Diving into NLP?What for?

There are as many ways to define NLP as there are NLP practitioners.  Some people say NLP is a tool box, others say that it is the structure of excellence.  Some others believe it is pure love whereas many others claim it is a road to self-discovery.  NLP training has helped some people find their purpose in life.  It has also motivated others to set objectives and high standards.  Most people have learned how to communicate very effectively with others, and, more importantly perhaps, they have improved communication with themselves.  NLP training has widened horizons, opened up new possibilities, enhanced performance.  It has shown people that there are infinite options, that they are free to choose, that one of the best things we  can do nowadays in this changing world is to be open and flexible.  That each person is unique beyond intellectual understanding. That we celebrate the fact that we are all different and perceive reality in a myriad of ways.

When we start to grow we tend to justify our limits.  We find reasons for not going beyond.  Sometimes we seem to think that a little enlightenment is enough, that if we improve too much, we will be too different.  Different from whom?  From the others?  We already are different from the others.  Different from who we already are?  Probably.  The good news is that we decide who we are and who we would like to become.  When we justify our limits, we actually start to have them.  When we find excuses, they become real.

The typical excuse we have for not growing is that we don't have enough time to stop and reflect on our lives or careers.  The question is: if we don't, who will?  It is our life, after all, so we guess that deciding what we would like to do with it deserves at least a few minutes everyday.

NLP training is a guide for reflection and self-discovery, among other things.   When people start  they find that they have many more resources than they thought they had.  That everything they need is inside them.  And that is an empowering feeling !!! To do committed training, it is necessary to stretch, to go beyond.  When we elongate in our gym class we usually think we have reached our maximum point of stretching.  However, when our teacher makes us relax, exhale and try a bit more, we discover we can do much more than we originally thought. And if she gently pushes us a bit more, our bodies respond. 

Sometimes we choose not to stretch, and that's fine, if that's what we really want.  Yet, if we do choose to stretch, only one session with a good teacher will be fantastic, but it will not be enough.  In only one session we can stretch some muscles, we can make our spine more flexible, but if we don't continue our practice in a more committed way, the vertebrae will stick together again.  The memory of the experience of that single stretching class fills us with great  sensations, but nothing has really changed in our body structure or grace of movement.   We may decide to repeat some of the exercises  ten minutes every morning, which would be great.  However, it is not the same as doing a routine of stretching exercises with a good teacher until we really learn how to do it.  We can read the best book about stretching and we can  learn a lot with it, but is intellectual knowledge which is not put into practice in the same way as when our whole being experiences the exercise of our body trying out more possibilities and expressing its vitality.

When we take the first step, when we have decided that a new reality is possible, if we want to create it, we are ready for the second step.  If we don't take it, we fill our lives with "shoulds" and "one day I will" , "perhaps when I am richer, or taller, or more handsome . . .” in endless procrastination.

As teachers we give so much to others all the time, that we feel the urgency of taking in some fuel.  Some of us eat a lot after some difficult classes to fill the "empty" space.  Others look for other sorts of fuel: some choose spiritual fuel, others intellectual fuel, and some others stay empty: we know too well the worn-out teachers who are too tired, too disappointed, completely empty after having given so much.  Of course many times the fuel comes from the students themselves, but we can't count on that as it doesn't depend entirely on us, even though the better quality teaching we can offer is usually reflected on the kind of feedback we get from our classes.

Wedeserve good things.  Not a few good things or some good things.  Wedeserve to enjoy our lives.  Wedeserve to be recognised in our careers.  Wedeserve to have the chance to grow. We deserveabundance of possibilities.  We deserve wonderful schools, classrooms and opportunities.  We deserve to have vibrant energy and good health.  And we will have what we decide to have when we take the first step towards our dream: to live the life we always wanted to live. When we accept that it is good to grow and fill our existence with joy, pleasure and gratitude, we will start to experience magic...we will start to thrive.

Ó Laura Szmuch and Jamie Duncan 2002