Dreams and Rotten Tomatoes

 

This week’s blog is not a typical NLP teaching tool.

You’ve been fairly warned.

The big election in the U.S. has heated up discussions about emotional topics like our unwelcome presence in Iraq, our limp economy, and our impact on global warming.

What business do politics have in a blog about NLP?

Our nation seems insatiably fascinated by fear and bad news. The unintended side effect of our addiction to who, what, when, where, and why, is a massive black cloud of fear that rules our collective conscious and unconscious — without even realizing the consequence.

People love it when you lose,
They love dirty laundry
    –Don Henley

Try this exercise:

•Pick a 4-hour period of any day in which you have a lot of interaction with people (including watching anything on television, if you can stomach it).
•Put a sticky note on your desk or somewhere nearby.
•As you go through the 4 hours, record a slash mark every time you see or hear a message from others OR within yourself, that carries a negative tone: “I can’t … I’m stuck … I’m so ____ … Ain’t it awful … Did you hear … No … Not this … You won’t … He doesn’t … etc.
•Maybe your version is more a feeling of tension or anxiety in your gut or chest that you can’t trace to its source.  Record a slash mark every time you become aware of that feeling.

This simple process will wake you up to the constant barrage of “rotten tomatoes” the world throws at your efforts to live with ease and happiness.  Becoming aware is the first step in doing something about it. If you have dreams and a clear purpose,  the work of making them real means learning how to notice and address the negativity around you — from people who have let fear become their master.

The innate purpose of fear in a species is self-protection – a danger alert system. (The thorn is an expression of the rose’s fear.) But human beings have come to use this “survival tool” not just for danger and survival, but to declare whatever we don’t like as tragic, “not enough,” or sinister.

•“The economy is in big trouble.”
•“Government cannot be trusted.”
•“With the rising price of gas and the falling value of my home, what will we do?”

Through NLP, we have learned that language creates reality: “As you think, so you become.” What we say (to ourselves and others) sets in motion a cause, followed by an effect. The unconscious mind does not understand the difference between “negative” and “positive.”  It works far more simply then that — what we give attention to, it busily creates.  I attended a dinner party recently, in which the group was rabidly tearing apart a political candidate — the politics, the beliefs, everything about that person was FRIGHTENING, appalling, and downright evil.  And they wouldn’t get off it.  At one point, I spoke up and said “Yes, but what do you think it’s creating to give her so much attention at our dinner table?”

If you want a different life, you must commit to a conscious, daily process to overcome “lazy thinking”. To consciously cultivate thinking that produces aligned actions that support your intentions.  (If this were easy to do, everyone would have what they want in life).

It’s a lot more fun to be around people who live with “positive expectation,” than those consumed by “negative projection.”

So please, for the sake of your dreams (and those around you), take a few minutes to breathe and consider what you really want:

•Easy communication.
•Abundance of good things.
•Creative inspiration.

Translate these wishes into specific terms, and make visible affirmations in your daily life through sticky notes, meditation, posters, whatever helps you remember. Think about giving your big dream the same attention you might give a new baby: Not a casual passing smile, but the full devotional loving attention it needs and deserves.

Maybe we cannot go back and change everything that’s wrong, from where it all started.

But we can start from now and make a brand new ending.

An especially helpful strategy for counter-balancing negativity in “NLP Portable Practitioner Training” is “The Circle of Excellence” which can be found in Section 1, DVD #4. Click here for to find out.