What stops you from having the things in life you want...or want more of?
Did you answer money?... time?... my boss, mother, father,
partner?... fate?... bad luck? What is interesting about these
answers is that the cause is external to you and outside of your
direct control.
In order to understand how you can influence your external world, you
need to understand how your thinking affects your internal world. NLP
(Neuro Linguistic Programming) is the most useful approach we know
for doing this.
THE CONSCIOUS MIND
Why should we bother to "think positively?" Based on much published
information, many people have benefited from positive thinking. And
those of us who have consciously tried it have found it to be
worthwhile. But how does it work--and how much of the success of
positive thinking is a result of the Conscious mind?
You may already know your conscious awareness has a restricted
capacity for retaining information. Research has shown we can hold 7
plus or minus 2 chunks of information in awareness at any one time.
Techniques for helping people with their memory often vary the size
of the chunks, or find ways to link small chunks into one larger
chunk to allow more memory capacity. This is why telephone numbers
are broken into three and four digit sections.
THE UNCONSCIOUS MIND
So what else is happening behind the 7 plus or minus 2 chunks of
information in our conscious thinking? What organises our heartbeat,
our digestion, our response to outside temperature? What allows us to
drive our car without having to think about it? What receives
literally billions of pieces of external information, and processes
them with no effort?
Psychologists refer to this part of the mind as the Unconscious, or
more accurately, the Other-Than-Conscious, because it is far from
unconscious. It is awake and active even when we are asleep. Doctors
were surprised to discover that, under hypnosis, patients who had
been anaesthetised were able to recall every word said in the
operating theatre. One part of their mind was obviously fully aware
of what was going on!
The brain looks after thousands of functions in the body every
moment, and can handle astronomic amounts of information. What is
most impressive is it can do all of these things at the same time
without any need for conscious control. And fortunately, it never forgets how.
The Unconscious responds to every external stimuli, and every
thought. Each response sets off a chemical reaction which is sent to
the rest of the body. Therefore WHAT we think takes on a vital
significance. The Unconscious is like a good assistant, and basically
it will do what you tell it. But what exactly are you telling it to do?
You may say, "I deserve the very best," but if in your Unconscious
the message is being countered with,"You?...You'll never amount to
anything," what is going to be the result?
Unless you stop and think about it, you will be unaware of the
Unconscious thought. All that you will probably be aware of is a
slight sense of unease or something not being quite right An internal
conflict may result and this will lead to incongruent behaviour. This
explains why saying an affirmation, or positive statement about
yourself, sometimes does not work.
NLP has techniques and strategies to help you become fully congruent.
Congruence is when you align your mind and behaviour behind positive
thoughts so there is total commitment to achieving an outcome. This
is important because as Anthony Robbins says, "It is in your moments
of decision that your destiny is shaped." A good way to experience
congruence is to utilise past positive experiences and incorporate
these into present behaviour. The result is new and empowered ways of
thinking.
We each have ten billion neurons (brain cells). And there are more
potential simultaneous connections between neurons than there are
atoms in the known universe. Yes, you may need to read that again!
This means we have an almost infinite capacity for creativity and
problem solving. As Einstein pointed out, the ONLY way we limit
ourselves is by not fully utilising this amazing gift. NLP is
designed to help us access more neurological pathways and thereby
create more choice in our life.
by PENNY TOMPKINS AND JAMES LAWLEY
NLP Consultants to Business and Individuals
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