It’s been a long and fascinating road on the way to becoming a “Certified Health Practitioner of NLP”. In addition to immersing myself in NLP audio and video trainings for several years, I’ve attended personally 9 NLP related trainings in the last 2 years….

It’s all now at a delicious turning point… I’ve pretty much studied all I need to study, I’ve got the highest certification now, so I’m at the point where I need to get off of my butt and start using what I’ve learned!

Am I any smarter? I hope so….. I can sense a shift in my awareness. I am more sensitive to the patterns of human growth, illnesses and relationships. I’ve got several huge tool boxes full of patterns and techniques which I can use to improve myself, the lives of others, or even community endeavors like businesses or churches. I didn’t know it before, but I now realize that my NLP fascination has set me solidly on the path to becoming a taoist wizard, healer and trainer.

I want to express my gratitude for the NLP Institute of California (NLPCA), and Tim and Kris Hallbom in particular. They are good people who have worked hard to spread knowledge of NLP, all while keeping open inquisitive minds. With their skills and magnetism, they could have chosen to be cult leaders, but instead they practice the balance and self awareness that they teach, and are fascinating role models and exemplars for all of us.

I want to thank all the guest trainers who have broadened my experience and provided me with new perspectives. Robert Dilts, Suzy Smith, Dee Kinder and Nick Leforce,

I am so grateful for the NLPCA community. There is a thriving community of students and volunteers which have collected around the NLPCA trainings. By training and practicing with other students I have become intimately familiar with many of their desires and obstructions. I have gained many deep friendships which have helped to feel valued, helped to ground me, and to propel me towards my dreams.

I also owe a debit to many people who have written books or recorded trainings about NLP. Some of them are not as saintly as the Hallboms, but they provided me much needed knowledge and motivation when I needed it. John Grinder, Richard Bandler, Adam Eason, Chris Howard, Stephen Brooks, Tony Robbins, Steve Andreas, Michael Hall, Michael Grinder, Tad James and many others…

I recommend NLP training for anyone. No matter what you do, or who you think you are, everything you do will benefit from the new perspectives provided in NLP training. Beware of “Quickie” trainings, you need to practice to get good. My recommendation? You’ll do well if you train at one of these three schools: NLP University, NLPCA, NLPCO

Do you need a little personal transformation first? I am available for Coaching, Hypnotherapy and NLP sessions, in person, or by phone.
If you are curious, call me at 510-409-3660 and we’ll schedule one.

I am also available for corporate coaching, I will provide another view of what’s going on in your company. I have 20 years of experience in leading cross-functional teams in the game industry, so I understand how to keep companies lean, agile and focused.

Stay tuned, I’ve got a Taoist Trance-Formations group program starting soon! You won’t want to miss it.

How I perceive the world is the result of what filters I have on experience in any given moment.

As I understand it, the world is manifest from consciousness and consciousness is sustained by belief, because of this, I’ve discovered a new, profound respect for the power of belief.

So if I am exploring a practice which requires belief, the one sure way to not get results is to not believe…

I am very interested in exploring a variety of belief systems and their related practices. As I discover more things which “work” I am becoming less dogmatic and more open, and ending up with a better understanding of how it all fits together.
Coming from an engineering background, I wanted to share my process with you:

1. Find someone you respect and trust who holds an interesting set of beliefs. You can use referrals from friends you respect to help expand your circle of acquaintances. Be especially aware of people who have gained prominence recently, “When the student is ready, the teacher will come”.

2. Discover a practice that they recommend, perhaps a retreat or a training or a ritual you can do every day.

3. Do an ecology check: For instance, if you adopt this practice, will it take too much money? ruin my body? harm my loved ones? or hurt the environment? If so, abandon this practice and return to step #1

4. Decide how long you will do the practice. See how it works before you become too committed.

5. Use an internal ritual to take all your existing beliefs, doubts and criticisms, and put them into a mental “safe deposit box” for future reference. Put the box away in a safe place. Release the contents from your mind.

5. Model and adopt the beliefs of your friend as close as you can. Have faith in what you are doing.

6. Practice the new practice for the time you specified

7. Examine the new set of beliefs and pick the ones which seemed to be most useful.

8. restore your original beliefs from the “safe deposit box” then integrate the new useful beliefs into your system.

9. Observe how your perceptions have changed, then go back to step #1

I recently graduated from the NLP and Coaching Institute of California with a Master Practitioner in NLP certification.

