Hi,
I hope you enjoyed my last piece of the presuppositions of NLP. What I want to do now is introduce you to one of the most fundamental concepts of all of NLP: State.
But what is state I hear you ask? State refers to the overall emotional physiological and psychological condition of an individual. It involves the beliefs, values, capabilities and behaviour within a context at a particular time. Your state filters and selects perception, activates specific patterns of thinking and believing, influences decisions, frames communication, triggers emotions, affects health, affects performance, affects conscious awareness, and drives behaviours. NLP involves putting your mind and body into the right place to achieve a goal – in other words, getting into the right state.
• Your ability to influence and choose your state has a powerful effect on your resourcefulness and comfort in any situation.
• Research suggest that a state naturally lasts for about 90 seconds, after which, for the state to continue, the stimulus needs to re-applied either externally or internally. Typically, many people keep a state going by the things they think about or the way they think about them.
As we move through time, we naturally change and access different states frequently, but for many people it is done reflexively, with little choice. When unpleasant states are present, we may feel more the victim of them than their master. And when enjoyable states are present, we may not know how to sustain them. For some people states come and go like weather patterns and they experience them as beyond their control. Most people have their mood contolled by external events. Practitioners of NLP learn ways of controlling and being able to change their own mood.
Pattern Interrupts / Break State
Sometimes when a person is throwing a tantrum, shutting down, panicking or running any other un-resourceful automatic behaviour, the only way to get them to stop now is to suddenly do something totally unexpected or drastic. Use the art of distraction to stop a person in their tracks and break the pattern they are entrenched in. Some pattern interrupts / break states you could try are:
• Coughing, sneezing, dropping something
• Waving your arms or suddenly moving
• Exclaiming in a loud voice
• Doing something unexpected.
• Drawing attention to something else – “can you smell chicken?”, “do you hear geese?”
Having broken the state they were in, you can now assist them to get into a new state that is more resourceful for them. Usually the sooner you do this the more effective your break state will be.
Getting someone into a new state
There are many ways of helping a person or a group get into a new state. You could use one or several of these.
Pacing and Leading
• Establish rapport and then get into the desired state yourself and lead the other person or group into the new state using language to assist you.
• How are you feeling now?
• That’s right, and as you are feeling_____, what else are you noticing?
Stories & Metaphor
• Tell a story or recount an experience and your audience may automatically associate into the state along with you.
• A great storyteller weaves in and out of states throughout the story.
Change Physiology
• Since mind and body for one system, anytime you adopt a new physiology your state changes to match it. Get the person to change to a different physiology.
• This is why laughter really is the best medicine –it changes your state instantly, go on, try it now!
Remember a Time
• If you remember a time in rich sensory detail and associate into the memory as if you are seeing it again through your own eyes, hearing what you heard and feeling what you felt you will access that state as well.
• People who want to relive a positive event (or feel depressed) are naturally good at this.
Tags: State
