Adam Up

The summer has arrived on the south coast of England… Last Saturday evening, myself and a lovely group of people had a Firewalk evening… The sun shone, the evening was balmy and we trod the incredibly hot coal bed several times each.

The same weekend was the Glastonbury Festival and the Wimbledon Tennis Championship was finishing its first week… Traditionally, as soon as these events get into their throws, the rain starts pouring down.. This year, the sun has shone, despite a shower or two here and there.

I was writing on my blog this week about how old we feel, and I know many of my friends and I chat about the long summers we enjoyed as kids… They seemed to go on and on… I can remember I would go out in the morning and not come in until dinner time. The only time I did burst into my home during the day was to fill up on lemon or orange squash.

You don’t see it so much these days, but I used to love lemon squash. Coincidental that Wimbledon tennis tournament used to be sponsored by a squash company… I used to love gulping it down when I was thirsty, having not paused for breath when gulping down a glass of squash, being held with two hands, I’d put the glass down with a loud “Aahh!” as I inhaled heavily again… That was the good stuff.

Oh, how the summer gets my mind reeling and loving…

This week, my wife and I ordered a fabulous and beautiful new kitchen for our home… As well as it being just what we want and in keeping with the style of our home, we bought new wooden flooring throughout most of the downstairs of our home with work surfaces that match the wood… My wife is quite particular…

Anyway, there was a part of me that was absolutely delighted and thrilled with how even more beautiful our home is going to be… Then there was also a part of me that was thoughtful and pensive about how much money we were spending, the same part of me that likes to save and keep plenty of money in reserve in case we ever encounter a recession… You never know, it might happen… ;-)

You can spot the tenuous link here anyway, because this week I am sharing with you a technique accredited to the field of NLP and is known as a visual squash.

I often discuss and write about having congruence… that is, ensuring that all parts of you are aligned. Simple conflicts such as the one I cite in relation to kitchen buying are rarely problematic… But similar internal conflicts can occur that can create issues for us and our lives… And that is what today’s Adam Up is helping to alleviate.

Someone who says they want to stop smoking, a part of them wants to be healthier, yet another part of them enjoys the time alone in the garden spent indulging in the habit… Someone looking to reduce weight, has a part of them that wants to be shapelier, yet another part gets comfort from scoffing late at night in front of the telly. You know what I mean here, don’t you?

Step One:

OK, so we are not going to use the vehicle of self-hypnosis this week as with most other weeks. However, I do recommend you work through this in a comfortable place where you are likely to remain undisturbed for the period of time.

In this first step, you want to identify and choose any internal conflict that you may have, so that you are noticing the incongruent parts. As I did with the earlier examples and my own example with spending money on a new kitchen.

Just be aware of and notice any internal conflict that you may have and identify the two incongruent directions that parts of you have.

Step Two:

With that in mind, get yourself sat comfortably with your hands on your lap or in front of you with your palms turned upwards, as if they could hold things in them… Which is what they are kind of going to be doing…

Imagine that you take the two parts that you identified in step one and place each one in each of your hands. You decide which one feels comfortable in whichever hand… Then comes the fun…

Make each part sensory rich. By that I mean, given them the colours you feel suit, give them each a shape that suits them, any movements, sounds, textures or anything else… Really characterise each part as they sit in the palms of your hands.

Do take all the time necessary for this step, and get a really good sensory representation of each part. Here you are forming them into real, tangible ‘things’.

Step Three:

Now if you thought this was not being mad enough, now you need to start chatting with these two parts that are formed in your hands…

Communicate with each of the parts one at a time, and ask them to reveal what it’s positive intention is… That is, what good thing is it trying to do for you? Let ideas and thoughts roll around your mind as you think about this and imagine that the part is actually answering. Let your mind flow and enjoy the process… Make sure you have an idea of the positive intention… What it wants, not what it does not want… Nothing negative here. Take the right amount of time on this.

Step Four:

Now then, you may have already noticed this, or you may start noticing it now that I am mentioning it… There are likely to be some similarities, or some common ground in what the two parts’ positive intentions actually are… Notice that?

Aside for the similarities, now go to each of the parts again and ask each one what it could learn from the other… And what resources it might benefit from using, or even sharing. Go back and forth between the two parts you have in your hands and get this firmly established in your mind.

As each tells you what resources would be useful to share, imagine them being sent from one to the other… Maybe like colours, like clouds, or light or energy or whatever suits you best, just imagine sending the resources and qualities from each of the parts over to the other… So that they really are sharing!

At this stage, you might like to notice any changes in colour, texture, shape or feel as each part receives those resources… Maybe they start to change into something else, however subtly, just notice how having those resources affects each part.

This step is key, so spend all the time necessary on it.

Step Five:

With each of these updated, and slightly altered parts in your hands, turn your palms to face each other and bring them together. bring them together only as fast as it takes for you to fully integrate each of these parts into one wonderful new part.

Bring them together and allow them to morph and meld and mould into a new part right there in front of you. See how this new part looks, feels, sounds, notice the weight of it, notice all the combined qualities. Create there in front of you an entirely new part, with all the best aspects of the two previous parts integrated and combined beautifully.

Let your imagination modify and create a truly special part that expresses the best intentions and resources of each of the previous two.

Take all the time necessary with this step of the process.

Step Six:

With your hands still together, imagine and experience all the feelings involved, with this new image created of this new part, bring the image and the new part in its entirety to your chest.

Imagine it now integrating inside of you, imagine it making adjustments within you as you bring it all inside of you. Imagine the colours, the energy and the aspects of this new part being merged within you.

Now just start to think that with that new part fully integrated within you, consider the future, consider and imagine how you are going to behave now that you have this new part of you in harmony working for you. Think about how your life is going to be and think about an action you can take this very day that is proof that you have created a new level of harmony with you.

Then go and take that action, go do it!

Have fun with this, it is a remarkable way to free yourself of internal conflict.

Hilarious Letter from Grandma

Hahaha… Very funny… As always, a very big thank you to all those of you that in the wonderful jokes and those that post them up in the members area, I love them all… It is such a tonic to laugh at these things.