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Coaches often forget that the person that needs to be coached and developed the most is themselves. As you continue your coaching or NLP journey a deeper goal is to develop mastery within ourselves. Hence I wrote this short article on Self Mastery Coaching or Self Mastery for Coaches/Neuro Linguistic Programmers/Brain Hackers.

Our own Self-Mastery Coaching.

SelfMasteryCoaching Self Mastery Coaching

Some of the key qualities of Self Mastery

Compassion: an understanding and empathy towards another person or our own difficulties combined with an attitude or actions designed to help. Compassion is different from sympathy. Compassion is a vital key preceding whatever attitudes or actions are designed to help you cannot have coaching awakening. inspiring, empowering without compassion.

 

Clarity: having a deeper understanding and certainty that ultimately involves an awareness that we don’t really have a full understanding, there is always more we don’t know yet we can proceed with clarity and certainty in ourselves. Clarity is knowing the higher logical level, the higher intention or perhaps the spiritual intent and that it is more important than the behaviour.

 

Detachment: a key concept in Buddhism, however, it is just as applicable here. We do not allow ourselves to be unduly influenced, imbalanced or negatively affected by our attachments or actions of others. We understand that we cannot force change, perfectionism or our ways of thinking on others, or even fully onto ourselves. For deeper seekers we also need to be careful of becoming attached to being unattached! Detachment is a fine line. And we must learn to let go more and more. Let go of our views, our stories, our goals, our beliefs,  our desires. Let go of the need to change anyone or change anything. A concept well worthy of far more exploration.

 

Nonjudgement: being able to let go of our judgments, let go of our criticism, let go without losing discernment and insights. We want to be eliminating the elements of reproach and blame while maintaining keen perception. Nonjudgement and Detachment bring ease and equanimity.

 

Equanimity: balance, self-possession, self-assurance and presence of mind that brings calmness peaceful and tranquillity. Equanimity as described by Shinzen Young, was like a honeycomb being warmed up so that the old structures, beliefs, stories can melt and the blessings can pass through the mind.

 

Love: the process of loving. The capacity for tender warm feelings mixed with joy and deep affection focused on the greater humanity, groups, individuals and ultimately on a deep, heartfelt devotion to ourselves, to a god or divine consciousness or something much greater than us.

 

Where to next?

Loving, Detached, Service: combining the above in the act of service that intrinsically involves these states in attitudes and actions with compassion for a greater good.

 

I thoroughly love my work, and I’m attached and non-attached to it at the same time. Black and White or ‘Either Or’ thinking is rather limiting. One can be attached and not attached at the same time. I am attached to my self-mastery, I am attached to desires to give service, yet at the same time, I can withdraw. I love my work as it provides continuous and never-ending opportunities to grow in so many physical and metaphysical ways. I hope you love it too. Please come along to one of our free workshops (With Motivate Community) and get involved. Blessings!

 

Warmest Regards

Adrian Cahill

Feel free to leave a Linkedin endorsement if you have been exposed to my work or join our new Facebook group. Thank you!

Want a pile of cool free resources? Like self-assessments to pinpoint where your beliefs may be getting in the way of your ideal future?

Book a one to one: https://adriancahill.com/contact-me/

 

Want to share your thoughts? Comment below!!

As an x-soldier serving on various deployments in places like Afghanistan and running my first team in ‘hot’ live-action filled places, most people would say I might know a thing or two about Leadership. This includes Leadership Development in China where I have lived and continue to funnel efforts into social enterprise and development. I find leadership development in China is an exciting field to be in. I personally enjoy a ‘piece of the action’ nowadays through being a coach for Expats and small business owners behind the great wall of China. 

People are often surprised when they hear about my Army background. They say things like, but you’re so calm. I may be calm. But I’ve had my fair share of unexpected demons along with a ride of ups and downs. People often say they don’t have the discipline to be in the armed forces and I respect that. Often I find myself talking with high-quality men and women from a variety of backgrounds and find we have a lot in common. But yes, soldiers generally do have a lot of discipline.

For years I thought the best characteristic for being an effective soldier was discipline. It is vital yet my struggles lead me to deep research and endless studies with some surprising findings.

I would like to share one particular study with you as this links back to the Article about Yin and Yang which is actually a comparison between the Eastern or Taoist Yin Yang and the Western Autonomic Nervous System (ANS). This will all make sense in less than 5 minutes.

Leadership Development in China is missing the point.

Discipline is vital, but so is self-leadership, self-efficacy, self-motivation. In fact, there is a pile of vital keys which may make leadership development or leadership coaching a hot topic but they are missing the point.  Leadership development in China and beyond will soon be realising some new truths and slowly, very slowly it’s coming out. 

A recent study compared Navy SEALs to “non-elite” conventional military groups (elite vs. non-elite). The SEALs had higher heart rate dipping, which means that during sleep, when the parasympathetic system takes over to induce recovery, their heart rates dropped by an average of 29%, whereas the non-elites dropped by only 21%.

The SEALs also had lower baseline levels of the stress hormone cortisol during the day while in a non-stressed environment, despite an equal level of cortisol release during a stressful survival course. Cortisol is released by the ANS.

battlefields-of-afghanistan-leadership development in China-leadership-coachingThat’s a crucial point. The elite performers had stronger parasympathetic tone during non-stressful living conditions. Meaning they had lower heart rates, and lower stress hormones when they were in safer conditions. The ability to relax well is an asset. If they were unable to relax, their body would not recover and they would suffer more long-term issues arising from excess stress.  The ability to quickly switch from sympathetic to parasympathetic is something that can be learned and developed.

