Archive for the ‘Human Behaviour’ Category

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Review of Richard Bandler’s “Guide to Trance-formation”

Monday, September 28th, 2009
 

 When I first set myself the task of reading Richard Bandler’s book “Guide to Trance-formation” I allowed myself a week to read it.  Big mistake.  This book is full of information, comment, case history and exercises in personal development. I mean FULL!

 

So I re-timetabled, and I’ve been reading for weeks.  Now - maybe it’s a mistake to try to be doing the exercises as I go, but I would feel only half-hearted in my review if I hadn’t made an attempt to do at least some of the exercises too.

 

The thrust of the book is the power of hypnosis, both of ourselves and others, to help create change for the better.  Before you say you don’t like hypnosis, or you don’t trust it, or you once saw a show where the guy made people squawk like a chicken - don’t kid yourself - you’re being hypnotised all the time.  Don’t look around to see who’s doing it.  Look in the mirror.

 

We are hypnotising ourselves and others all the time, with our repeating patterns of words, actions and beliefs.  In effect we “programme” ourselves.  As Bandler says “We are the only machine that can program itself.  We can set deliberately designed, automated programs that work by themselves to take care of boring, mundane tasks, thus freeing up our minds to do other, more interesting and creative, things.”

 

“Guide to Trance-formation” is both a textbook and a workbook for self development.  The first section of the book “Patterns of Process and Elicitation” deals with how to discover the way in which we (and others) map our world, i.e. how we represent the world to ourselves through our senses.  This is how we have set up all the programmes we run in our lives, the ones that work and - just as importantly - the ones that don’t.  Bandler‘s book is seasoned with references to Milton Erickson, Gregory Bateson, Fritz Perls, Virginia Satir - all renowned therapists with whom Bandler worked to discover how they achieved the successful results they did.

 

In Bandler’s opinion there are three steps to “making enduring change: (i) People must become so sick of having the problem that they decide they really want to change (ii) They have to somehow see their problem from a new perspective or in a new light (iii) New and appealing options must be found or created, and pursued.”

 

The text will be equally intriguing for those who have studied Bandler previously and those who are new to him.  It sparked my curiosity, so that I felt like finding out more and reading books Bandler referenced in “Guide to Trance-formation”.  Even though I have no formal training in hypnosis, the exercises are simple and straightforward and I found myself wondering whether it was possible to be hypnotised just by reading it!  I’m guessing Yes, since we are often influenced by what we read, so why not in this instance?

 

The exercises in this (first) sectionof the book are:

 
  • ·         Changing Feelings by Dissociation
  • ·         Identifying Your Sensory Preferences
  • ·         2 exercises each on the Meta Model and the Milton Model
  • ·         Stealing a Skill
  • ·         The Visual Squash
  • ·         Foolproof Planning
  • ·         The NLP Spelling Strategy
  • ·         Getting Things Done
  • ·         2 exercises in Submodality Change
  • ·         Swish Pattern
  • ·         Belief-Change Pattern

The second section of the book “Patterns of Induction” is about developing and improving the skills of hypnosis.  It gives examples, stories and exercises on how to use language very specifically, how to use the voice - tone, depth, rhythm etc. , stories-within-stories and other skills to induce an altered state in the subject (yourself or someone else), a state in which you (or they) are more open to change.  In Bandler’s words “Whenever you are communicating with other people, be aware that words are power, and the way in which you use words has to be as precise as the results you desire.”

 

The exercises in the second section are very specific to inducing, deepening and maintaining trances or altered states. 

 
  • ·         Using signs of developing trance
  • ·         Creating Inductions
  • ·         Toning Inflection
  • ·         Using Truisms to Induce Hypnosis
  • ·         Overlapping to Increase Skills
  • ·         Overlapping to Induce Trance
  • ·         Previous Trance Induction
  • ·         The Handshake Interrupt
  • ·         Stacking Realities
  • ·         Nested Loops
  • ·         Hot Button/Cool Button
  • ·         Advanced Synesthesia Change Pattern

In section three “Patterns of Utilization” covers the uses of the skills learned in the book, to create a better way of thinking and being in our lives, in short - to make us feel better.  According to Bandler “you just need to know how to get good feelings to replace the old ones - or, even better, to drop them in to what happens just before you feel bad, so you start to go down a new pathway.”  The chapters of this section deal with creating a better reaction now, to events that caused us trauma in the past.  If we are still suffering from issues in our past, it is not because the problem keeps happening, but because we have formed a response to it that keeps us stuck in that negativity.  Using the exercises in this section can help us change the way we feel about past traumas, overcome our phobias, stop blocking ourselves and start taking positive action.

