NLP Training Australasia (Australia, NZ and Asia)

The old 'only using 10% of your brain' myth

2010-11-10T11:20:00.000+10:00

We often hear and have heard it misquoted - you're only using 10% of your brain and how would you like to use the other 90 percent? But what do they mean by this; was this the real quote? Did Einstein say any of this and was he really quoted to have said that we only use 10% of our brain?

The short answer is that the 10% is largely a misused figure and there are many explanations for the figure. For instance, 10% of what we call 'the brain' consist of neurons - there are other cells. Early studies did demonstrate that with any firing of neurons, only 10% lit up, but that is within any one period of time. Over a few minutes with different functions being carried out, a different profile is found. Might it be true that we only use 10% of our capabilities? Surely this figure would vary with different people. How do you measure our capabilities?

The following references and excerpts should give you some insight into the potential origins, the makeup of the brain and other considerations on this topic.

That tired Ten-Percent claim pops up all the time

The Ten-Percent Myth, Ben Radford, Volume 23.2, March / April 1999

Someone has taken most of your brain away and you probably didn't even know it. Well, not taken your brain away, exactly, but decided that you don't use it. It’s the old myth heard time and again about how people use only ten percent of their brains. While for the people who repeat that myth, it’s probably true, the rest of us happily use all of our brains.

Benjamin Radford is a scientific paranormal investigator, a Research Fellow at the Committee for Skeptical Inquiry, managing Editor for Skeptical Inquirer magazine, and author or co-author of five books and hundreds of articles on skepticism, critical thinking, and science literacy. His newest book is Scientific Paranormal Investigation: How to Solve Unexplained Mysteries. He is also a columnist for Discovery News and LiveScience.com.

Humans use 100 percent of their brains--despite the popular myth

Thomas Cleland, Assistant Professor, University of California, San Diego (UCSD), in biology

Where did the "10% myth" first come from? It isn't clear. It might be because less than 10% of the cells in our brains are actually neurons (nerve cells) - the rest are called glial cells. Glial cells perform all kinds of different tasks, from insulating the brain's "wires" to maintaining the brain's chemistry to helping regulate the many connections among neurons (called synapses) in which memory can be stored. Glial cells aren't neurons, but they are certainly being used! The myth could also have arisen because much of the brain is fairly adaptable, allowing people (especially young people) to recover most of their capabilities even after losing parts of their brains to injury, cancer, or surgery. This isn't always true, however; it is harder for older adults to recover function after brain injury, and we know that even small amounts of brain damage (such as strokes) in just the wrong places can be devastating.

Do We Really Only Use 10% of Our Brains?

Every once in a while I hear someone say “we only use 10% of our brain.” In the movie “The Secret,” they say we only use 5% of our brain. I don’t believe it. Where did this come from? - Secret Identity

Dear SI,

The idea that we only use 10% of our brains is alluring. Why, just imagine what we could do if we somehow switched on the other 90%. Telekinesis! Mind reading! Time travel! Forging an army of zombie slaves! Who wouldn’t trade their crystal balls for powers like those?

Sadly, the myth has been pretty thoroughly debunked. It is true that, at any given time, we only use portions of our brains. Brain imaging bears this out. But that doesn’t mean that we have vast, untapped reserves of psychic abilities.

The most apt analogy is muscle. We don’t use our entire brain at once any more than we use all of our muscles at once. But follow someone around for a day or two, and eventually they will use just about every muscle and every part of the brain – the good folks at the DMV notwithstanding. ....Read on

Do we really use only 10 percent of our brains?

Barry L. Beyerstein of the Brain Behavior Laboratory at Simon Fraser University in Vancouver explains.

Whenever I venture out of the Ivory Tower to deliver public lectures about the brain, by far the most likely question I can expect as the talk winds up is, "Do we really only use 10 percent of our brains?" The look of disappointment that usually follows when I say it isn't so strongly suggests that the 10-percent myth is one of those hopeful shibboleths that refuses to die simply because it would be so darn nice if it were true. I'm sure none of us would turn down a mighty hike in brainpower if it were attainable, and a seemingly never-ending stream of crackpot schemes and devices continues to be advanced by hucksters who trade on the myth. Always on the lookout for a "feel-good" story, the media have also played their part in keeping the myth alive.

