogs. If you saw a large dog on the street, your brain wouldn't absorb all of the data; it would simplify it for you by making you pay attention to, Is the dog on a lead? What type of breed is the dog? Or have you been bitten by a dog in the past? Number two is filtering. This is where your brain chooses what data to process based on your needs, interests, and goals. That's pretty interesting if you ask me. So, you're telling me based on what your needs are, what your goals are.

that you've set and what you're interested in. Your brain will filter data based on these. I'm in. This is heavily dependent on your physical state, for example, if you're hungry, emotional state, your expectations, which is another very fascinating thing as well. Think about social anxiety, right? When you're socially anxious and you're approaching a group, your expectations are you're going to be judged. So, you're telling me this is going to impact your emotional, physical, and psychological state? Hell yeah. And what you're focusing on will influence this as well. Going back to the five-legged dog example, when you see the dog, your brain is going to help you focus on the size of the dog, whether it is barking, and it will ignore superfluous details like whether the dog is wagging its tail or has a collar. And the last cognitive shortcut is modifying. This is where your brain alters the data coming in from your environment so it corresponds with your existing knowledge and beliefs. Bit of a tricky one that because this makes new interpretations easier and quicker.

so it can slot into nice, already made categories. Going back to the dog example, let's say you've had a terrible experience with a dog in the past. Seeing a new dog is going to make your brain exaggerate the size and the aggressiveness of the dog, making you run away. Tricky things, aren't they, our brains? The second thing you need to understand about your thoughts manifest the sensory impressions. By sensory impressions, we mean your senses - seeing, smelling, hearing, feeling, tasting - but we all perceive things differently. To give you an example, if you engaged in the thought experiment of imagining a rainy sky, you might focus on the gloomy gray, depressive nature of it, whereas someone else might focus on the enriching smell of the earth and getting the mud between their fingers, whatever floats their boat. The third thing you need to understand about your brain is memory networks trigger associated sensations. That was a bit of a Malou as well. What this means is your brain is always interpreting new data based on

the data it already has. Your brain would say something like, What does this new data mean based on what I've experienced before? For example, the new data you have, obviously in that dog on the street, is now stored next to your old data of being bitten by a dog. Let's take this one step further, if we may, unless it's too early in our relationship for that. Every memory has the potential to spark any other memory from that network. To give you an example, you think about a rainy day, which reminds you of being wet from swimming. Being wet from swimming reminds you of the sea. The sea makes you think of your upcoming holiday. Your upcoming holiday makes you feel excited. When we get into the practical steps in terms of how to reprogram your self-image, we're going to learn how to hijack this. But moving on, point number four, you need to understand about how your brain works. This is the last one. Sensory nuances influence all of your experiences because they determine what you move toward or away from. To give you

an example: if you sit here right now and imagine your favorite guilty pleasure, high sugary junk food snack, it's going to make you salivate and want to eat it. Your senses influence all of your experiences because they influence each stage of you thinking about that experience. For example, before the experience, while you're anticipating it. For example, they say you have an interview next week, and you sit there and you begin thinking about how critical and harsh the interviewers are going to be, which raises your anxiety, resulting in you wanting to cancel the interview. Two, they affect you during the experience while you're living it. You're having the interview or you're having a discussion with someone. You notice their eyebrows are raised or their tone is a bit harsh, and you conclude that they are defensive or confrontational. And three, they influence you after an experience. For example, you come back from holiday and you sit there in your living room thinking about the sunset you were just in and the lovely summer love who you were loving, and that makes you want to

rebook a new holiday. So, what we've just covered is very important because it highlights one very peculiar thing that our brain does, which is we drew a red brain earlier. So, stay with that theme, your googly little brain. Oh, how condescended, how condescending did that sound, me calling your brain little. Sorry about that, don't know where that came from. Your gargantuous, gigantic, and enormous brain is always constructing your emotional experiences in each moment, and it does so by cross-referencing your past experiences with your present experiences to determine the sensory nuances, emotional importance, emotional importance, right? That's all well and good explaining it, but let me give you an example. Back to having an interview. This seems a bit complicated at the moment, but we're going to walk through it. So, you're sat there, and you're imagining how the interview will play out that you have in a week, but you're imagining the interviewers as being very harsh and critical. So, your brain freaks out, and what it does is it goes back