 

Exercises in section three:

 
  • ·         How Much Pleasure Can You Stand?
  • ·         Fast Phobia Cure
  • ·         Putting a New Spin on the Past
  • ·         Overcoming Hesitation
  • ·         Going over Threshold
  • ·         Installing Positive Memories

Section four is a set of transcripts of client sessions with Richard Bandler.  The text of the session is printed on the left hand side of the page and the analysis of the language patterns is printed on the right.  I found it too confusing to try to read both together on my first reading of this format.  So I read through the transcript of just the dialogue, as it would have flowed in speech.  I found it was worth reading the script through first, before reading the analysis, partly to see what patterns I could identify myself and partly to let the script flow as it would have done in the live session.

 

Overall I found the book a very useful combination of textbook and workbook.  It is something worth reading once for interest, a second time to try out any/all of the exercises and, after that, any time you want to reference Bandler’s work on trances, their analysis, uses and effects.

 

The Great thing about Holidays

Monday, August 17th, 2009
Holidays

Holidays

… is that you get away from everything that is usual and “normal” in your life.  It’s the most fantastic chance we have for self development.  It gives us the opportunity to change our outlook on things in our lives.
 
I always find when I come from holidays (in fact even before I get home I find) I’m planning new things.  I might think of a new layout for the furniture in my office or home.  I might develop a new way to approach a certain client, or situation.  I might decide to repaint the living room to get a whole new perspective on things.  And that’s really what holidays do for me - in terms of my personal growth, they give me a change of perspective.
This year, when we came home from holidays, my husband said it had been like having “time off from the recession”.  Because the recession is one thing - and it’s effects are very real.  But the media “moan-fest” that goes on about it is entirely another thing.  It’s like a big bandwagon all of its own.  It’s a huge “ain’t it awful” circus that feeds itself on people’s misery.  It’s a way of looking at it.
 
So time off from that was a real treat.  And y’know what?  The world still turned while we were away; the economists still wrung their hands; the unemployed were still unemployed; those in difficulty were still in difficulty - but the ones reporting it seemed to be having the time of their lives picking over the troubles of everyone else.  That’s just their way of looking at it.
 
I’m very thankful that I had the opportunity to get away from it all for a few weeks.  The situation didn’t change, but my view of it did.  And that’s the point.  When we look at some event in our lives that is causing us difficulty, it can be hard to separate the event from our reaction to it.  What’s really happening is that a certain event takes place - then - we have a reaction to it.  If we get to take a step back, a pause, a holiday - and choose a different reaction, then we have power over the outcome.
 
For example, if someone loses their job, that is a very real event.  It has effects and consequences.  But whether you deal with it as (i) a disaster from which you will never recover, or (ii) an unexpected event which may force you to look at things in a new way - is up to you.  One will give you a miserable, self-defeating attitude, the other will give you a chance for personal development (albeit not looked for), to look at where your strengths lie and present yourself in a new way.  Losing your job is the fact.  How you deal with it is where your power lies.
 
It brings me back to the benefit of holidays.  It gives us that break, that pause, in which to look at things in a new way.  Happy holidays!
 

“Get the Life you Want” - Review

Thursday, June 25th, 2009
 
 

Richard Bandler - one of the co-creators of NLP (Neuro Linguistic Programming) has written a book called “Get the Life you Want”.  In it Bandler has distilled many of the NLP tools that he uses himself, to help people to make positive changes in their lives.

 

Let me say straight away that Richard Bandler is not a sweet talkin’ guy.  He’s a straight talkin’ guy.  And whereas many self-help books tell you that they’ll let you in on secrets, and hitherto unknown techniques you can use, I often find that they weren’t secrets.  They were things we all knew already, but presented in a new way.

 

Not so with this book.  The exercises throughout the book are ones that have been specifically designed using NLP.  The book is packed with hands on exercises that anyone can do to help themselves.  There is a glossary at the back to explain some of the NLP terms, but I would advise you not to get hung up on the terminology.  Read through it all.  If you don’t understand it all, use the glossary.  But - do yourself a favour - pick this book up believing it’s going to be easy.

