In this episode, Holly shares more about her experience with RTT hypnotherapy, and she also discusses Marisa Peer’s 3 rules of the mind.
What’s Covered in Episode 6
- What is RTT (Rapid Transformational Therapy), and the benefits Holly has seen
- Marisa Peer’s 3 rules of the mind
- Why focusing on “what’s not working” gets you more of the same
- How your mind is like a video game system, or a GPS
- Why you might be self-sabotaging goals you really want to achieve
Relevant Links and Credits
- Video: Marisa Peer shares more about the 3 rules of the mind
- More about RTT (Rapid Transformational Therapy)
Podcast Transcript: RTT and the 3 Rules of the Mind
Welcome to episode six. Today we’re talking about three rules of the mind.
These come from Marisa Peer. Marisa is who I’ve been studying with. She is the creator of RTT. I was out in LA this past week receiving my final certification with her. So these rules come from Marisa, but I’m gonna put a Holly Higgins spin on them. So you know, as per usual, there will probably be terrible puns and gross analogies and weird things, but a lot of great content for you today. The three rules of the mind will really help you understand how your mind works so you can know what to do to get your mind on board with your plans. Because when we don’t know how the mind works, often the mind just goes off and does its own thing and leads us astray and then we’re like, WTF mind, that’s not what I wanted. So let’s help you use it for your advantage. A few quick updates from me before we dive into today’s episode.
As I said, I’m back from LA and back from my RTT training. If you were following along on Instagram, you got to see some ridiculousness. LA is the land of no pants and $20 smoothies and it’s really fun to visit. But I don’t know if I could ever live there. It’s just not quite my speed. But it was amazing. I had a great time. I love visiting LA. If you live in LA, I’m not hating. It’s just, it’s a little extra for me and by Midwestern sensibilities. Um, but I have to say at my RTT training, I think I learned more about myself in the last week than I have in a decade of personal development. And that seems like a stretch, but Oh, it was deep in the best way possible. It was an amazing time. I’m now certified in RTT, which stands for rapid transformational therapy, created by Marisa Peer.
And if you’ve listened other episodes of the podcast, you’re probably like, Holly says those letters a lot. What do they actually mean? So I wanted to take just a minute today to tell you a little bit about what RTT is. So RTT uses hypnosis to achieve a deep state of relaxation. And in that state of relaxation, we can converse with the subconscious mind to discover the root cause of both emotional and physical issues. And as I’ve talked about on previous episodes, you know, hypnosis has a lot of stigma around it. We think of stage hypnosis, we think of dancing around like a chicken or we think of the Twilight Zone. It’s really not like that at all. We, I feel like we just completely misunderstand it in this culture. So the client has complete control the entire time. And the way that I describe it, it really feels more like a guided meditation.
Even when you’re pretty deep in a state of hypnosis, you have awareness, you have control, you know what’s going on around you. So that’s the best way that I’ve found to describe it is it really does. It feels more like a guided meditation. And a lot of times people ask, am I deep enough? Have I gone deep enough yet? Because they have this idea in their mind that they need to go so deep that you know they have no consciousness whatsoever. And that’s actually not what it feels like at all. So we’re using hypnosis to access the subconscious root cause of issues. And when we feel really, really stuck with something, whether that is a habit, a belief, a fear, or even a physical symptom, usually that stuckness is because the mind is trying to protect us and it’s running old, outdated programs. It needs a software cleanup.
You know, your hard drive needs defragging, so to speak. And isn’t that good to know? Because most of us, when we get stuck, we start telling ourselves we’re failures. It must be all our fault. We don’t have enough willpower. We’re not trying hard enough. But most of the time your mind is just doing what it knows best to keep you safe and to keep you in the zone of familiarity. But the problem is is that it’s running on outdated programs and stories, but if you can gain an understanding of the subconscious root cause of your issue, which by the way is often very, very different from what we think it is at a conscious level. Not always, but a lot of the time. Once you gain that understanding, you can reframe and rewire your beliefs and behaviors to achieve your goals and align with the person that you want to be.
