Creating More Choices Using NLP

Choices


"If it is to be, it is up to me".

The mind can create amazing wonders and equally, disastrous havocs. It is all in our mindset what choices we desire to make.

The following inspiring story about Jerry and how he view life and near death.


Positive Thinking

by: Unknown


Read this, and let it really sink in... Then, choose how you start your day tomorrow...


Jerry is the kind of guy you love to hate. He is always in a good mood and always has something positive to say. When someone would ask him how he was doing, he would reply, "If I were any better, I would be twins!" He was a unique manager because he had several waiters who had followed him around from restaurant to restaurant.

The reason the waiters followed Jerry was because of his attitude. He was a natural motivator. If an employee was having a bad day, Jerry was there telling the employee how to look on the positive side of the situation.

Seeing this style really made me curious, so one day I went up to Jerry and asked him, I don't get it! You can't be a positive person all of the time. How do you do it?" Jerry replied, "Each morning I wake up and say to myself, Jerry, you have two choices today. You can choose to be in a good mood or you can choose to be in a bad mood.

I choose to be in a good mood. Each time something bad happens, I can choose to be a victim or I can choose to learn from it. I choose to learn from it. Every time someone comes to me complaining, I can choose to accept their complaining or I can point out the positive side of life. I choose the positive side of life.

"Yeah, right, it's not that easy," I protested. "Yes, it is," Jerry said. "Life is all about choices. When you cut away all the junk, every situation is a choice. You choose how you react to situations. You choose how people will affect your mood. You choose to be in a good mood or bad mood. The bottom line: It's your choice how you live life."

I reflected on what Jerry said. Soon thereafter, I left the restaurant industry to start my own business. We lost touch, but I often thought about him when I made a choice about life instead of reacting to it.

Several years later, I heard that Jerry did something you are never supposed to do in a restaurant business: he left the back door open one morning and was held up at gun point by three armed robbers. While trying to open the safe, his hand, shaking from nervousness, slipped off the combination. The robbers panicked and shot him. Luckily, Jerry was found relatively quickly and rushed to the local trauma center. After 18 hours of surgery and weeks of intensive care, Jerry was released from the hospital with fragments of the bullets still in his body.

I saw Jerry about six months after the accident. When I asked him how he was, he replied, "If I were any better, I'd be twins. Wanna see my scars?" I declined to see his wounds, but did ask him what had gone through his mind as the robbery took place. “The first thing that went through my mind was that I should have locked the back door," Jerry replied. "Then, as I lay on the floor, I remembered that I had two choices: I could choose to live or I could choose to die. I chose to live."

"Weren't you scared? Did you lose consciousness?" I asked. Jerry continued, "...the paramedics were great. They kept telling me I was going to be fine. But when they wheeled me into the ER and I saw the expressions on the faces of the doctors and nurses, I got really scared. In their eyes, I read 'he's a dead man.'

I knew I needed to take action." " What did you do?" I asked. "Well, there was a big burly nurse shouting questions at me," said Jerry. "She asked if I was allergic to anything. 'Yes,' I replied. The doctors and nurses stopped working as they waited for my reply. I took a deep breath and yelled, 'Bullets!' Over their laughter, I told them, 'I am choosing to live. Operate on me as if I am alive, not dead.'"

Jerry lived thanks to the skill of his doctors, but also because of his amazing attitude. I learned from him that every day we have the choice to live fully. Attitude, after all, is everything.


* Positive thinking the the first step towards a happy life.
* Attitude is everything

If everyone applies just these, the whole world will live in happiness.

Getting Rid Of Allergies

The Power Of The Unconscious Mind

The unconscious mind is extremely powerful and dominant. In a state of the unconscious, let super-learn occurs. In that state, we perform things without limitations, constraints and restraints. We know no fear at all.

Everyone of us is controlled more than 90% of the time by our unconscious mind. Our body and mind operates constantly at an unconscious level. Examples are -

1. Now, feel the temperature of your body;


2. Notice the difference in temperature of your skin with that of the atmosphere;

3. Now, notice the weight of your feet;

4. Feel the heart beating against your chest; and

5. While you are reading this, be aware of all the sounds around you.


You realize that indeed how deeply we are controlled unconscious. Many of our mood swings, personality, character, mindset, attitude, and just "being" are operated unconsciously. Just imagine if only we can be offered more choices to positive re-wire ourselves to make quantum positive transformation, how much more effective each one of us can be. Such choices are possible; it is only for our taking.