into your past. Remember your past data, knowledge, and beliefs to determine whether you've had bad experiences with interviews in the past. You have had a horrible experience with an interview 3 months ago that made you feel very embarrassed and anxious. So, your brain needs to correspond that old data with the new data coming in. The new data is, of course, your imagination, but also what your current needs are. Remember the cognitive shortcut of filtering the information coming in based on what you're focusing on, interests are, and what your goals are. Your current needs are you need money and you need a job as well, which corresponds with your past and the imagination you're engaging in. Your brain then determines that anxiety to your imagined threat is valid, which leads to your behavior beginning to change. You now feel anxious, of course, because your brain has deemed the anxiety as valid, which means your decision-making is influenced, your heart rate increases, your physiology changes, which results in you canceling the interview. All because your brain has determined the anxiety as valid. That might have been quite

confusing. So, if I had to summarize all of that in one sentence, I would say your emotions aren't fixed reactions to stimuli. Your brain creates your emotions based on your past experiences and how you're interpreting new data coming in. Okay, so what this means in relation to your self-image is to change your self-image. You need to do two things. First, you need to become conscious of your unconscious associations and make new associations, which we're going to get into in a few points' time. And you do so by changing the way you interpret new data and what sensory nuance you focus on. If we go back to the example we covered at the beginning of this video of someone having the self-image of being lonely and victimized due to their past experiences of being bullied, they now reach out to someone. Hey, want to grab a coffee? But on the odd chance that person says, No thanks, I'm busy. So, what happens? The association is formed in that person's brain of the new data coming in, which is someone said no. That

old data which is I was bullied, but remember your brain interprets feedback from your environment in relation to your self-image, which for this person is lonely and victimized. So, the brain puts itself in a little cage, and the feedback that it releases is, No one likes me. I'll never make friends. Remember, your self-image is a result of how you've chosen to think about past experiences. So, the sequence plays out that feedback is released, that person concludes, I need to protect myself from people. No one likes me, all of which confirms their self-image. And the sequence further plays out of that feedback being released, I need to protect myself from others, resulting in their behavior of not reaching out to others, not opening up, not trying to connect, resulting in people avoiding them, which confirms their self-image of being lonely and victimized. Your associations of old and new data color your perceptions of your environment, which causes you to react in specific ways. We're going to clarify this when we've returned to the Whiteboard after this presentation. However, if that person

changed their self-image through the tips we're going to cover in the last sequence of this video, and their new self-image is that they are charismatic and open. They reach out to someone, Hey, want to grab a coffee? No thanks, I'm busy. What happens? The brain still has the same data, old data: I was bullied. New data: Someone said no. But the new self-image is the lens through which your brain interprets this association: I am charismatic and open. So what happens? Tada! The brain releases the feedback through your self-image that she was probably just busy; that doesn't mean I'm not likable. So what plays out? Feedback is released, resulting in that behavior being that person reaches out again, or they invite someone else for a coffee, resulting in people hanging out with them more, all of which confirms their charismatic and open self-image. Let's cover one more example. Let's imagine you have the self-image that you are poor and you don't understand money because your past experience was when you were younger, your family was always struggling and never

had enough money, so you look at your bank balance, which is running low, and you conclude, I have no money. The association of the new data and old data is: new data - my bank balance is low; old data - I've never had enough money. The brain interprets all of that through the lens of your self-image that you're poor and you don't understand money. So, what happens? It puts itself in a cage again and releases the feedback that I'll always be poor; I'm not able to make more money. So, what happens? You then conclude, I'm so bad with money, which confirms your poor self-image in more particular detail. Because of that feedback, your behavior is you reject new opportunities, resulting in you earning less money, all of which confirms your self-image that you're poor and you don't understand money. However, if you change your self-image to see in yourself as wealthy, you would look at your low bank balance and think, Let's get hustling. Same association, new data: bank balance is low; old data: I used to be poor, but your new

self-image that your brain interprets. This association through the lens of I'm wealthy. So, what happens? It releases feedback that my bank balance doesn't phase me. I have the skills to earn more money, and the association plays out. That feedback is released, resulting in the behavior being, You embrace new opportunities. You get what you think you're worth. You shoot for the promotion or you shoot for the new job, resulting in you earning more money, confirming your self-image that you're wealthy. Right before we get into the part you've all been waiting for, how to reprogram your self-image. After I've bombarded you with a plethora of understanding, one of the reasons you clicked on this video, I would put money on it, is that you have never understood why it's so hard to reprogram your thoughts and your behavior. Well, this is why. Primarily, it's because everything that we've covered so far happens without your conscious awareness. But in particular, the reason why it's so hard is because you only notice the data.

