Magic Valley NLP

"The kind of life you live, your disposition, your very nature, will be determined by your thoughts, of which your acts are but the outward expression. Thought is the seed of action." --David O. McKay,

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, tada -- behavior follows!

Chapter 1:  Introduction

Welcome to this year’s course of study.  My name is Debrah Roundy and I will be your instructor.

I am a Neurolinquist.  “What is a Neurolinquist?”  You may ask.   Susi Smith is a well known Neurolinquist.  In defining Neurolinquistics she states, “I teach people how to use their brains.  I help people become more aware of what they are thinking and doing, become conscious.  I tell people how they are getting results and if they are not getting what they want, how to use their brain to get what they want.  If people are more aware of what they are doing they can make it even better and if they are not getting the results they want I can make them more aware of what is not working and how to change it to be more successful.”

Some of you may have heard of Susi Smith. She teaches around the world and will be in Shanghai October 9-15 of this 2012 year, then in Hong Kong and will finish up October in Guangzhou, China on October 31, 2012. 

I have been teaching since 1974 when I graduated from Boise State University.  I taught for three years then stayed home when my second child was born.  (My first child lived only three days)  I still taught sometimes as a substitute, as a kindergarten teacher and also students who were homebound (meaning they could not go to public school so had to be taught at home, usually for medical reasons) Later I returned to full time teaching and taught 15 years in special education.  I earned my master’s degree in 2000.  I retired in 2012. I have presented to various educational audiences around Idaho on Special Education issues. 

In 2007 I began my study of Neurolinquistics, or NLP, and continued to study getting my masters in 2008 and my Trainer and Consultancy Certification in 2009.  I have taken refresher courses the last three summers working as a resource person at NLPU.  I have taught NLP in community education classes in my home town of Rupert, Idaho and in other venues in Idaho.  I have also presented to worldwide audiences at NLPU, and at several IASH conferences.  I was accepted to speak again this year at the biannual IASH conference but had to decline because I was going to China. 

Neurolinquistics is a passion for me.  I started my study because I wanted to enhance my student’s learning.  I found that I could teach my students the Neurolinquistics programs and they could excel beyond what we expected of them.  They became better learners, spellers, mathematicians and readers.  It is addictive for a teacher to find something that helps her students achieve more.  Now it is my passion to teach students in China to achieve more and because Neurolinquistics is a study that uses speech as one if its primary tools for learning and exploration, I found it a perfect match. 

Chapter 2: A Brief Introduction to NLP

You can live as if nothing is a miracle, or you can live as if everything is a miracle. ---
Albert Einstein.

Have you ever thought about your thinking?  Your thoughts determine where you go in life.  It really is up to you.  NLP is a great way to get you thinking in a new way and get you curious about you and how you think.  After you know how you think you can use NLP tools to increase your abilities.  You will also know how others thing in a deeper and more useful way. 

NLP is often defined as the study of subjective experience.  That means that it is the study of people’s opinions and feelings. It is about how you communicate with others on a larger scale than just talking. We communicate with our actions, our gestures, our eyes and subconscious actions we are not aware of.  You will pay attention to how you think and how others think as well as what you think about. 

These are useful tools to have for people who want to communicate effectively.

You experience your world through your senses.  Those senses are seeing, hearing, touch, taste and smell.  The sensory input you receive through your five senses is taken in and translated by both your conscious and unconscious thought processes.  Your thoughts activate your neurological system, that is the “N” or neuro in NLP, neurology.  This affects our physiology, emotions and behavior. 

The “L” refers to linguistics, the systematic study of language.  Your language helps you make sense of the world and communicate with others.  You communicate with words, gestures, and body language.

Programs is the “P” in NLP.  Programs in NLP includes programs that are created to help people be more excellent and we will go into more depth on that in a future unit.  It can also refer to our own personal programs, the internal strategies and processes each person uses to learn, to solve problems, to evaluate and to navigate in the world. 

You will explore your own self and others in more depth as you learn through this unit and through that exploration you will foster greater growth in your English speaking skills.  Welcome to NLP. 