 

By page 6 Bandler has introduced us to the submodalities, which is the sensory language we use to understand our world and organise our thoughts and feelings.  We intake everything we experience, through our five senses.  Then we file it away and it becomes our store of experiences.  This is the file we access when we want to understand something new.  How does it look compared to what I already know?  How does it sound compared to what I already know?  How does it taste, smell and feel?  Becoming aware of how we interpret our world and make sense of it is the key to the exercises in the book.  If something makes me “feel” sad, where in my body do I feel that feeling?  Which way is the feeling moving in my body?  What is my experience of the feeling of “sad”.    It might seem a little odd, at first, for people with no experience of NLP.   Most of us are not used to thinking of where we feel a feeling, or which way it moves, or what colour it is. 

 

Bandler then focuses on how we view or “mentally code” time (timelines).  When we think of a past event, where do we picture it?  Behind us?  To the left?  The now - where do we picture it?  Underneath our feet?  Overhead?  The future?  Discovering how we represent Time is also a prerequisite of some of the exercises.  This too can be used to change our view of past events, and our difficulties with current or future events.  Bandler says:

 

“We think about time in certain ways.  The images of the past will be in a different place than the images of the future. … The key is in learning how you can begin to change the way you think and feel about your past, present and future.”

 

This is all dealt with right at the beginning of the book, and for a very good reason.  He uses the power of our submodalities and our timelines, in the exercises, to effect change in our feelings and behaviours.  From the very beginning, every chapter has exercises to do straight away.  There is no need for equipment, or meditation, or anything other than commitment to engage fully with the exercises.  They are done in a step-by-step, simple, fluid way.  There are no difficult instructions, or language or psycho-babble, just straight talking guidelines.

 

This is very much a hands-on type of book.  Don’t just read it.  That will be interesting enough, but the power lies in doing the exercises.  They are easy to understand, once you’ve gotten used to the idea of the submodalities.

 

Like a lot of “exercise”, it may feel odd at the beginning.  It might seem strange to be doing an exercise in “How to feel Wonderful” or “Changing bad feelings”, but that’s exactly what these exercises are designed to help you do. 

 

It’s well worth getting used to the idea of submodalities right from the start, because you will see them repeated constantly throughout the book.  Every exercise focuses on how we see, hear, feel, taste and smell everything in our world.  The premise of the book is that the only  thing that WE have the power to change is OUR view, OUR belief, OUR behaviour.  Trying to change the other person, or the situation we’re in, is like trying to hold back the tide, or trying to change the world to suit our beliefs.  But where we do have power is in changing our own view of, and interaction with, the world. 

 

And that is the genius of this book.

 

It’s like, by learning to understand our own intrinsic language, we are learning to understand all the languages of the universe.

 

The sections of the book (that are crammed with practical exercises) are:

 

Getting Over: Bad suggestions; Fears and phobias; Bad memories; Grief; Bad Relationships; & Bad Decisions.

 

Getting Through: Habits and Compulsions; Recovery; Resignation; Big Events; Tests; & Obligations.

 

Getting To: Fun; Love; Meet People; Important Duties; Exercise; Be More Organized; Make More Money; & Make Big Decisions.

 

All this is done using exercises focusing on changing our submodalities, our feelings about events, and our choice of reaction to the events life presents us with.  Bandler uses case histories (presumably with name changes) and stories to help us understand the changes in a subtle way.  Ever since we were born, we listen to stories - the stories of our parents, our teachers, our friends; the stories of people we admire and want to be like; the stories that help us identify our values; the stories that become our deepest held beliefs.  So Bandler is very cleverly using stories to help us access those beliefs and make the changes that are most useful for our lives.

 

There is also a free CD with some editions of this book (I now own two copies of the book - because firstly I bought the hardback that had no CD, and then I bought the paperback with free CD!).  This is to help you access the part of your mind (your subconscious) that is responsible for making the changes at the deepest level.  Don’t worry - it’s not hypnotic or trippy!  It’s just relaxing and enjoyable.  I listened to it in the evening, when I relaxed before bedtime.  I found it easy to listen to and it complements the exercises in the book, but you don’t need to use it for the book to be effective.

 

At the back of the book, there is a Glossary of Terms, a list of Recommended Resources and some information about The Society of Neuro Linguistic Programming.

