What I’m about to share with you has changed my life in one of the most dramatic ways I could imagine. Back in November 2019, I met Dr. Don Wood at a mastermind leadership event where he had been asked to speak on overcoming trauma. I was skeptical. Why were we learning about trauma at an entrepreneurship conference?
He explained that we often feel anxiety because past trauma is creating an “error message” in our brains. And I started to think about how many things from my past tend to replay in my brain, impacting my present and causing tension.
So many people think that something is wrong with them, and that is why they feel anxious, discouraged, afraid, depressed, etc. But Dr. Wood has helped me to understand that there is nothing “wrong” with our brains. They are simply responding in a way that is appropriate in order to feel safe.
So how can we still retain past memories without the feelings of panic and stress? Today we’re talking about tools to help you reboot your brain, stop anxiety at the roots, and move forward with optimal performance in the things that matter most.
AND, if you’re excited to go through Dr. Don Wood’s online program with me, there’s a link below where you can sign up!
Enjoy!
Highlights
- 2:35 – How our brain works and where anxious thoughts originate. The brain responds to stress with fight, flight and freeze. It isn’t self-sabotage; in fact, our minds are doing what they think they need to do in order to survive. Knowing this can help us give ourselves and our loved ones grace.
The fear of pain is so powerful that the mind will do anything to avoid it.
Dr. Don Wood
- 18:20 – The 10-frame memory reprogramming. Bring yourself into relaxed place. Identify a stressful memory. Divide it into 10 picture frames. Scramble the memory and picture it in another way. Traumatic memories are stored in high-definition. Bringing up that memory while relaxed and reprocessing it will help the brain resolve the memory without the fear and then store it again as a low-resolution memory. Do this exercise with several different memories to train your mind.
- 25:30 – How to handle difficult experiences in the moment. Get into a flow state by addressing trauma that is holding you back. Create new brain patterns using repetition.
- 35:05 – Learning to live without anxiety. Our skills are not dependent on our confidence, anxiety, nerves, etc. We’re much more productive in a state of flow.
Each one of us has a unique mission. Whether your mission is behind a microphone, inside your family, or with a position at work, you need to have that support and mental health in order to move forward. You are NOT broken. You truly have what it takes to fulfill your mission. And we are here to support you!
Dr. Wood’s Inspired Performance Program
Dr. Wood’s program has helped me in more ways than I can even tell you. It is an investment. I made this my Current Project for 3 months, because this was my highest priority. But as I worked through the program, I had both immediate and long-term results. As I trained my brain to stop feeling overwhelmed, my mind became calm. I don’t feel stress over anything from the past. (SO weird to say that!) And I’m learning how to disassociate that feeling of anxiety from my need to be productive. I’m able to focus on the most important tasks and just enjoy time with my family.
If you are ready to retrain your brain so that anxiety no longer holds you back, just click the link above to learn more!
Other Related Resources
Have you ever said to yourself, “I buy courses, but I never use them…” This episode shares some simple steps to help you unlock every course you have previously purchased and will set you up for success!
Whether you’re new to LearnDoBecome or a long-time follower, we’d love to have you join our free class! We’ll help you finally stop drowning in piles–whether those piles are mental or physical. Come sign up here!
Thank you for sharing this podcast. I emailed it to my wife who is in her last semester at UW Stout in their Marriage and Family Therapy masters program. I think what Dr. Wood is talking about can be so useful for me. Right now I am in between jobs trying to make ends meet and your podcast was exactly what I needed
I am so happy this was helpful for you, Richard! There are definitely a lot of emotions at play when challenges hit, and I applaud you for moving forward and making your family such a high priority in your life. It was such a relief to me to know there was nothing wrong with my brain (or with me) and that we have the power to change the way we feel, even at a subconscious level. Excited for you and for the miracles that I know can come out of this challenging time.
You are amazing April and thank you for sharing Dr. Woods program
Oh, Dianne, I have a lot to learn–and a lot of flaws that I don’t publish…. But I am grateful for the chance to be of help! Thank you for being with us here at LearnDoBecome!
Hi April, thanks for sharing! I don’t see these as flaws. Just a way of coping with different stressors and on the path of finding better ways to engage with stress in powerful ways towards finding more success and happiness in our lives.
Thank you so much for sharing this. Could you provide more details on the 10 frame memory reprogramming? Do you try to see if from another persons perspective, or is it still from our point of view? ( If love to hear a hypothetical example, if possible)
Thank you so much,
Karen
Hey Karen! Yes, the 10-frame memory reprogramming was awesome. He has something like 4-5 options in the program to help you reprogram, but for this one, it’s from your own perspective. You just think of a traumatic memory (any one), and you visualize a #1 Starting image and a #10 Ending image, and then you piece things together.
So let’s say someone got really angry with you and yelled at you. Picture 1 is right when the confrontation started. Picture 10 is when it ended and you separated. Then you create 8 more images in the middle–maybe where you were walking, what you were talking about, different images representing what was going on in the middle of the experience, etc. You go through all the pictures, 1-10 two times. So you’re slicing the memory into 10 sections and giving your brain one picture for each.
