14th December 2011
Later on in this series of newsletters, we are going to understand how the use of language in a particular way will influence our thinking process and consequently affect the quality of our actions and decision. One such language pattern is called `universal quantifier'. In this we operate with a mindset called `always', `everyone' `all' `every time' etc.
For example, in the dog phobia case, just because some dog bit someone somewhere, our mind may generalize that `every dog is dangerous' , `all dogs are dangerous', `every time you see a dog, you are in ganger' etc. If we get trapped in such generalizations, we will avoid dogs and become very insecure. One way to come out of such a mind set is to keep asking questions to our mind such as `are all dogs dangerous?' or `are dogs always dangerous?' or `will every dog bite everyone?' etc. We should do this at a neutral time and not when we are confronted with a dog!
The problem with many of us is that we don't understand how the mind responds in certain situations. Sometimes we don't do anything to come out of such traps and start accepting these as facts of life. With this frozen mindset, we avoid situations which will make us insecure. In the dog phobia case, we will avoid dogs. But, you will appreciate, that this will not offer a permanent solution to our problems.
In the next newsletter I am going to discuss yet another amazing NLP presupposition called `people have all the resources'.
Getting curious? Keep reading…
N C Sridharan
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