Coue's Inspiring Mantra

Dear A. B.

I wanted to comment on your blog, but am having difficulty setting up  an account. You have been helping me for many years. I was so happy when you  started back on your blog, after your back operation.

For we all need you so much! Even though your book Depression is a Choice put me on the right track, I still get episodes of depression when life throws me big  challenges.Yet, at least these episodes are short lived as I zero in  on the brain switching techniques and within a few days or week, I've  been able to get back. I haven't been hospitalized for suicide  attempts ever since I started your techniques.

There are two blogs of yours which have helped me the most. The one  in which you told us to immediately focus on something to appreciate. Your most recent one talking about Emile Cou has been an eye-opener  for me. Recently I have been low  again, and then when I read your  blog I realized that I have been thinking far too many negative  thoughts. I'm now aware of them as they start to churn and have  decided not to think them.

I started doing the "I'm getting better day by day, everyday, in  every way" in the mornings when I first wake up and at night before  going to sleep. In such a short time, it has lifted me out of my  funk. So getting some energy at last, I've started doing it all day  long, when I notice negative thoughts starting. I am having such success with this mantra that it has inspired me to  change every negative thought into a positive one.

So I want to express my gratitude to you for starting back at your  blog when you are still not fully healed from your back operation,  and for sharing how you have been dealing with your anxiety.You have always been there for me, when a crisis hits. I go to your  blog and what you are writing about seems to be exactly what I need.I say prayers for your healing.Yours in gratitude, M___________

Dear M___________

Thank you so much for your rewarding letter. I think it would be very helpful for others for you to describe how you change into positive thinking. What kinds of thoughts do you substitute for the negative ones? A. B. Curtiss

Case Histories of Emile Coue

I've been reading over some of the case histories of the success of the Coue autosuggestion. It is pretty amazing and, I think, necessary to see what can be done because as Coue says "no idea presented to the mind can realize itself unless the mind accepts. The mind will accept only those thoughts that it deems "possible."  In other words, we have to accept the idea. It has to seem reasonable that it can be accomplished. And reading the case histories gives a lot of credibility to the power of thought, if you ever had a doubt about it.

Once you start to see how powerful a force is a thought, and even pain is a thought, you can see how fearful, anxious thoughts need to be replaced. We can't kill these thoughts as an act of will when they come. But we can learn, as an act of will,  to turn away from them and replace them with another thought. I am learning to replace my fearful thoughts with other thoughts and if I flounder for something to think I can always grab for "day by day, in every way I am getting better and better." Just thinking the thought over and over repetitiously helps to calm me down. I also close my eyes and relax my body, which is always tense lately. So I relax it all day long. I'm getting better and better at relaxing, and taking a deep breath and relaxing. And I sometimes think the cheerful thought that my feet no longer sweat. Hooray for the little triumphs.

I am due to go to a reception tonight where my husband and I are hosts. I will only entertain thoughts that "I will be fine." "I can do this." Also I'm starting to imagine people asking me how I am doing and I imagine myself saying "I'm doing great." "Better and better every day." I understand how important it is to immediately turn away from entertaining any downer thoughts.whatsoever.

 And here's another triumph for me. I was driving yesterday with my husband and he stopped for gas. My husband has always kept a record of his gas mileage starting with the first car he ever owned. I have always found this terribly annoying and I would grudgingly hand him his notebook with the idea that it was "such a waste of time and effort for nothing."

But not yesterday. I got out the book without his prompting and thought to myself "I love this." I don't know why but I love this." And it has become one of my cheerful things to think about. Strange, but wonderful. A gift of grace and at this moment, my heart is filled with gratitude and love just thinking about that moment. A. B. Curtiss

A Small Triumph

In my struggle with anxiety since my back injury I have been faithfully saying the Coue phrase over and over. I start out with "Everyday in every way I'm getting better and better" and it morphs into "Day by day in every way I'm getting better and better."

I not only say the phrase 20 times in the morning before I get up and at night before I go to sleep but anytime I think of it during the day. It's sure better than some of the anxious thoughts that pop up on their own. As soon as I get one I switch to the affirmation. It's the simple process of thought choice. Replacing a wrong thought with a right thought.

