Adapted Rewind Technique as a Self-Help Tool

By Mukin

 

Acknowledgment: PsychologyTools.com

 

This is an adaptation of “rewind technique” to support change of ingrained habits or impulsive behaviour as a self-help tool.

 

Typically, the rewind technique is a psychotherapy technique, consisting of instructions for imaginal exposure with suggestions for ‘separation / distance / dissociation’ from the image of the lived experience. The following is a simplified adaption to be used when therapeutic intervention is not required.

 

The use of imaginal exposure as part of a self-help tool to change habit is done by visualizing an event of habitual impulsive behaviour and acknowledging the state of mind at the moment and then visually changing the behaviour for the desired outcome.

 

 

1. Choose the event that you want to visualize, and set the intentions to relive it as it was and then change it to the desired outcome.

 

1. Do relaxation exercises before beginning the re-living of the event.

 

1. Imagine that you are sitting in the middle of a cinema. It is dark and there is no-one else there as the cinema has been hired just for you. It’s a comfortable seat, the cinema is warm, and you feel quite safe.

 

1. On the screen you can see a black and white snapshot, a still in which you see yourself just before the event, just before you had the experience.

 

1. Now imagine you are floating out of your body up to the projection room in the cinema where you can watch yourself watching yourself on screen. From this position you will be able to see the whole cinema including your head and shoulders sitting in the middle of the cinema and also see yourself in the still picture on the screen.

 

 

1. Turn the snapshot on the screen into a moving film and watch it at the normal pace from the beginning to the end. You will see and feel what occurred at the time, and this might include sound. When you get past where the memory begins to fade, stop the film and allow it to become a still again.

 

 

 

1. From your position in the cinema, go down to the screen, right up to the still picture, and jump into it: jump inside the experience, seeing everything as if it were happening now. Feel the temperature of the air around you, notice what is going on, be aware of any sound, smell, or taste. Then run the film backwards, all the people will move backwards, everything will move in reverse, just like rewinding a film except that you are inside this film, and you will experience everything happening in reverse. I want you to do this at about four times normal speed.

 

1. Bring the film to a stop where you wanted to make change in your behaviour.

 

1. Stop the film and repeat the intention to change the outcome

 

1. Start the film and visualize the new behaviour at normal speed. Feel all the senses, feelings and thoughts as you act through the new behaviour.

 

1. Stop the film and jump out of it and give yourself a pat and Congratulate yourself.