In another study comparing Australian Special Forces soldiers to conventional troops during an intense training course, the Special Forces soldiers were found to have higher levels of sympathetic-driven nor-epinephrine during the stressful scenarios. When the training was over, the nor-epinephrine levels of the Special Forces soldiers returned to pre-training baseline, whereas the non-elite soldiers had significantly depressed levels. Their sympathetic system was exhausted. These elite soldiers, when stressed had even higher levels of stress-related chemicals to help them fight, and again, they were able to drop down into relax mode better than non-elite.

The vital key missing from a lot of leadership development coaches, speakers or leadership development experts in China and greater Asia, the key is this awareness and skill in influencing the ANS. Being able to fully be in the sympathetic system when required. Being able to access well. And then switching to the parasympathetic system and really recovering.

The sympathetic system and parasympathetic system are in my opinion the real Yin Yang often spoken about in the East and in traditional Chinese Medicine. Elite soldiers, elite leaders are often unaware of this terminology, but they thoroughly understand the concept of ‘Work hard, rest hard’. By being able to fully swing high on each end of the Autonomic Nervous System we are able to gain a broader reach with our bodies system, emotional flexibility, over all capabilities and both long and short term success.

This skill of switching consciously, (by choice) can be trained and developed. Making it happen faster and further is something I experienced first hand as a soldier preparing for Afghanistan. It’s something I enjoyed teaching and challenging my team to do better in.

Currently, I’m working with a few executive clients in the Asian cities. We work pre-dominantly through simple coaching conversations. In these conversations we can role play, create visualizations, or use more complicated technology like the HeartMaths systems (a device for monitoring Heart Rate Variability (HRV).

If I were to ‘sell you’ Leaderships Coaching’ or ‘Leadership Development Coaching’ I might empathizes discipline, or time management but these are smaller details or smaller skills which are a side effect of an effect coming from a ‘better place’ emotionally/calmly/physically. Hence you can focus (or sell) development products all day. And this can be good business. Like, keep selling motivation tapes. Go faster, go harder. To get real results fast and easily it’s about the maximizing the emotional and behavioral flexibility of the individual. This is greatly assisted by having them control there own Autonomic Nervous System, like the aforementioned ‘Elite Soldier studies’. When soldiers (or executives) are in the right mode, they are more likely to naturally display the calmer, more preciese behavior and flexibility which leads to far better resluts. Naturally developing, naturally growing, naturally becoming more and more elite through mastering ones ability to become centered. 

Leadership Development in China and beyond…

If you would like a short session on how to train your body to automatically switch between systems more efficiently or you think we should engage in a conversation, please just reach out. There are various 3-minute power meditations, HRV training, or Neuro Linguistic Programming (NLP) exercises I would love to recommend. Particularly for veterans. For any veterans experiencing PTSD or anxiety, I am happy to give extra free time. Although my expertise is more along Leadership Development in China, I am happy to help out fellow veterans when I can.

leadership development in China & Leadership Coaching with Adi

I wrote this up in 2014 and still talk about it regularly. It is one of the most amazing and comprehensive models I’ve ever come across and it I hope it will blow your mind as much as it has mine. I can see on slide share that it has been viewed over 1000 times, but downloaded over 100 times. People don’t just look at this, they keep it and often refer back to it. There are hundreds of ways to use the model.

It’s very valuable to anyone interested in personal or organisational development.

Be aware, you are where you are. Don’t try to push yourself or pretend to be somewhere you are not. Simply be aware of the level you are playing at, perhaps the level of the people and organisations around. From that awareness, you can make conscious decision to play at your regular, lower or higher value level.

 

Spiral Dynamics by Adrian Cahill

 

 

Spiral Dynamics with Adrian Cahill

 

Spiral Dynamics by Adrian Cahill

 

 

 

2020 write up, for those concerned about where the world is headed next:

We live in turbulent times, in which many questions and problems are facing us.

At the same time the interdependence of living things rapidly increase.

We experience great climatic changes, political changes, power changes, in an ever interdependent, interconnected world.

I can work as a coach, but as I get more into it, there are more and more systems, processes, possibilities. As I work with staff the complexities expand exponentially, and THIS IS THE NATURE of systems.

My Boy draws a picture, his big sister draws a picture, I draw a picture, each getting more complex.

An indigenous person climbs a tree and gets a coconut. Meanwhile perhaps a family drives along the beach collecting as many coconuts as they can which they sell in a market. Someone from the big smoke buys the land and farms coconuts. Someone from a supermarket chain or distribution network sell these coconuts on the other side of the globe.

The free market economy often means ‘freedom to operate’. Any of you can go and get coconuts or fruit from a tree. Many might call it smart to get into collectives and harvest together. But Indigenous in Australia thought it was more important to live in balance. So many of the indigenous valued and did their best to live in balance with the land. While the collectives sometimes hired them, sometimes took possession of the land, moved the ‘less developed’ off their land. Aboriginals, Indians, Palestinians. Same Same but different. The system repeats getting more and more complex.

Collectives/Colonies/Companies grow rapidly and on an unprecedented scale. The lands are abundant in some natural resource, on a higher level of complexity, the people themselves become the resource, on a higher level again, the towns, states, countries are resources. Just consider colonization.

