‘FREEZE FRAME’ YOUR EMOTIONS
THE Freeze Frame technique was created by the HeartMath Institute, which was set up in the early 1990s to study the role of the physical heart in health and wellbeing.
It has been taken up around the world, including by all four branches of the U.S. military. So when people are in battle trauma or stress they can use this to reset themselves ‘in the moment’.
The Institute discovered that actively focusing on the physical heart measurably reduced the presence of stress hormones, increased antiageing hormone levels and enabled peak performance in a wide range of situations.
They have developed a number of tools that are all built around one basic idea: when you shift your attention from your head to your heart, your body relaxes, your mind gets clearer and your brain releases positive chemical changes of natural relaxation.
I taught Freeze Frame to a highpowered lawyer who would come out of a courtroom, fired up on adrenaline. In order to calm herself down, she’d immediately eat a huge pizza, using junk food to self-medicate.
After working with me, when she came out of court, all cranked up, before she ate anything, she did the Freeze Frame technique.
This meant she could calm herself down quickly without having to inhale a pizza to change her emotions.
You can use Freeze Frame any time you are experiencing stress in your body or your mind. It will help you to feel better almost immediately — usually in less than a minute.
Read through this technique several times first and practise the whole sequence as many times as you wish until you know you have memorised it well enough that it is almost automatic when you actually need to use it. First of all, check how your anxiety level is on a scale of one to ten, one being the lowest and ten being the highest. 1 Become aware that you are experiencing a stressful feeling in your body or that your mind is racing. 2 Put your hand on your heart and focus your energy into this area. Take at least three slow and gentle breaths into your heart, maintaining your focus on the feeling of your hand in the centre of your chest. 3 Now, recall a time when you felt really good — a time you felt love, joy or real happiness. Return to that memory as if you are back there again right now. See what you saw, hear what you heard, and feel how good you felt. 4 As you feel this good feeling in your body, imagine your heart could speak to you. Ask your heart how you could take better care of yourself in this moment and situation. 5 Listen to what your heart says in answer to your question and act on it as soon as you can. Now, consider your anxiety level again on that scale of one to ten. You should now find that it’s lower. If it’s not yet as low as you want, then repeat the technique until it is.