Well, if you’re a Trekkie you’ll have heard Jean Luc Picard utter those words several times in each episode! However, for those of you who have no idea what I just said – you will also probably understand the basic meaning behind the phrase! Make it so.
Make what exactly? Well – “it”, whatever “it” may be.
I’ve just been reminded of a couple of ‘basics’ within the NLP coaching that I do. The first is “setting the intent” and the second is the “mind/body connection“, that we work as a whole, not two parts of the mind, and the body.
Setting the intent – before starting anything, have in mind a very clear outcome of what you want to achieve. This can come from visualising a task well completed, a result from an exam, a task at work – anything. Set the intent of what you want to happen, and fully experience that – the only thing left to achieve, is for the outside world to catch up with the reality you just created inside your own mind!
The mind/body connection. Think something, and it manifests itself in your body. An example is something I use on myself, and also with other people who are nervous/scared of having needles penetrate their skin – whether for blood tests or injections. It’s not so much that I am scared of needles, but after a very bad experience to have some blood taken about 6 months ago, which left my arm bruised almost from shoulder to wrist for about a week, I decided something had to be done to make it as easy as possible for the Phelbotomist (posh word for a saturday afternoon!) taking the blood.
Many NLP coaches have had success with this technique, and I’ll share it with you now. First of all, breathe easily and relax! The second step is to just say the word “soften” in your head whilst continuing to breathe!
What can this do? Well would you believe it makes the needle go all soft and floppy and therefore it can’t hurt you? No? I didn’t think so! What it DOES do though, is it actually has an effect on the part of your body soon to be approached by the sharp pointy thing, and “somehow”, YOUR body/skin/tissue/muscle actually softens to enable the needle to enter more easily.
I have done this everytime I’ve had to return to the Phlebotomist (yes ok I’m showing off now!), or the Practise Nurse to have another blood test – over this year its been every two months – so there’s been a few times to test this out! Every time since, I’ve used this technique, and not only has it not hurt, but it’s also left absolutely NO mark at all – not even the ‘little’ bruise that normally follows such an event.
So this afternoon, I took myself out into the garden to try and shake off a little afternoon snoozle that was threatening to take over, and whilst out there, I did some weeding of the borders.
Pretty big weeds actually, the borders have been a little neglected over the past month or so, but with this lovely sunshine we’ve been given today, the flowers and plants that came to me from my parents are flowering their little hearts out. And the effect was somewhat spoilt by the huge spikey “natural” things that were not part of the original plan.
Whilst pulling one weed out I realised that I’d just said the word “loosen” in my head, and up came the weed as easily as picking up a balloon. Which got me thinking, was it that I’d set the intent for that particular weed to come up so easily? Or that by using the mind/body connection, and saying ‘loosen’, enabled me to pull with just the right amount of force – to get the weed up and out so easily. Or, was it both?
Off I went down the border alternating between saying ‘loosen’ in my head and not saying it – and watching with interest the different results I had with each plant uprooted.
In summary – keeping the “intent” in my head, of the nicely tidied borders made the job fly by, and by saying the word “loosen” enable the right amount of “pull”, needed to get the weeds up roots and all!
So – whether weeding or going for blood tests, keep in mind the words we say to ourselves have a direct effect on our physiology. We talk to ourselves most of the time, how many of those times are we saying something nice? And how many times do we make things difficult for ourselves – for example when we’re at the nurse to have a blood test – as she (or he) approaches with the needle 9 out of 10 times what do they say? “Sharp scratch!” Cheers – thanks for that! That’s exactly what we get!
When approaching a job we’re worried about, or not really wanting to tackle, the words “this is going to be difficult” goes through our heads and guess what? It is!
I invite you to experiment!
Zoe
Thanks for sharing Zoe
Much love x