Just as few kids can become a gang, neighbours can become tribes, tribes can become states. Gang, Tribe, State, entities. Each bigger and more complex again.

As entities they may explicitly or implicitly have their own vision, identity, values, goals. As the bigger entity expands, it dissipates smaller entities. Just like microscopic cells, eating or being eaten. Supermarket chains buying out, or putting competitors out of business. It’s their destiny!

Public and private companies have their vision, and results are considered of paramount importance for their Board, Managers, and Shareholders. Their workers are a cost! Parts of this leads to a focus on short term profits, part focus on long term profit, but workers are a cost, perhaps quality is a cost. It becomes cheaper to plant coconut trees in rows and use fertilizer. It takes years or generations to notice the decline in quality and the source of increasing waistbands. As the Board does it role pursuing the vision and protecting shareholders, conflict arise, our visions and values are at risk from being sued, we have to care about the end of day customer, but it means losing millions, ‘I know, lets appear like we care’. Make a policy, put on a show. On an even ‘bigger picture’ this values conflict has negative effects on the environment and society, they can cause a systemic problems across the human race. Confusion, collective hate, suppression of the masses, perhaps population control. Ultimately bigger picture, collapse of our planet’s natural resources.

 

This same behaviour has happened infinite times. Slave workers were freed from their shackles, and received the luxury of hourly pay and the freedom to choose to work (or starve). The most successful earned the luxury of owning some land or resources, yet they were enslaved to the land they bought. The more successful you were, the more land resources you had, the more you had to manage. There was always some form of rule. Rulling class. Government, authorities, regulations, or back in the day nobles, tax collectors and kings.

NLP, Neuro Linguistic Programming is fundamentally Patterns.  We see the STRUCTURE where most people see the content, you can see both.

For those with more interest into patterns and more specifically the patterns in Value and Value Systems, I suggest a couple of weeks learning about Spiral Dynamics. Spiral dynamics looks at how the value system in an individual, or an organisation grows as it matures and evolves. You may find your own level of development on the spiral. Be true to where you are at and who you are. Aim forward to evolve into the higher level, note that if you undergo stress, most people will fall back to the old ways, but the way to success, the way to fulfillment, the way to enlightenment, is to fall forward. Step into the underknown and consider embracing your next level.

You may be reading this because you stumbled upon my page or perhaps your fascinated with East to West methodologies. Or perhaps some other reason but, either way it boils down to this:

Yin and Yang is a simple concept. One of the biggest killers of people in this world I strongly suspect, and this has probably been backed up and written about by scientist, is DIS-Ease. Dis-Ease comes from living out of balance. In the West, too much unhealthy stress. In the East, too much unhealthy Yang.

I’ll cover here a bit more ‘factual’ or western explanation of mindfulness, balance, stress, Yin/Yang and demystifying East to West philosophy your in the right place. This article is the western science applied to Yin Yang and how it affects the Autonomic Nervous System (ANS) which you will learn about in the next minutes. You will also have some action steps to improve your own balance and awareness.


 

two_wolves_sketch_by_caroline_leideritz

A native American father tells his son

There are 2 wolves battling in my heart.

One is violent and dangerous.

The other is full of warmth and compassion.”

The son ask “Which wolf will win

The answer “The one I feed

 

 

I just read this story for the second time. Only this time from a different book. This story is a theme for life and expressed in many different ways which I’ll share for you.

The book I just reread this in was by Daniel Goleman and the Dali Lama, A Force for Good. Highly reccommended for building compassion and depth of understanding.

It was through Daniel Goleman  that I first started ‘formally learning’ about Emotional Intelligence. After reading just one book I got hooked and ever since have been focused on developing Emotional Intelligence (and Social Intelligence) in my life and for others.

WARNING: You may get hooked too!

 

wolf2

 

So looking at the wolves, you may wonder, you may ponder different meanings. And that is the magic of metaphors. You take your own meaning out of it. Since you take out your own meaning, it’s more powerful then simply being told the reason or answer.

 

The more you think about how you have feel towards the story or metaphor, the more internal or self focused you may become. Through focus comes awareness. So take a moment to really feel the picture above.

 

I’ve been fortunate to study with some of the best thought leaders known. By chance, I read this metaphor by Daniel Goleman and the Dali Lama and a week later I was working through a Emotional Intelligence in Leadership course by Dr. Richard Boyatzis. Last year I also heard Dr Bruce Lipton share similar work. Dr Boyatzis and Dr Lipton shared different stories but from a scientific, highly logical or masculine angle. So what we have is a pile of experts explaining something in various different language patterns and also emphasizing how important this is to individuals and the collective whole.

 

In Taoism, or The East: They say (in very brief words) Yin Yang represents the dualistic nature of life. Yin Yang is also represented in our body/souls. Yin Yang are opposites. In the above picture one is evil one is good which is completely wrong in Taoism however it’s the translation. It may help you understand, one is compassion, peaceful, kind. While the other is non-compassion, anger, superiority.  I say it’s wrong in Taoism as the label of ‘evil’ in western language means something to be avoided and really bad. Sometimes it’s natural and perfectly good to feel anger. Don’t avoid either side, as all sides and emotions make up the whole. Life should be whole rather than dualistic.

