Your can change your state of mind or mood easily using the techniques of anchoring. This means you can, for example, stay calm and relaxed whatever other people are doing or however provoking they may be.
While NLP offers you techniques to create a desired anchor (see below), you are also already affected by anchors throughout your life and go into a good mood or a bad one … feel motivated to do one thing or to do another … feel confident and resourceful or the opposite. We are responding to anchors, but we may not know what they are. These anchors have been built up accidentally and some of them can be used in your favor even without knowing any techniques.
So it is worth investigating what resonates with you most. Very often this is connected to you preferred representational system (–> see VAKOG).
Being quite visual, pictures can work as an anchor (background pictures for your computer, a picture in your purse).
E.g. when I feel very tense and would like to get into some state of calmness and having a fresh mind, I like to remember an early morning hike on the Mount Batur in Bali (–> see Sunrise).
If you are (like I am) also a very auditory person, music playlist might help you to get into a desired state. I have playlists for all kinds of moods on my iPhone – one that helps me to be confident when I make a public appearance, one that gets me into a competitive mode when preparing for a tennis match, one to lift me up when I am down or one to calm me down when I am nervous.
Another piece of “How I met your mother” life philosophy (see –> Right place, right time) and another view on that life might get understood backwards, but needs to be lived forward (see –> Life is today). So both seems to be close to me …
Some life philosophy from “How I met your mother”. I like the idea that small causes may have large effects, so no step is too small to lead to a great result.
You could not remove a single grain of sand from its place without thereby … changing something throughout all parts of the immeasurable whole.
Of course not so easy when you are stuck in darkness or just been hit by fate. So for me that does not mean that one need to be positive all the time. Sadness or fear serve a purpose. However, we are not meant to remain stuck in such a state forever. This is when it becomes helpful to find out what your options are. And most of the times there is more than one option.
When someone tells me that I only have two alternatives to choose from (or that something is “without alternatives”), I get suspicious. This is rarely the case. Once I realize my options, the Dalai Lame (or Bruce Lee) come into play.
“Choose the positive. You have choice, you are master of your attitude, choose the positive, the constructive. Optimism is a faith that leads to success.”
“Tomorrow belongs to those who can hear it coming” – imagine 1999 … the rise of the internet has just started. To get access to the world wide web you needed modems, that made strange noise and would take minutes until you can get started. Websites took ages to built up, let alone videos. To download one song of 3 minutes could easily take an hour. A lot of people expected the internet to “go away one day”. This is the background to watch David Bowie’s predictions of where this would go …
See the full interview below – from minute 7:00 you can witness a true visionary. Predicting the future of the internet, music and society.
“The potential of what the internet is going to do to society, both good and bad is unimaginable.”
The picture has been taken at Mt. Batur in Bali / Indonesia. Mt. Batur (known in Indonesia as Gunung Batur) is an active volcano, considered on of the most sacred mountains in Hinduism, and its peak is at 1717 metres. On the picture you can see majestic caldera lake reflecting the early sun-rays.
One of the most precious and emotional memories of my life – not only for the view, but in addition because of the journey it took to get to this picture. Getting up at around 1.30am for the 2-hour drive to the starting point of Toyabungkah village. Hiking up the mountain in darkness for another two hours to finally arrive at the summit. All this rewarded by the most beautiful and spiritual scenery possible.
Like this sunrise, many experiences in life only become really special and valuable by the efforts they required. Hopefully a consoling thought – when times are dark and the way is steep, there is a good chance that you get rewarded once you have gone through all this.
In loving memory of WV, who accompanied us on that memorable tour.
„Footprints in the sand“ (see below) resonates very much with me. David Bowie references the poem in his 2002 song „I would be your slave“
„I don’t sit and wait I don’t give a damn I don’t see the point at all No footprints in the sand I would give you all my love Nothing else is free Open up your heart to me And I would be your slave“
One of my favourite and most intense David Bowie concert moments, when he threw this song into the red light of the sunset as if he was disputing God.
Thought the poem is addressed to God, for me this could as well be addressed to one’s parents, lover, friends, you name it. As well Bowie actually has always been ambiguous who „I would be your slave“ actually adresses to.
In which way ever one would like to interpret the poem, it’s gives much comfort to have someone who cares next to you when the times get rough. In these moments, however, the view is often so narrowed that we no longer even notice a supporter. One thing to consider from time to time. And on the flip side – if you are the one on the sunny side, then you might as well be the one who is carrying the other. So worth looking out for footprints …
„One night I had a dream…I dreamed I was walking along the beach with the Lord, and Across the sky flashed scenes from my life. For each scene I noticed two sets of footprints in the sand; One belonged to me, and the other to the Lord. When the last scene of my life flashed before us, I looked back at the footprints in the sand. I noticed that many times along the path of my life, There was only one set of footprints.
I also noticed that it happened at the very lowest and saddest times in my life This really bothered me, and I questioned the Lord about it. “Lord, you said that once I decided to follow you, You would walk with me all the way; But I have noticed that during the most troublesome times in my life, There is only one set of footprints. I don’t understand why in times when I needed you the most, you should leave me.
The Lord replied, “My precious, precious child. I love you, and I would never, never leave you during your times of trial and suffering. When you saw only one set of footprints, It was then that I carried you.“
“Be like water making its way through cracks. Do not be assertive, but adjust to the object, and you shall find a way around or through it. If nothing within you stays rigid, outward things will disclose themselves.
Empty your mind, be formless. Shapeless, like water. If you put water into a cup, it becomes the cup. You put water into a bottle and it becomes the bottle. You put it in a teapot, it becomes the teapot. Now, water can flow or it can crash. Be water, my friend.” (Bruce Lee)