40 Part I: Introducing NLP
even though this shortcoming can be helped with spelling technology and
they may be much better at investigating stories than people who don’t have
a hang-up over their spelling ability and who apply for the job.
By being aware of your beliefs, which are essentially assumptions that you
hold to be true, you can identify how these beliefs may be stopping you from
achieving your goals.
Think of a time when you really wanted to do something but, for whatever
reason, were unable to find the opportunity to achieve your goal. Now exam-
ine your beliefs. You may discover that these beliefs were stopping you from
noticing openings to help you achieve your goal.
Examining How Memories Are Created
Understanding how your brain works and how memories are created is
important because this understanding increases your choice of behaviour. A
lot of the memories, emotions, and resulting behaviours are unconscious and
you’re held in a trap, powerless to help yourself until you can understand
how your memories were created and you can choose which memories affect
your present.
Memories are normally created when information from the RAS is sent to the
part of the brain called the amygdala, where the data are given an emotional
weighting before being passed on to the hippocampus. The hippocampus
evaluates the data against those held in long-term memory and presents
them to the cortex for analysis and re-filing back into long-term memory.
Figure 3-1 shows you where these strangely named brain parts are located.
Encountering post-traumatic stress disorder (PTSD)
The general public first became aware of PTSD when films about veterans
from the Vietnam War started to be made. Today, the news coverage has
made people much more aware that PTSD is common among those working
in the emergency services as well as the unfortunate victims of war, abuse,
and crime.