 

How does Taoism or Yin Yang come across in Western Science: It’s comes out through the Autonomic Nervous System. Western Science hasn’t caught up to the traditional Eastern ways yet so it’s largely based on what can be seen. If it can’t be seen, it’s hard for Western Science. Hence doctors today no longer use sense of smell and systemization generally takes precedence over intuition.

Under that Western Science approach, the two wolves form the Autonomic Nervous System (ANS) which in short, regulates which wolf body’s unconscious processes get the most energy. The two wolves become the Sympathetic Nervous System (SNS) and the Para-sympathetic Nervous System (PNS).

ANS

SNS             PNS

 

System 1.
The Sympathetic Nervous System (SNS).

It’s primary process is to stimulate the body’s fight-or-flight response. When we undergo stress or anger, this sympathetic nervous system fires up accelerating the heart rate, and constricting blood vessels which increases blood pressure along with a couple of other changes to body. You see with more blood racing out to our arms and legs we are able to run faster or fight more efficiently.

As a consequence, we have less blood in our brain. Our ability to think logically goes down. When fighting with someone or running from an animal you don’t need logic. Run! Fight!

In fact when fighting an instinct takes over not logic.

Another example is when you’re running late, and can’t find your keys. You start stressing, look frantically and then relies there in your back pocket.

Or your are stressed but instead of relaxing deeply, you are submerged in social media or someone else’s drama.

 

System 2.
The Para-sympathetic Nervous System.

The parasympathetic system kicks in through mindfulness, faith, hope, compassion, seeing kids laugh, patting a dog, experiencing joy with friends, having intimate moments with a lover.

When we do these things the parasympathetic system lowers the heart rate, lowers blood pressure, allows more blood to flow into the head. This results further in boosting the immune system. It not only works again but the body goes into recovery mode, rejuvenating, rebuilding the body.

It’s with this system that you’re at your cognitive best. And on every measure done, you’re in a better state.

We are human beings that are meant to be relaxed and able to spring into action when required. Not full action animals that just relax at night.

Sympathetic and Parasympathetic divisions typically function in opposition to each other. It’s rare they are activated together, however they do with some specific emotions such as Bliss.

This natural opposition is better understood as complementary in nature rather than antagonistic. Hence previously mentioning good and evil as being not so resourceful. They compliment each other and are both necessary in life. Yin and Yang is a break down of the whole. You can’t remove either one. Too much of either side can bring imbalance or be the result of imbalance creating a variety of Dis-Ease, or lack of purpose/love/fulfilment.

 

parasympathetic_laughter

ACTION: You need to do is to simply be aware of what nervous system mode you are in. The more you are aware the more you can influence. So I would like to ask you to consciously ask yourself through out the day, where am I? Am I in the stressed sympathetic or relaxed para-sympathetic mode. Alternatively, keep more awareness on your heart or your breath. Heart Rate Variability or Breath Cycle are indicators of how your ANS is functioning.

ASK YOURSELF: When have I been using each system? What could happen if I used the other mode?

IF YOU FIND YOURSELF: Reacting in situations, this is typically your SNS taking over often leading to an Amygdala Hijack. Medical jargon for the blood is not flowing to the parts of your brain required to communicate, self regulate and calm down. In fact, many people today really struggle with getting out of the SNS, Amygdala Hijacks and are reactivating with their following actions. This is simply due to the way our societies and technologies are built with a capitalistic, short term, self-gratifying nature. Technology companies that can control the ANS in it’s users are set to dominate any rivals that require delayed gratification. Human nature is to take the easiest path and without education, people will take the shorter, easier, route.

In our modern lives we really need to ensure we have our parasympathetic systems kicking in as much as we can. The stress will come in due course, that’s for sure. But don’t put off getting back into balance. If you’re going to be out of balance, consider being out of balance with laughter and compassion so you can bounce back, rather than anger and stress.

Have a great day, thanks for reading and sharing this with your friends. Much love and warmth.

 

 

Adrian Cahill

 

Update. 2017.

Have had amazing success reducing stress in clients through using Heartmaths and mBraining. Here is a diagram from Heartmaths which illustrates what happens when you become to out of balance with too much Sympathetic Nervous System. This is serious stuff. If your suffering like this, simply schedule a session with me. We can help in less than 50 minutes.

https://www.calendly.com/adriancahill/virtualcoffeeamisufferingburnoutsyndrome

Metaphoric Positive Reframe,

A technique for the entrepreneurs, positive leaders or anyone interested in positive psychology.

 

Have you ever wondered what other people or perhaps society thinks about your strengths? For about $15USD you can complete your own Gullups Strength Finder assessment and be given a breakdown of each of your 5 key strengths.

Recently I reflected on my Strength Finder results. My no.1 strength was Positivity. It made me wonder how can I share it in a much better way than simply a motivational quote by someone famous, put over someone else’s photograph 🙂

From that, I figured that if I could share with you one of the most powerful techniques or strategies, perhaps you can gain a lot more positivity naturally in your own life. However this technique is not limited to simply positivity. It can also assist with cleansing, mindfulness, relaxing, even productivity.

The technique that you are about to learn I’ve called the “Metaphoric Positive Reframe” or MPR.

Anyone can learn to do a MPR and the real big bonus is that this is something that is easily turned into a habit.

Let’s get into it:I remember my first real paid job. I was 14yrs old and the job was on a farm. It was physically really hard work. In fact my boss actually paid me adult wages because it was so tough. And there I was starting my weekend or school holiday on the farm from 6.30am.