When you achieve that alignment, you no longer feel like you’re fighting yourself and things just happen. It’s the coolest and one of my very favorite things about RTT the session itself is incredible where you discover the root cause. You do a lot of work to reframe that. The session itself is very magical in my opinion. But one of my favorite things is in session, the practitioner creates a 15 to 20 minute recording for you that you listen to on a daily basis, either first thing in the morning right after you wake up or last thing in the evening, right before you go to sleep, where your brain waves are in that transitional state and you are more open to new ideas and creativity. And when you listen to this recording for at least 21 days, it helps to cement and solidify the new beliefs and feelings and behaviors that you’re aiming to achieve.
You can think of it like positive affirmations on steroids, really geared to your specific concern. I listen to a recording every day. I make recordings for myself now and I absolutely love it. I love ending my day that way, starting my day that way. And I have noticed some very, very profound shifts in my life since I started doing this work. I credit RTT with being one of the main things that pulled me out of a pretty nasty circumstantial depression that I was in earlier this year. It also helped me reignite my confidence. My confidence took a hit earlier this year as well, and I, I felt like I was kind of hiding and being quiet, which is not my MO, obviously. Um, but it reignited my confidence and I honestly, I would not have this podcast if it weren’t for RTT helping me to rebuild my confidence.
It’s also helped me overcome a physical health issue that’s kind of personal and I don’t know if I’m ready to talk about it yet and maybe one day, but let’s just say I’m blown away and my life is better than ever. That’s all I can say on that front anyway. Actually, a lot of what has come up for me in my RTT sessions has been pretty darn personal and I basically share my whole life on the internet, like open up the trench coat guys, here’s my life. But the things that have come up for me in RTT sessions are things that even, I don’t know if I really want to share with the internet because they’re pretty darn personal. They’re not things that I’m sure I want to share publicly, but I do, you know, just cause I don’t want to be, you know, super secretive, and I do want to share the power of this tool with you, there is an example that I am comfortable sharing with you and it’s from a practice session that I did this past week in LA.
One of the things that I chose to work on when I was out in LA, just because we had so many sessions and I thought why the heck not? And I’m really curious what the root of this issue is, is for the longest time I’ve had a really hard time spending money. Even when I have plenty of money, really don’t have anything to worry about. Every time I go to pay for something, regardless of how big or how small of a purchase it is, it’s almost like I get this physical sensation in my body of like, Oh my gosh, I’m spending money again. I shouldn’t be spending money. Don’t spend too much money, and consciously all day long, I can tell myself I have plenty of money.
I’m safe, everything’s fine. I should feel good about buying this. And still my brain kicks in with that fear of you shouldn’t be spending the money. Even if it’s like something that’s $3, it’s ridiculous. So I wanted to know, you know, why do I have so much fear around spending money? And in the session it was so interesting. I went back to pretty early childhood and I remember some of the things that I saw my parents do with money and I didn’t remember these things on a conscious level, but my dad, my dad passed away when I was 12 but I have really fond memories of him. He was a bit of a conspiracy theorist. He did not trust the government. He did not trust banks. And so he would hide our money, cash, cash money in secret places. And every time we needed to go into town or go to the store, we had to go to the secret hiding place and get some money out.
And I hadn’t thought about this in years, but I went back to this scene of, you know, watching my dad take money from the super secret hiding place for money that I wasn’t allowed to talk about. And drilling down on that belief, what my little brain made that mean was we’re hiding money, therefore it’s a secret, therefore it’s bad. And if we’re hiding it, there must not be enough of it. And that, and a few other things turned in to a sticky program in my brain. So many of us have sticky programs around money and other things, but money is a huge one. A sticky program in my brain. Money is bad and there’s never enough money. Now, do I want to believe that on a conscious level as an adult who wants to feel abundant and empowered and like there is enough and like I am safe?
