During stressful conditions the body will release certain hormones into the bloodstream to help it become more resilient under what it may perceive as a potential threat to survival. Although the hormone release may in some circumstances feel uncomfortable, it is essential for our own safety. The only unfortunate thing is that the original purpose was to enable the person to escape from a potential physical threat, but in today’s world, the physical threats (in many places) are much less, today it is more on the level of “being shouted at from the boss” or “being rejected” but the hormone release is still preparing us for a physical threat, which sit in the body draining the energy as it is making the body work much faster. The main two stress hormones which are released to help us are known as Noradrenalin and Cortisol. But they also drain the energy at a high rate, “high output – low duration”

There are many ways in which to move forward through limiting beliefs, but in order to do so effectively, it is essential that the mind does not become consumed with stressful thoughts. As mentioned there are many ways of doing this but here we will discuss what is known as conscious distractions and reframes.

There are literally hundreds of these techniques in many books by many authors and far to numerous to list. A distraction/reframe is literally a mental technique to draw the attention away from the stressful thought to a more pleasant one, we can see this when a small child is upset and the parent acts in a silly manner pulling smiley faces until the child starts to laugh, if the child is laughing, they usually forget about the upsetting situation, even if it for a short period of time.

There are pro’s and cons for using these techniques and both should be observed before using them.

Benefits:

1. It distracts the mind away from the pain, lessening the uncomfortable thought patterns.

2. If the attention is on happy thoughts the hormone release may slow

3. It gives the person another option of thought.

Limitations:

1. It is only conscious so therefore short term benefit

2. It may offend the other if not done in a correct manner

3. It could in some cases increase the painful emotion

Any conscious mind reframe or distraction is only effective when the person using it is focused upon it, as soon as they lose their focus, the dominant sub-conscious thoughts begin to expand through the mind and if they are a limiting belief pattern they will begin to re-act to situation with stress again, doing its best to protect from perceived threats. To gain the most benefits from self improvement, work with the emotions as well as just the thoughts.