Phobias and allergies are wiring down wrongly to our neuro-network at some point in time and totally, unconsciously. We can get rid of them by reeducating our neurology.

Robert Dilts develop an allergy process within NLP to get rid of allergies in a very short time without medication. The following is an extract from one of his articles.

According to immunologist Dr. Michael Levi, an allergy is like a "phobia" of the immune system. In the 1950’s Levi won the World Health Association Award for his research demonstrating that viruses were infectious. As a result of his many years of work with the immune system, Levi contends that, when a person develops an allergy, the immune system has in essence formed a kind of phobic reaction to a certain type of substance, and then begins to panic when it gets around it. Symptoms of an allergy are produced by the results of this type of phobic reaction. Levi also asserts that other forms of allergies are like a "tantrum" of the immune system -- that is, the immune system is throwing some sort of fit because it was not being taken care of properly, or was getting so fatigued and tired that it was striking out as a person or a child might have a tantrum.

In the same way that we learn and acquire emotional responses, our bodies learn and acquire immune responses. The fact that such deadly illnesses as small pox and polio have been virtually wiped off the face of the earth is a testament to the fact that our immune systems can learn.

The major issue in dealing with an allergy is reeducating the immune system. Our immune system has two basic ways of dealing with foreign material in our bodies - passive and active. A passive immune response is primarily carried out by macrophages - white cells in the blood stream that simply engulf and digest the foreign material. In fact, the term "macrophage" literally means "big eater." The active immune response is carried out by "killer" T cells - cells that attack and destroy foreign matter.

The purpose of the passive immune response is to remove non-living matter from the body. The purpose of the active immune response is to attack and destroy living cells, like bacteria, that endanger the body. In the case of the virus, this means attacking cells in our bodies. This is because of the way a virus operates. A virus is basically a little bundle of genetic material that cannot reproduce itself because it lacks the rest of the cell structure to support that process. So instead the virus acts as a kind of a parasite that takes over the cells of its host in order to reproduce, depleting the resources of the unwilling host. In order to rid the body of a particular virus, then, the immune system must recognize and destroy the infected cells in our own body. In some cases this is done by actually exploding the infected cell (through a chemical reaction). This is what causes the redness and irritation associated with infections and allergies.

In the case of an allergy the immune system has made a mistake, in that it is responding to a harmless non-living foreign material as if it were a virus. Similar to a phobia, the immune system is panicking and is in such a confused state that it is attacking our own bodies even though there is no danger. In some ways it is a kind of an "I'll show you, I'll just hit myself" reaction.

The goal of treating an allergy involves reeducating the immune system to utilize the passive rather than active protection in response to the foreign substance - a kind of physiological re-framing.

Like a phobia an allergy is a conditioned response. In fact, research has shown that allergies can be conditioned in guinea pigs using a procedure similar to that Pavlov used in his experiments with his dogs (Russel, Dark, et al, 1984). The researchers put the smell of peppermint into the guinea pigs' cages and then injected them with a substance that would naturally produce an active immune response. After repeating this five times over a short period of time, the researcher put the peppermint smell in the cage but did not inject the noxious substance. When they checked the blood of the guinea pigs they found that they were producing as full of an immune reaction as they would if they had been injected. Other studies (Ader & Cohen, 1981) demonstrated that rats could be conditioned to suppress immune responses.

A basic premise of psychoneuroimmunology (which is shared by NLP) is that immune responses, such as allergic reactions, can be influenced by psychological factors. There is a famous example of this, dating back to the turn of the century, documented by a physician named MacKenzie (1886) who was treating a woman with a violent allergic reaction to roses. He had an artificial rose in his office and was surprised to discover that his patient, not realizing that the rose was fake, manifested the full allergic reaction as soon as she saw the rose. The implication is that our autonomic nervous system (even our immune system) may be influenced as much by mental representations and expectations generated from within our central nervous system as by stimuli from the outside world.

Certainly, the immune system is capable of learning very quickly. Allergies are known to appear and disappear almost spontaneously. Patients with multiple personalities will have allergies in one personality and not in another. People often "outgrow" certain allergic reactions. The cells involved in active immune responses are produced in our bone marrow at the rate of about 80 million cells per minute. So once the reeducation process is done it can spread rapidly.

It is already known that allergies can, like a phobia, sometimes be treated through systematic desensitization procedures. However, like the phobia versions of these techniques, the process can be time consuming and often ineffectual. Using the model and techniques of NLP this desensitization process can be accelerated tremendously.

