“The spiritual life is a life beyond moods. It is a life in which we
choose joy and do not allow ourselves to become victims of
passing feelings of happiness or depression.”
Henri J.M. Nouwen, The Road to DaybreakM
any traditional models of change and influence
have sought to bring about change through
manipulation of other people and the environment.
The reality is that we cannot change other people, we can only
change ourselves. Our environment is tempered by the mental
models we hold. There are some people, for example, who
only see good in others. They have no representation for bad.
In their world bad doesn’t exist.
Our thoughts leak out in everything we do, often in ways
that are outside our conscious awareness. These thoughts send
out signals to the world about what we want, what we believe,
and who we are. And the world responds to those signals.
Consequently the key to influencing the responses is to
change the inner signals. NLP offers us the opportunity to
manage these inner representations and signals. In doing so
we begin to tap into the potential of the world’s most powerful
computers—our minds. By learning how to manage our