ADHD: The “Mirror Technique” from Claude Bristol
This is particularly useful for people with ADHD, who often struggle with issues of self-esteem after years of being emotionally beat up in school.
The unconscious mind is a powerful thing; it’s essentially the substrate of our entire conscious experience. And, if centuries of “self help” advice from Aristotle to Dale Carnegie to Tony Robbins are to be believed, we can intentionally program or re-program our unconscious mind in ways that are helpful and useful.
This is particularly useful for people with ADHD, who often struggle with issues of self-esteem after years of being emotionally beat up in school.
When I was in my early 20s, I used too listen to Earl Nightingale tapes for just this purpose; I got a little flat “pillow speaker” that fits under your pillow and used to fall asleep to them, letting them continue into my brain as I was dreaming. To this day, I’m convinced they had a significant and positive impact on my motivation and belief in my own ability to accomplish things. Similarly, the Dale Carnegie course that I took when I was 21 quite literally changed my life.
Here’s another example from a fellow who responded to my request for “ADHD success stories”…
Don in Chicago writes:
When I was nineteen years old, I found a book on my father’s bookshelf that was published back in the 1920’s. I don’t know if it’s still in print, but it changed my life. It was called The Magic of Believing, by Claude Bristol.
In that book, the author had a number of techniques for reprogramming your own mind. One of the best, for me, was what he called the Mirror Technique.
When I’m facing some particularly difficult task, I stare at myself in the mirror, and tell myself how I can pull through it. How I can do it. I acknowledge all the hard things, and also talk to myself about the rewards.
I stand up straight and look myself in the eye, and give myself orders.
This probably sounds really stupid and you might not want to use it in your book, but it really works for me.
In Bristol’s book, he talked about a man who used this technique to even make himself sober when he was drunk. I’ve never tried that, but I’m convinced it’s such a powerful technique that it would probably work for that.