I have been biting my nails literally for over 30 years. I started out as a kid of about seven or eight years old and has continued until a couple of months ago. In this short article I will tell you exactly how i made it so you can use it on whatever bad habit you have. It will cost you nothing, I offer this information for free, and there is no backlog of sales. This technique that I will teach you in a minute is really easy to do.

(Short disclaimer: If you have an especially bad addiction or compulsion, this particular process will probably be too weak to help you. You will need a stronger technique. For basic bad habits, however, it works very well.)

OK lets start. First, however, some background. About 20 years ago, I took Neuro-Linguistic Programming (NLP) training thinking it would be tea answer to help me evolve as a human being. While the sensory acuity I developed was and is helpful, not to mention the fundamental principles to change as well, I was very disappointed. I thought to myself, “I guess it doesn’t work for some people and I must be one of those people.” I was wrong. Completely wrong. NLP interventions can work someone, any human being as long as it is done correctly.

It’s okay. These are the steps for what is called the “Swish Pattern” intervention.

Step 1: isolate and identify the physical trigger

That sounds difficult to understand, so let me explain with a real world experience. When I analyzed when I was biting my nails, I found that I was almost always anxious or nervous. It had become so automatic that I literally often didn’t even notice it. In the past I have tried the “swish” pattern but with limited success. I realized that I was not using the correct trigger, identifying the correct trigger is vital. Now, realizing that I was nervous or anxious (two different emotions in the context of this article) when I bit my nails was a good first step, but it wasn’t the most important thing.

Identify the specific signal was and is the most important first step. In fact, the emotions tied to the signal are essentially irrelevant. For me, the signal was to put my finger or thumb in my mouth.

How you are “seeing” the key image in your mind is also critical. It must be what is called “associated” or associative. What does that mean. Filmmakers call it “POV” or point of view. It means that you are seeing things with your own eyes. Dissociated or dissociated means that you are looking at yourself, for example. Follow me for a minute and this should be clear. Close your eyes and imagine yourself on a beautiful sun-drenched beach with waves gently lapping at your feet. Watch the dolphins play in the waves not far from the beach. Well done. Observe yourself, that is dissociated. If you go back and visualize that particular scene, but this time observing the dolphins with your own eyes and feeling the waves gently lapping at your feet, that is associated.

These are called “submodalities” and are the ingredients or building blocks of the human experience. We have modalities called auditory (hearing), gustatory (taste), visual (seeing), kinesthetic (feelings), and olfactory (smell). Every visual or auditory experience has certain unique elements that make up that experience. By manipulating those submodalities, you can reshape the experience.

Okay, that’s the first step: identify the specific signal.

Now, step two.

Step 2: identifying your images for the pattern

This step is also important. You have now identified your signal image. Now, you want to choose an image of yourself that is dissociated; this is a very important distinction. This image must be of you that is realistic. It should be in a “void” with no landscape or landscape in the background. This is usually easy for most people to visualize, as it is natural. Imagine a background that is black or gray, but make sure it doesn’t have anything else on it. Now, the image of yourself should be what you would like to be. He who is updated, grows, evolves. It has to be realistic. Don’t imagine yourself standing next to a Ferrari and a handsome Brad Pitt-like boyfriend by your side or a seductive star happily holding your arm. It has to be an image that your subconscious considers realistic.

For my nail biting problem, I just imagined wearing clothes that I know I look good in. I saw myself well groomed and smiling. I infused my image of a person who has good habits and self-control with clean and well-developed cuticles, that’s it! I couldn’t imagine standing next to my new Aston Martin Vanquish with Jennifer Aniston on my arm and hundred dollar bills falling out of my pockets (that’s a picture for another day!). I simply visualized myself with realistic qualities that my subconscious would synthesize as reasonable.

Step 3: making the Swish pattern

Okay, we’re almost there. What you want to do now is take that signal image as discussed in step one and visualize being in your body initializing the signal. Then in the lower right corner of the image, see that idealized image of yourself without your habit. Then very, very quickly, make the image made in step two, the idealized image of yourself, become large and bright in an instant and the signal image in step one shrink to nothing. Do this 10 times. In fact, it might seem a bit quirky to do this, but don’t worry, it’s perfectly harmless.

Now, give it a try. Consciously try to initiate the signal. It should feel different. I knew mine had worked when, a couple of minutes later, my hand unconsciously went up to my mouth and stopped on its own. He knew he had progressed.

The secret sauce

In the past when I tried this Swish pattern it didn’t work, but for a few days. I thought it was ineffective because it didn’t work the first time I did it. That was a big mistake. Why? Because getting the correct signal image is vital to this process. In fact, there may be several signals that you need to make this swish pattern with before it takes hold. You may also have to do this Swish pattern constantly for a few weeks (or longer) to completely kick this habit.

Before giving you the “secret sauce”, Tony Robbins once shared a story that I thought was especially relevant to this process. He said that when he brought a piano tuner to his house, the piano tuner did not come once and then tune the piano, they paid him and left. He had to go back several times to solidify the tuning. When I heard that story, it struck a chord (no pun intended!). I realized that the Swish pattern might not have worked for me, as I hadn’t allowed it to take hold a bit. Also, I realized that my attitude was that it had to work fine and perfectly the first time around or it had to be classified as a failure.

That is the secret sauce. Make the pattern daily or even when you find yourself flirting with the habit or cue image. It literally only takes a couple of minutes to do it and that is a very small price to pay to become a more evolved human being, don’t you think?

Conclution

Your mind is incredibly powerful, but very few know how to use it to get the most out of it. Using a simple tool like Swish Pattern gives you more control in managing it. In a very literal way, our mind, more specifically the things we think and how we think about them, determines our actions, feelings, and habits. Use this simple mental tool to help you become a more evolved person. I have and will continue to do so.