Both phobias and allergies also appear to be the result of what is called "response expectancy," a process which has strong mind-body implications. Response expectancy is the same process which is at the root of the placebo effect. People can very often bring on allergic response symptoms by the strength of their imagination, as MacKenzie’s patient with the allergy to roses demonstrated. From this perspective, allergic symptoms may be the result of a type of negative placebo effect.

Sometimes an allergy is the only excuse people allow themselves to take a rest, or to pay attention to their own health. It becomes a reminder for them to take care of themselves. Often, an allergy is a communication that a person is under a fair amount of emotional or physical stress. There are even some people who are afraid of accepting the responsibility that would come with realizing that they had that much influence on their own health.

In special cases, if a person’s father, mother, or some other significant person in his or her life has had allergies, an individual may unconsciously feel that having a similar allergy is way to stay connected with those significant others.

The purpose of identifying such positive intentions and secondary gains is to help the person add more choices. An underlying principal of NLP is that ecological change comes by adding new choices, not by taking away existing choices. Before a person is ready to shift an allergic reaction, he or she may need to find other ways of addressing certain life situations.

Finding these new choices is analogous to the change the immune system needs to make. Keep in mind that an allergy is often the result of the brain and the immune system together making a mistake. The body thinks that it's being invaded by something that is not, in fact, actually dangerous. The immune system becomes conditioned to try to defend itself against something that isn't really harmful. The smoke, cat dander, pollen and foods to which people develop allergies don't invade our cells like a virus. What happens is that the immune system thinks that it is being invaded, and so it strikes out at the body’s own cells. The symptoms of an allergy are the result of the immune system destroying healthy cells in the body in an attempt to protect itself from an invader that isn't really there.

Many allergies were developed at a time in a person’s life, or under conditions which have psychological similarities to this confusion of the immune system. The immune system is the body’s equivalent of a psychological self-concept. Many people develop allergies at a time when they are at a transition point with respect to their own sense of identity. At these times a person can feel their sense of ‘self’ being challenged or threatened by something from the outside. In this case the allergy may develop as a reflection of the psychological threat, and the resulting stress it produces. Allergies associated with asthma, for instance, are often related to traumatic experiences.http://www2.blogger.com/img/gl.link.gif

To address such situations, people may need to detach themselves from those early or traumatic experiences. Using tools such as Change Personal History, Re-framing or Re-imprinting, people can be helped to recognize that their identity has evolved and is different now than it was under those early circumstances. They can discover new ways of handling their life situations and their responses to crisis or danger, in the same way that the body can learn to have a different response to old triggers and stimuli. They can imagine how they would react differently if they took their current learnings, resources and abilities back into those early situations associated with the allergic response.

The Power Of "Reframing" At Work

Bed-wetting / Enuresis

Yes...it is about bed-wetting and how to stop an infant or a child from doing it. This what Barbara did when faced with a child with a habit of bed-wetting. Read all about it and perhaps you can share Barbara's experience with someone who has a child with the same concern.


"Children are very receptive to suggestion and imagery; in fact children are more often in that imaginary, magical world than in the so call real everyday adult world. Working with children in hypnosis, using a lot of bells and whistles and storytelling works great. If the child is young, crayons and paper work wonders. I sometimes have the child draw a picture of himself or herself, or write a small book about himself or herself before the 1st visit.


I meet with both the child and parents and we all enjoy this wonderful book together. Children always love to share things about their lives, and it is a great way to start rapport. I also receive the joy of seeing their lovely artwork, sharing and commenting on it. An easy technique which I used and works quite well with children 6-8 years is that I will have them create a picture in their mind about the concern, in this case, bed-wetting and we talk about how it makes them feel, etc. Then have them crumple up that picture and throw it away, and make a new picture in their mind of the way they are from now on going to be.... and then draw that new picture..... a lot of fun imagining, and with great result."

There Is No Such Thing As "Failure".

There Is No Failure, Only Outcome / Feedback.

This is one of many presuppositions of NLP. A "presupposition" is a generalization of an occurrence of an event that hold true universally most of the time.

If each of us embark on a mindset applying this presupposition, we are better prepared for the journey ahead. There are a number of us who prior to even commencing on a journey are afraid of failure. However, if we are prepared to tell ourselves that failure never exist and that there is only progress of an outcome and a feedback of where we have reached, we will view the perspective of the journey differently.