....One stream leads back to the pioneering American psychologist, William James, in the late 19th and early 20th centuries. In addition to his voluminous scholarly work, James was a prodigious author of popular articles offering advice to the general public. In these exhortatory works James was fond of stating that the average person rarely achieves but a small portion of his or her potential. I was never able to find an exact percentage mentioned, and James always talked in terms of one's undeveloped potential, apparently never relating this to a specific amount of gray matter engaged. A generation of "positive thinking" gurus that followed were not so careful, however, and gradually "10 percent of our capacity" morphed into "10 percent of our brain." Undoubtedly, the biggest boost for the self-help entrepreneurs came when the famous adventurer and journalist Lowell Thomas attributed the 10-percent-of-the-brain claim to William James. Thomas did so in the preface he wrote, in 1936, to one of the best-selling self-help books of all time, Dale Carnegie's How to Win Friends and Influence People. The myth has never lost its steam since.

Seriously, Would You Admit to Only Using 10% of Your Brain?

Mind-myth 1: Like many of the myths now seemingly fuelled by New Agers hoping to unlock the untapped, hidden forces that will unleash previously unimagined human potential, the 10% myth is a slippery customer.

Just when all the evidence has been marshalled against its original incarnation, showing that, yes, actually we do physically use all our brains, it turns out 'human potential' can't be measured empirically. Apparently the unused 90% is hidden below the surface, out of sight and almost out of mind. Which is convenient....

...Mythical roots

The roots of this myth are very difficult to discern, probably because there are so many different, diffuse stories about its origin. One probably apocryphal story is that Einstein once explained his brilliance - compared to the rest of us mere mortals - by saying he actually used more than 10% of his brain (Wanjek, 2003). Despite probably being based on a misquote, the repeating of this story can't have hurt the myth's power.

Perhaps some of the earliest roots of the myth come from work by physiologists in the 1870s. They routinely applied electrical currents to the brain to see which muscles moved. They found that large parts of the human brain could be zapped without any corresponding bodily twitching. This led them to dub parts of the brain 'silent'. But they didn't mean silent in the sense of inactive, just that it didn't make any muscles move. Of course this didn't stop the phrase being misinterpreted.

Are you really only using 10 percent of your brain?

Kiger, Patrick. "Are you really only using 10 percent of your brain?" 19 August 2009. HowStuffWorks.com. 30 August 2010.

For years, doctors, brain researchers and science journalists have been explaining patiently to anyone who would listen that there is no scientific basis for what they call the 10-percent brain myth. Similarly, prestigious and credible publications like Scientific American and the New York Times have sought to dispel it as well, with little effect [sources: Beyerstein, Parker-Pope]. In a non-scientific Internet poll on the Web site Helium.com, for example, 52 percent of respondents believed incorrectly that humans use only 10 percent of their brains, while 48 percent correctly disagreed [source: Helium]. The mistaken notion is so pervasive, in fact, that in a study published in the Journal of Psychology in 1998, researchers found that college psychology majors, who presumably should know better, were as likely to believe it as other students [source: Higbee].

Scientific American, Do People Only Use 10 Percent Of Their Brains?

50 Great Myths of Popular Psychology: Shattering Widespread Misconceptions about Human Behavior

Refutation from wikipedia is the most concise:

Neuroscientist Barry Beyerstein sets out seven kinds of evidence refuting the ten percent myth:

* Studies of brain damage: If 90% of the brain is normally unused, then damage to these areas should not impair performance. Instead, there is almost no area of the brain that can be damaged without loss of abilities. Even slight damage to small areas of the brain can have profound effects.

* Evolution: The brain is enormously costly to the rest of the body, in terms of oxygen and nutrient consumption. If 90% of it were unnecessary, there would be a large survival advantage to humans with smaller, more efficient brains. If this were true, the process of natural selection would have eliminated the inefficient brains.

