One thing I like to do occasionally for inspiration is to review journal entries from the past, just to see what has evolved and what has stayed the same.

2 years ago I really wanted to become an NLP practitioner, so I followed a process where I created a “well formed outcome” and “set my intent” to do that. At the time I was just “playing” with an NLP process I was exploring, but something had “clicked” and here I am, having accomplished my desire.

Like any large goal, I broke this into steps.

Here’s what I did:
1. Learned Self Hypnosis, did many guided meditations on improving my self image and self confidence.
2. Since I’ve had a long commute (1 hr each way) I also immersed myself in NLP and hypnosis audio trainings from many different instructors.
3. I attended a Tad James 3 day Hypnosis Certification Course.
4. I graduated from the British Hypnosis Research online course in Ericksonian Hypnosis, this took over a year of participation in community forums, studying reference materials, and passing exams. I am indebted to Stephen Brooks for setting this course up, and for making it free!
5. After a year or more of concentrated study of NLP, I felt I needed a lot more practical experience, so I spent the money to attend an NLP Certification training where I could work on real people I was picky about where to take my training and finally settled on the NLP and Coaching Institute of California, the training was a total of 27 days spread over 9 months.

So the real question is; Where do I go from here? I’ll discuss that soon in a future blog entry

I’ve been enrolled for a couple of weeks now, and it is fascinating! I am building relationships with a cadre of like minded students from around the world. If you are seriously interested in learning about hypnosis you need to check this out!

To find out more, go to British Hypnosis Research

30 spokes share the wheel’s hub,

but it is the center hole that makes it useful

Shape clay into a vessel;

It is the space within that makes it useful

Cut the doors and windows for a room;

It is the holes which make it useful.

Emptyness leads to an untroubled mind, and an untroubled mind leads to serenity.

A serene speaker is a good speaker.

In this speech I will discuss the basis of serenity, and give you a little guided meditation to help improve your serenity before your next speech.

Many people have the impression that being a toastmaster is all about talking, talking and more talking.  But without appropriate emptiness, focus, authenticity, and relaxation any speech will fall flat.

Keep your mind empty, and refuse to fill it with expectations or worries. If you are not in tune to your audience, you will be unable to gain the critical ‘rapport’ which attracts them to you. If you are empty of worry, you can remain focused, you can avoid distraction, you will be wholly present in the here and now.The pauses you use will be appropriate and dramatic.

You need to empty your mind of everything but your speech.  This is called focus.  

• Being prepared will improve your focus.  Nothing calms the mind like having practiced your presentation enough! 
• Being relaxed will also improve your focus.  If you are relaxed, you can be in the moment, observing your audience, and sensing your effect upon them. You will be able to go with the flow when an unexpected event happens. 

Some people believe that they can’t be themselves while speaking.  They think they need to hide behind a special ‘presentation’ personality, an “evil twin” where they grit their teeth and painfully force themselves speak. These speakers are not authentic. 

Don’t try to be anyone other than yourself.  When you speak as your true self, your feelings are automatically communicated in your vocal variety, word emphasis, and choice of phrases.

Speeches improve when they are about emotional topics, and show the speaker “opening up”.  Just before your presentation, you can mentally prepare yourself with a little relaxation exercise.

I have prepared a short guided meditation which can assist you in doing this before your next speech.

Please follow me in this exercise:

Take a deep breath… Now let it out nice and slow…

Take another breath, and as you breath out slowly, let go of all your concerns now.

Just empty your mind and relax…You may want to close your eyes, because you want to get truly relaxed…You have nothing to do now but to relax… 

Think of a time in your life when you were very calm and focused. Perhaps there was a time when everything went just right…
Re-live this calm and focused time now, in your imagination…

What do you see? …

What can you smell? …

How do you feel? …

Can you make what you see brighter and larger? Double the size, if it makes you feel better…Play some calming music in your mind, notice how much better you feel…You are becoming more and more… Calm and focused and happy…As you get comfortable with this feeling, say to yourself the word “Serenity“, now…Now clear your mind, think of the color white…The color white could be an interesting color.

Bring back the memory of when you were calm and focused…

What do you see? …

What can you smell? …

How do you feel? …

Can you make what you see brighter? Make your feelings stronger, make your memory brighter and larger…

Double the feelings you are having… Notice how much better you feel…Now say to yourself the word “Serenity“…

You may open your eyes, and return to the present…

So here is how you use this.  Just before you give your next speech, Close your eyes for a moment, take a couple of deep breaths…let your breath out slowly, then say to yourself, “Serenity“.  This will help you recall the Calm and focused state you just practiced.

Once you have found the emptiness within you, you will be ready to give the best speech of your life!

1. It would be easy to add Chinese to existing puzzle/parlor games.
2. There is a whole subculture of game developers specialized in “serious games”.
3. Several computerized language tutoring programs already exist which have game like elements.

