10. California

Crisis 2001 Tour

The thinking man's alternative to a small red sportscar

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NLP and Vipassana meditation

5 July - 5 August

Links:

What is NLP?

California Vipassana Center

 

Dispatch from California:

1. NLP Master Practitioner training

 

Example of the remarkable MindSlab® method of note-taking, invented during NLP training:

10._Presentations.jpg (154297 bytes)

Four random but earnest thoughts from the training:

  • Your identity is not the same as your behaviours - so distinguish between the two, especially when giving feedback

  • The response you get is the meaning of your communication

  • The success of a relationship is based on each party's eagerness to respect the other's model of the world

  • You get what you focus on - so focus on what you want not what you don't want*

* Think about this for a while if it sounds obvious.

2. Stopover in San Francisco

Made a quick fishing trip up country and caught this rare Californian Fur-Bearing Trout from a stream in the petrified forest. Mmmmm - delicious!

 

3. Vipassana meditation

Very interesting experience, to be silent* for ten days. I learnt at least three things:

  • increased awareness - we spent plenty of time focusing on the physical sensations in our bodies (temperature of forehead, itchiness of bum, agonising pain in legs etc.). I get the point that this helps general awareness in life which is a Good Thing.

  • increased equanimity - apparently if I had achieved enlightenment I'd be equanimous regardless of whether I was feeling intense pleasure or intense pain. Unfortunately I didn't achieve enlightenment within the ten-day period but I think I get the point, which is that it's better to act from a quiet place than to go mental when someone riles you. My equanimity was challenged when the last morning finished 35 minutes late and I nearly missed my flight (thank you, lady from Surrey, for the 110 mph ride to Fresno!).

  • sitting cross-legged - sitting cross-legged on the floor for an hour without moving is bloody painful.

* Well, more or less silent - I did say "Oh sorry" on Day 1 before I'd learnt the convention for the toilet being in use (i.e. door is shut).