It's 2016, many things have happened since I began my journey on planet Earth, in fact for life to be of value, things do have to happen. The good, the not so good and the plain ugly, but what can make a difference to these experiences is applying and re-applying NLP techniques to really change your map of the world, that allows the possibility of a renewed way of thinking.
Remembering that your map will change whether you like it or not, it has no axe to grind and just does what it does best – and so can you! NLP can help with this ever-changing landscape whether from picturesque countryside to roaring waves crashing against a beaten shore. For it to become the scenery you would prefer, the bubbling brook or tropical beach, the images are yours for the creating and making. Once I learnt to be the master of creating image, my surroundings changed for the better; allowing the surroundings to be dealt with more effectively.
Who am I to say these things? What makes me any different from the next person?
Absolutely nothing, I eat, sleep, breath just like you do, I interact with the world just like the next person, however what I do have available is a way of processing that allows all the fallibilities of being human to be put into perspective. Even to have a good laugh at myself is a huge advantage. What did I make that mean? Oh yes… let's change it! My blue-print of my unconscious mind continues and nothing can interrupt this process.
So is this an “easy life” I have? After all I have got it sorted – yes?
No… Niet…. Non… is the simple response to the question.
So let me add some context to my world – the stuff of life! In 2011 I was diagnosed with Chronic Heart Disease – just before I decided to study my Masters in NLP with Quest for Success.
So two heart stents later I started training and all was good. Learning Time Line Therapy Techniques happened at the right time… letting those negative emotions go was totally amazing and much needed. I don’t like hospitals much (except maybe as a visitor) so had built negativity towards them. GONE. As in the film Airplane “a hospital, what’s that?” “It’s a big building with patients, but that’s not important right now.”
We could move on leaving that as a blip on the map and then ready for what the universe had for me next.
My own private coaching practice, that was the dream, the hope and the future – making those big differences to those around me. All the excellent Quest for Success Ltd training I took supported this. The business started well, but my body wasn’t playing – the brain was willing. My blue-print was shouting at me in the only way it could. I asked the question to my GP “could stents fail?” “NO” I was told…. Most would accept this… I did not, I was very much in tune with my unconscious, it wasn’t happy, sure enough, with a little persistence, I was back in the angiogram suite with all those bleeps, bings, alarms. Seeing on the screen my heart and this thin tube inside it… I will say it hurt - but a not like a scrapped knee from falling off a bike as a child, a very unique pain. Where was my anchor and self hypnosis technique… oh yes…. The desert island appeared, with the lapping ocean and the palm trees leaves blowing on the breeze, the suns warming rays…. Ah yes, that’s better.
“Mr Searson, are you with us?” dam reality bites…. A quick return to the room! “your 75% blocked in 2 of your 4 main arteries, and 50% in the other two… A quad bypass is needed.”
Ok my body was right… and I am glad I persisted. The map had changed again, but was I too worried? Maybe…. Scared? A little but glad I now knew. What was NOT the problem here? Well simple really, I still had 25% left – that can’t be sneezed at… I was still alive!
The following months were all around hospitals, machines, further tests and lost paperwork. I nearly died of an admin failure! Humour with NLP has a place too! Yes I needed a specialist heart surgeon to fix my broken heart and he made several comments about how was I still walking…. Simple again…. My unconscious mind was applying my blueprint of health and doing its upmost to preserve life! Duh!
Operation day arrived… and I was actually in a good, positive state, with one slight concern… showing how we can all be influenced by our surroundings – no it wasn’t the op, it was post op…. one person had planted that the worse pain I would feel would be when the chest drains would be removed…. So everything else was pain free then?
The lights went out…. My audio-visual-feelings-taste machine (or conscious mind for short) was switched off…. 18 long hours to be exact….. felt like 20 minutes! Soon being shouted at… like some annoying gnat buzzing around me, telling me things, saying I wouldn’t remember what he was saying… I do, audio was back on and fully working! I smiled internally that my wife had kept calling to see how I was throughout the night! I was back, back and fixed…. And a huge desire to have chicken soup! So in intensive care I was supping the most fantastic bowl of steaming soup ever.
Recovery went well… and soon back at home, home became a different reality now. 3 months of building up strength, testing the repaired pump and making sure the surgery was a success. The map is not the territory and the landscape changed once again.
So its 2016 – 4 years on. I am doing what I do best in a large cancer charity, supporting others with my specialist learning and understanding, using NLP to its full each and everyday. The rest is just sand and the future is not yet written. Enjoy your journey!
(PS… the chest drains didn’t hurt when they were removed!)
Published with the kind permission of Mr Richard Searson.