* Brain imaging: Technologies such as Positron Emission Tomography (PET) and Functional Magnetic Resonance Imaging (fMRI) allow the activity of the living brain to be monitored. They reveal that even during sleep, all parts of the brain show some level of activity. Only in the case of serious damage does a brain have "silent" areas.

* Localization of function: Rather than acting as a single mass, the brain has distinct regions for different kinds of information processing. Decades of research has gone into mapping functions onto areas of the brain, and no function-less areas have been found.

* Microstructural analysis: In the single-unit recording technique, researchers insert a tiny electrode into the brain to monitor the activity of a single cell. If 90% of cells were unused, then this technique would have revealed that.

* Metabolic studies: Another scientific technique involves studying the take-up of radioactively labelled 2-deoxyglucose molecules by the brain. If 90 percent of the brain were inactive, then those inactive cells would be show up as blank areas in a radiograph of the brain. Again, there is no such result.

* Neural disease: Brain cells that are not used have a tendency to degenerate. Hence if 90% of the brain were inactive, autopsy of adult brains would reveal large-scale degeneration.

Walking to protect your memory

2010-11-09T11:36:00.001+10:00

It is great to use NLP and other tools to expand your choices in life, make better use of your mind and body, develop yourself and improve, but we must not neglect our mind and body from an holistic point of view. This article Walk Much? It May Protect Your Memory Down the Road suggests that walking at least six miles per week may protect brain size and in turn, preserve memory in old age, according to a study published in the October 13, 2010, online issue of Neurology®, the medical journal of the American Academy of Neurology.

"If regular exercise in midlife could improve brain health and improve thinking and memory in later life, it would be one more reason to make regular exercise in people of all ages a public health imperative," said Erickson. Read more....

Walking improves other areas of health too... Australian guidelines recommend 30 minutes of moderately vigorous activity on most days. But the report says even 60 minutes a week can bring benefits. From smh.com.au

Training

2010-11-08T11:43:00.010+10:00

NLP Practitioner, Hangzhou, China

2010-09-28T17:41:00.000+10:00

Hangzhou, China.
Acquire the tools of change to heighten the results you want for your career, your business, your life in this comprehensive program.

How you see yourself, how you speak to yourself, and feel about yourself is probably the single most significant factor in whether or not you are successful in any aspect of life.
By attending this course you will gain a solid NLP working foundation and tools while experiencing great insights. As an NLP Practitioner you will have you building better relationships, improving communication at work and at home, and the tools to start develop your capabilities.
The grounding for self which is built during this course is fundamental to learning to work with others in a useful and ecological way.

Your trainers, Sonya Yeh Spencer and Mark Spencer.

Contact in China

Contact Winnie Chou, Email: winniechou@mindfulteam.com
Cell: +86-18857122178

About the trainers

“Sonya and Mark are quality ITA NLP trainers who were personally trained and endorsed by ourselves and Michael Carroll. Their drive for quality and passion for pragmatic NLP training have translated into highly effective training design and format that ensure you get the most out of your training, to improve your life and the life of others around you.” ~ Dr. John Grinder, Co-creator of NLP & Carmen Bostic St Clair, Co-creator of New Code NLP”

Bully or Victim? More Similar Than We Might Think

2010-09-28T17:33:00.002+10:00

A new analysis reveals that bullies and victims share more similarities than we might think, with one stand-out difference. Christie Nicholson reports from http://www.scientificamerican.com

We might think that bullies are quite different from the victims of bullying. But those who become either a bully or a victim actually share similar outlooks and have similar difficulties dealing with their environments. There is, however, one significant risk factor for bullying.

Researchers reviewed and analyzed 153 studies and found that both victims and bullies have poor problem-solving skills within social situations. They also found that boys bully more than girls but here’s a significant point: Those who do poorly in school are at a higher risk of becoming a bully. The research was published this week in the journal School Psychology Quarterly.

Typical bullies have negative attitudes toward others, feel badly about themselves, and most likely grew up in a home with conflict. Victims share much of same, negative attitude, conflict in the family.

