Professor Harry

This is a picture of me and my nephew Harry on our recent visit to a restaurant. On the way there I told him what we would be eating – dosa’s etc as it was south Indian cuisine. When our food arrived his Mum tried to entice him to eat the ‘pancake’ to which Harry promptly replied ‘it’s not a pancake it’s a dosa!’ Quite a big correction from someone who has only just turned three! It never ceases to amaze me how much information small children take in.

Interpreting Your Dreams Workshop

This is a course I ran on 7th November in Hounslow. It was offered as a free workshop to members of the local community. The response was fantastic with all fifteen places being booked up within four days of the advertising going out and people continued to call and check for places right up to thirty minutes before the training was due to start!

The participants were so eager to learn and it was wonderful how they each made a special contribution - I always think training is a group effort and I know I learnt lots from them. We discovered how some dream symbols such as a train could fall under the category of both a place and a type of object. One participant mentioned teeth as a dream symbol - teeth falling out. Here we thought teeth could be an object but also come under the category of ‘people’ - the person who has lost the teeth.

It was lots of hard work to organise but the appreciation and enthusiasm of the participants made it all worthwhile.

Birds of a Feather

During the day I like to look out of the window from time to time and have been intrigued by the birds which come and sit on the grass. As they peck, they’ll keep looking up nervously again and again, sensing my presence may be. They perceive me as a danger, something to be feared, forgetting perhaps their amazing ability to fly high into the distance in just seconds in any direction they choose to a place of safety. As the danger they fear I don’t have that ability or speed. I think we are a lot like those birds when we give our fears and problems more power than they actually might have by forgetting our strengths and the wonderful qualities we possess.

Past, Present & Future

Problems don’t fall out of the sky, they are created over time through our thinking and actions (as well as our non-actions). In this respect we can say we are products of our past. It is our past which has brought us to and shaped the present state of our lives. The interesting thing is that today also informs tomorrow - the future. Whilst we can’t change the past, we do stand at a point of immense power in the present, whatever choices we make today create the consequences we will face tomorrow. In my mind, of the three; past, present and future, it’s the present which offers most leverage in helping us shape and live the lives we truly desire.

In my Shadow is my Light

I came across this quote some time ago. In my understanding it’s about those aspects of ourselves which need strengthening or improving, parts of us which have been around for a long while, followed us around like a shadow, we usually know them quite well, they are familiar, because we’ve tried so hard to change them and so many times, to the point the mere thought of them can fill us with dread and fear. Yet that dark shadow (those ways of being or behaving) is exactly where we need to go, for it illuminates those areas where we have most opportunity for personal growth.

Problems, Problems

When we have them it feels like we’re the only ones under the dark cloud and everyone else is deliriously happy! Forgetting perhaps that everyone has problems of one kind or another, for some it's concerns over health, while others are worried about finances or stressed by a relationship, indeed it’s said the only people without problems are the ones in cemeteries. From politicians, royalty and super stars to ordinary people like us, we all have them. What’s interesting too is the common desire to have a ‘problem free’ life. NLP has a profound way of transforming problems into achievable goals. Life is constantly changing and will never be ‘problem free’, however we can equip ourselves with the tools to deal with our problems head on rather than shrinking in fear of them. The amount of energy expended in denying a problem can be huge, the same energy when channelled into transforming a problem into a goal can motivate, uplift, energise and bring hope.

Perfect Imperfection

I came across this beautiful image of a peacock recently.

Have you ever thought what ugly feet a peacock has? It’s almost as if two different birds have been joined together, but it’s also nice, that even where there are so many awesome qualities, there are also flaws, a bit like us humans with our strengths and weaknesses, our flaws giving us the work we need to do in life’s school. I think striving for perfection is a doomed undertaking as it simply doesn’t exist, and the process of seeking it is costly in the harm done to our self esteem.