Chapter 3:  What is an NLP Circle of Excellence?

Nurture your mind with great thoughts, for you will never go any higher than you think.  Benjamin Disraeli

This year was the Olympics. Did you watch some of the competition?  Did you have a favorite athlete.  During the Olympics I was taking my TESL training.  Whenever there was a break at class everyone would go to the hall where there was a TV on and watch the athletes.  Because we were all going to China, we all cheered on the Chinese athletes.  We cheered the three hundred and ninety-six Chinese athletes and were pleased that China got the second greatest number of gold medals.  China has only competed nine times in the summer games since 1952 and the growth is phenomenal.

Have you even watched an athlete just before they compete?  You will often see the athlete step aside and seem to go inside him or herself.  There might be a certain gesture made or words said.  Maybe you wonder what they are saying.

Do you compete in a sport?  Do you have a special ritual or thing you do just before you play to prepare yourself?  Many athletes do. 

 Mind and body affect each other mutually.

There is the last years many researched the impact of us (unconscious) thinking on how our body works and responds. Deepak Chopra even says that every thought a certain affect each individual cell in our body.

This is a basic premise where within NLP from working. Everything you think, may be located in one way or another, represent in your body.

The process we will learn is very similar to the ritual of the athletes preparing for competition.  It is called the Circle of Excellence.  It is a little ritual you can do when you want to create an internal state of excellence within you.   The Circle of Excellence was created by John Grinder and Judith DeLozier and is used to help people access a state of optimal performance quickly and when needed.  This will be your first exploration into you own internal and behavior patterns.

You will be remembering and imagining times and places when you have had the excellence you want to again access.  When you imagine something your brain goes to the same places as it did when you were really there.  The same areas of the brain are stimulated and the same neurons fire.  “Time Magazine” 

Reported research on the areas of the brain that were activated by seeing something and then again by imagining it.  Scan images of the brain showed little difference in the actual seeing and the imagining of different things.  As you look at the pictures you will notice that the same areas of the brain are active.  Source: 'Time' -summer special-. Your Brain: A user's guide. Page 14)

In the Circle of Excellence we will create an imagined place where you are excellent and you can re-access or go to this place whenever you want to increase you excellence.

Chapter 4:  Creating your own Circle of Excellence

"While we may not be able to control all that happens outside of us,
we can control what happens inside of us."  - Benjamin Franklin

We will do our first Circle of Excellence about creating a state of excellence in learning.

1-      Think of a time when you were really good at learning.  What you were to learn seemed easy and clear to you.  You enjoyed your learning and it felt good to you.  It could have been at home or at school.  Maybe it was a music lesson or a sport.  Because this is about you, each person will be different. 

2-      Make an imaginary (not real, made up in your mind) circle on the ground.  It will be your Circle of Excellence.  What color will you make it?  Will it be a flat circle or will it come up.  Will it be filled or a line drawing? 

3-      Now step into your circle and imagine you are really there.  Feel how it felt when the learning was easy.  Re-experience or activate the feelings you had when it was easy to learn.  Did you say or hear words in your head (internal dialogue)? Listen to those words again.  Did someone say something to you?  If so hear those words also.   Imagine in your mind’s eye was you saw then.  Make the picture clear and vivid.  Perhaps there was a taste or a smell that went with it. If so, bring them back to the memory also.  Make your circle and rich and full of the good experience as is possible. 

4-     When you have it good, step out of your circle and do something else such as chat with a friend for a minute.  This is called breaking state and is useful to test the strength of your circle.

5-     Now step back into your imaginary circle.  Test it out. See how quickly you can get back into that state of excellence you created.  Step in and out several times until your body learns to access or get it quickly. 

6-     Now store that imaginary circle in a safe place. Since it is only in our imagination, you can tuck it into your pocket or purse for it takes no room and you can imagine you take it out any time you want to.

