[Neurons] 2019 Neurons #8 THINKING-- THE ULTIMATE LEVERAGE POINT

[Michael Hall]

From: L. Michael Hall

2019 Neurons #8

February 4, 2019

 

THINKING

THE ULTIMATE LEVERAGE POINT

 

A long time ago (or so it seems) I entered into the field of psychotherapy.
In the 1970s I began a search to understand human nature-my own and others.
Not knowing any better I began with Sigmund Freud and read everything he
wrote.  That led me to Alfred Adler and all of his writings and from there I
began dipping into Jung and many, many others.  I liked Adlerian psychology
best.  That was the 1970s and Transactional Analysis was the new big thing-
so I read extensively in TA as well as attended various TA conferences and
trainings.  The leverage point of change and the possibility of renewal in
psychoanalysis and its many divergent forms was "Where Id is, let ego be."
To achieve that there was dream analysis, uncensored thought expression,
exploration into unconscious connections, etc.  A basic idea was that by
understanding what happened and why, one could be cured.  And that was
valid- to a limited degree.

 

In the early 1980s as I was working on my first book on emotions, I came
across RET and Cognitive Psychology.  That opened up a new leverage point
for change- to what people were thinking.  That shifted the problem to
beliefs- limiting beliefs, toxic beliefs, misunderstandings, cognitive
distortions.  And the primary means for dealing with this was arguing
against the belief and/or challenging the cognitive distortions.  That was a
significant step forward.  The leverage point changed.  It was no longer
understanding the past, it was what you are thinking today.  The content of
your thinking- that's the problem.  And that also was valid- but again, only
to a limited degree.  It is true that sometimes getting better information
and more updated information is the answer.

 

When I discovered NLP in 1986, NLP filled in the details of the Cognitive
Psychology model as it gave the details of thoughts- the representational
systems (visual, auditory, kinesthetic, etc.) and the meta-representation
system (language).  Now I had more precision in getting to the leverage
points for change.  It is not only what a person thinks, but also how a
person thinks.  The problem may be how you are representing something.
Change that, and everything changes.  And this is also valid- to a much
greater degree.

 

But there was also a problem in that-it does not address everything that
needs addressing.  By highlighting the importance of structure, NLP (in the
hands of many people) dropped the importance of content altogether.  They
wanted no content at all.  A big mistake.  Sometimes ... the problem is
content, and not structure.  If you believe a false and erroneous idea- a
cognitive fallacy- you have a problem and merely changing its form
(structure) will not fix that.

 

NLP began fixing this with the discovery of Meta-Programs- thinking
patterns.  Sometimes a human problem arises from the content filter that a
person is using.  I then contributed to the NLP model when I modeled the
structure of self-reflexive consciousness because this highlighted the
structural role of the relationship of thought-upon-thought which creates
higher level frames of mind (like meta-programs).  And with this the
leverage point for transformational change became more balanced-the
combination of what and how a person thinks.

 

All of this highlights the ultimate leverage point for transformative
change- thinking.  Thinking itself is the ultimate human phenomenon that
creates our experiences, our emotions, our mental models of the world, our
communications, our beliefs, understandings, decisions, memories,
expectations, future anticipations, etc.  This goes back to the most ancient
of wisdom: 

"As a man thinks in his heart, so is he."  Proverbs 23:7.

"If you are pained by an external thing, it is not this thing that disturbs
you-but your judgment about it." (Marcus Aurelius, The Meditations, 121-180
A.D.).

"Man is not disturbed by things, but by his interpretation of things."
(Marcus Aurelius)

"The greatest revolution of our generation is the discovery that human
beings, by changing their inner attitudes of their minds, can change the
outer aspects of their lives." (William James)

 

Yet thinking is much more than just representation.  That is but one form of
thinking.  There is also considering, questioning, doubting, choosing,
selecting, foregrounding, believing, understanding, concluding, framing,
meaning-making, discerning, imagining, etc.  Why is this?  Because thinking
is stratified - thinking comes in layers.  That's why all thinking is not
the same.  What we call "thinking" takes many different forms as it occurs
at different logical levels.

 

As the leverage point for change, thinking includes both what you are
thinking and how you are thinking.  This now provides a much fuller
description of the leverage point for renewing your mind.  It begins with
awareness ("Where Id is, let ego be.") so that you develop sufficient
mindfulness to take charge of your life.  Next you become mindful of the
content of your consciousness- what you are thinking.  And as you do,
becoming aware of the structure of your consciousness- how you are thinking.

 

For further reading:

              Executive Thinking (2018)

              Winning the Inner Game (2007)

              Neuro-Semantics (2012)

 

 

 

 

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


    cid:261CED33-4408-4124-862B-B9A4B37A367A

    

 

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