coming in and your emotional reaction to it. You're unaware of the unconscious associations you're making between those experiences and emotions, all of which gives you the feeling that you have no choice over your behavior or your thoughts. Going back to the interview example we just covered, that person in that situation fails to realize how the way they're visualizing the upcoming interview is making them feel more anxious because of this experience and emotion connection and the unconscious Association, which is increasing their heart rate, producing a physiological response, resulting in their behavior, wanting them to cancel the interview because of their anxiety and past experiences. So, what's the unconscious Association forms there when you cancel the interview? One, interviews are inherently stressful. Two, I'm not capable enough to face this interview. But in more particular detail, honestly, this I just drew this on the board, and it blew my mind. It looks like a piece of poo, but anyway, the association of new and old data colors your perceptions of your environment, which leads you to react in specific ways.

the way your brain processes your environment justifies your habitual thoughts, feelings, and behaviors, and your habitual thoughts, feelings, and behaviors reinforce the way your brain processes your environment. So, you think about the interview, your brain triggers a reaction that reinforces anxiety, and because you always feel anxious when you think about interviews, your brain classifies them as anxiety-inducing situations. I think that's enough understanding for one video. Let's get into the practical stuff. By the way, this stuff isn't not practical. Like I said, the more understanding, the better. But anyway, need a moment of silence. Oh, I need a kitchen towel. Okay, so we've reached a video checkpoint because everything we've covered so far outlines the mechanisms underlying your thoughts, where they come from, and how you feel about and respond to your experiences. So, now what you need to do is become conscious of all of that because your subconscious is malleable, and it merely reflects all of your habitual conscious thoughts. If you want the nub and shore of what you need to do in order to stop

the video here all you need to know is by intentionally changing the sensory nuances you focus on, you change the way your subconscious responds to incoming information. If you want to go further, here's what you do. You need to learn the mechanics of how to maintain a positive attitude, you need to enhance your self-esteem, and lastly, achieve success. Let's do it. Number one, maintain a positive attitude. When it comes to maintaining a positive attitude, the main thing you need to understand first of all is focusing on negative sensory nuances. Remember, when we say sensory nuances, we mean sensations such as visualizing your failure, potential conflict, or judging yourself or others. These things all make it harder to maintain this. So, there are two things you can do to cultivate a more positive attitude. Number one, immerse yourself in positive sensory experiences as much as possible. You can do this by recalling positive memories you've experienced before and treat this in the same way as when you take a photo on your phone. You know you can go back in and edit it and

adjust all of the filters. You can turn up the saturation, the brightness, the color. Do the exact same when you're recalling past positive memories. Increase the intensity of it so you get that visceral feeling as if it's happening right now. The reason why this is important is because that will spark you into further high momentum positive behavior. Oh, he says as he remembers something. When I was 22, I moved to another city called Bristol. And one thing I did as soon as I moved there was I went and bought myself this little notepad. And at the end of every day, I would sit down and I would just recall the happy positive things that happened that day that I was grateful for. It could have been I flirted with a girl and it was really fun. I did a solid workout. Whatever it is that gives you that positive feeling. And number two, you might want to use this little hack. It's called creating an anchor. Now what NLP teaches us is you can form new positive associations between previous data and new data in your brain by creating an

anchor what you do is pick one positive memory that gives you that high-intensity feeling of positivity, and whenever you recall that memory, create a new physical association by putting your thumb on your knuckle whenever you think about it. So, in moments of distress, you can simply put your thumb on your knuckle, and it will spark that memory because your brain has associated putting your thumb on your knuckle with that memory. This will further trigger neuroplasticity in your brain as you make new connections. Okay, number two, you want to distance yourself from negative sensory experiences. When you get yourself into a rut or when you experience heightened negative—I don't want to call them negative, but difficult—emotions, sit down and really dissect, Okay, what are all of the behavioral things, the sensory experiences that prompted you falling into that downward spiral? And then you want to do your best to starve them out. And most importantly, notice when you do start to behave in a certain way or when you carry yourself around with bad posture. You can