 

I love Bandler’s own view of the book:

 

“The lessons that I have presented in this book are nothing more than lessons in how to manage life.  They are lessons in how to manage your thoughts, your feelings and your time, so that life becomes more wonderful.  This isn’t a philosophy.  This isn’t an ideology.  It’s not a religion.  It’s just a set of tools to make things easier.  The easier you can make it inside your head, the easier it will make things outside your head.  It will not only be easier for you but for those around you.  It will allow you to live more happily.”

 

And that’s what this book is - a DIY guide to making your life more happy.  Sounds good to me!

 

Compassion for ourselves and others

Monday, June 22nd, 2009
 
 
I often read self-help books (no kidding?!) and many of them talk about compassion and forgiveness.  There is an emphasis on the fact that, if we do not have forgiveness and compassion we cannot move forward with our lives.  I agree.  Much of the baggage we bring (let’s face it - drag) with us from our pasts, is an accumulation of unforgiven acts or words, and a lack of compassion or understanding of how things were then. 
 
“If I had only said that, or hadn’t said what I did say”
 
“If only I had told them”
 
“If only I could have let go my hurt and moved on”
 
“If they only knew how hurt I felt”
 
my life would have been, or now would be so much better.
 
What is the advantage to us of holding onto the hurts of the past?  Is it to avenge ourselves on someone?  To hope that they will feel the hurt we did and somehow understand how much we suffered?  In reality - after the event - who is left hurting?  We are.  Not the “perpetrator” of the “crime”. 
 
And where does that leave us?  What role is left for us to play?
 
That’s right - if we’re not the “perp” then we must be the victim!
 
I bet none of us wants to land that role!  We can readily point to friends/acquaintances whom we see as being victims.  We pride ourselves on not being that type at all.  Never!
 
During my coaching last year I was, on one occasion, horrified to hear my own coach refer to certain of my behaviours as “victim”.  I was angry with her and refused to believe her at all.  Of course, very soon I had that sneaking little feeling that I was only angry with her because I feared it was true.  It was like a slap in the face for me, but a well-intentioned one and eventually I was grateful for it.
 
I’m not suggesting that we need to trawl back over our past lives and try to reverse or forgive every act from the past, but I am all for starting from right now.  If I can start from right now, to be compassionate and understanding of myself, then I am in a better place to leave hurts behind and move on with my life.
 
The first and most important forgiveness has to be for ourselves.  If I spend the next period of my life not forgiving myself for the baggage I’ve carried from my earliest years, I’m just giving myself all the same grief all over again!  Stop it!  Stop it now!
 
Let’s try - at the end of each and every day - to take a moment to show ourselves forgiveness and compassion.  You could devise a little mantra for yourself, like “I forgive myself for any hurts I may have caused myself or others during this day, and I forgive others who may have hurt me today”.  Or something like that.  After a week of not dragging little hurts and conflicts with us, how will we feel?
 
How will you feel?
 

The Power of Affirmations

Monday, May 25th, 2009
Positive Affirmations

Positive Affirmations

Have you tried affirmations?  Do you think they’re all just New Age nonsense?  Have you been doing them for years and feel that you’re getting nowhere?  Are you afraid you’ll just end up muttering away to yourself in the small hours of the morning?
 
Let me ask you this?  Do you have a little self-critic living inside your head?  A little voice that, as soon as you have a great new idea, it goes “Who do you think you are, with your great big ideas?”  or maybe “It’ll never work, just like that time you …”  or even “There’s no point, you’re just no good at that” ?  What do you suppose that is?  Yep.  It’s a little voice doing affirmations.  BUT it’s doing negative affirmations!
 
We all have them, a little inner voice that criticises us when we try anything new, or want a promotion, or want to write a book, or stand up and make ourselves heard.  So - if you don’t believe affirmations work - have you noticed how well the negative affirmations DO work?  Do you ignore the voice?  (Rarely)  Laugh at it? (I wish I could)  Do you not have an inner voice?  (What???)  If you don’t, then please write a book about it, because you are one in a million!
 
For me, affirmations (the positive ones we read about and try out sometimes) are just an attempt to level the playing field.  If I’ve been programming myself with negative affirmations for years, it’s only right to start bombarding myself with positive ones to even up the balance.  I have years of negativity to combat and conquer.  This is not a moan, or an accusation or an “Ain’t it awful” .  This is just a fact.  I have been accumulating a huge recording of negative messages for years.  I have also gathered positive ones, but the negative ones (for most of us) win out.
 
