[Neurons] 2015 "Neurons" Meta Reflections #47 (Sending a second time due to problems with internet in China)

Tue Nov 3 03:14:50 EST 2015

From: L. Michael Hall

Meta Reflections #47

November 2, 2015

APG - The Flagship of Neuro-Semantics #1 

[This post begins a new series on APG which is 

also titled Self-Leadership and Coaching Genius.

While some of the articles were written 2 decades 

ago, most readers of Neurons have not seen them.] 

THE ART OF TURNING "FLOW"

ON & OFF AT WILL

In Neuro-Semantics we have discovered how to turn the flow state on and off
at will.  That's what the APG training is about.  Turning flow on and off at
will refers to the requisite ability to step in and to step out of an
optimum state so that you can be absolutely at your best when you need to be
at your best with all of your resources available, and to step out when
that's appropriate.  Interested?

The Flow State.  Csikszentmihalyi is the cognitive psychologist who explored
and made "the flow state" explicit in his doctorate dissertation on
happiness.  Originally, he was searching for the structure of happiness.
Then, in the process, he stumbled onto the fact that has been known for
centuries.  Namely, the best way to not be happy is to pursue happiness!
Philosophers have long know that the direct pursuit of happiness is the best
way to not experience it.  The best way to achieve happiness is to pursue
something that's important to you, something that makes a difference, and
something requiring knowledge and skilled which you develop along the way.
That's what Csikszentmihalyi discovered-to be happy you need to be doing
something that's meaningful and challenging and something which is based on
a skill-a competence.

Yet being happy is not something will happen immediately or automatically.
In fact, the opposite may occur.  In the immediate moment when you have a
meaningful challenge which may be at the edge of your competence, when you
step up to it, it will not "easy."  Usually it is hard.  Usually you have to
begin using all of your energy, effort, knowledge, and intelligence to be
able to do it.  This is true of running a race, playing chest, rock
climbing, taking on a challenging project, writing a book, etc.   So where's
the happiness?  Ah, that's the secret.  The state of "happiness"(joy,
delight, even ecstasy) comes later.  It comes when you look back on the
experience.  That's when you say, "What great days those were!"  "I was the
happiest when I was doing X!"  The joy of the experience typically occurs
afterwards.  Happiness is the afterglow of a worthwhile attempt at something
important.

In mapping this out Csikszentmihalyi used two axes-challenge and competence.
That generated four quadrants and the "flow zone"-the pathway to flow which
involved integrating a challenge with the appropriate skills.  In
Neuro-Semantics our Self-Actualization Quadrants integrates this and extends
it as we use the axes-Meaning and Performance. 

Stepping in and out.  What NLP brings to the flow experience is the
phenomenon of a mind-body state-a state that you can access, step into, and
step out of.  States are like that.  Comprised of a dynamic combination of
what's on your mind, the condition of your body, and the emotions that you
generate from your meanings-a mind-body-emotion state is simultaneously a
state of mind, a state of body, and a state of emotion.  This gives us three
ways into state.

Further, we can also distinguish states in terms of purity.  The great
majority of our everyday states are mixed states: a part of me is in a state
of learning, a part is preoccupied with work, another part is fearful of
rejection, etc.  Very, very seldom do we access a pure state wherein we are
of one mind about something.  A pure state refers to being fully engaged
with one referent.  Then we are "all there"-fully present.  In that
situation, we have a laser-beam focus or concentration and that also
describes the flow state.

In early NLP literature, this was called a "genius" state, not because it
raises IQ, but because it describes the power of the focused, engagement
state-the power of being of one mind about something.  That same literature
identified many of "the prerequisites of genius."  And that's what we took
in Neuro-Semantics to create the Accessing Personal Genius (APG) training.
Taking the prerequisites of personal power, self-valuing, self-acceptance,
self-appreciation, ability to choose one's beliefs and suspend limiting
beliefs, pleasuring oneself in higher values, making peace with troubling
emotions, closing the knowing-doing gap, using the as-if frame for
generating new possibilities, setting high intentions and aligning attention
to one's highest intention -we have meta-stated these genius requirements
into a single pattern.

The result?  By custom-designing your own "genius," or flow state, for a
particular engagement, you can step in and out of that state at will.
Pretty amazing wouldn't you say?  "Yes, but does it really work?"

I will tell you about my experience with it.  Upon learning and designing
the pattern in 1994, I ran the pattern on myself to create two genius or
flow states.  One was the genius reading state, the other was the flow
writing state.  That was 1995.  Prior to that date, I had written a book,
Emotions: Sometimes I have them/ Sometimes they have me (1985).  That took
me eight years.  By 1995 I was still working on the book that eventually
became The Spirit of NLP (1997).  That only took five years to put together.

Then came the ability to step in and out of the flow state.  The first
result: no more "writer's block."  None!  I wrote two books in 1995.  And
since that time have averaged 2 to 3 books a year, three to five articles a
week, two to three training manuals a year, and numerous Prefaces,
Introductions, and Chapters in other books.  How do I explain this sudden
productivity and ease of writing?  I can step into the writing state, write
for one minute or five or for two hours, and then cleanly step out.  Then,
when I want to step back in, I do precisely that and start again wherever I
was, even in mid-sentence, without any loss of focus, attention, energy,
vitality, etc.  Now how cool is that?  Today (2015) I have written 54 books
and counting the serial books, 68.

The same can be said for other flow states: the coaching state, the training
state, the exercise state, etc.  The great thing is that when you can turn
the flow state on and off at will- it is there to serve you and your
engagements.  You don't have to wait around to "get in the mood."  You don't
have to do superstitious activities like wearing your favorite yellow shirt
or making the victory sign seven times to get into state.  You have it well
anchored in the physiologies of the state and so you just step in.

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

    ISNS new logo

What is Neuro-Semantic NLP?

Neurons:  Get your free subscription to the weekly International \Post on
Neuro-Semantics by Dr. L. Michael Hall. Subscribe at:
wwww.neurosemantics.com 

    Solutions:  Sign up for the Neuro-Semantic Newsletter ---

 wwww. <http://neurosemantics.com/newsletter> neurosemantics.com/newsletter.

 This is a monthly newsletter for anyone new to Neuro-Semantics.  Femke
Stuut, Editor.

Coaching: For world-class Coach Training - The Meta-Coaching System:
www.meta-coaching.org and \
<http://www.metacoachfo/hich/a/hich/af31506/dbch/af31505/loch/f31506%20f3150
6/dbch/af31505/loch/f31506%20undation.org/hich/af31506/dbch/af31505/loch/f31
506/hich/af31506/dbch/af31505/loch/f31506> www.metacoachfoundation.org.
Meta-Coach Reflections sent every Wednesday to the group of Licensed
Meta-Coaches.

Self-Actualization: Neuro-Semantics launched the New Human Potential
Movement in 2007, for information about this, see
<http://www.self-actualizing.org/> www.self-actualizing.org  

NSP --- Neuro-Semantic Publications: Order books from Neuro-Semantic
website,  <http://www.neurosemantics.com/> www.neurosemantics.com  click on
Products and Services and then the Catalogue of books.  Order via paypal.  

-------------- next part --------------
An HTML attachment was scrubbed...
URL: <https://pairlist8.pair.net/pipermail/neurons/attachments/20151103/e62ac0f5/attachment-0001.html>
-------------- next part --------------
A non-text attachment was scrubbed...
Name: image001.jpg
Type: image/jpeg
Size: 9832 bytes
Desc: not available
URL: <https://pairlist8.pair.net/pipermail/neurons/attachments/20151103/e62ac0f5/attachment-0001.jpg>