recognize. Oh, I know what direction these sensory experiences are going to lead me down. Let me change my sensory experiences so I can go in a different direction. To give you an example, probably once a week, I get myself into a little rut where I've worked too much and I've completely forgotten to rest, which is the most unproductive thing in the world. So, on that sixth or seventh day, I noticed that I feel particularly heavy, and I want to scroll more. I want to distract myself more, and I'm starting to frown while I'm doing most of the things that I do. So, you want to catch the cognitive algorithm and how it plays out in your mind and address the underlying cause. For me, it's I haven't rested, so I need to search for alternative ways to rest so I don't spiral myself downwards. Number two, in this context, reduce the brightness of a troubling image. If you're imagining potential disaster upcoming and you're thinking about how someone is going to be harshly critical of you, take that

critical voice in your imagination and turn it into a humorous one. Take the tension a certain thought is sparking within you. Maybe you're attacking yourself in your head with judgments and imagine all of the tension being washed away by a huge wave. You want to distance yourself from your negative sensory experiences so they have less of an impact on you. But the thing to know is the sensory experiences aren't all bad. It's just the association your brain has made with them that you need to change. Because, for example, if you continuously interpret someone having a critical voice as bad, then you're going to heighten your anxiety whenever you encounter that critical voice. Remember, the association is the thing you need to tackle. By the way, if anything isn't making sense, please let me know in the comments, and I'll elaborate further if I can. Point number two: enhance your self-esteem. Right, let's have a chat about self-esteem, shall we? First of all, I want to preface this whole segment on self-esteem with, I hate the modern

self-esteem movement. I've made videos in the past trying to tell an audience, which is predominantly male, about how they should love themselves and all of that stuff. And guess what? I've realized for myself, it doesn't work telling other people to do the same. It also doesn't work. The modern self-esteem movement is just a barrage of self-help gurus and psychologists trying to get other people to feel better about themselves, which doesn't improve their self-esteem; it just improves their fragile narcissism. That's the most extreme preface I've ever given, but anyway, because self-esteem is a product of many things: you being purposefully engaged in life, in relationships, and doing things that you find admirable. As the saying goes, to love yourself, behave in ways you admire. But for the sake of the context of self-image in which we're talking about, we're going to define low self-esteem as vividly recalling your past failures. Okay, so to change your self-image, you need to use your imagination constructively. So the way

you do this, and by the way, if you get one thing from this video, please make sure it's this, so pay attention right now to change your self-image. Reflect on what you like about yourself and identify the sensory nuances you focus on when you do so. For example, you might really like how you're kind to people, okay? So when you sit there and you imagine a past experience where you were kind to someone, you notice you get a fuzzy feeling in your stomach, and your fingers start to tingle, and you feel really excited to do that thing again. Now, if you cannot think about things you like about yourself, think about your past accomplishments or times where other people have complimented or praised you. So you do that first of all. Then second of all, consider the new traits you'd like to adopt, the new type of person you would like to be, and you use those same sensory nuances you elicited in this first part when doing this part, okay? Let me draw this, guys. While I was speaking, there was a Babushka listening who suggested there.

is a very simple and effective six-minute visualization technique we can use. So, you get yourself a timer, one ideally that goes off after every 2 minutes, and you set it for 6 minutes. And within the first 2 minutes, you focus on relaxing yourself. You close your eyes, you focus on your breath, and perhaps help you focus on each individual muscle and untense it and relax it. This is because your mind is more receptive to positive suggestions when it's relaxed. In the second minute, this is where you reflect on the positive trait you like about yourself. As we covered, perhaps you like the fact that you are kind. So, take a moment to imagine in detail a particular situation you were in where you were kind to someone, or reflect on one of your accomplishments that you're proud of, allowing you to spark those positive sensations again as if you're reliving the event. Now, this will spark loads of sensory experiences within you. Perhaps you'll begin to smile, you'll begin to feel that fuzzy feeling in your stomach. Do this for 2 minutes, and then

as soon as the timer goes off for the last 2 minutes. You channel those sensory experiences into your visualization about the trait you would like to adopt, your new self-image. Do this every day for 6 minutes, and you will reprogram your subconscious. Comment below an emoji of a Babushka if there is one for seven years of good Babushka luck. Then, bonus tip: go out into the world and combine your visualization with real-world action to get a double whammy. Now, in the famous book about self-image, Psycho-Cybernetics, which I didn't really like; I thought it was pretty boring and basic. Maxwell Maltz, who is the author of the book, says there are three things you can do to help you imagine yourself towards success and away from failure. One, prove that change is possible. You need to give your brain the feeling of self-efficacy to show that despite your most ingrained and hardly programmed subconscious programming, you can change. So, take a habit you do regularly and change it. For example, perhaps each time you leave the

