Are there any limitations to the mind's capabilities??

Last month I was talking about explain pain. Since then I’ve limited my screen time while working on more mind and matter integration around having some eye surgery. I wonder what you make of this.

 Last November, I elected to have eye surgery on my right eye to remove a cataract which was obscuring my vision sufficiently to be an unwelcome limitation.  The surgery was complicated by my having a previous lens implant. In the event, the surgery did not go well as the sac in which the lens of the eye sits tore open – pars of the old lens went through the sac, and the surgeon was unable to implant a new lens. Upshot –no lens in my right eye at all, huge light sensitivity, eventual fitting of a contact lens, blotchy and erratic vision.  Prognosis – either live forever in this state, or have more surgery involving draining the whole eyeball – this did not sit well in my mind.

The major issue was the debris of the old lens having gone through the back of the sac.   It needed to dissolve, which was unlikely given its size.  So off I went on a four week trip to Portugal, considering how I could help.   I chose two things, one was to meditate every morning, in which I quite spontaneously found myself focusing on moving the debris to the front of the eye. My other was exercise and Pilates. I was slightly wary of Pilates on the one hand as one is advised after eye surgery not to bend forward.  However, my instinct said yes, this was fine, so off I went to classes, and practised daily.

 On my return to the UK, I went to see my surgeon.  How’s it been, he said.  Okay, I said, except there was a short period where when I stood up quickly, my eye went black. He looked into the eye, and exclaimed, excitedly. 

`That is amazing!’, was his comment, ` that is just amaxing.  We must take a photograph’. 

I was curious.

In a nutshell, the debris which was problematic had relocated, coming the other way through the tear in the sac, and was now in front of the iris.  Upshot?  My excited consultant suggested immediate surgery, to remove the debris  - now a straightforward procedure – and implant a new lens behind the iris.

 Wow!  I couldn’t believe it, and am now writing this from a train as I go to Heathrow to take a flight to Thailand for work and pleasure.  My recovery is extraordinary, and my surgeon dumbfounded – apparently this is incredibly rare, if unheard of.

I thought back to those meditations.  Could I, do you think, just could I have influenced the eye?

Since I believe that my mind and body are an integrated circuitry, and that we cannot not respond, my answer to this, is how could I have not?

For my trip to and in Thailand, I fancied that I might write each day, today onward, incorporating whatever is going on with the 21 NLP Presuppositions which form the structure of the excellent book NLP in 21 Days, by Harry Adler and Beryl Heather.  Meanwhile, I welcome your comments and/or experiences.

Jan J

Can we be the author of our own medical states?

This week, we're doing quite a lot of planning for the next few months, and one of the things that we will be offering is a roadshow of free clinics to support people with health management, and particularly  to be able to influence their health conditions and experience.

The theme is thorny.  Basically, we are suggesting that to some degree at least, we can author and change our experience of health, illness and well being.  A number of beliefs  underpin our approach. That mind and body is a useful conceptual dichotomy, yet not fully real - we are one entity. That we can influence our thoughts and emotions by where and how we focus our attention.  That we can therefore influence the quality of our own experience. That we can make choices about how or whether we do this.

So, we aim to support people to be `at cause' of their own experience.  Yet we are not suggesting that their experiences are not real, or that they have purposely caused them, or that there are not other factors at play. Neither do we think that because we choose certain paths, choices are easy.

NLP Course for February

Three days into a New Year sees me sitting at the large oak table in our Algarve retreat, and enjoying gathering some momentum in my work. Work blends easily into my life, particularly when I'm designing courses, getting ready to deliver, and so on.  For me, there is a high degree of integration  between the two - after all, we live every minute of work, and work is part of the purpose of my life, given what I do.  

Today it's a case of sending some e-mails and publicity regarding the next NLP course - Neuro Linguistic Programming  . It's a bit of a mouthful, isn't it, yet l it describes what it does on the tin - our neuro and physiological processes link to our language link to the behaviour that we produce, or programme. I love this notion because it means I have some choices - I can change how I programme myself - whoopee dooh!   I would say that over a number of years, I've increased my confidence, dropped unhealthy or incongruent habits, and fulfilled a lot of my potential in ways that twenty years ago I wouldn't have dared think possible. Moreover, it's a privilege for both Graham and I to work with others who learn how to manage and change the path of an illness, discard unwanted flashbacks, make the best presentations ever - whatever is important in their values. So it's fun preparation, on this occasion aided and abetted by the audio version of Sue Knight's excellent NLP at Work - I can recommend it highly, easy to listen to, an eloquent rendition of her ethical and experienced take on the application of NLP.

Sun's shining here now, and nearly time to go shopping - friends round for dinner tonight, a jigsaw to be worked on with my father.  Years since I did one, am amazed at how obsessive they can be. Hours of being in flow, the delight when an elusive piece of the puzzle is found.