This left me speechless, but I have been thinking about it for a while and I am working on expanding my vision to include the spirit of these responses.

What I am looking for is a way to get a return on my investment of the many hours I’ve spent playing addictive games like World of Warcraft. I didn’t want Chinese language instruction to be the primary purpose of the game, but one of several educational side effects of playing it.

What I envision is a game which educates in a variety of areas, letting the player follow their interest and naturally learn as they do what they find interesting.

For instance, being a student of things Taoist, my ideal game would be a title which focused on the 5 excellences: poetry, painting, calligraphy, tai chi and medicine.

In the ancient days, the path of wisdom was to become an ascetic and wander from village to village meeting new people, experiencing new things, learning skills, and perhaps to finding a guide for the next phase of the journey.

Why can’t our game give the same experience? Instead of a linear set of areas to traverse, there may be a range of different people / objects to interact with, each with their own entertaining challenge or training. As you learn new things, new possibilities open up, and perhaps after succeeding in a challenge, some key information will be passed on which opens up a new area of exploration. The design of Oblivion is very much like this.

The use of puzzles with educational content would be a core mechanic of the game. Puzzles allow the user to drill new concepts while still being entertained. For a game with a similar (less educational) integration of puzzles and RPG, take a look at puzzle quest

I also think that puzzle games make excellent candidates for download to a portable device. The material in your portable device puzzle collection would evolve and become more complex dependent on what you have achieved in the primary game. Given enough practice perhaps you can learn enough to pass a challenge which will let you enter a new path in the primary game. Keeping old material in occasional rotation will allow an occasional refresher, and help cement what you have learned in long term memory. I believe that a small set of puzzle games can be reused, but can be kept fresh by updating their content regularly.

We have a lot to learn from the serious games people too, to avoid repetition and linear game play we will need to greatly improve our character simulations, and provide a lot of alternative dialog and intelligent behavior in our NPCs. Advanced Natural Language Processing techniques would be absolutely necessary in a game this language centric. The serious games community has also researched the educational patterns which work in games.

I would like some attention paid to the basics of NLP (Neuro Linguistic Programming) and hypnosis as I mentioned in my previous post. I think leveraging some of their ideas could greatly enhance the quality and entertainment value of the game.

Many linguists tell us that immersion is the best way to learn a new language. The primary game should expose the user to the target language gradually, requiring the player to gain in their understanding of it to converse with new characters, and to advance their goals. Although current generation game will probably not have adequate voice recognition, users could still communicate with NPCs using dialog trees or icons and learn to understand both written and spoken forms of the language in response. The more we are required to use the language, the more painlessly we learn.

In any case, we must not forget the primary purpose of the game, to entertain. Getting buy-in from educators and parents would be a big bonus, but ultimately, what will make the game work is its inner addictiveness, high quality game play and variety.

I think all the technology, research and game design elements needed already exist. Isn’t it time we produced a blockbuster or two which actually had some redeeming value?

Lets build some AAA titles that educate. You know it is in our power…

I was pretty determined to not waste my money, so I decided to follow all the instructions, and listen to the audio sessions at the rate suggested (one per week). I used my determination to leverage my subconscious, determined to make a serious change.

The worst part was keeping an eating journal for a while, and actually discovering what it was like to feel hungry again… This had to happen, because I needed to interrupt my old pattern of eating and bring the whole eating thing back into my conscious awareness again. Don’t worry, I didn’t starve, and after my metabolism stabilized, There was almost no willpower needed to stay on the program!

The most enjoyable part of the program was the audio self-hypnosis sessions. I tried to listen to the latest every day whenever possible. I could feel my body filled with energy and my psyche seemed to feel new enthusiasm after many sessions.

In about 3 weeks I started to notice that my self confidence had improved! and I felt like I had new control over my life. This unexpected result was very nice, and had unexpected benefits in many aspects of my life.

I was told not to weigh myself during the program, so I waited 10 weeks from when I began, I was amazed to discover that I had reduced my weight by over 25 lbs!

Well I was convinced of the power of self-hypnosis, so I purchased the “Master course in self-hypnosis” and started to learn the basics of how it all works. I now can create my own self-hypnosis tapes, and I try to either listen to one of Adams (I still love the Think Yourself Thin sessions) or one of my own, every day.

The Imagination leads the mind, and the mind leads the Qi

That makes imagination the root skill of both!
Both also encourage a kind of “trance state” where you remove the mental noise of the day and focus on just what you are doing now.After continued practice you will be able to “feel” the Qi flowing along the same path where you only “imagined” it earlier.

In self hypnosis, it is also common to “imagine” or “visualize” a positive outcome while in a trance state. This trains your subconscious and “retrains” your brain accordingly. By repeating this visualization with belief and intensity, you prepare yourself to allow the desireable outcome to occur.

Very similar underneath, don’t you think? I guess it’s not too suprising, since our brains seem to be hard-wired for it internally.