house you put your right shoe on before your left shoe, so start putting your left shoe on before your right shoe to give your brain that little bit of feedback that, Oh, we can change when we put our mind to something. Number two, relax your way to success. In a relaxed state, you do everything better, so do what you can to reduce your stress levels because, furthermore, when you're relaxed, your brain is more receptive to positive suggestions. Stress just triggers your amygdala, where it's trying to detect every single threat that's in the environment, and it prevents your prefrontal cortex from thinking rationally. And number three, finally focus on a goal. Highlight precisely why you want to change your self-image. Do you want to feel calmer so that you're better in conversation? Do you want to feel more confident so that you can actually stick to your decisions? Have something in front of you to chase and something behind you to run away from. And remember, your brain is going to resist change because your subconscious programming has been programmed for such.

a long time, so give yourself the grace to work with yourself and understand this will take time, perhaps a few months. It's not a quick, easy fix that I can just give you in particular detail. There are going to be four main challenges that you'll face. One challenge is mainly the challenge of stepping out of your comfort zone, but don't see it as life-threatening; see it as an opportunity. Number two is fear, the fear of the unknown largely, but do something called fear setting, which is where you define your fears and actively work to mitigate the problem if it does happen. Negative thoughts are going to be your third challenge; train yourself to reflect on the facts of the situation. And lastly, emotional scars; train yourself to forgive and forget. Let's finalize this video with the last tip, so the third and final element in terms of how to reprogram your self-image is Achieve success. First of all, you need to get clear on what does success mean for you. You need to define it; forget about what all of

your need to wrap this up. Forget about what all of your favorite influencers define success as and really introspect to define it for yourself because more clarity you have on what success means for you means the more preparation you can engage to deal with obstacles. That was the word. There are three ways you can facilitate your success. One, set clearly defined goals that align with your values. I've said this multiple times in videos, but just to reiterate the point, there is a common theme among people who suffer with depression. They set vague goals, which means they don't achieve them, which means they feel more depressed. The clearer your goal can be, the more specific, the better, because this means it's more fulfilling because you can tell when you've actually achieved it. One exercise you might like to do to help you with this is imagine yourself as 90 years old on your deathbed, reflecting on your life. What are the proudest moments that you're reflecting on? What did you achieve? What decisions did you make? Number two, create vivid

mental images of what you want to achieve increase the hue and the filtration intensity and the color of your imagined success. Engage all of your senses when you do so. You might like to do this for 2 or 3 minutes a day or just before you go to bed. However, warning: don't do this too much because studies have shown that imagining your success, especially talking to other people about it, lowers your systolic blood pressure, which is that force that pushes out on your artery walls as your heart pumps out blood. Increased systolic blood pressure results in energy and feelings of alertness and motivation. So, if you lower it, you're just going to feel lethargic and as if you don't need to do anything. So, don't do this too much. And finally, number three: to achieve success, recall your past achievements, linking those sensory experiences to your current goal. Remember the one thing I wanted you to take from this video, which was to reflect on things you like about yourself. Use those same sensory experiences when you

do so when imagining what you would like to be like. Do the same with past achievements for your new goals. This will boost your confidence and your belief that you can achieve it. However, be wary of something called context-dependent memory. What this is, is your mood dictates what memories you have access to. For example, you might not be able to remember your university campus or the school you went to when you were younger right now with all of its detail. But if I took you to that campus, all of the memories that you didn't have access to right now would come flooding back. So, only do this recall of past achievements when you're in a good mood because when you're in a bad mood, you likely won't have access to the positive sensory experiences from those memories. Okay, in summary, how am I going to summarize that? I have no idea. I've been stood in front of the whiteboard trying to figure out how to summarize this video until I've realized there are only two things I want you to

Remember, one, your self-image is not real; it is a construction of the thoughts you've chosen to think about your past experiences. So, in order to reprogram it, leverage your brain's positive associations by reflecting on previous experiences that spark that positive sensory experience within you. Take those positive sensory experiences and throw them onto the new imagined self you want to grow yourself into. Do you remember when you used to go to the cinema and used to get those sweets, the smiley face there? Don't worry, I just forgot; we're all from different cultures. But anyway, thank you very much for your time and attention. If anything was unclear, let me know in the comments, but stay disciplined, playful, and dangerous.

how to transform your self image

how to transform your self image