Here's how I get from Beta level to alpha level at night when I go to sleep.  I did pick up one helpful Coue hint which was easy to add to my technique because it is to be used at the very beginning. So I now start with staring above my head, as far back as I can until my eyes get heavy. Then I close my eyes, relax the muscles around my eyes, let that relaxation go to the rest of my my body by starting with my toes and going through my feet, my legs etc, saying RELAX, RELAX and relaxing each body part. Then I take a deep breath and count down 500, then 300 then 100. Then I say DEEPER AND DEEPER. I say these things in my mind, not aloud. Then I count down from 10, 9, 8 DEEPER AND DEEPER, 7-6-5, DEEPER AND DEEPER, 4-3-2-1 DEEPER AND DEEPER. Then sometimes I count really fast 1-2-3-4 several times to block any intruding thoughts. Taking deep breaths and then I start to say in a barely audible voice the 20 repeats "Day by  day in every way I am getting better and better.

And one small triumph. I noticed the other day that my feet were always sweaty lately. When I took off my socks for any reason they were just wet. This is not usual so I figured it was part of the anxiety. I noticed last night that my feet were no longer sweating.

Study of Hypnosis

I have collected hypnosis books over a number of years. Having need of it due to my back problem I thought to redouble my efforts and pick up some new techniques. However after reading Coue again I don't think that was necessarily a great idea. I had learned some techniques to get to alpha level which I have used for getting back to sleep at night, and in reading Coue again he said that if you have established a particular sequence of relaxation of getting to alpha level don't try something different because you will have to learn it. In other words any technique you learn takes a while  to get the mind used to it,  and if you change the method, your mind will have to relearn it. Makes sense. So I decided against starting Coue's beginning program for going to alpha level in favor of the method I already learned from my Hypnosis course.

Coue suggests that the best time for putting what he calls "autosuggestion" into effect is right after you have awakened or just before going to sleep so I have decided to follow this suggestion. I was even worried about the fact that I have always used the phrase "every day in every way I am getting better and better" and now I find that Coue's actual phrase is "day by day" and not "everyday." I decided that they were so similar that my mind can darn well translate from one to the other. So I don't worry about using one or the other and sometimes I used both at once.

After all the thing that Coue stresses is that the process is a simple one and should not be thought complicated. He says to leave the other-than-conscious mind to do the work itself without disturbing it. "Do not be anxious about it, continually scanning yourself for signs of improvements. The farmer does not turn over the clods every morning to see if his seed is sprouting. Once sown it is left till the green blade appears. So it should be with suggestion." (I do like the term better than hypnosis which sounds complicated and difficult..

Coue says we should sow the seed in the other-than conscious mind and have faith that the mind will bring it to fruition. We should say the phrase with faith. "You can only rob suggestion of its power in one way--be believing that it is powerless."

"The greater your faith the more radical and the more rapid will be your results; though if you have only sufficient faith to repeat the formula phrase twenty times night and morning the results will soon give you in your own person the proof you desire, and facts and faith will go on mutually augmenting each other."

Also I was used to saying the phrase just in my mind and now I do it so it is audible to me, although not loud enough to disturb my husband.

I was in a lot of pain last night when I attended a concert with my husband. At intermission I told my husband to enjoy the rest of the concert but that I had to walk. I walked for 50 minutes back and forth in the hallway. I was alone for much of the time. I insisted in saying the phrase over and over in barely audible tone, but one that I could hear myself, "every day, day by day, I am getting better and better. " I think I kind of walked myself into a kind of trance. Was it the phrase or the walking. Who cares? I was so much improved by the time the concert finished. I was tired and didn't wish to go out with friends afterwards but I was not suffering pain greatly.

I am having a problem with anxiety since my injury, and that too seems much mitigated by saying the phrase over and over all throughout the day. I am sure that it will keep me from getting so far agitated that I bring on another panic attack.  The more I say the phrase, the easier it is for me to "hang" and "relax" into it. A. B. Curtiss

The Good Advice of Emil Coue

Emil Coue’s work in the 1920’s is incredible simply and yet I have found it extremely important in my life. Many others have picked up these ideas in the human motivation field. In fact I would say that Coue’s simple formula is the basis for all the modern day practices of emotional healing.The idea is so simple we tend to dismiss it as simplistic. It is not simplistic, it is profound. And it is powerful.

