NLP At Work : The Difference That Makes the Difference in Business

MIND AND BODY ARE

PART OF THE SAME

SYSTEM

The power of the mind

practicing the skills and techniques explained in this book,

you will develop your range of behavior and thinking and

consequently your flexibility. You can achieve world-class

status as a communicator as a consequence of the way you

train your mind.

Anything that occurs in one part of the system will affect the

other parts.

Stand up to do the following exercise. Look ahead, stand feet

apart, face forward, raise one arm horizontally out in front of you,

and gently twist around, keeping your arm horizontal until it is

pointing as far behind you as it will go. Keeping your arm fixed

in that position, turn round and note what your arm is pointing

to. It may be a point on the wall or in the distance that marks

how far you have been able to move your arm behind you.

Now look carefully at the scene behind you and decide how

far you would like your arm to be able to move beyond the

original point. Fix that point in your mind as you turn to face

forward again. As you face forward twist again, moving your

arm behind you as far as it will go. When you have pushed it

as far as it will go, hold it steady, turn round, and see how far

you have moved your arm this time.

Most people find that they have moved their arm further

the second time, if not to the point they visualized, then

beyond. We know that if you imagine yourself throwing a ball,

the muscles of the body that would move if you were actually

throwing a ball tense and flex in exactly the same way. Those

of you with a vivid imagination probably recoil physically

when watching something unpleasant on television or at the

cinema. You can reproduce the feelings in yourself that are

experienced by someone else. Your body becomes an

expression of your thinking. Recent research has shown many

connections between what we think and the wellbeing of our

bodies.

The point about all these beliefs of excellence is that they

don't have to be true. Their power lies in the effect they have

when you choose to believe they are true. So what are the

implications for you of believing that mind and body are part

of the same system?

252 NLP AT WORK