How do we subjectively process our experience to create our “map of the world” from which we operate? What do you FEEL about your position in your life? Where do you SEE yourself going in the future? When you HEAR yourself saying certain things, what meaning does it hold for you? Being more sensory specific can empower you to get to the heart of what is right for you as an individual. When passion fuels motivation we are more “response-able”.

Making sense of things
Our five senses do far more than just funnel in information. Each system receives information and then activates memories to produce behaviour. All of our experiences are a product of what we see, hear, feel, touch, taste and smell. These representations of our experience culminate into a multi-sensory movie that we play in our mind, expand on and operate from.

On a recent family holiday, to a very dear destination, I was flooded by the sensory experience of my childhood memories of this magical place: the call of the birds in the early morning, the smell of the vegetation, the way the sky lit up reflecting rich colours and hues with a promise of another dawn; the quiet rhythmical lapping of the water as the sandpipers scurried around excitedly looking for their next morsel; the childlike glee of the young and old as they strolled and splashed along the water; the dogs resembling the Cheshire Cat - their smiles so big after an energetic romp across the expansive sand offerings - the ability to get lost in time by merely just being present with it all was exhilarating. There was a sense of calm and peace – often forgotten, or certainly not accessed as easily in the frenetic frenzy of what we call “civilised” modern living.

Mapping our territory
It was as though I had never left this place of being so sensory aware. The sensory association was so familiar; it was difficult to imagine that so many years had passed by. In this way, sensory memories provide the nervous system with physical foundations for abstracting – the beginning of our “mapping” of the territory or world out there.

It is from this primary state that we order and give meaning to our sensory representations, the way we engage with the territory and the way in which we communicate and behave. Our senses also act as our unique gauge on whether we feel understood; they weigh up what is right for us as individuals, help us make decisions, what to work towards, and what to integrate into our future actions.

So how powerful is all this?
If we focus on descriptions rather than prescriptions, we can focus on how the processes and mechanisms work. How can we use this knowledge to model and replicate optimum states and behaviours? How can we intervene to transform and improve our human functioning? The very foundation of all that is in our reality.

Power starts with sensory awareness

How have you mapped your sense of reality?
We use processes and patterns to order and sequence our map of the world. Such “programming” generates our strategies for functioning, and results in our skills, abilities and habits. These operate in the different contexts in our lives. We develop “programs” for communicating, working, parenting, relating etc. The delivery of our outer game is depicted by our inner game.

What state are you in?
Conceptually, at any given moment, on-going experience consists of the sum of the inputs of the five senses plus our internal talk about what we remember (memory) and anticipate (imagination). All this helps to create the state that we operate from. We are always in some kind of state. States do not stay the same, but are forever changing. Count on your states altering, shifting, and transforming.
The question is – are you always operating from a resourceful state?

Would you like to be able to choose and construct resourceful states to act from effectively? There are methods for altering your representation of particular experiences. We can access or elicit a memory or an imagined state to be able to operate from this chosen, more resourceful state in different situations.

We can use the “Two Royal Roads” to state control by using our mind-and-body neuro-linguistic system to access previous states (memory) or we can use imagination to access a desired state.

Getting to the heart of your matter
We experience our states depending on the movies we play in our mind. The coding and quality of the internal movie governs the quality of our experience. Are you ready to do some movie editing and mixing? Are you ready to get fully “resource-full”?

Meta-Stating is a technique that allows us to access a state and apply it to another state, thought, emotion or physiology. This process improves the quality of the state we operate from and in so doing, improves our response and the effectiveness of our behaviour in a given context.

The sensory process:
I encourage you to truly “go there” rather than just thinking it through…

Awareness: Think of a particular context. What “primary state” are you experiencing in this context?

Access: What resources do you want to apply to this primary state to be more resourceful? Remember a time when you were resourceful in this way OR imagine being resourceful (A resource could be a thought, feeling, idea, belief, value, memory or imagination).

Amplify and Anchor: Actually get into the state – allow yourself the full sensory experience. See, hear and feel it all. Amplify this full state and anchor (freeze the frame of this full sensation).

Apply: Embed the primary state inside the resource state creating a meta-level layering.

Appropriate: Imagine this layered consciousness in your mind as your frame and as you move forward in your life and into your future.

Analyse: Would you be more effective with this resource frame-of-reference for your primary state experience? Would this enhance the quality, health and balance of your experience?

Your best performance
Are you ready to access and apply your full potential? I dare you - be at your best and get resourceful to achieve what you desire. Get out of your comfort zone! Do you know how to construct and action a new way forward – a well-defined outcome to work towards in your career and life?

Meta Coaching™ facilitates individuals and teams to recognise and plan:

WHAT THEY WANT
WHY THEY WANT IT
HOW TO GET IT

Are you ready to use your sense, and enable yourself?

Coaching, Training and Speaking for Individual and Team Effectiveness Phone: (011) 462-5079 / 073-169-1843. Direct emails: This e-mail address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it
www.careerdirections.co.za

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