Anxiety Reduction Technique - Get the Vacuum Cleaner Out

This is a specialised visualisation technique you can use (I describe another you can use in a previous post - Evaporating the Sherbert Dab - in this post).

Who will find this technique useful?  Anyone with an emotional state 'approaching' or who has gone through a systematic desensitisation process and is concerned the condition will return.

'Getting the vacuum cleaner out' is useful when you're just starting to feel the  nip of an emotional discharge biting at your conscious mind and you start to think 'oh no, I'm starting to feel ... (insert whatever feeling it is) again'.

OK, here's the technique:

Imagine you've got a vacuum cleaner inside of you (if you've got a real one inside of you get the doctor's immediately - this is an imaginary vacuum cleaner - do not try to practice this in reality - it is a visualisation technique that involves, mainly, the ARAS (your Ascending Reticular Activation System), your right neo-cortex (your patterning mind) and your Semantic Mind (your body).  It doesn't involve a real vacuum cleaner.  Phew.  I'm glad we got that straight.  Oh, and if you have a phobia of vacuum cleaners you may want to try working with an imaginary brush and dustpan instead.

OK, so as soon as you feel the slightest bit of anxiety or whatever emotion it is, you get the imaginary vacuum cleaner out.

Create a quiet space in your day for some alone time and go through your body and mind with the vacuum cleaner looking for any spots of 'emotional dust'.

If you are able to use the imagery gained from the 'sherbert dab' post I've linked to above you can imagine yourself vacuuming up sherbert dab.  By the way, the 'Evaporating Sherbert Dab' technique is for intense emotional blockages, the Vacuum Cleaner is for the fainter emotional sensations.

Spend some time searching and whenever you find a pocket of anxiety - suck it in.  Feel it, experience it, acknowledge it.  Keep 'vacuuming' it in and eventually it will be gone.

If you're 'vacuuming' an unpleasant set of mixed emotional responses keep sucking them in until you've experienced the 'knuckles and bones' of the emotions and eventually they will fade.

Ladies and gentlemen, I give you the 'Get the Vacuum Cleaner Out' technique.  Any questions or comments?  Nooooo-oooooooo ... don't forget under the coffee table ...

Regards - Carl