The work was as hard as manual labour can get. Naturally I wanted to give up. I hated the heat, the sun, the sweat rolling into my eyes. I couldn’t wait till sunset, but it’s only the early hours in of the day.

In this time I went through numerous psychological processes as one would naturally do. I tried singing to myself. Focusing on what I could buy. Calculating how much money I already earned or would earn. Thinking about other things. None of it really worked for more than a few minutes. But this work went on throughout the whole summer.

In time I created a strategy which was amazing simple and effective. I started to look at things differently. This is what people consider hard work. I’m doing it. I’m succeeding. I can do it. As much as I didn’t like it, the work became symbolic.

This work was making me tougher. This work was helping me become a ‘hard worker’. The farm itself became part of me. As I worked on the farm I was working on my self. I was employed, earning and saving, just as the farm was employing, earning and saving. The work became less about a job and it became part of my development as a young man.

Every time I went to work, I said things to myself like, “I’m building my character. I’m building my empire”. Sometimes I would even repeat this like a mantra.

“I’m building my character. I’m building my empire”.

“I’m building my character. I’m building my empire”.

“I’m building my character. I’m building my empire”.

 

Another example

A lot of great things come out of South Korea. Gangnam Style or Kimchi may come to mind for you. However personally for me it would be memories of a week in the area of Noonsan learning Maum Meditation. Here they were very clued on to the MPR. They just didn’t call it that.

Students reaching higher levels in their practice would be ‘blessed’ with the option of doing chores like serving food or doing the dishes (for the entire meditation centre). Each of these tasks were given deeper meaning. Washing plates, could be experienced as washing away bad habits. Scraping leftover food into compost bins could be experienced as feeding the garden. Students learned to reframe the task and actually enjoy it. It goes to show that:

  • You can do a MPR on any task.
  • You can turn your whole life into a collection of positive rituals and habits with the MPR method.

Examples of specific MPR’s:

Having a shower, bathing or washing dishes:

Washing away the stress, cleansing, purifying.

Releasing negative thoughts from the mind.

I purify my thoughts and clean my mind to be more successful.

Turning on power, fan or light switches:

Control, ability, influence, helping others

I’m able to positively influence my environment.

I’m in control of my life.

I connect with that which I need to make my body and those around more healthy and comfortable

Waking up:

Realization, waking up, recognition.

I awaken to greater opportunities for success and abundance

I awaken grateful to have slept and appreciate the opportunity to be here today

 

 

How can you do this?

 

1. Pick a regular task. Showering, brushing teeth, cleaning, putting on make up, shaving, catching a subway, riding a bike, setting your daily alarm.

 

2. Picking a symbolic meaning behind each task. Cleansing, being alive, positive energy, revitalizing, recharging, motivating, contributing.

 

3. Create a physical reminder to do the MPR when you do the task. For example, put a note on the mirror, a rubber band around a shampoo bottle, a sticker on your bike.

 

4. Write out your intent, and your mantra. Writing it down makes it planned and repetitive.

Write out your intent: “When I set my alarm, I will stop worrying about the day, I will put the day behind me and rest”.

Write out your mantra: “I’ve put my day behind me, and will enjoy resting now.”

 

5. Consciously or out nice and loud repeat your mantra at least 3 times while you do the task.

 

6. Bask in the glory. Yes, I’m doing this! By actually doing this, you are in fact succeeding and adding growth to your day naturally.

 

 

 

Imagine for a minute.

What could happen, if you applied the MPR for just 3 routine mundane tasks?

 

Created and written by Adrian Cahill. 

Adrian Cahill is an Executive Coach/Mentor working predominantly over the phone with clients across Asia.

 

Neuro Logical Levels (or Neurological levels) is one of the most interesting frameworks I have ever seen in the Coaching / Personal Development world. It is in my opinion the best NLP Coaching Model to date.

Regardless if you’re working as a change agent, or looking for change yourself, this will assist you in understanding and gaining a very high level of awareness of yourself and others.

Reading this alone will give you insight. Spending more time with it and revisiting it will bring more. If you practice it, you may find yourself able to recognise or even track conversations as they go up and down the levels. As an agent of change, you may begin to recognise on what level a presented challenge is at, where the deeper challenge is, and if you develop skills in Coaching/NLP with me, you will learn which models/tools/questions to ask to create trance-formation, or rapid change (perhaps both) with a big smile on your face.

 

Very brief background: Neuro Logical Levels is a METAPHOR. It was developed by Robert Dilts and is often taught in NLP and non-NLP Coaching Courses.

I’ve trained under John Grinder, and Richard Bandler the Co-Creators of NLP, and there students, Dr Robert Dilts & Dr Stephen Gilligan.

 

Deeper background: Neuro Logical Levels is a controversial but widely used model (and I would say effective model). One could say it is an extension of Logical Levels or Logical Types which was pre-NLP days. The levels and types were perhaps brought into the NLP world by Gregory Bateson. In his book, Ecology of Mind, (a challenging but enlightening read), Gregory eluded to deeper structures and in my opinion, was on the edge of many great discoveries of the mind. Gregory Bateson assisted the creation of NLP greatly and enthusiastically. He provided support and valuable introductions, like the introduction to Milton Erickson.  Both Gregory and Milton spent time with one of the young NLP students Robert Dilts. Robert like many recognised there was like layers or levels of the mind, perhaps between reality, action, beliefs and Robert brought this model into the world. On a far deeper look at what are logical levels and logical types, this model according to John Grinder, Co-Creator of NLP, is not true to the rules of logical types. I  was training with John Grinder and he showed my class how this model was false and not even a part of NLP however a fair few excellent trainers & coaches in the room disagreed with John. For me personally, military background, results-focused, this model worked a lot for me and I know it provides a lot of value to coaches so I’ll continue to use it.  I teach this on many of our Coaching Courses, and NLP Coaching Courses. In my Master Practitioner of NLP Program, the only one like it in Australiasia, we go far deeper into every level and find NLP and Coaching models that are applicable on each level.