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

Bruce Frantzis has produced an excellent introduction to taoist water meditation in the audio set TAO of Letting Go: Meditation For Modern Living
. Water meditation has a lot to do with releasing things which are “stuck” in the body or the mind. Bruce has written a couple of books on this same subject: Relaxing into Your Being: The Water Method of Taoist Meditation, Vol. 1
and The Great Stillness: The Water Method of Taoist Meditation, Vol. 2.

Another Frantzis resource is the Ancient Songs of the TAO: Music of the Spheres
which are ancient taoist liturgies which Bruce himself sings.
He actually has different songs for different parts of the body and different types of emotion.
I find it an unusually trancey experience where I can feel parts of my body resonating with his “overtone” singing.
I really enjoy getting into a nice open state while playing one of these songs while doing an afternoon round of tai-chi.

It has been a long while since I posted. I found myself drawn away from my blog by a myriad array of self-development practices.

For almost 2 years I have wanted to take NLP practitioner training. I had studied many, many audio tapes and books, but I really wanted the experience of practicing with willing partners.

So last October I started an NLP Practitioner Training with nlpca.com, Tim Hallbom was my primary instructor. After 6 months of one 3 day weekend every month, I finally have my NLP practitioner certificate.

Some of the benefits I got from the program include:

1. I have an effective model of subjective experience. With a willing, open minded subject I can now catalyze major shifts in peoples perceptions, habits and illnesses. I didn’t really expect to be able to improve my powers of keen observation and subtle suggestion as effectively as I did.

2. I am much more aware of subtle modes of communication. This has changed my tai-chi, I now feel my Qi more strongly and directly. Best of all, my push hands is more sensitive, rooted, powerful and subtle.

3. I understand what motivates me in major areas of my life, and how to change them.

4. I now have a personal vision of building transformational communities online.

5. I have built really strong bonds with my class mates, I care about them in a ways which were totally unexpected for me.

5. I feel like my life has shifted in a fundamental way. My opportunities are limitless, my motivation is renewed, I feel centered and happy for most of every day.

Next Steps? I will be continuing with my Master Practitioner Training, 3 more months where we will focus on re-imprinting, language patterns and other advanced topics.

I’ve been having a great time listening to some NLP related podcasts.

Check out Renee Stephens “Inside Out Weight Loss” for some tasty NLP morsels.

Or improve your coaching skill with “Coaching the Life Coach” by Robert Harrison.

Finally, i recommend the “Radical Change Group” a trio of enthusiastic seekers who seem to be well versed in using NLP in a variety of situations.

British Hypnosis Research is a well respected organization led by the famed British Hypnotist, Stephen Brooks. BHR has hosted an online course in “indirect hypnosis, Ericksonian hypnosis and NLP” for several years. They have recently made admission free for anyone seriously interested in studying these topics.

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

“15 years from now, we’ll be adding more than a year every year, not just to infant life expectancy, but to your remaining life expectancy, so as you go forward a year, your remaining life expectancy will move away from you… The sands of time will be running in, not out.”

Ray Kurzweil, in his keynote speech at GDC 2008 last week, is predicting that if we live to 2023, then we may live forever. He says that the rate of life extension is a geometric curve which is just now starting to take off. The influence of nanotechnology and information technology on medicine and lifestyle has just started to be recognized. As an example he referred to 4 different drugs which are currently in testing which will “fix” the “fat gene” (insulin response) and allow our overfed population to avoid obesity.

Ray has been remarkably reliable with his predictions in the past, so I don’t want to dismiss this one as fairy dust…

However I still think change will always need to come from within, no magic pill will “fix” our lives or our health for us. It is up to us to keep up the quality of our lives through study and self refinement. I believe that there is still a lot to be learned about the mysteries of the mind and the workings of Qi for instance, I’m hoping that the next 20 years will lead to a revolution in the understanding of both.

For more details about Kurzweil’s speech, check out the report on ohgizmo.com

I was thrilled to be in the audience of Ray’s Keynote. It sure gave me an up-beat mood for the rest of the week!

(This was originally a speech I gave at toastmasters)  
A book I greatly admire; the Tao-te-ching states

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!

It was serendipitous to find the The Art of Learning by Josh Waitzkin in a library recently.

This guy is phenomenal, first he was a childhood national chess champion, and then he learned tai-chi well enough to win the world title (twice) in international push hands tournaments.

I found this book to be very inspirational. It rang a bell with both my NLP (how do I learn?) and Taoist (how do I get good at Push Hands?) interests.

If you’d like a preview, check out this youtube video.