As we move from 2015 into a new year of 2016, there are many aspects of our life which I believe will benefit greatly from a certain class of improvements. Moving pretty rapidly beyond having enough resources to live in security and comfort, this class of improvements will be the kinds that create genuine compassion and succinctly and simply nurture happiness.
The purpose of this post is to invite you to watch a video ( which is below ) that is about perhaps not a new way ( its very old ) but likely a way to think differently and more relationally about your own situations and certainly being a citizen of the world, to think differently about the world we are a part of along with all of the other people we share this blue life giving marble with.
This idea to share comes to me as I have been revisiting much of the material I started reading almost 15 years ago as I began my journey of NLP. Particularly I have been revisiting works of Gregory Bateson, Paul Watzlawick and Joseph Campbell. There are certain themes that are shared and hopefully should you read and research them, perhaps, you will get deep insights into what Bateson called ‘the pattern which connects’ and perhaps you will change certain aspects in how you think, act and are in this world…
Many a great philosopher, scientist and spiritual teacher have understood in the West where there are in our time, truly great advances in science and medicine which certainly have the potential to eradicate hunger and wars, as there are more than enough resources for the entire earth, noticed that there seems to be very little spiritual ( one meaning of this to me is world wide compassion and sharing in an inter-personal way ) evolution.
Remember that a staggering half of the worlds wealth is held be 1% of the population. This is an unrepresented moral inequality.
In Lakoffs excellent book ‘Moral Politics’ he discusses a term ‘Privateering’ as being how corporations ( in bed with governments – who we elect ) have and are turning societal services which governments should protect and run for their citizens into private services which strip wealth from citizens. Look at our national health service in the UK or the formally named ‘Blackwater’ security service in the USA as examples.
Lakoff also explores ‘Framing’ as a way of hardwiring certain concepts into our brains which can tend to get people to vote against their own interests, values and beliefs.
A frame can be thought of structuring values, ideas and ways of thinking in line with your own purposes. Frames such as ‘war on terror’, ‘Councils forced to make more cuts’, and ‘politicians to get pay rise’ have a tendency to evoke a certain way of thinking and emotions. And most of this though is well below the threshold of consciousness.
On an intra-personal branch, how we relate to ourselves, much of the thinking an individual will do is again unconscious and the little of what we are conscious of can seem like both a reality and a belief, for good, ill or somewhere in the middle. The frames, meta-programs and our conditioning that are alive and active ( how are these activated? How are these changed? ) as it stands can lead to us being fearful or joyful in any variety of situations. Where the strong influence on our emotions and thoughts can seem out of our own hands.
Being happy is all peoples birth right as humans. The Dalai Lama has a strong accent on being happy. It is said that the purpose of life is to be happy. Buddhism as one of the worlds oldest spiritual / life practices has a strong accent on human beings and the main teachings of human illumination are freedom from fear and desire ( two major frames used to shape thinking in politics ) and also a freedom of what society might term social duty, especially when many aspects of what is deemed right in society is clearly flawed and serve so very few.
Just one of the many ways of reshaping our consciousness and our deep frames and narratives is exploring both how we think and having an idea of how we think we are in a position to change the structure. Changing previously unconscious modes of thought, especially their meanings, does actually take time, effort and practice. And this is a worthwhile life practice.
NLP has a strong accent on process or the how something is accomplished. Its like learning the scales on a guitar, the rules for programming a computer or what happens when an artist mixes colours of paint. Once you have and understand these basic principles or fundamental process structures and their relationships, you can create your own art.
The basic unit of learning according to Bateson is difference. Exploring the differences that make a difference in a positive way in your own life and those who you are relating with, for me is one of the real gifts in NLP. Some details of NLP training in Newcastle beginning January 2016 are following this inspiring video from Paul Watzlawick.
Here is a deep and prophetic video of Watzlawick [ When the solution is the problem (1987) ]. Now this is subtitled so you really will need to invest some time and effort … and it will be well worth it!
Taking an NLP Training for very many people has a rather profound and positive effect in their life. Now NLP will not dramatically change your life, its you that can do that. What NLP offers are processes which can lead you to new and different ways of acting and being in the world … perhaps the ways where you learn to make yourself feel more resilient and feel happier more of the time.
For information and booking Newcastle NLP Practitioner training of a highly experiential nature beginning in January 2016 click on this link.