Note: this model has Values and Beliefs on different levels. This is the way it should be as a collection of beliefs make up a value. A value has but is not a belief. This is an important distinction as well trained (and experienced coaches) will often work more on a values level as it can collapse a collection of beliefs instantaneously rather than focusing on collapsing beliefs sequentially.

 

 

Neuro Logical Levels:

Best NLP Coaching Model (so far). NLP Coach in Shanghai China

In the processes of learning, change, and communication there are, metaphorically speaking, natural hierarchies of logical levels. In logical levels, you have sets and subsets. wheels, frame, bumper, lights, can be parts of a car. Toyota, Ford, Tesla are cars. Cars are a form of transport. What is in and out of the level is upto the creators intentions. The intentions of Robert Dilts in creating this model, I believe was to assist agents of change in learning how to assist/create change.

 

Robert calls them, Neuro Logical levels as they reflect levels in the way we can process or think about them.

For example, if we are talking about offices in the context of; how noisy the office is, where the office is, how big is the office, how many people could fit in the office. These are all forms of focusing on the environmental level.

If we were to talk about someone bullying in the office, coming to work early or late, procrastinating about what to do, etc. This is all forms of focusing on behaviour. Behaviour in the office.

If we talk about a supervisor instructing staff to work overtime. This could be seen as a supervisor using their capabilities to affect behaviour.

Why is the supervisor instructing staff to work overtime? This may draw out some of the beliefs of the supervisor. They believe it’s their role or in their capabilities to instruct staff to change them. They may value, a performance bonus, or efficiency.

The supervisor, like all of us, has a value system, and perhaps they have a high value for work output. If they didn’t value work, they may not last long at the company. Some supervisors really seem to value, being in charge.

It’s like part of their Identity, a responsible leader.  Perhaps at work, they assume the identity of a responsible leader. And at home, they may play the role or identity of a parent, or lover.

Spirituality means many things to many people. To our Supervisor, he may consider it a connection to a god, maybe a higher purpose.

All these words are metaphors, and this model is to assist us to process but don’t get to caught up or stuck in any part.

 

The function of each Neuro Logical Level in the hierarchy is to organize the information below it.

For example, a person’s behaviour results in changes to the environment around them. When a person walks into a room, they take up space and regardless of their behaviour, it will always affect the environment. The environment is generally the result of the persons behaviour. If the person regularly displays outstanding, high-performing behaviour, you would expect the environment to reflect this.

 

Changing something on a lower Neuro Logical Level of the hierarchy could, but would not necessarily affect the levels above it. 

For example, if a person is regularly depressed, very messy, has disorganised behavioural patterns, one may imagine that if he changes where he lives, he will still have those behaviours. It could affect his behaviour. He could suddenly become excited, happy and organised if he was placed on Hawaii. However, his old behaviours were there for a reason. Those old reasons could still be present.

The problem as Einstein said, “You can’t solve the problem with the same thinking that created it.”

Often I see people that suffer from procrastination attempt to fix it with behavioural changes. I congratulate them on trying and have compassion for them as it won’t work. I see this all the time. People struggle to complete tasks, so they form new tasks! Only this time they add an exclamation mark or write IN CAPITAL LETTERS. I’ve also seen people struggle with procrastination buying online courses or books on productivity and sadly (perhaps obviously to everybody else) not finish them. The book or course may on the same level, behaviours, or it may be working on a level above the problem, here that would be capability. To avoid procrastination forever, (a rather simple feat if you know how) you have to work on higher levels then the problem hence the top-down approach used by most expert coaches/agents of change.

Making changes using a top-down approach.

For example, take a disorganised person and help them develop multi-tasking, scheduling, and organisational skills. This might work, only we may be taking on the challenge at the same level or slightly higher.

Making a change at the upper levels changes everything below it in order to support the higher level change. However working one level above the problem isn’t enough. The disorganised person, can still show a lot disorganised behaviour. Here the ‘Disorganised person’ is not a capability factor. Its part of their identity. The person may have grown up all their life being a disorganised person and no amount of capability changes will alter their behaviour if that behaviour is part of their identity. That’s like trying to move a tent, but the tent pegs are still in the ground.

If we work with the disorganised person on the level of Identity. And say, the Identity of the person is shifted and they see themselves as an efficient, successful person, the Values shift too. If something like,  ‘Organised’ or ‘Being Organised’ becomes a high value, than the beliefs, capabilities and behaviour is also modified as a result.

 

You can use this model yourself and I encourage you to print out or copy this article.

Remember the following:

  • Spirituality – Change for whom and/or what purpose?
  • Identity – Does change reflect who I am?
  • Values and beliefs- Why make the change?
  • Capabilities and Skills- Change how?
  • Behaviours – Change what?
  • Environment – Where to change?