Chapter 5:  Uses for the Circle of Excellence

Our life is shaped by our mind; we become what we think.  Joy follows a pure thought like a shadow that never leaves.  ---Buddha

Having created your own Circle of Excellence, what good is it?  How will you use it?  I can only give you a few of my ideas and I will be interested to know how many different ways you will use yours.  Maybe you will imagine your circle becomes a pad to sit on when you study at your room.  Of maybe you will place it at your feet when you come into my class. Will you use it at other classes? 

A Circle of Excellence can be created any time you want to be excellent in something.  Being excellent at something is a desired state. Do you want to be excellent at speaking English? Being friendly?  Running well? 

As you do them you with yourself and others, you will begin to notice that some things (cognitive and physical patterns) are universal.  Most people do it the same, like a smile.  You may also note that some  are unique to  a group.  For instance girls in Japan tend to cover the smiles with their hands so their teeth will not show when they laugh but in other cultures they smile broadly and allow all to see their teeth.  Some cues are idiosyncratic, that is they are individual to each person.  For example, I had a college professor who would stroke his beard when he was in deep thought and often was not aware of it. When we, his students, saw him stroking his beard we would know he was taking his time before responding to think something through.  

What is important for you is to know what cues are yours when you are in a state of excellence so you can make the state stronger for you. 

Let’s finish this unit with a story of how Hyato successfully used the Circle of Excellence for a great game of golf.  Hyato loved to play golf.  He would play any day and at any time he could.  He was good.  One day he was invited to play with the local golf professional.  When he went to tee off he felt scared.  Here he was, Hyato, just an ordinary guy who loved golf playing with a real professional.  Hyato froze up.  He tee’d off with the worst swing he had done in years.  His whole game was the same, one bad swing after another.  Hyato felt terrible. He had totally blown his game.

Still Hyato loved golfing.  His friends teased him a bit about blowing his game but he continued to play.  Then the day came that a professional golfer was coming to his golf course.  Some lucky player would win a round of golf with him.  All of the golfers could vote for the winner.  Hyato had many friends and they all voted for him. Hyato won.  At first he felt excited but then all of the feelings of freezing up and blowing the game came back to Hyato.  He did not want to do that again.

Hyato had a friend Maso who knew NLP.  Maso invited him to his home to learn a program to help him be successful.  It was the Circle of Excellence.  Maso had Hyato remember times when he was good at golf. That was easy because most of the time he was good.  Hyato created an imaginary circle. Of course you might guess it was grassy and green.  He imagined it out in front of him.  He remembered a time when he hit a hole in one.  It felt so good.  He stepped into the circle. He remembered how good it felt. He saw the ball fly right into the cup.  He heard his own internal dialogue saying, “Unbelievable, I did it, I did it!”  He heard his golf buddies congratulating him.  He remembered how it felt when they slapped him on his back. 

Hyato put all of those things into his circle. Then he stepped out and Maso and Hyato talked about work for a few minutes.  Maso said, let’s try it out again.  Hyato imagined his grassy circle on the ground. He stepped in.  It felt great again.  They tried it a few times to make certain it was strong and would serve him well.

Finally the big day came.  Hyato met the professional golfer.  They shook hands and chatted as they went to tee off.  Soon it was Hyato’s turn.  He imagined his grassy circle right where he would swing.  He stepped on it.  It felt good and he felt confident.  It was a great swing and Hyato knew it was going to be a great game.

Assignment:  For class be prepared to tell

What color your circle is.

What experience you remember when you were excellent in learning

One place or way you will use this in the future.

This assignment should be 4-6 sentences and take about 1 minute.

Quiz:

Hand in your quiz at the start of class.

Match the vocabulary to the meaning.

Test Questions for Final:

Cloze: Fill in the blanks with the correct word.

Human  -1-, by changing the inner  -2-  of their minds, can change the -3- aspects of  -4-  lives.

---William James

Word box  (there are 5 words and only 4 are needed.  One is a red herring. )(a red herring is a figurative expression in which a piece of information is intended to be misleading )

Picture of Susi Smith from http://suzismith.net/

athlete a picture off of Face book

Picture of brain images from 'Time' -summer special-. Your Brain: A user's guide. Page 14)

Circle of Excellence characature from Microsoft Clip Art