Now the worm has turned.  The little guy (me) is fighting back.  The meek are inheriting the earth.  And positive affirmations are a fantastic tool in the arsenal of any self-improvement fan.  I don’t always find it easy to formulate a “good” affirmation.  The best format (according to various experts in the field) is that:
 
  1. They must be framed in the positive e.g. don’t say you don’t want to be overweight, say that you want to be trim and a healthy weight for you.  This is because your mind doesn’t recognise negatives.  For example, if I say “Don’t think of a bright blue car” you’ve already gone and done just what I told you not to.  Because - in order to know what it is NOT to do - your mind has to reference what a bright blue car is before it can tell itself not to think about it!  You’ll think it’s crazy, but you have no idea how convoluted our minds are (and yet, completely logical when you think about it).
  2. Affirmations need to be in the present tense e.g. “I enjoy eating healthily and maintaining my ideal weight”.  Your mind can only deal with right now, this minute.  Everything in the past has been filed, and what is yet to come is not able to be processed until it comes.  If we affirm “I am going to eat healthily” it’s never going to be NOW, so we’ll always be “going” to do it, but never DO it.
  3. The more clear we can make the mental picture, the better the affirmation.  e.g. “I am enjoying maintaining my healthy weight of xx lbs”.  It gives us a positive, measurable statement to ourselves, backed up by an image of our slender selves, or of our ideal weight appearing on the window of our bathroom scales.  Whatever works for you.
I only use the weight issue as an example, it’s quite a common source of affirmations.  You can use the same format for any personal development affirmations you want to devise for yourself.
 
I love hearing from readers when they try any of the self-improvement suggestions from this blog.  Comment here or contact me at daria@lifepotential.ie .
 

Is “Self Development” just a buzz word (or 2)?

Tuesday, May 19th, 2009
Helping Hand

Helping Hand

I’m reliably informed that the term “Self Development” ranks highly in Google search word terms.  Good.  I think that’s great.  Not from a life coaches blogging perspective, but from the point of view of an impressive number of people searching for help with their self development.  I do it myself, and I’m proud to say so.
 
In Ireland we have a rather suspicious approach to needing help.  Giving help - we’re great at that.  But getting help - that’s not so easy to ask for.  I think it’s something to do with the notion that, if we need to get help, first of all something must be wrong and secondly it means we have failed to cope with it ourselves.  Maybe it’s an insular thing?  Maybe to do with island people having to cope on their own?  I don’t know.
 
I have been helping myself and others to improve our lives for as many years as I can remember.  It manifested itself in my twenties when I trained to be a yoga teacher, and continued through training over the years in massage, aromatherapy, Reiki, coaching and NLP to where I am today.
 
Did self-development start when I was in my twenties?  No, but perhaps that was when I noticed that I could be active, rather than passive, about my development.  For most of my twenties I suffered appalling panic-attacks.  I would have the tight-chested pain, dizziness, sweating, clammy skin, racing heart and be convinced that at any moment I would die.  For eight or nine years I suffered this to varying degrees, always thinking that it was just me and that there was no one who could help me.  I developed many coping strategies, which I suppose was “enforced” self-development (sounds a bit paradoxical).
 
When other things in my life at the time caused me to seek help, I was amazed at how the simple act of getting help was more powerful than I could have imagined.
 
Self development is called such simply because no one else can “do” our self development.  But there are many people who can help us to do it for ourselves.
 
Since that time, I have regularly sought help in areas where I felt I needed outside expertise to make progress in my life and development.  Sometimes it was a psychotherapist, other times a hypnotherapist or Reiki practitioner.  But always I found that getting outside help gave me some new options, which I could not see for myself.
 
So, I feel that, whether or not “Self Development” is seen as the new “must have” or not, it doesn’t matter.  We are all constantly developing ourselves, our attitudes, our beliefs, our behaviours, our personalities and our potential.  We do it whether we plan it or not, whether we are aware of it or not and whether we like it or not.  So why not make it a bit easier for ourselves.  When we need help, why not seek it out and make the most of it, so that we can make the most of our lives?
 