An insight into how I create my magic.

Honestly guys, 70% of what I do with people is work on the higher Neuro Logical Levels. This may be obvious, however often it’s done unconsciously. I may ask questions to someone about their challenge, then perhaps appear to ask unrelated questions about other things. These questions may lead to them focusing on the details of some of the biggest challenges they have accomplished. Then switch back to the challenge they were having currently and suddenly, they identify with the challenge differently. Suddenly, it’s not as big any more. So there you go and you can see how that can be very effective and also done without awareness.

What I really love is the amount of times I speak with someone, feel like it was nothing, but then a week later, get a message from them going something like.

“Adrian, you wouldn’t believe what just happened….”

Often people get immediate results, sometimes they take weeks. It’s amazing though how effective it is. And you can do some of this yourself! In fact, many of us are trying to do it ourselves every 1st of January, or on our birthdays. We attempt to redefine who we are with new years/birthday resolutions or simply buying gym memberships. Sadly though, a lot of these changes are just surface.

When we have enough leverage or need, things change. When we work with an NLP Coach we can manipulate and increase this need inside of a session.

Coaches without NLP rely on guiding/pushing/pulling or cheering you on to change. But as an NLP Coach, can artificially create a lot of leverage and then push it all at once, and collapse life long habits in seconds. Yes seconds. It takes minutes, perhaps half an hour to set up, then in seconds, the beliefs are suddenly wiped out! Sometimes at this point, the client, does a ‘transderivatal search’, thats like, the rug has been pulled out under your feet, your eyes are darting around going what the…. and it’s like suddenly the problem isn’t there. Then with that rug pull, we put in better beliefs, better program! Again, this takes seconds but this may take 20 minutes to set up too. So 20 minutes setting up the rug pull, 20 minutes setting up the new program then, 3, 2, 1, SWISH!!!!  The brain grabs a hold of the new program, and were done. It can sound complicated. Most NLP Coaches in China can’t do it. Even higher percentage in my home country and USA probably cant do it. Being a NLP Coach in China, I got to practice it so many times, I nail it and can eliminate many habits, smoking, drinking (if the client really wants to kick the habit) in single sessions.

 

When I first wrote this, I had a participant talk about the hard time he had cutting back sugar. I gave him an artificial near death experience, and guess what? It suddenly became much easier for him to say no to sugar. In fact when I spoke to him 7 days later he had cut back his Sugar content 80-90% and was on top of the world. There is a reference on my Linkedin from another client that did the same thing, only he wrote it in a my Linkedin. Nice man.

NLP Coach in Shanghai China

 

Now that you have learned this:

Instead of listening deeply in every conversation, try listening briefly and keep an eye on the Neuro Logical levels. Now you should be able to identify which level the conversation is on. If you really want to take this to new heights join one of our coaching or training programs so you can not only know, but drive the conversation and create positive change in those you care about. Or perhaps just experience a lot of your own personal growth and development.

Thanks guys, Neuro Logical Levels was brought to you by Adrian Cahill. NLP Coach, NLP Trainer and ICF PCC (2500+ Coaching hours).

Feel free to contact me if you want to do any NLP or Coaching Training. I am lead trainer and often a co-trainer on various courses around Asia region and many of my colleges have great training in other areas. So just shout out!

Want lots of FREE RESOURCES?? Check out my resources page here!

 

A couple of us in NLP Trainers Training with John Grinder, Carmen Bostic and Michael Carroll

 

Register here for any future Coaching or Training.

Want to learn about NLP Coaches in China, or want to do NLP Coach Training? Register or just schedule a call.

In this article, we are going to cover the basics of NLP Anchoring. Perhaps you will get some insight to how to improve or use this in your daily life. By the end you will know the various forms of anchors and how you can set one.

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What is NLP Anchoring (or a Anchor in Coaching talk)?

An anchor is a stimulus that creates a response in either you or in another person. It could be as simple as a stop sign or a word.

When an individual is at a peak of an experience, during an intense. emotional state, and if a specific stimulus is applied, a neurological link is established between the emotional state and the stimulus. As Dr Joe Dispenza likes to say, Neurons that fire together, wire together. And with NLP we wire that neural activity to a anchor such as the stop sign or word.

Some anchors span each of our representational systems (or senses) and these are generally more powerful then using just one system. Often I’ll meditate and prior to starting use a little oil or incense to anchor / prepare mentally for the coming meditation.

We develop good and bad anchors automatically throughout our lives. Often people ask me to work with removing anchors even though they have no idea of that language. NLP Coaching or training will help enable you to identify and choose anchors while for most people it’s completely unconscious.

A great anchor is ‘used against us’ when they have comfort breaks in the middle of the film at the cinemas. As soon as you walk into a cinema it’s pretty hard to not notice the smell of popcorn. Even people that don’t normally eat popcorn often find themselves buying it the cinemas.

Greater or more mischievous anchors commonly exists in romantic and family relationships. If you are already in a relationship you may like to talk to a NLP Coach about collapsing anchors that already exist in your relationship.

If you would like to learn more about NLP anchoring, including learning the various anchoring techniques described below, then you can join us at one of our NLP Training Courses or apply for a session with a NLP certified Coach.