Heck no, I don’t want to feel like that, but I had this sticky tape running in the background that I had no idea was even there. So that’s just one example for you. Coming up on future episodes, I’m going to have some guests on the show who have had tremendous shifts in their life because of RTT. I’m also going to have a fellow RTT practitioner or two on here to talk about specific ways that they’ve been able to help people with RTT. So stay tuned for more juicy goodness on that front. And I don’t have a page on my website about it yet, but I will soon, so stay tuned. I have a lot of things in the works. Um, you know, moving into next year, I am hoping to combine some of this RTT work with nutrition. I have a lot of things on the pipeline. So if you are interested in RTT and you are interested in getting on my wait list, shoot me an email, you can head over to mindspeakpodcast.com and that’ll just land you on my website and you can contact me from there.
You can also hit me up on Instagram @hollyfisherhiggins. So onto the episode, onto Marisa Peer’s 3 Rules of the Mind. Number one, your mind always does what it thinks you want it to do. That’s a little bit of a, a little bit of a tongue twister. Your mind always does what it thinks you want it to do, so your mind is simultaneously this brilliant super computer that we’ve barely even scratched the surface on how it works and what it’s capable of. It’s simultaneously this incredible thing and it’s also simultaneously incredibly, almost stupidly simple. The way I like to describe it, and I’m probably going to be dating myself here a little bit, it’s like a Sega Genesis or a Nintendo 64 or an old school Nintendo. Your mind is a video game system and it is going to play whatever cartridge you insert into the system.
Okay. I’m going to bring this up to the present day. Your mind is a GPS, and whatever coordinates you put in the GPS, that’s where it’s going to take you. So many of us are walking around putting in cartridges into our mind of things that we don’t want and hoping it takes us to where we do want. You know, we’re putting Ecco the Dolphin into our Sega Genesis, but really we just want to play Sonic the Hedgehog. If you want to play Sonic the Hedgehog, you have to put the Sonic the Hedgehog cartridge in. If you want to go to the mall, you need to punch the mall into your GPS. You can’t punch the grocery store into the GPS. You have to punch the mall into the GPS, and all of these silly analogies aside, most of us spend most of our time focusing on what we don’t want.
I don’t want this. I don’t want that. I’m so sick of this health condition. I’m so sick of my job. I hate this. I hate that, this is killing me. That’s killing me. Can’t stand this, can’t stand that. When is this going to change? The video game cartridge you’re plugging in, the GPS coordinates that you’re plugging in, are just taking you toward more of what you don’t want. So you have to start plugging in with intention, specifically exactly what you do want. And it takes time because our brains get addicted to negative thoughts and negative emotions. And I talk about um, a lot of the how to behind this on previous episodes. If you want to go back and listen to those, if you haven’t already. And I want to, speaking of terrible pop culture references or not so terrible, I want to get a little bit Mean Girls on you for a second.
And this isn’t usually my style, but we’re going to go there. Have you ever had a person in your life, maybe it’s a friend or a family member, this happens with colleagues and coworkers a lot. So a person in your life where you know you are absolutely 100% certain that you are way more talented than them, you are way better at your job. You have way more skills, you have way more training, you have way more finesse, like you own them, but yet they’re the ones killing it. They’re the ones getting a promotion or having cool things happen to them all the time. Or starting things that you wish you could start, but you’re too afraid to start, but in your head you know that you’re like way better than them. It’s so annoying. Why does this happen? I knew this girl a long time ago and I’m going to change some of the details to keep this anonymous, but I knew this girl a long time ago who was convinced that she was gonna make it to Broadway, and all of us around her, sounds kind of bad, but we felt a little bit sorry for her because she wasn’t that talented.
