NLP FREES YOU

How did you go with observing yourself last time as to how you may have perceived certain incidents differently from others?

This is inevitable that we do, as we each have our own model of the world.  AND, for each of us, our model is right…

Last time, we established that we receive multi-million stimuli from our external world through our five senses.

So what happens that we choose to accept certain ones and not others?

Located at the base of the brain is the Reticular Activating System (RAS) (See image – (inside the red circle *).

A brief explanation of this makes fascinating reading.

Clusters of brain stem neurons called the reticular formation communicate with the spinal cord and many other parts of the brain. Some form the Reticular Activating System (RAS) which helps arouse the brain into alert consciousness.

RAS neurons become more active when activated by input from our five senses.  Naturally, this activity slackens off when we sleep.

Before we understand experiences, we have to internalise the events.

When we do this through our five senses, we form International Representations (IRs) based on past recognizable experiences.

This means, that unless we choose to evolve and grow, outside the inevitable by interacting with other people, we will continue to stay within our comfort zone.

The subconscious mind will see to that.

We need to learn things outside our comfort zone, do things outside our comfort zone, mix with different peoples, experience different things, and so on, if we wish to begin making internal shifts from where we are to where we want to be.

This is, of course, a rather simplistic way of expressing it, but it is enough for the purpose of this article.

So, to protect the brain from overwhelm, the RAS, in nano-seconds, has to choose what information it will allow into the conscious mind, what to not allow in, and what to store in the filing cabinets of the subconscious mind.

Now these Internal Representations (IRs) are made up of internal pictures, sounds, sensations, self-talk, and feelings that our subconscious mind believes we want – that it has stored from previous experience.

This external information is then reconfigured as an internal experience, your IR.

 Before ending this article, it will be useful to go into a bit more detail about the five senses.

VISUAL

• External sights of the world around
• Internal  sights in your mind’s eye

AUDITORY

• External sounds heard
• Internal dialoguing, self-talk 

KINESTHETIC 

• External sensations felt on the skin
• Internal sensations felt, emotions

OLFACTORY

• External smells
• Internal smells stimulated by your imagination

GUSTATORY

• External tastes
• Internal tastes stimulated by your imagination (you can start to salivate just by thinking about a certain food, especially when you are hungry)

Notice that there is always an external and an internal component to each of the five senses.

I know that you must be finding this interesting, and the more you delve into NLP, the more you will see how it will add to the quality of your life.

Till next time, be aware of your five senses, and how much they enrich your daily experience.

Also, be aware of how often you use a word from the five senses in your everyday conversations.

(* The Illustrated Atlas of the Human Body, Beverly McMillan)