NLP & GO

Nowadays many people find it challenging to "connect" with themselves.  Questions such as " What is important to me?  What do I want to achieve in life? " can be difficult to answer. 

 

This challenge is brought on by the fact that we rarely--if ever-- have quality time for ourselves . Most of us live and work in cities where we are  always interacting with other people.   Modern technology has provided us with computers and cellular phones with which we are constantly in touch with other people. The result is that we are less and less in touch with our core being.  

 

I have found the following exercise very useful to help people become more connected with themselves. 

1) The first step:   In order to connect to yourself,  you must first temporarily  disconnect from other people and the world.  

 

This is done by  

A)  going out all by yourself to a place where you have no connections  ( = where you are very unlikely to meet someone that you know). For example;  going to an unfamiliar neighborhood or to a park you don't usually visit . 

 

Take a notebook and pen with you.

 

You should plan to do this for several hours.  You need to feel relaxed and should not have any other plans .  You must feel totally free of any obligations in order to completely disconnect and fully concentrate on the process described below.  If a person has other obligations on his mind,  he is still "connected "  to other people and the world  and this can interfere with the process.  

 

B) You should not take a phone or any communication device with you!   Even if the phone is turned off or if it is in close proximity to you (such as in your car) this can interfere with the process because you will still feel "connected" to other people.   (If you are concerned that you might need a phone,   tell yourself that you can always ask someone to borrow their phone)

 

2) The second step:   Once the person has disconnected from the rest of the world as described above,   he is able to connect to himself. 

 

This is done  by  asking yourself the following question:  

A)  "What is important to me in life?"   

Then ,  when you have answers to this question,  asking yourself:

B) "Why is this important to me?"  

 

You can take breaks ,  walk around, eat,  drink, etc. as needed and then ask these questions again: 

"What else is important to me in life?"  

and then  follow up with "Why is this important to me?" 

 

Write down the answers to these questions because it will help you clarify and organize your thoughts as well as prepare for the third step. 

 

(In my experience people are amazed how much they write down! )

 

3) The third step is we discuss your findings .

The purpose and goal of this discussion is to:  

A)  clarify more precisely what you wrote down.   Sometimes the ideas people write down are too abstract .  

 

B) double check that these ideas  are truly important to you. Sometimes people fool themselves. For example, they write down ideas that other people (parents, teachers,  friends,  the media, etc. ) have taught them are important. 

 

C) brainstorm how to begin to implement and achieve what you wrote down.  

 

As a follow up,  it can be worthwhile  to go out (without a phone, etc.) for shorter periods (a half an hour,  or an hour)  once a week or once every two weeks to think about how you are  doing .   You  can also reconsider or update some of  your thoughts.