 

Keys to effective anchoring

  • Intensity of experience. Make sure that the intensity of the experience is high.
  • Timing of the anchor.  Apply the anchor when the intensity of the experience is at its highest.
  • Uniqueness of the stimulus.  Use a part of the body that is not normally touched eg Knuckle.
  • Replication of the stimulus.  Reapply the stimulus repeatedly to ensure that the anchor is firmly embedded into the neurology.
  • Number of times. Test the anchor repeatedly to exercise the neural pathway.

You can generate visualauditorykinestheticolfactory, and gustatory anchors.  The least preferred representational system of a person is the one that it is most powerful to use with them as it is the one that you are most sensitive to.

 

Steps in NLP Anchoring

  1. Recall a past vivid event, experience.
  2. Anchor – provide a specific stimulus.
  3. Change state.
  4. Test (Place the stimulus) – Evolve the state.

 

Example Exercise: Anchoring the feeling of confidence.

  1. Recall a time when you felt really confident.  When you think of that time do you have a picture?  Get that picture.
  2. When you notice the picture place a finger from one hand on the knuckle of the other hand (remember which knuckle you selected!).  Release the finger after a maximum of 20 seconds or earlier if you get the sense of the picture or feeling leaving you.
  3. Change your state by looking out of the window or smelling the air in the room that you are in.
  4. Replace your finger on the knuckle and notice for that feeling of confidence returning.

 

 

 

NLP Resource Anchor

An anchor for when you want to boost energy, confidence, motivation, or any other powerful state of being. One that you do for yourself. Pray is a great example.

 

NLP Stacked Anchor

A number of anchors stacked together to increase intensity of the required state. Sometimes I have my clients creating a stacked anchor for excellence. Here we may stack confidence, excitement, fun, humour and compassion on top of each other. Next we an anchor this to a convenient stimulus like rubbing a ring while saying quietly “I can do anything with compassion”.

 

NLP Chaining Anchors

Sequential process of moving to a significantly different state.

Useful for when a client has a significant difference between their present state and the desired state. Each state builds on the one before until the desired state is reached.

 

NLP Collapse Anchor

Replacing a negative anchor with a positive one for the same stimulus. 

(Great for nasty relationships and bad habits)

 

NLP Search Anchor

An anchor used to identify the source of a problem or issue.

(Great for personal development and certain types of meditation)

Ok, now you have a good knowledge base, time for you to create your own Anchor for excellence or perhaps a powerful stacked anchor. Once you have created one, it’s up to you to build it up and make it more powerful and more useful through practice.

If in China or on Wechat: feel free to follow our channel or connect with Adrian Cahill to ask any of your NLP, Coaching or Professional Development questions.

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If life was a garden

Recently I was asked by a client in Shanghai about removing negative thought patterns. In fact, I’m kinda asked this a lot however not always so directly. 

Removing negative thought patterns:

One might wonder how good it would be to remove your negative thought patterns however there is a bit more to it then simply just loosing it. If they were removed, what would take its place. One might imagine there could be a vacuum, or an abscence. Since ever action has a reaction. Or every effect, has a cause.

I like to imagine it like a garden.

Hence The Garden Metaphor.

If life was a garden, what would you want to grow?

It’s a simple and effective metaphor to a successful life. Pull out the weeds, grow beautiful plants.

1. Love and warmth
2. Appreciation and gratitude
3. Curiosity
4. Passion
5. Devotion
6. Confident
7. Flexible
8. Cheeky Vibrant Excited
9. Healthy energetic
10. Helping others, fulfilled

We also call these plants, Power Emotions.
Powerful emotions which fuel us and give us strength. Wouldn’t it be great to be feeling these emotions everyday!

Sometimes there are weeds in my garden.  Sometimes there is anger, exhaustion,  sadness.

Removing negative thought patterns:

It’s ok to want to pull these weeds out. Our society often sees them as bad or negative but we need to realise that bad or negative are judgements. Generally people percieve judging as bad, yet we are quick to judge bad or negative emotions. Perhaps we should call these, less plesant emotions. And we need to realise that we couldn’t exsist without them. They form part of the circle of life. However they are part of the circle, and certainly shouldn’t be experienced in excess. 
 
So we need to recognise these emotions are here for a reason.
Sometimes we pull one out and another grows quickly in its place. Especially if the ground is bare.

You wouldn’t pull out all the weeds and just leave it bare would you? No you would pull them out and quickly replace them with plants or weedproof matting. And good gardeners know, there is no such thing as weed proof. Only weed resistant. So I look at the weed before I pull it out. It’s grown there for a reason.  Why is that.  Oh, I need more beautiful plants or perhaps its time to plant some flexibility or devotion.

In order to remove the weeds effectively, what if instead of focusing on the weeds, we were to do our best to grow strong beautiful plants which will bear fruit and seeds for more beautiful plants. Slowly, or perhaps quickly one could end up with a beautiful garden, perhaps so beautiful that any remaining weeds are barely noticed or a problem anymore.
 

Fill your life like a beautiful garden.  Appreciate that weeds are as natural as flowers. I’m sure if you keep a focus on this trying to remove negative thought patterns will be a thing of the past.

 
These Power Emotions came from Tony Robbins. One of my favourite teachers. I spent all this June studying for Master Practitioner in New Code NLP with Daniel Smith in Beijing and of an evening going over Tony Robbins Relationship course. Tony himself uses a fair bit of NLP in his work however he also brings out a lot of stuff I haven’t seen anywhere else. I dream and hope to be able to help people as good as he does. And, I really look forward to helping you and your development in growing loveable life.
If life was a garden