[Neurons] 2013 "Neurons" Meta Reflections #55

[L. Michael Hall]

From: L. Michael Hall


Meta Reflections 2013  #55

December 30, 2013

 

 

INSIDE-OUT LIMITATIONS

 

 

If all of our limitations are limitations of our maps rather than reality
(Meta Reflections #54), then the case of our lives is one of inside-out
limitations, rather than outside-in.  Yet for almost everybody, limitations
feel like an outside-in process.  It certainly seems that what is creating
limitations in my life are other people, how I was treated by my parents,
friends, lovers, bosses, etc., by the circumstances that I'm facing, etc.
It seems that way; it feels that way, yet in actuality, that's not the way
it is.

 

Why is that?  What explains this?  The principle is that our inside-out
limitations (which are in our maps) color our perceptions.  Limitations seem
to come from the outside, because that's how we use our map-endowed
limitations-we use them to color what we see.

 

The result of this is that much of what is inside us is projected outside.
It is projected onto other people, onto the world, onto experiences, etc.
In NLP this shows up as the process of "mind-reading."  Yet even more than
projection is the mechanism of filtering-we see the worlds that we see as
colored through our filters.  This describes the power of a belief.  A
belief, as an understanding and conviction about something (yourself,
others, your work, money, business, discipline, etc.), works as a
self-organization attractor within your mind-body system.  That's why all of
the great faith systems warned: Be careful what you believe because as you
believe, so be it unto you as you believe. 

 

After last week's post on this subject, Cat Wilson [
<mailto:cat at apositiva.com> cat at apositiva.com] who trains NLP in Portland
Oregon sent the following quotation from Jennifer James (2003) who said
something that relates to this challenge.  She offers a solution: We can
learn to recognize the distorting factors.

"Tugged in opposite directions by a familiar present and an uncertain
future, we can lose our balance and our ability to keep things in
perspective.  But it doesn't have to be that way.  We can learn to recognize
the many factors that may be distorting our perceptions.  We can sharpen our
perspective skills.  In short, we can keep our eyes and minds open to the
forces of change as they will affect our businesses and our lives."
(Thinking in the Future Tense, Touchstone iBooks)

 

Is this easy?  No, of course not.  Yet is it important?  Yes, absolutely.
And is it possible?  Yes!  And that is one of the values of NLP Training,
learning to recognize the distorting factors in our perceptions.  If you're
committed to learning that, I'd recommend that you start with learning and
using the Meta-Model of Language.  It was designed to enable you to
challenge the quality of your map-making.  And don't just use the original
11 distinctions (The Structure of Magic, 1975), use all 22 of the
distinctions (Communication Magic, 2001).   From there, focus also on the
thinking pattern that you use in thinking- your meta-programs and the
cognitive distortions.  These govern how you think.  

 

Similarly, Neuro-Semanticist and Meta-Coach, Scott Pochron [
<mailto:scottpochron at bridgecatalyst.com> scottpochron at bridgecatalyst.com]
who has made developmental psychology his focus (Scott presented a paper at
the NLP Research Conference last year) wrote the following about the
importance of a community of support for enabling all to engage in better
thinking.

There is a real limitation though-a developmental limitation that impacts
the way in which maps are constructed.  In this case, the challenge is not
just the quality of the map, but the capability of the individual to
coordinate maps of sufficient complexity to adequately represent the
territory.

A simple example is systems thinking.  It's estimated that only 20%  of the
US population is able to think systemically (i.e., able to coordinate the
interdependencies between more than two variables) without some form of
support. 

There is enough research evidence to confirm that there is a change over
time in how individuals construct meaning and there are patterns in the
structure of these changes from one stage to the next.  What is exciting, as
Neuro-Semanticists and Meta-Coaches, this is the area we attend to-we can
work with clients to understand both the structure of the maps and their
map-making capabilities, and provide the support to enable transformation,
which eventually can evolve the map making capability itself so they can be
self supporting.

 

I wrote back to Scott noting what a shocking statistic that is- "only 20% of
the US population is able to think systemically ... without some form of
support."   So what support do people need?  What do we have in
Neuro-Semantics that an offer you support? 

 

I'd first recommend using the Meta-States Model.  As a systems model, it
will get you use to the system process of self-reflexivity and how to follow
your own information-energy loop through your mind-body-emotion system.
This non-linear facet of thinking will condition you to think about the
variables as information moves through the loops and are transformed into
neurological responses.

 

Once you have a good working handle on how you meta-state yourself (and
others) with layers of psycho-logical levels, then focus your attention on
learning how to use the Matrix Model.  This will enable you to identify the
key variables in the system and a few key principles that govern the dynamic
complexity of the system.  Then you will be able to follow the information
into a person's individual system until it emerges as energy "states" that
the person operates from in speaking and responding. 

 

This is what we do in Meta-Coaching.  We follow the data that a person is
paying attention to and focusing on.  We follow it into his or her
map-making system where the person then creates both limitations and
resources by interpreting the meaning of the data.  When this framing of
meaning creates a limitation-the problem is that limiting frame.  And that's
the leverage point of transformation in that person's system.  What
limitations in emotions, speech, behavior, and relational responses makes
sense.  It makes senses to the meaning that the person maps about the data.
While it may seem like the limitation is out there in that data, it is not.
The limitation comes from the inside to the outside due to the
interpretative meanings framed by the person.  Got a limitation?  No worry,
the frame is the problem!  Time to reframe!

 

 

L. Michael Hall, Ph.D.

                Neuro-Semantics Executive Director 

                Neuro-Semantics International

P.O. Box 8

Clifton, CO. 81520 USA                             

                1 970-523-7877 

                Dr. Hall's email:
<mailto:meta at acsol.net\hich\af31506\dbch\af31505\loch\f31506> meta at acsol.net


     

    

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