Then you go backwards, 10-1.
Then you do all the odds out of order and all the evens out of order. Like 9, 5, 7, 1, 3, 10, 2, 8, 4, 6. I don’t know if the way you scramble them matters. I just think “cover the odds out of order” and “cover the evens out of order.”
What I understand is that when you recall a memory and then scramble it, you change the memory.
After I do that with a memory, I can still REMEMBER it, but it loses it’s “power.” No stress or anxiety. So for the time when someone yelled at me, I can now recall it happened, but the string of images feels confused in my mind, and I don’t get all panicked or wake up breathless thinking about it. Does that make sense?
Dr. Wood has multiple exercises to help you–and then your brain starts learning the process and applies it to ALL your trauma…. 🙂
Thank you for taking the time to respond and being so specific!
Loving your work and listening to your podcast. It absolutely helps keep me centered and more intentional.
Keep up the great work,
Karen
Thank you for being so vulnerable and for sharing this. There is a lot of truth to past trauma needing to be filed in low-res long term storage in our brain. It’s a fascinating concept and greatly appreciated. I need to try the 10 frames concept for when I saw my son fall 50’ down a waterfall. EMDR is helping but it is still omnipresent and hits me when I least expect it. I feel like I’ve been stuck and need to move past this so I can live my life’s mission;). You’re amazing and are doing great things!! Thanks for being a light in the world.
Sweet Juventa–I can’t imagine a more traumatic experience. You are moving forward in amazing ways. I haven’t tried EMDR, but I’m glad it’s helping! If, at some point, you feel the desire to try Dr. Wood’s program, I HIGHLY recommend it. It’s definitely an investment, but I do believe he can help you 100% recover from the trauma. xoxoxo
I tried the 10 frames advice and it worked!!! I can finally go to sleep and not see my son fall. Yay!!
You are a hero, Juventa…. So happy for you and sending you a huge hug!
I loved this! So logical & helpful! I have a freeze personality. I can picture myself in many situations as a child using the freeze technique to make myself invisible. Now I freeze on my multiple piles to dos. Love the idea of changing routines & patterns to break habits & see things differently. Thank you. I shared w 3 people who I am sure replay old destructive memories in their minds too.
Robyn, thanks so much for your comment! We are glad that you enjoyed this podcast and that it’s been helpful to you. We’re so thankful to have you here with us at LearnDoBecome!
Thanks April for all of the information shared in this episode. I’m seriously considering tying Dr Wood’s program. My question is, do you know if everything you learned from him at that conference you attended where you met him, is contained in the program? Or will I need to necessarily attend a in-person live event with him in order to get some stuff? Like, for example, the 10 frame memory reprogramming. Thanks.
Yes!! It is. I went through the whole online program, and it is exactly what we did in the in-person session. I HIGHLY recommend it. If you are wasting any time/energy rehashing the past, stressing over trauma, waking up with panicked feelings, etc., this solved it for me.
Ok, thanks so much for actually responding to my question! Just one more follow-up … did you purchase this program first before attending the in-person event? Or did you do it the other way around? I guess what I’m trying to get at is, did you find/think that the two versions of the program (online + in-person) were necessary, at least for you (which is why you did both)?
Good question—ai paid for the leadership training, and they paid Dr. Wood, so the program was included in that. If I had to choose one, I would go for the online because it is time and location flexible. 😃
Ok, and good answer! thank you! 🙂
I’m really interested in Dr. Wood’s program, but it appears the purchase price only allows for a 90 day access to the program or am I missing something?
Stephanie, I reached out to his team to ask about that, too. I’m not sure if they have a lifetime access option yet, but I am hoping that they will make that available. Emailing through their site contact form would be great, I think. Thanks!!
April, thank you for asking his team about the lifetime access option! I will reach out to them as well and give an update if I learn anything new.
This is so amazing. I have been reading/thinking/therapy etc for 20 years in figuring out how to get the events from the past out of my body and mind, and nothing has even come close to making as much sense as this program. I can’t sign up now, but I will make it a budget goal to shoot for and save for to buy in six months from now. Thank you thank you for sharing all of this.
Christine, I am so, so happy this was helpful for you. I TOTALLY encourage you to do it when it works with your budget. Seriously–I used to wake up panicked all the time and couldn’t even figure out what was wrong. Now I just wake up and think, “Ahh, morning!” Dr. Wood has helped me take all that stress out of my brain, and I feel SO much relief. I really invested the time going through every single audio and every single part of the program, but it has been 100% worth it. Excited for you!!
Hi April,
My wife is a big fan of your work and she shared episode 79 with me. WOW, there is a lot of good stuff here. I am still processing everything you and Dr Wood spoke about. I have a question about the 10 frame technique. 10 frames of a past event – at least for me – is difficult to keep track of if you are trying the technique in your mind. My mind tends to forget what I chose for frame 4 or 6, etc, etc LOL Does the technique still work if you actually right down a short (4 or 5 word) description of each frame and list them out 1 – 10? Thank you for all you in helping so many of us. I look forward to your answer.