Here is his basic idea. If we constantly think of happiness, we will become happy; if we think of good health rather than dwelling on our health problem, we will become healthy, if we think loving thoughts we will become more loving. Whatever we constantly think about, as long as it is a reasonable thing, says Coue, tends to become an actual condition in our life. So when we think despairing thoughts, or anxious thoughts about our health challenges, or fearful thoughts, we bring about the situations in life that we want to avoid—ill health, anxiety and fear.

No, we can’t order happiness or good health like a hamburger, but our mind becomes fixed on an idea by our constantly repeating it in our minds. By thinking it over and over. Good thinking, positive thinking becomes a habit and easier to do as we do it. 

We don’t have to fight bad thoughts. We just have to pick up good ones and the bad ones will not be able to sustain themselves at our expense. The mind is powerful. We can get it to think what we want. It is not easy, and when we are panicked and anxious, it seems impossible to help ourselves.

However, we CAN begin to persevere and start building good thinking habits. So what if it take a lot of effort. It is effort that will pay huge dividends in health and happiness. Believe me, after my back problems which are still not quite over with, I am following all this advice everyday myself.

Sometimes I use the phrase, I’m sorry I can’t credit who first coined it, but the phrase it “fake it until you make it.” Basically meaning keep pretending to be healthy, pretending to be cheerful and it will be become a self-fullfilling prophecy. Just as, if you let your mind wander into destructive thinking, that too will start to effect your life.

And  I use Coue’s famous repetition all during the day.: "Every day in every way I’m getting better and better and better." Since I’m having trouble now with anxiety over my back problem, I am constantly reminding myself to RELAX. We can’t remain tense and purposefull relax at the same time. Whenever I think about it, I check to see if my “back is up” and make like a rag doll, relaxing my whole body. I constantly tell myself that every step in the right direction is a step in the right direction. I persevere always to turn myself from the wrong direction of anxiety and fear.  A. B. Curtiss

When I Walk I get a lot of Saliva Coming Down

Dear Ms Curtiss

Good to know you are feeling good and I hope you are getting much better. 

few days a go I noticed big amount of saliva comes down while I walk. I feel that helps when I get red of it.  

Do you have idea about this??? 

Thanks 

R

Dear R________

I don't know what the saliva is all about unless it is coming from post-nasal drip which is exacerbated by your walking activity. And probably you are right that it is well to get rid of it. And walking is good for most everything. A. B. Curtiss

Dear A. B,.

I feel it physically comes from the top of my head and around my head and when depression hits it started to accumulate and then leaked from the mouth when I walk and concentrate on things.

when I get hit I just do the walk and have no depression at all. This started to me for about three weeks. 

I still do not know what is that

it was jam when I tried it the first time, but now its becoming easier to get red of it.

Dear R__________

It may be from your sinuses rather than a post-nasal drip. And walking is great for getting rid of depression and and walking is a great way to move your body energy around in a healthy way to throw off all kinds of toxins

Remember that the lymphatic system which gets rid of the toxins in the body only works when you exercise. It has no pump like the circulation of the blood works by the heart action. .A. B.

A Difficult Question

Someone recently asked me a difficult question. They had suffered a terrible tragedy and loss of a child. They said it had shaken their faith, they wondered if there was a God and how could he let it happen and why did it happen to them. I suggested two books that might help: Viktor Frankl's Man Search for Meaning and When Bad Things Happen to Good People. But she insisted in asking me, "But what do you think? What is your answer?

The only thing I could think of is something that I think is essentially correct. We cannot get to Truth through the reasoning process because Truth is Divine and reasoning is human. So all we can do is get out of the fear and anxiety caused by our pain and our body being in a state of alarm, and try to get to our essential okayness by meditating on the thought that we can breathe in the white light of healing and love and exhale the darkness of fear and anxiety. Then when we have succeeded in getting our body out of a state of anxious alarm and are calm for a few minutes, we can open up our heart to love and then, at some point, Truth will reveal itself to us and we will have an answer. A. B. Curtiss