The Rainbow Machine

I’m always excited about learning new approaches .. and that is what I’m doing this weekend – attending a training in Integrated Eye Movement Techniques with Andrew Austin.

Andrew Austin is refreshing and certainly not afraid to speak his mind, especially with regards to psychiatric treatment. This will be the first time I’ve met him, having read many of his articles – and his really excellent book.

My review of the book is here, at www.goodreads.com – along with many other books from my bookshelf. Click on the image for amazon reviews.

I’ll post more about my experience of IEMT in due course.

Where’re you going? (1) What do you want?

A first of a series of posts ..

on how to best get where you want to be in life.

Imagine this conversation between a taxi driver and his pasenger ..

TD: “Where you’re going’?”

F: “Well, I don’t want Trafalgar Square, neither Oxford Street, and I’m not wanting to eat, as I’m not hungry..  yet”

TD: “Yes .. but where’re you going?”

F: “I know where I don’t want to go! I don’t want to go to Covent Garden (although I liked it there last time), and I don’t fancy going to the Heathrow airport – as I think that’s just where I’ve come from – though I can’t be sure. Is this London? .. Oh good that’s where I want to be!”

TD: “Yes .. but where – in London – do you want to go!?!”

F: “Well – let me see. I don’t need new shoes, and I don’t like flowers. The weather isn’t good so I don’t want to be outside, and even though I don’t need new shoes, I don’t want to walk very far as the ones I’m wearing aren’t very comfortable ..  I should have worn the others ..  anyway I might get lost if I get out and walk .. for now I’d quite like to stay here in the cab if you don’t mind? “

• What if in our journey through life, we didn’t know where we were going, or what we wanted when we ‘got there’.
• What if we didn’t know how to get to the place (that we didn’t know), and what if .. even when there were people there to help us, we were so clear about what we didn’t want, that we were unable to consider what we did want.
• And what if, even if we had a rough idea of at least the general area of where we wanted to go, we wouldn’t know to recocognise it when we arrived, but instead passed through to somewhere we certainly didn’t want to be? .. and we couldn’t get back?
• What if, even if we knew what we wanted (and how to get there) – we’d rather take the long route, even if it turns out more expensive?!
• What if .. it actually seems a lot easier and more comfortable to stay in the back of the cab, rather than venture out on our own?
• What if we’ve no energy for any of this, whatever we do or don’t do?

What if .. actually .. this IS how we so often find ourselves approaching life!? Is it any wonder we take ages to get anywhere worthwhile!

I’ll soon be posting – sometime next week, a series of short articles all about how to best get to where you want to be without all the hassle.

We’ll start first with recognising the power of negative thinking.

(To search for all seven posts in this series, enter the keyword ‘taxi’ in the search box).

Ecology of the mind

One of the many features that I love about nlp is how in every technique and process there is what is known as an ecology check. Assuming that we humans are made up of many parts, a change to one part effects how it then interacts with other parts.

The ecology check ensures that any change is benevolent to all concerned.

When our different parts get out of sync with each other – which they often do by attempting to take care of us in different and opposing ways, then ‘we have a problem’.

The benefit that we can bring to problem part(s) through nlp, or for that matter, any other personal change work may, inadvertantly interfere negatively with the wider system.

The ecology check therefore expands the focus to check for any likely negative side effects. In an ecology check we simply enquire of ourselves along these lines ..

“Calling all parts, calling all parts – is everyone of you (me) happy with what is going on here?!”

And we listen, through ALL our senses to any response. If there’s (quite literally) a sense of uncertainty, objection, or resistance – then that’s just fine. It always is in nlp! We simply thank the part and pay attention to it, inviting it to make clear its uncertainty, objection or resistance.

Remember, nlp works on presuppositions, one of which is  that every behaviour (part) has a positive intention. The response and clarity of thought that will then come through this compassionate moment we show ourselves will provide a more complete picture – enabling us to bring a more complete – and lasting, ecological solution.

Some great ecology questions:

“Is it worth it?”

“What have I not considered?”

“What is the price of this change?”

“What are/will be the wider consequences of this action?”

“What is good about now (before the change), and how can I keep what’s good (after the change)?”

