> it is part of each of these and their relation.
Exactly — that was the point.

The meaning isn’t other than the content. Put another way, we receive meaning and respond to it, we don’t only create it.

The difference? A detached observer who has no values and can only make arbitrary choices and decisions vs an individual responding to their environment, adapting and innovating in it in accord with their talents, values, skills and so on.

If value was only our creation we could assign whatever value we wanted to any phenomenon we wanted. And there would be no way to critique this – all values would be equal. So someone could decide that going postal is equally as admirable as Mother Teresa serving the poor. And there would be no way of challenging this set of values – we could only respond with ‘I disagree’ – but no critique would be possible.

The association isn’t the link between thoughts, feelings and actions – it is part of each of these and their relation.

By reductionism I didn’t mean simplicity. I am all for simplicity.

I’m sorry if this sounds like I’m splitting hairs.

It’s worth elaborating given how important change is in people’s lives.

Of course, association is not causation. That’s a good thing.

The point of starting with the mental representation isn’t to cause the change. It’s to understand the current state.

When you change what something means to you, regardless of the cause, you change your thoughts, your feelings, and your actions. Tony Robbin’s example is how his brother’s love for KFC changed, when his internal representation changed. In another example, Tony shares that Gestalt therapy doesn’t work until the moment you actually believe and behave as if the chair is your Dad, and you’re behaving in a new way toward him. The change in association is the key link between the thoughts, feelings, and behaviors to produce a new response. The association is the empowering part.

Tony’s ability to reduce complex things into actionable insights that produce effective results is his strength. And his ability to integrate the best thinking in the world, from leaders in the field in an actionable way, amplifies his impact. His depth doesn’t doesn’t lose conceptual integrity in his reductionism. It gains traction.

The other thing that makes Tony’s approach stand out, is the “conditioning” part. Tony developed neuro-associative “conditioning” so the change could last. It’s similar to how Zig Ziglar says, “People often say that motivation doesn’t last. Well, neither does bathing – that’s why we recommend it daily.”

The take away should be that when a change does not work for you, look to whether you have actually changed your internal representation, and whether you really want to change.

Neuro-association is the change. Emotion is the change. Behaving differently is the change. New perception of meaning is the change. All of these involve change in brain states – so yes a brain state change is the change too.

Gardner’s “ideas, concepts, stories, theories, and skills” are all neuro-associations too.

I do think Tony’s stuff has valuable content. But I do think he slips into reductionism (‘nothing-buttery).

Whether you use it for pain or any other change, or regardless of where you start, the precise point he surfaced is that the neuro-association IS the change, and that the neuro-association is changed specifically by our representation.

Even more interesting though is how he found this. He was testing across available therapies on the market against real results. He found that what they all had in common is that they resulted in a change in the neuro-association. All the different styles were just different paths to the same end … and some took much longer, than others, and the changes weren’t as sticky.

Actually, the way he put it is he found *when* therapies work, and that was his breakthrough.

That’s how he was able to create breakthrough results and speed things up for even severe phobias. He focused on commitment to change, and swapping out the trigger with a new association.

Even if they are the most important part this doesn’t mean they are the best place to start. (This has many educational implications but that is another story.)

I think the best place to start is what you have energy for (which may be pain reduction).