Hi Rey! So glad this was helpful to you! The 10-frame technique does take a little practice (for me) to figure out what the 10 pictures are. I just try to visualize each as a point in a timeline, and I try to add as much emotion and energy to each picture so it stands out. I’m not a neuroscientist, so I don’t know if writing it out would work, but I think that’s a fun idea to try! 🙂
I have to say a great deal of my anxiety is from the past trauma with some financial aspects to it. To spend this kind of money would easily increase my anxiety even if I had that kind of “extra” money. I guess only those who are financially well off are “entitled” to get help with trauma. Very disappointing.
Kathy, you bring up such a great point, and I’m wondering if it doesn’t have to be an either-or…. While the program is an investment, for sure (and I believe it is worth it), Dr. Wood is super willing to join us on future podcasts. I’m thinking perhaps I could ask him to share some free starter-tips for those who are currently in financial trauma. Would that be helpful? What suggestions do you have for the kinds of questions you would want me to discuss with him? The more you can share your story/thoughts, the better we can serve you. I GUARANTEE you’re not the only person feeling this way. I recently worked with a friend of mine who really needed to stretch to buy this program. It took her some time, but she could see the value in it and made it a goal to get it. (I know that she’s really going to use it/value it because she made it a priority.) It’s so tricky because we’ve tried to do scholarship programs in the past for those who couldn’t afford our programs, but as we looked into their accounts, the scholarship recipients never actually logged in… But I also know there are people out there who genuinely want to change, but just don’t have the financial means (at present) to buy all the training needed to do so. I’m pretty sure there’s a solution to this problem, but it might take a little sleuthing to figure it out. Happy to serve however we can! Thanks for being here with us, and if you want to send a private message to our team with your thoughts for a future podcast with Dr. Wood, please email us at email (at) LearnDoBecome.com. Thank you and have an amazing day!!!
I love that idea. Questions/ topics for that second podcast:
The trauma about affording good programs & mental illness keeping you from making what you’d like is a difficult cycle. Yes- a podcast addressing that would be amazing.
I’d also love to hear how this will work when other things I’ve tried don’t… I’ve done something similar with PSTEC but never had grand results. Partly because you have to feel the trauma for it to work. EMDR didn’t work well, because at the time, I couldn’t find a safe place.
A related question is do you have to feel the yuck while doing the picture exercise.
Another question I would have about the 10 frame is, what if I’m not good at visualizing. Getting 10 mental pictures is super hard for me. 5 or 6 was about all I could muster. Sometimes I get a vague idea of what’s happening, but not so much with a picture.
Last question, what about memories that are unclear… from childhood that affect life, but are hard to place.
Please e-mail me when you do that class. I found this one in the recap e-mail… so glad that I did.
Also what April said about the free classes not being used is fascinating.
These are great suggestions, Jennifer. Thank you! We have recorded them on our podcast ideas project. Thanks for being with us!
This was a great listen. Thank you so much. It’s nice to find self-help options, filtered through a trustworthy, organized Christian.
I woke up this morning and did the 10 frames first thing. It’s so great that I could apply it, which I wait to budget for the program.
Thank you, Jennifer! We’re so happy to hear that this podcast has been helpful to you. Thanks for being with us!
Thanks so much Jennifer for the work you’re doing and for your honesty and transparency. I’ve just discovered you since I’ve been working from home. I think you will have some useful tips for me but the biggest clutter bug in my house is my partner. 95% of our disagreements are about his messiness. I’ve come to understand him more over the years (the psyche and history) and through this podcast but what’s the resolution? Especially if he won’t get any help. It is the lion and his sisters are messy too though they are more sympathetic. But they don’t live with him. He just thinks I’m nagging so whether I feeze, run, or fight, nothing works so I end up freezing and just cleaning up after him.
Diane, thanks so much for reaching out to us! We’re so glad you found us and are grateful you would take the time to comment here. We have learned through the years that we can’t make decisions for our spouse but we can communicate with them and look for ways to support them. There are also ways that you can learn to ask for support from him. We aren’t trained in teaching these kinds of things but we know that there are many other who are trained in this way. We do have another podcast that may help you to further understand your husband’s concerns. https://learndobecome.com/episode19
We wish you all the best in your journey and hope that we can continue to support you through our podcast, website, and our STEP program.
Than you April for introducing me to this life changing program. For three months before purchasing the program, I’ve set weekly reminders that “there is nothing wrong with me, it’s just a brain glitch.” After going through the program once my therapist & I saw so much improvement in me.
After that I talked with Dr. Woods through video chat. I’m going through TIPP again today with the small t Traumas that we talked about. For the first time in ages, I think 9 years of suicidality is about to end for good.
Plus I love how Dr. Wood helps so many great causes, vets & assualt victims.
Jennifer, I have been thinking about this comment for the past few days, and I can’t even tell you how excited I am for you. I totally agree that it is SUCH a relief to learn that there’s a reason behind the angst we feel and that it isn’t because something is wrong with us. LOVE that you made that a weekly reminder. Brilliant idea. I am sending you a huge hug!! So proud of you for going through the program and investing the time and energy in yourself so that you can live your best life! Thank you for sharing this with me and the community. It means so much. xoxoxo