Like she was good, but she wasn’t that good and that’s all she talked about was how she was going to be on Broadway one day and we would all just kind of awkwardly be like, hi. Yeah, when you’re on Broadway. So cool. Go get it. I told you this was an episode of Mean Girls, or wait Mean Girls isn’t an episode, anyway, you’ve been in a situation like that, right? Well, I don’t have to tell you this because you’ve probably already realized it, but she made it to Broadway. She’s there. She’s on Broadway because that was the video game cartridge that was the GPS coordinates that she kept stubbornly plugging in day after day with complete self-belief and zero doubt whatsoever. And meanwhile, people who may have a lot more innate, inborn talent are plugging in cartridges and GPS coordinates of self doubt, self criticism, perfectionism.
I’m not good enough yet. And when you plug in those GPS coordinates of, I’m not good enough yet, I need to get better, I can do this. When I’m better, your brain takes that literally, that is the video game that you are playing and your brain says, okay, you’re not good enough yet. Oh, when you get better, okay, okay. And then it just keeps delaying and delaying and delaying it. Remember your brain takes everything very literally to almost a Beavis and Butthead, like stupid level degree. I know you have that person in your life who’s crushing it and you’re over in the corner wondering why they’re crushing it. I’ll tell you why they’re crushing it. It’s because the video game that they’re playing is the I’m awesome video game. It’s the GPS of I can do this, and whatever video game or GPS coordinates were put into your mind between the ages of zero and seven, those are like your main programs.
Those become your operating system, and unless you bring consciousness to that and intentionally work to create new stories, that operating system is going to have a lot of faulty programming and it is going to run your life. So again, your mind always does what it thinks you want it to do. If you tell your mind, man, I’m dreading that presentation, I’m dreading that meeting. I’m dreading that party. Your brain goes, okay, you’re dreading it. I’m going to give you a stomachache. I’m going to give you the runs. I’m going to give you the flu. It’s going to look for any reason it can to keep you away from those things. Your mind’s job is to come up with resistance for anything that you say that you hate. If you’re plugging in the video game that says, I hate this, your mind says, Oh, I better get you away from X, Y, and Z. If you say every day, uh, I hate going to the gym, I hate sit ups.
Don’t be surprised if three days later you find yourself not going to the gym for a whole year. And this ties right into the second rule of the mind. And that is the mind moves you away from pain and moves you toward pleasure. And tied in with this is the mind likes to stay in what is familiar and it likes to avoid what is unfamiliar. So when you say you hate something, when you say something sucks, when you’re like, ah, when you’re, when you’re working on a habit or you know something that you know is really good for you and you really want to do it and you say, I hate that. This sucks. I can’t believe I have to do this. It’s such a drag. Whether it’s healthy eating or working on your budget or exercising or um, you know, committing 15 minutes a day to a creative project and you say, Ugh, I hate this.
I can’t believe I have to do it. Your, your mind says, Oh, that’s pain. My job is to move you away from pain and move you toward pleasure. So if you link pain to something, if you say you hate something, if you say something’s a drag, your mind will find a way to make you give that thing up really, really quickly. And in retrospect, I think this is why I was so successful in the initial stages of changing my diet and changing, you know, the way that I eat so that I could feel better. I think this is why I was so successful because yes, I did have those moments where it was hard and I just wanted to eat pizza and it was annoying and I cursed it. But for the most part I was so excited about how real food made me feel that the language I used, the thoughts that I, that I spoke to myself in my head were all along the lines of, I can’t believe how good I feel.
This takes extra effort, but it’s worth it. I love seeing my body heal. I love that I’m getting more energy. I love that my clothes fit. I love that my mood is stable. I love that I’m coming off my medications. I love how I feel. Yes, I had those bad days in those times where I was annoyed, but that was the predominant language in my head was, I love this. This is good. I want more of this. That was the GPS coordinates I was plugging in. That was the video game I was popping into my Sega Genesis was, I love this. Not, I hate this, F this. I just want pizza. This is so annoying. If those had been my predominant thoughts, that would have been the video game that I would’ve plugged in, which would have just taken me back to the predominant video game of pizza and beer that I was playing before.