Time Management - Review of “Not Enough Hours”

Sunday, May 17th, 2009
I’m finally sitting down to write the review of Owen Fitzpatrick’s book “Not Enough Hours”.  The subheading is “The secrets of making every second count!”  The foreward is by Dr. Richard Bandler, one of the founders of NLP (Neuro Linguistic Programming).  This is a book about time management.  You have to understand that my version of time management is to put off all the things I don’t like doing, until the very last minute, then panic and do them all in a hurry.  Now this has its advantages for me.  Firstly, I get all that free time to do things I like to do.  Secondly, I seem to operate better when I have left myself less time to do something e.g. write a book review!
 
All these weird and wonderful versions of people and time management styles are captured in Owen’s book.  I love the fact that the book does not tell you all the things you HAVE to do to be a great time manager.  It starts off by giving loads of information from science and history about why we are the way we are.  I love lots of background information, simply presented.  I also like the cartoon like drawings.  I’m a very visual person.
 
That struck me as I read, in fact.  This book appeals to everyone.  If you want background information - it’s got it.  If you like scientific fact - it’s got it.  If you like funny anecdotes - it’s got it.  And if you’re someone that just wants to know what to do to be a great time-manager - you just skip to that part of the book and do exactly what it says.
 
Even if you’re already a great time manager and want some quick and easy tips & tools to try out for your further self-development, just flip straight to the back of the book for pages and pages of suggestions on how to make your time management even more streamlined.
 
Don’t worry when you start to read the different personality types if you begin to feel that you are, in fact, ALL of the types mentioned.  I did.  Well, ok, not the Workaholic!  But I certainly recognised elements of myself in the Perfectionist, the Hesitator, the Hurrier and the Busy Bee.
 
It’s nice to read that Owen knows what it’s like to struggle to develop time management skills.  He understands how easily I can sit down to write my blog, then I research something, find a really interesting article I want to read, which leads to a great website on NLP where there’s a video I really must watch, followed by a link to …
 
You know what this is like (the book calls it “Time Crime 1: Distractions & Interruptions”).  You really did mean to do just one bit of research.  And Owen understands this.  He doesn’t wag his finger and frown because you’re not a good manager of time.  He has helpful suggestions for all types of people and all levels of time manager.  I find there’s nothing worse than a self-help book that criticises me for being the way I am and sighs deeply at me when I don’t make instant and extraordinary progress in my self-development.
 
“Not Enough Hours” will leave you feeling that someone understands you and the difficulties you have managing your time.  You will find real guidelines, helpful tips and genuine support for your efforts and determination to improve.  It’s full of useful information that you can go back to again and again.
 
As Owen says early on in the book:
 
“Change is simpler than you think.  It involves being aware of what you are doing, learning to do something else instead and disciplining yourself to continue doing the new behaviour until it becomes a habit”
 
It’s not rocket science.  The book is full of common sense.  I began reading it with a highlighter pen at the ready in order to mark the really useful passages.  After a few bright orange pages I accepted that the book is crammed with useful stuff, so there is very little that doesn’t need highlighting.
 
After all that praise, have I any suggestions for improvement?  It’s for the publishers really.  I think a spiral bound, hard backed version of the book (in a better quality paper) would make a superb desk-top book.  Another suggestion?  Why not have a desk-diary to accompany it, giving little time-management tips on each page e.g. on Mondays it could have “Make your weekly to-do list”, or last thing on the day could be “Tick off all completed tasks and move incompletes to tomorrow”.  Oh, and if that idea catches on - I want commission!
 

So What’s NLP all about?

Thursday, May 7th, 2009
Neuro-Linguistic Programming

Neuro-Linguistic Programming

I’ve been proud to claim that I am a qualified Master Practitioner of NLP, and to say that I use NLP skills in my life-coaching in order to help clients make positive changes in their lives easily and effectively.  Responses to this vary.  People in the personal development field nod knowingly, or raise their eyebrows questioningly.  Those outside the coaching or therapy professions often wonder what it is but don’t want to appear lacking by admitting they don’t know.
 
And then there’s the ordinary guy in the street, John Doe, Joe Public or - here in Ireland - Sean Citizen.  I love you and hate you - all Johns, Joes and Seans.  I love you because you come right out and ask “What the hell is that when it’s at home?”.  I hate you for that very same reason.  How on earth do I explain NLP?
 
