Write Your Way to New Perceptions With NLP
by Linda Ferguson
Almost every class I train in NLP begins with the question: Can I do this for myself? The problem with running NLP processes on your own perceptions is that it is difficult to be two people at once. Most processes require one person to be completely engaged in a particular state and a second person to guide a change process. One person cannot play both parts simultaneously – at least not effectively.
Writing is one way to use NLP principles to transform your own perceptions. As you write, you can become fully engaged with a particular problem or obstacle. Once you have written, you can step away from the state you have created. You cannot be two different people at once, but you can stabilize one perception before stepping into a new perceptual position. Let’s imagine how this might work.
Think of a situation in which you were not at your best, a situation that is leading you to doubt your competence or self-management. You might pick a situation where you lost your temper, missed a deadline, or performed poorly on a test or presentation. Fully imagine that situation as if you were watching it happen now. You can pretend that you are watching a movie, or you can just position yourself in your imagination so that you can see someone who looks and sounds like you going through this situation.
Now describe the scene you have just watched. Like any writer of a good story, you will want to include enough sensory detail so that the reader can fully imagine the scene. On the other hand, it won’t be possible to fully describe this kind of situation: you will have to choose representative details to include. Aim for about three paragraphs and be aware of using short active sentences that contain visual, auditory and kinaesthetic information as you describe the setting, the people and the interaction in the scene.
Clear your head (and your state). Take a new sheet of paper. Now allow yourself to step into the situation again, this time imagining it as if it were happening to you now. Look out through your own eyes at the surroundings and the people. Feel in your own body the physical sensations and actions you experienced in the situation. Notice how quickly you can get back into the situation and stay there only as long as you need to identify all the details you will need to write a compelling description.
On your new sheet of paper, describe the scene in first person, as though it were happening to you. As a writer, of course, you are of two minds – the mind experiencing the scene and the mind choosing details and words. You can be curious about how accurately you can convey the experience without being caught up in the parts you did not like in the first place.
If the situation involved some kind of unsatisfactory interaction with another person, you might want to play the scene a third time, stepping into that person’s role and watching the scene unfold from his/her perspective. When you write it, use the pronoun “you” to describe the person who looks and sounds like you.
Now, this process might seem like a lot of work and a lot of time. By now, you might have written three or four pages and spent somewhere between 30 and 150 minutes thinking, writing and clearing your state. Think about the problem you began with, how many hours it has been affecting the way you think and behave and how many hours it has cost you in lost productivity or bad decisions. Although an hour spent writing feels like a long time, it is really just a very intense, very effective way of gaining perspective and detaching yourself from a situation.
Take another look at what you have written. Notice that it is now entirely separate from you: because you own all three descriptions, no one of them represents you. You now have choice: the choice to choose from among these perspectives or the choice to step away from all three (you can even throw the paper away if you’ve written on paper or delete the file on the computer) and choose a more balanced and resourceful perspective.
These practices – the ability to stabilize your representation, to view it from different perspectives, to dissociate in order to transform yourself, and to make new choices – are the practices of NLP. Writing slows them down a little, but it also frees you to make the changes you want for yourself and by yourself.
About the author: Linda Ferguson, Ph.D. is a senior partner with NLP Canada Training Inc.,Toronto, Canada. NLP Canada provides intensive training in the practices and principles of NLP. Drawing on fields from the arts to business to neuroscience. Learn more at www.nlpcanada.com