The fact is, we human brings are pretty complex, and every thought and behaviour pattern has consequences beyond their immediate context. What starts as a internal ripple can become a tidal wave which can effect not only us, but others, known and unknown in our wider system. ‘Far better that we run any proposed or recent change-work through the ecology check first!

Re-calling happiness! Be kind to yourself.

The results for last weeks’ Dr Richard Wiseman’s happiness survey are in. 26,000 people took part.

Interestingly his team at Hertfordshire University, UK said that 65 % of those recalling a specific happy moment from the day before, (however small) had a boost in happiness, compared to only half of those who just thought about the day’s events.

They further revealed that an act of kindness led to a 9% boost in happiness, while being grateful for an aspect of life led to an 8% rise.

Making an effort to smile and hold it made people 6% happier.

More details are here http://tinyurl.com/o623m4, and here http://www.scienceofhappiness.co.uk/

Of course, to re-call an event is quite different to just thinking about it! To fully re-call, its best to re-present it to yourself through your five senses – as if you were back in the event itself. We can anytime bring up a mind movie  - and see, hear, feel, taste, and smell as if we were there again – fully associated into it. Imagine you are the director of your own movie (which of course you are – along with being the star actor, the producer, stage hand, make-up, technician, etc!) As producer, you are able to change the settings for sight, hearing, feeling, etc. With a little experimentation, you will find your own best settings. This is great to practice for enhancing positive memories.

For negative memories, though – its best to dissociate (step out of/see as an observer/see yourself) .. to give yourself some objective distance. Often, but not always moving the image ‘over there’ to the top left quadrant of your visual field will reduce any intensity for negative emotions.  And there are many other things you can do to ‘unhook’ unhelpful emotions.

If you’re interested in knowing more – and there’s plenty more to know – I recommend you do some research on ‘nlp submodlities’!

.. and in a little while, I will post a wonderful way to catch and make great use of these little ‘tonic’ moments we have during life!

Phil

nlp : neurolinguistic programming

neuro linguistic programming (nlp) : the study of the structure of subjective experience.

Nlp is more about the ‘hows’ than the why’s’.

‘Nlp might be the most powerful vehicle for change in existence.’
Modern Psychology.

NLP (Neurolinguistic programming) began around 30 years ago by studying and modelling renowned communicators and therapists, notably Milton Erickson, Virginia Satir, and Fritz Perls. Out of this, were developed some really useful systemic tools and attitudes, which are increasingly used in diverse fields of human endeavour.

Neuro-linguistic-programming (NLP) is a model for helping us realise, and connect with our full potential. It is (more than) a set of tools for change; NLP is the study of the structure of subjective experience; an attitude of curiosity which helps to reveal, describe, and use ‘what works’ in human excellence.

Often described as the most advanced communication technology available.

NLP studies human performance excellence; how outstanding individuals and organizations get their outstanding results even and especially, when the performers themselves can’t tell you. Their methods, often unconscious – can, through nlp modelling – be taught to others to enable similar results.

NLP was originally developed in the 1970′s by John Grinder, a Professor of Linguistics at the University of Santa Cruz, and Richard Bandler, a mathematician/computer sciences student. They modelled the shared cognitive, linguistic, and behavioural patterns of Fritz Perls (founder of Gestalt Therapy), Virginia Satir (renowned family therapist), and Milton Erikson (famous hypnotherapist) and showed that the skills elicited could be transferred and used in other domains, including learning, education, health, sport, therapy, and business. NLP provides a model on which tobuild and refine other models – EFT being an example (Gary Craig was trained in NLP before developing EFT).

NLP is built around fundamental and useful presuppositions about people and reality.

One such presupposition is ‘The Map is not the Territory’ (taken from Alfred Korzybskis’ General Semantics) describes the assumption that we humans can never know reality – rather we sense it, and we have choice in how we sense, (and therefore, relate to) it.

Other nlp presuppositions can be found here.

neuro : the mind-body system and how it functions. How we make sense of our world, through the sensory systems of vision, speaking and hearing, and through touch and and feeling.

linguistic : the language we use to describe, categorise, analyse. How our way of communicating can change experience of reality.

programming : our thought patterns and habitual ways of perceiving and behaving. How to re-programme these patterns to make more useful our defined purpose.

A comprehensive glossary of nlp can be found at

http://nlpuniversitypress.com/