Psychic Protection Programs protect core beliefs or truths from change. The following is a three-part strategy for self-preservation based on Cause & Effect logic.

3-part strategy for keeping the current belief system stable, safe, and secure:

1. It (life) is as it is and – [belief system needing protection against change]

2. I can’t change it (life) because – [initial protection layer - cause]

*I’ll die (or someone else will die) [ultimate physical fear - result]

*I’m too afraid [based on predictions leading to "I'll die" - result]

*It’s impossible [based on assumption that if I do, "I'll die" - result]

3. Because – [justification - kills desire for change]

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“I failed my math test. – THEREFORE – I must be stupid.”

“I failed! I’m so stupid!”

Ever heard that before – in your own head?

It’s a logic level leap.

What? You’ve never heard of logic levels? Well don’t feel bad – lots of people haven’t heard of them. In Neurolinguistics, logic levels are basically a hierarchy of experience.

Rapid Eye Technicians are familiar with NLP logic levels – they are represented in the Circle of Creation Walk. Basically there are 8 logic levels (named and described by Robert Dilts, 1991):

1. Environment
2. Behavior
3. Capabilities
4. Beliefs
5. Values
6. Identity
7. Mission/Vision
8. Spirituality

Logic level leaps are errors in cause and effect thinking. We misidentify the cause from the effects we experience. Let’s look at two logic levels, Behavior and Identity. Behavior is the level of action (do) whereas Identity is the level of being (be). Over time, this confusion of logic levels creates a situation in which the person believes they ARE what they DO. Sound familiar?

Many people run with the following logic levels leap:

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It’s good for our overall health to laugh and give thanks often, find moments of peace, and to practice joyfulness.

Why do we have positive emotions? What purpose other than making us “feel good” do they serve – especially as they relate to survival of the species? The survival value of negative emotions seems fairly obvious: Fear helps us avoid attackers, and disgust alerts us to poisons, and so forth. But what possible survival or evolutionary good are joy, contentment, gratitude, and curiosity?

University of North Carolina psychologist Barbara Fredrickson studies the behavior of young patas monkeys, who love to play tag on the savannahs of West Africa, as both an example and metaphor for her “broaden and build” theory of positive emotions. When they are being chased, young patas monkeys will  fling themselves on to saplings, which bend and catapult them in unexpected directions.

The young monkeys are engaging in what appears to be pointless fun – just for the sheer joy of it. In fact, their joy and play are creating a reserve of body memories that later could keep them alive. In adulthood, when fleeing a predator, they will fling themselves on to saplings, which bend and catapult them to escape.

Fredrickson’s theory is positive emotions are life savers. Fredrickson believes these emotions increase cognitive flexibility, conquer harmful negativity, and create a reservoir of resilience that helps us cope with life’s challenges. She has published her studies in a new book, Positivity (Crown Publishers).

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It’s perfectly normal for humans to have mood swings.

Feeling a bit low or blue during the winter months? Or maybe just feeling a little depressed now and then? Well don’t despair or feel anxious over it – adding to the feeling. It’s perfectly normal for humans to have mood swings – and to have negative moods that can last for days or even weeks.

The slightest shift in the balance between serotonin and melatonin, adrenalin and noradrenalin, and other chemicals in the body can affect our moods – and it is NORMAL for us to do so and feel that way when we do.

According to University of East London psychologist Professor Mark Rapley, “Bottling up anger and sadness is never a good way of dealing with things; problems tend to come back and bite us harder further down the line. The trouble is, we’ve become so obsessed with being happy that we now see being down as a real problem – when, in fact, it’s perfectly normal.

“We’re constantly encouraged to be anxious about whether we are happy or depressed, yet these feelings are not illnesses, simply part of regular human experience. Life would be so much duller if we just muddled along in the middle without feeling any emotions at all. Learning to recognize that it’s normal to feel angry or sad is a good thing for our mental health.”

Balance is boring!

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Cause-effect relationship #1 – because you have come this far in life, you can achieve ANYTHING – poverty or riches, heavy or light, health or illness, whatever you truly wanted you have achieved.

Maybe you made some new year resolutions – expressing ways in which you would like to see your life change for the better. Maybe this will be the year you quit smoking, or get that raise, or lose that weight. Whatever it is, your first action is to NAME the change you want to make. This is the action part of the manifestation formula. You have done this part so often that you maybe now take it for granted – meaning you have become oblivious to it.

You are already taking action on what it is you really want – it’s automatic – you do it unconsciously. Based on your beliefs, you take action that is appropriate with what you accept as true – your beliefs. You don’t even have to think about or plan anything – you do it automatically. You don’t have to take specific action – just recognize that you already are [taking action].

Why, then, do you not get what you want? The truth is – you mostly DO get what you want (or at least are satisfied with). You just don’t recognize it – because you are so used to getting what you want from life.

If you continue to act (behaving) as you have acted in the past – based on what you believed to be true in the past – you will tend to continue to get what you have always gotten in the past. You’ll continue to take the appropriate action to achieve whatever it is that you have gotten in the past – you do those actions so well  by now that you are unconscious of them – you’re a master at doing whatever it is that you do to achieve what you are currently experiencing. How about that, boys and girls?!

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