Weighty Matters for the New Year

Happy New Year,  1st January 2014 and the doors of possibility, as ever, open wide. Interesting isn't it how we mark out time with symbolic twists and turns on the hero's journey of life. Someone once said to me imagine how differently we might conceptualise ourselves if we didn't know when we were born - which is of course some people's truths. I thought yes, and imagine how it would be if we had no New Yyear, no ritualistic space to leave behind that which we don't want, to consider what we do.

As my birthday is New Years Eve, for me it's a double whammy - I turn a year in the markings of age, and wake up next day to a new Year.

My take on life has not changed overnight, I remain an entity of  integration between thought, mind, body, deed, desire, determination, and so on. A comment made at my dinner table last night did stay fresh with me, however. I'd been eating my supper and washing it down with the Moet when I commented that I was looking forward to dropping a little weight (obviously not while swallowing the food and the bubbly!) when my dear friend and daughter said to me `but you don't want to start yet, after all there's another week or so here (Portugal), start when you get home.'

Although I totally get this, I found myself pondering the messages we send ourselves and each other about issues of weight and fitness. In truth, I had a very busy year last year, culminating in a complicated aftermath of a surgical intervention, which meant that for the last three months, I stopped exercising regularly or planning my eating well. Truth be told, I can't wait to be feeling a little fitter, so the thought of having time and application to eat the foods that I know give me great energy, and to exercise regularly, is highly appealing.  Yet the habit of thinking that can easily prevail is that losing weight is a trudge, a bore, a deprivation.  I might add that my weight fluctuation is not massive - I'm not obese, and I'm far from skinny, more somewhere about average at a 5'9 size 14 slightly plus.  So for me, when I am managing my calorie input and output well, when I'm in a regular routine of exercise - which I love - and eating the foods that I ADORE - this is very much part of a treating myself, not depriving.

It's an important switch, isn't it, and it struck me how we are brainwashed about attitudes to good, bad, desirable, treat foods and habits. I know from my life and work that these attitudes are at the root of  a lot of habits which keep some people trapped in the vicious circle of weight mis management. So for what it's worth, we're pleased this week to be offering a free download of a book we wrote a year or two back with our colleague Jayne Hildreth, Who's Broken My Scales. You'll find it on http://www.healthandlifetransitions.com/Downloads.html
It's free until January 6th, so do help yourself.

Anyway, I did make the gym this morning, had a lovely chat with Monica the Pilates teacher, ate a great lunch and finished it with a cup of tea and a mince pie.  Bliss. 

So our first wishes for 2014 are that you are able to find the ways to create the year that you want within the possibilities that you have.  A very Happy New Year to you all - enjoy, and remember to be kind to yourself, because wherever you go, there you'll be.

Celebratory Gourmet NLP Course

It's now  just about 6 months since HaLT has been based in the UK, and we're enjoying integrating within the Lincolnshire Business Community which boasts such a rich variety of excellence and a great spirit of empowerment and entrepreneurship.  This month, key contracts have been in house coach training for First Avenue in Goole with staff wanting to get to Certificate level, resource development within the NHS, teaching NLP for our good friend Beryl Lyndley at NLP North Wales, and recruiting for the LLMC MSc Coaching course. We also have some amazing opportunities for a leading edge project involving NLP, which is so innovative and unique that we cannot yet divulge the nature - suffice to say we are very excited.

In August, we will be merging our two companies,  HaLT and NLPAssociated. To celebrate, we are launching a different style of workshop which allows delegates a choice of sessions within it so that they receive a bespoke service within an introductory frame. It's Gourmet NLP, some great basic learning in interesting ways, and it WILL be a sellout dynamic experience - so if you want to know more, go to our homepage www.healthandlifetransitions.com and read all about it!

NLP Introduction raises some smiles

Well, the Smart Psychology of NLP one day course went down well at LLMC yesterday, with another great mix of delegates, who all got their objectives met.  We love teaching this course, and always great opportunities to tell lots of stories. On this course we integrated for the second time at LLMC stories from Poppy the talking dog, as Graham had just driven her all the way from Portugal to Lincoln over the weekend.  As ever, thanks to all attendees.  Key favourites on the feedback we got were the power of the Dilts framework, a perception which Graham and I share, and the importance of getting yourself into the right state - remembering to anchor the state you want to be in before you go into various situations.  Thanks everyone for participation and making the day a success - I certainly left in the right state :)

Partnership in action

Busy weekend going over to Dublin to meet with a very forward thinking ethical pharmaceutical cmpany and a group of nursing specialists. Our part in the collaboration is to produce a patient resource and to train some nurses in coaching. Dublin is one of the friendliest cities we've ever been to, and I love the chat and the welcome we always get there from taxi drivers, hotel staff, just about everyone we meet. We really love this great attitude as well from  professionals from other disciplines who are far sighted enough to see the widespread value of coaching - big thanks to all concerned, let's see how we can get the ethos across to more and more people and empower people who are dealing with life changing diagnoses.