If we reach for Pluto, and if the journey only take us to Jupiter, never frat. That outcome didn't mean we have failed. We are more than half way across the universe. Let's learn from that journey and what we did that was inadequate for us not being able to reached our destination. Persevere and positively know the outcome and the feedback and eventually, we will reach Pluto.

This is one "presupposition" that we need to take along with us. Our lives are dotted with journeys of various sorts. We must be prepared to have a mindset that we can never fail but have just made progress and continue to make the progress. And destination is a never-ending journey as when we reach one, there is another waiting for us.

Learning State And When It Is Most Effective

Learning State in the context of Neuro-linguistic Programing

Neuro-linguistic Programing. NLP in short. This is a very powerful personal transformation technology. There are many tools that can be applied in various areas to make changes to behavior(s) for personal transformation. We are hugely unconscious operated beings. Most of what we do at all times are carried out without us knowing those actions. For example - our heart beating laboriously away without us knowing it until we are bought to realize it. Now you can feel the temperature of your body and the difference of that temperature and that of the space around you. Perhaps, as you read this blog, you are becoming conscious of the weight of your feet. Even just before now, you were unconscious of your breathe and the air that was passing in and out of your nostrils.

NLP deals largely with the unconscious mind. When we are conscious, we are not at our best learning state. Babies and infants learn best at their age and the reason is purely because they have no resistance and filters to learning. Their mind is like a sponge!! Absorbing everything that comes along, right or wrong contents.

Having understood the last 2 paragraphs, as parents to young ones, as teachers to pupils, it makes a huge difference for either the parents or the teachers to use the right language. "Communication is the response we get". If we use the proper language, babies, infants and children will be brought up with the right attitude and behaviors. When a child grows up in a family contained with problems, nothing but just problems, the chance of this child becoming an adult with an appropriate outlook in life is slim. He or she is unable to integrate into society. A tall order indeed and how true most of the time. As parents and teachers, we hold heavy responsibilities in the things we say and do. We are role models to the young ones. Young ones going through their imprinting years taking in what we say and do literally without filters. Therefore, when they grow up and they do behave different than how we wish them to be, let's ponder who is at fault that might be. Be careful what how we carry ourselves in front of these kids!!

There is an enormous resource on NLP and its practical applications in every aspect of life-issues, business, politics, sports, education, therapies, coaching, negotiations, modeling, management, relationships, selling, building rapport. As this blog progress, many aspects of NLP and its applications shall be shared.

Parts Integration - An NLP Tool

Parts Integration

Parts Integration is a simple NLP and yet speedy Intervention Process.

Everyone of us exists in many parts. When it comes to decision-making, the parts show up very obviously. Self-questioning like, " Do I buy the car or not. I love it but I am not quite sure if I should." Watching the language is an quite easy to identify whether the parts exist. The use of the word "BUT" shows that the person has a conflict within. Each part exists for the interest of the whole. However, each of these parts is controversial and conflicting with the other or others thus contributing to indecisiveness and restraints. There is a built-up of confusion and doubts. These conflicts have to be resolved. Otherwise, that state may led to continuous disintegration of the person's personality and well-being.

It certainly sounds familiar. Many a time we have been at such crossroads before. Multi-personalities are extreme cases of parts.

NLP has a tool that helps to resolve conflicting roles within a person. This intervention is known as "Parts Integration".

The following video shows how the induction is done. Mind you, the person undergoing the induction is fully aware of what is going on and what is being said to him. Therefore, there is no trickery or mind-control. He is purely in a heightened state of deep relaxation and awareness.

Enjoy the Video. Do provide feedback / comments.

Applications of NLP

Today was another new day where I was invited to speak to a group of NLP Practitioners with regards to applications of NLP in their daily lives. I first facilitated them to set out their outcomes for the day. Thereafter, I went on find a common one amongst the group that we could discuss. Many of them do not realize that they were already using some of the techniques.

I shared with them in particular on the following three segments -

1)My initial involvement;

2)My gestation period; and

3)My eventual breakthrough.

At the end of the 3-hour session, intentions and outcomes were met. It was very
fulfilling indeed, realizing that they feel more confident on how to apply NLP in their work.

NLP coaching was the breakthrough that I discovered in the applications of NLP. I find that NLP can extremely compliment our professional skills in a variety of ways. It compliments just about any convention or alternative therapeutic discipline.

It can assist us in executing our professional skills in a more focused and systematic manner.It helps to create the kind of deep rapport that enables others to quickly move to far deeper core issues simultaneously enhancing our insights and empathy with people we are connected with.