[Neurons] 2018 Neurons #36 How the Past --- Lives Today

Sun Aug 26 05:39:01 EDT 2018

From: L. Michael Hall

2018 Neurons #36

August 27, 2018

Getting Over the Past Series (#2) 

HOW THE PAST LIVES TODAY

AND WHAT YOU CAN DO ABOUT IT

Now you would think that getting over the past would be the simplest thing
in the world for a human being.  After all, you live in the present and, in
fact, that's the only actual realm of time you can live in.  You actually
can do none other.  That's because the past does not exist.  It is literally
past.  Nor does the future exist.  Only the present exists and that's why
you can only live there.  What we call "the past" and "the future" are only
concepts in our minds-the past is memory and the future is imagination.

Yet "the past" can live within us or shall I say that we can live in "the
past"-in our minds and bodies.  How does that work?  It works in two ways-
one neurologically and the other semantically.  Neurologically, "the past"
lives in us by the things we have learned and the experiences that we have
encoded in our bodies.  To go through, or have, any experience is to have a
neurological encoding as your body registers the event and your
neuro-pathways are activated.  Do that repeatedly and you create a habit (a
program as it were) for that event.  Learning to ride a bike, drive a car,
make friends, handle criticism, feel bad about an insult, fear public
speaking, etc. all of those experiences can now be encoded in your neurology
as a response program that you learned at some time in the past.  

Today that past learning is present in you as a result of what and how you
learned or experienced something.  That is, the effect of the past is still
with you as a learning, as a program, a habit.  It is in that way that you
now live it.  You live it not because the past still exists, but because a
leftover aspect of the past (e.g., a learning) is still active and available
to you and in you today.  This does not mean the past determines your
present or future, it only means that what you learned once-upon-a-time you
are choosing (consciously or unconsciously) keeping today.

This leads to a very personal question.  What are you keeping today in your
mind and neurology that arose at some time in your past?  What old learnings
(e.g., beliefs, understandings, decisions, identities, prohibitions, etc.)
did you make once upon a time which you are keeping alive today and living?
Is it useful?  Does it bring out your best?  Does it enhance your life?
Does it empower you as a person?  Is it time to let it go?

This gives you another secret for getting over the past- after you have made
a decision to get over it and developed awareness about yourself about how
you code something of your past, run a quality control or ecology check on
it.  In NLP "ecology" speaks about your internal environment- the mental and
emotional contexts that are governing your mind-body system.  The questions
in the paragraph above starting with "Question" are all ecology questions.
They give you a chance to check things out.  Are they good for you?  Do they
bring out your best?  Via these kinds of questions you can run a quality
control check on your life, on the way you are living your life.

I find that people often have to do this before they are convinced that they
need to let go of the past.  They hold on to the past because they think
there is some value in holding on.  They may even fear  letting go or worse,
they may not have permission to let go.  Of course, fear of letting go,
prohibition of letting go, refusal to let go- these are the kinds of
attitudes or meta-level frames that will prevent you from getting over the
past.  And for that very reason, getting clear that "living in the past" is
not good for you, not healthy for you, and not ecological- is your first
step.

Once you are convinced, then comes the know-how processes for getting over
the past.  And the first of these is changing the learnings.  If "the past"
lives in you and is activated in you due to the old learnings- then that's
what has to change.  The next personal question, given this, is: What are
the learnings that you made at some previous time that no longer serves you
very well?  What beliefs, decisions, understandings, prohibitions,
identifies, etc.? 

There are especially nasty beliefs about the past that need to be released
and/or changed.  "The past determines the present and future" is one.
Believe that and that belief will create a sense of helpless determinism in
you.  You will then look to certain past events as controlling factors-
unchangeable factors.  That's a great way to feel stuck.

"That past event causes me to think, feel, act, be the way that I am." is
another nasty belief that will undermine your sense of personal power.  The
truth is that "that event" was just the time and place when you learned
something.  Maybe what you learned was valid for that time and place.  But
now that context is long gone.  You are no longer a teenager.  You are no
longer a child.  Whatever you learned may have even helped in some way to
get you to where you are today.  But that doesn't mean that you have to keep
it or that it is the best learning.

Changing these beliefs are easy-if you know how to change a belief.  If you
don't, then these beliefs will do a job on you and will determine your
present and future.  That's what beliefs do.  As self-fulfilling prophecies,
beliefs forecast your future and thereby help to create the very thing that
you believe in.  That's one reason to be very cautious even skeptical about
what you believe-it can create the very thing that you are afraid will
happen.

How do you change a belief?  The most direct way is to change the
confirmation structure of the belief- disconfirm the thought that you
previously confirmed and turned into a belief.  The worst thing is to argue
against the belief.  That is the hard way and it usually doesn't even work.
Use the quality control questions to begin a disconfirmation of the old
belief.  If you don't know how to do that, ask your nearest
Neuro-Semanticist!

For more information: See Secrets of Personal Mastery (1997)

                                                        Sub-Modalities Going
Meta (2004)

L. Michael Hall, Ph.D., Executive Director 

Neuro-Semantics 

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

Dr. L. Michael Hall writes a post on "Neurons" each Monday.  For a free
subscription, sign up on www.neurosemantics.com.   On that website you can
click on Meta-Coaching for detailed information and training schedule.   To
find a Meta-Coach see  <http://www.metacoachfoundation.org>
www.metacoachfoundation.org.   For Neuro-Semantic Publications --- click
"Products," there is also a catalog of books that you can download.   

-------------- next part --------------
An HTML attachment was scrubbed...
URL: <https://pairlist8.pair.net/pipermail/neurons/attachments/20180826/0a522b24/attachment-0001.html>
-------------- next part --------------
A non-text attachment was scrubbed...
Name: image001.jpg
Type: image/jpeg
Size: 10627 bytes
Desc: not available
URL: <https://pairlist8.pair.net/pipermail/neurons/attachments/20180826/0a522b24/attachment-0001.jpg>