It’s time for this voice again, life is just a video game. What cartridges are you going to plug in today? You know what is the most popular video game that all of you are playing right now? I’ll tell you what it is. Here’s the video game. I’m stuck. I don’t know what to do. You tell yourself that all day long I’m stuck. I don’t know what to do. I’m stuck and your brain goes, Oh, you’re stuck. Okay, cool. That’s the video game we’re playing. That’s the GPS we’re plugging in. I’m not going to move your car at all, and the only thing I’m going to put in your field of vision are all these cars around you installed traffic to just reaffirm this belief in this thing that you’re telling me, which is that you’re stuck. Stuck is the least fun video game. I want all of you guys to rip that video game out of your cartridge right now, and I want you to replace it with I’m moving forward.
You don’t even have to know how. That’s just the new video game that I want you to plug in. The new GPS coordinates. I’m moving forward. Watch your brain today and see how many times it tells you that you’re stuck and you don’t know what to do and say, not that video game today. New video game. I’m moving forward.
Okay, third rule of the mind. Your mind only responds to the pictures and words in your head. The way that you feel about, literally everything comes down to the little pictures and movies that you make in your mind and the words that you say to yourself that go along with those pictures. If you think about your mind, that’s really what it is. You’re playing movies or video games up there. You’re seeing pictures and you are making those pictures mean things with the words and the stories that you tell yourself and knows generate feelings. So if you want to change how you feel, change the pictures and the words. The best example I can think about for this is from last week’s episode, how to stop worrying about what everybody thinks. If you think about it, if you go back to that episode, we talk about your picture of everybody. Most of us have a negative picture of everybody. Everybody is this horrible menace, internet troll, disapproving grandma, disappointed third grade teacher, overbearing uncle. What are you doing with your life? Rawr.
That’s everybody. That’s the picture that you have in your head, and the words that you say to yourself are, Oh my gosh, what’s everybody going to gonna think? Everybody’s going to judge me. So you have this monster picture and these terrible words in your head, but you can change it to an awesome picture with a new everybody. If you haven’t seen my Instagram post, go peep that. You change it to an awesome picture and you change the words to awesome things that you’re new everybody says, and suddenly you feel completely different because you changed the pictures and the words that you were telling yourself.
Your coaching takeaways for this episode. Number one, remember that your mind is a GPS and a Sega Genesis. Tell your mind what you want it to do. Use very specific, detailed, positive language. Remember, if you tell yourself that you’re stuck, your mind is going to say, check, we’re stuck.
Let’s go prove it right, that we’re stuck. Plug in that other video game. I’m moving forward. Plug in whatever video game you want because life is a video game man. Remember to link pleasure to what you want to do, not pain. If you are legitimately trying to master, create, instill a new habit, don’t tell your brain that you hate that habit. Your brain is going to go, Oh, we got to figure out how to stop this ASAP. Find ways, ideally not Pollyanna BS ways, but legitimate reasons that you like what you’re doing. When I was initially changing my diet way back in the day, I was telling myself over and over and over all of the amazing things that were happening because I was choosing to eat real food. Number three, pay attention to the pictures and the words in your head. Most of us all day long, we are playing pretend negative movies about the future. We are just wrapped up in these negative fantasies about all the bad things that are going to happen. Notice what movies that you’re playing. That’s the first step. Just noticing the movies and then as you notice, those movies start to play new movies. Even if they’re just slightly better, slightly less terrifying movies. All right, that’s enough virtual reality for this week. Thanks for hanging out. If you have not downloaded my self sabotage ebook and super secret bonus audio, head on over to mindspeakpodcast.com, back slash sabotage. Go get that. Come hang out with me on Instagram @hollyfisherhiggins. It’s getting weirder and weirder and weirder over there, and until next time, go believe in you. I do.