Welcome - Croeso
Welsh Institute of Neuro Linguistic Programming
Sefydliad Cymreig Rhaglennu Niwro-Iethyddol
An NLP story:
"I moved into a new home this past year. It happened to be right across the street from the high school my daughter was attending. We had gone through a fairly arduous process to enrol her in this school, given we didn't live in the District. I was commuting her to/from the school because we lived outside the bus district. I drove by this house with its "for sale" sign for months taking her to/from school, and would think "Wouldn't that be a nice spot to live? But there's no way ... I'm sure it's out of my price range." One day, I just stopped and picked up the flyer. I contacted the realtor and the first time I set foot in this house (having already seen dozens of homes) I knew -- "This is home." Against almost impossible odds, seller and buyer came to a happy ending and we moved in a few weeks later.
My new home backs to a nature trail. One day, as I was walking the trail I was struck with a flashback: About 5 years ago, my daughter took horseback lessons at a private home in this area. During one of her lessons, I took our dog for a walk. I was so charmed by the neighbourhood, it reminded me of my hometown in some ways. I spent a lot of that walk thinking "I'd really like to live in this neighbourhood someday." It was a STRONG feeling of longing, more than a passing thought. Then I basically forgot it. Fast- forward 5 years later, and here I am standing on the trail a block from my new house, staring at the house where she had taken those lessons. When we chose the high school, I had no idea it was down the street from the horse property I had longingly walked 5 years prior. When I bought the house, I had forgotten that I wanted to live in this neighbourhood.
In a flash of insight, I realized this reality was not an "accidental future" -- call it God, call it the Universe, call it clarity of intention. Whatever you like. But occasionally amidst the busyness of worldly and practical pursuits, if we are quiet enough inside, we can see this IS what's going on ALL THE TIME. We think something, we create it, we become it. When we are faced with the direct evidence of the power of our interior world, it's heady stuff. At least for me, these moments give me pause to think "Is what I'm thinking and wishing for right now, what I really want in the future?"
In the February 2009 Oprah magazine (my pop-culture indulgence along with American Idol), the cover story is "How to Make Your Own Luck." The main article "How to Get Lucky" features a cognitive psychology professor at University of Michigan, Colleen Seifert, talking about the 6 years she spent researching "why people think the way they do." The article relates how upon receiving notice of becoming tenured at the University, she woke up the next day and realized all of a sudden her life had changed, her goals were different, and she needed to take specific steps to make them come to life. And she sets about modelling her own research concept, which she calls "predictive encoding" (anticipating precisely when in the future a particular piece of knowledge or behaviour is going to be useful). I was reminded of the NLP concept of future-pacing -- basically a mental power-boost technique for "wishful thinking." The NLP world figured out that mental rehearsal of a new skill or reality in the precise situation in the future when you will need it WORKS. Sort of like programming a piece of software to do its job at a specified time and circumstance. When the situation occurs, dada -- behaviour follows!
Seifert's research confirms what NLP'ers have known for years: When you prepare your mind for a specific behaviour to emerge around a specific circumstance, you increase the likelihood by as much as 50% that you will DO the behaviour.
And while we all want lottery-style luck and I surely deserve random good fortune, the real world seems to operate more like "You get what you ask for." Leave it to the smart philosophers and scholars to sort out the difference between fate and creationism and behavioural psychology. Meanwhile, I want my wishes and intentions on the "fast track." I've been through enough living to notice that if I practice what I want, I give a more satisfying "performance" in my life. Even as simple as noticing how my slightly grumpy presence produces a more argumentative "vibe" at the dinner table ... and if I show up differently, what happens?
Thinking of daily life as a reflection of "previous choices" is both empowering and frightening. When I choose poorly, I reap that harvest .... or "bad luck" prevails (although it's harder to clean up a mess when I'm feeling like a victim). When I choose well, I almost immediately feel that a stronger, happier, more empowered person is stepping on the stage. That's the reality I want ... and praise God or the universe or my consciousness when it kicks me under the table to remind me I'm in charge far more than I realize, and the exact moment I want ... is being created right now.
And while you're listening God? I'll take the lottery winnings too."