Future Pacing in Action
The traditional wording for future pacing is “go to a time in your future when this lack of acceptance would have been a problem and see if you can find it or maybe you cannot.” I have found that the following method of progression is equally effective. It grounds the client’s changes as they mentally rehearse their life in a healthier way. While I think of it as “future pacing” it might more accurately be called “image rehearsal.”
As the session comes to a close, it’s time to ground the change. The following patter guides her to a successful future outcome,
“And I want you to notice when you’re accepting and forgiving with you… in fact let’s imagine spending the next, oh let’s say the next two weeks, imagine that for two weeks you have been accepting and forgiving of yourself every day. [set up for future pace]
When I count from one to three, on the count of three, I’ll touch the back of your hand. And be out in the future two weeks, and notice how that feels… to have two weeks of total acceptance and forgiveness for you. One. Two. Three. [touches back of left hand] You’re right there now. How do you feel about yourself right now?
My client reported that she felt happy.
I asked her to take a look around at the people, in her personal and professional life, to see if anything had changed there? She reported that, “They’re all okay.”
Next, we moved out three months, three months of being accepting and forgiving of herself. With three months of acceptance and forgiveness directed at herself. Sandra felt “Nice. Confident.”
She now viewed her co-workers in this way, “They just are.” She was now accepting them for who they are.
I suggested that she just “Take it in. Every day of self-acceptance and self-forgiveness creates the kind of life you want and you deserve.” As her focus shifted to self-acceptance and forgiveness there was no impact when she was assigned twenty-five days of working in a row. She could now just do what she needed to do.
We ended her session with some positive programming:
“So from now on, Sandra, you’re going to find that every day, with every breath that you take, you’re filling yourself with this beautiful core of self-acceptance, self-forgiveness, which then spills out and affects every contact you have with others, every situation that you attract to yourself. It all begins inside of you with reorganizing who you are and how you treat yourself, forgive yourself. You deserve all of this.
You’re going to find that this does build and grow and expand and you can just be who you are. This really is who you are. You’re going to remember when times get a little stressful, as they do, to do tapping [EFT], to remember that you are this beautiful essence, this beautiful spirit expressing here on the planet… in your own unique way, and everything’s fine. Bring it on, because you can do it.
So, with number one, let’s bring that wonderful energy of self-acceptance and forgiveness into your arms and legs. Number two, let it flow up into your torso… intertwining with your spine, with your cells. Number three, imagine that self-acceptance and forgiveness flowing through your blood, moving into the space between cells.
Number four, calmer, more peaceful, easily making choices in that place of knowing who you really are. And number five, eyes open, take a deep breath and stretch… back to full awareness, rested, refreshed, full of energy. How do you feel?”
Sandra’s comment when I asked how she felt after she came out of hypnosis, “Great. I feel like gold. It doesn’t make sense but I feel like I’m filled with gold.”
Copyright 2016 Katherine Zimmerman