First of all it stands for Neuro-Linguistic Programming.  When I heard that first I thought “Ya wha’ Gay?” and I have to say it still causes me to stop and rack my brains.  Richard Bandler, one of the co-creators (with John Grinder) of NLP, defines it in a recent book as:
 
“NLP is an attitude, methodology and technology that teaches people how to improve the quality of their lives.  It is an educational tool that teaches people how to communicate more effectively with themselves and others.  It is designed to help people have personal freedom in the way they think, feel and behave.”
 
For me the most informative part of that explanation of NLP is “teaches people how to communicate more effectively with themselves” because that’s how change comes about in our own lives.  Someone else telling you to give up smoking, get over your fears, pull yourself together and make the changes - is NEVER going to work.  But if we can get inside our own thinking and find out how to communicate with ourselves how much we WANT to give up smoking, or how there has been a perfectly good reason for having fear in the past but now we want a new way of believing and thinking - imagine how much we could improve our lives every day!
 
That’s what I love about NLP.  It’s about story telling.  It’s about the stories we tell others about ourselves, and more importantly, it’s about the stories we tell ourselves about ourselves.
 
I think it’s telling that Bandler and Grinder called it Neuro Linguistic Programming (NLP) because their own background was in technology and linguistics.  But as a term, it doesn’t explain itself to the ordinary punter very well.
 
As I said earlier, for me NLP is about stories.  We hear, create and learn stories and patterns of behaviour from the moment we’re born.  We hear that we are “the cutest baby”, “just like your Daddy” etc. all harmless enough.  When we’re older we learn “if you don’t eat up all your dinner you won’t grow up big and strong” which in our own mind can translate into food being a contentious issue.  We learn “don’t talk to strangers” which can translate into a lack of trust in people and a difficulty in making new friendships.
 
I’m not trying to sound like everything we hear is bad, but we hear a “story” then we tell ourselves a “story” and pretty soon we have formed a pattern around it, and forget the original story.  Our personality development is filled with patterns we adopt based on the stories we’re believing.
 
I used to have a fear of dogs.  Now that may have stemmed from an incident with a dog when I was tiny, or it might have been an imagined drama that I created in my own mind.  I don’t remember.  But for the rest of my life I was left with a fear of dogs, that - at its worst - meant that I wouldn’t go outside the door on my own and couldn’t even enjoy a walk.
 
I went to a therapist to help that.  Turns out it’s not stemming from a fear of dogs, but a fear of being alone.  But that’s another story!
 
The great thing is we can decide or choose - at any time - to believe a different story!  This is the genuine magic of Neuro Linguistic Programming.  When an NLP practitioner listens to us telling our stories, they can see what language we use to tell ourselves stories.  They can then speak our language back to us and help us to choose a more useful story for our lives.
 
In one line - what’s the best thing about NLP?  NLP is about finding and choosing the most useful beliefs, stories and patterns to live the life we want for ourselves.  Apologies to Richard Bandler, John Grinder and my tutors Owen Fitzpatrick and Brian Colbert if I’ve just negated all your years of training me!
 
To get NLP straight from the horse’s mouth, check out www.nlp.ie and www.richardbandler.com .
 

April Feelgood Task

Thursday, April 30th, 2009
“Experience is not what happens to you; it’s what you do with what happens to you” Aldous Huxley
 
My suggestion this month (and don’t worry about the calendar, I know the month is at its end) is to pause.  People are quite rightly concerned about their futures now that it appears uncertain, but just pause - take a breath.  You still have control over how you react to every new thing, or piece of news, or dramatic event, that comes your way.  Sometimes it may be the only control you have, but it’s the most important.
 
Remember when you were a kid and you were taught to chant, if anyone called you names, “Sticks and Stones may break my bones, but names will never hurt me”.  There was a very good reason for that.  The names you are called, or the things that happen to you, are not as important as your reaction to them.
 
So this month, remember to - pause - breathe - take control - and now you get to choose how to respond.
 

World Malaria Day - Act Now

Friday, April 24th, 2009
Just a quick mention that April 25th is World Malaria Day.  I found this link on the Care2 website www.care2.com .  Take a look and see what you can do to help.  When half of the world is complaining about recession and depression, it’s a good idea to put it all into perspective and value our health, our privilege in living in first world conditions and our joy in the quality of our life and health.
 
When you watch this Unicef video, make sure to watch to the end.  As usual it starts by looking at the gloomy situation, but it’s worth watching for the hopeful ending.  I love happy endings!
 
 

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