But the dividing characteristic: bullies dislike school and tend to perform worse academically than those who later become victims.

Play the 1 minute Podcast here: podcast_100710.mp3

Most current solutions try to enforce anti-bullying rules or simply remove the bully from bullying situations. The authors note, however, that the most successful intervention is three-pronged. They suggest simultaneously targeting the areas that may be influencing the potential bully or victim in the first place: the parents, the peers and the schools.

--Christie Nicholson from http://www.scientificamerican.com

Coping with the bullies 'is part of growing up', says child expert By LAURA CLARK, 28 October 2007
Minor playground spats are blown out of proportion and branded 'bullying', an expert has claimed.

Youngsters must learn to cope with teasing and name-calling so they are able to handle awkward situations as adults, former Government adviser Tim Gill says.

He believes the extent of bullying is being exaggerated by over-protective parents and teachers, who apply the label to childhood squabbles which were previously assumed to be part of growing up.

The claims, in a book published today, are certain to fuel concerns over the escalation of the bullying 'industry'.

Police officers warned this year that a target-chasing culture is forcing them to make 'easy' arrests for offences such as bullying.

In one example, a child in Kent was arrested for throwing a slice of cucumber from a tuna sandwich at a classmate.

The latest Government guidance to schools urges heads to record all instances of bullying and report the findings to their local council.

But Mr Gill, who led the first Government-backed review of children's play areas in 2003, warns against mollycoddling children by describing everyday teasing as bullying.

Read more of this article: dailymail.co.uk

See also related articles on Mirror neurons, Emotional Intelligence and The Impact of Rude Behavior on a Business which might be where unresolved bullying or victims end up getting their revenge.

Busting the Myth That Opposites Attract

2010-09-28T17:31:00.002+10:00

Psychologist Donn Byrne states in this post, "we are twice as likely to be attracted to someone when we agree on six out of 10 issues than we are with someone who we only agree with on three out of 10 issues". This would get down to what we consider to be an 'issue'.

Starting from scratch in a relationship, there may be no real major issues that arise in our conversations or opinions, because we are busy finding sameness to build rapport because there is attraction. If one has a difference of opinion on politics or religion, these days we might find this refreshing and not an 'issue'. Are we going to ask the right questions when it comes to decisions and choices relating to partner choices? How do we build our relationships amongst issues? Are our issues really tied to values? Are our values the real things that matter when it comes to relationships?
The other interesting aspect of this whole topic is the area of Myths about psychology - where this may be in the myth category, but overiding that is the use of the words ('opposite' and 'issue') which is where NLP helps us to refine the meaning that we derive from words.

In NLP, using the precision model of communication, we get very precise with language. For these statements we would well ask many of these questions: When we talk about the cultural expression: opposites attract - what do we really mean by "opposite"? Opposite on what level? Opposite of what sepcifically? What is attract? Attraction of what to what? Attract or catch attention?

Let us take a look at the article: When it comes to love, we're ambivalent about "opposites attract". Christie Nicholson from http://www.scientificamerican.com reports.

Back in college astronomy class, I sat behind a guy who wore a T-shirt with this on the back: " The best thing about the opposite sex is just how opposite they are."

It’s not just a rule in physics. There’s a strong cultural expression: opposites attract. Think Harold and Maude, Pretty Woman, It Happened One Night—Hollywood has long known the lure of antitheses in love.

But real research busts this myth.

Play the 1 minute Podcast here: podcast_100731.mp3

Psychologists map out such evidence in a new book: 50 Great Myths of Popular Psychology: Shattering Widespread Misconceptions about Human Behavior by Scott O. Lilienfeld, Steven Jay Lynn, John Ruscio, and Barry L. Beyerstein. Copyright © 2010 by Scott O. Lilienfeld, Steven Jay Lynn, John Ruscio, and Barry L. Beyerstein.
See some opinions, and reviews on the same topic.

Psychologist Donn Byrne has found that we are twice as likely to be attracted to someone when we agree on six out of 10 issues than we are with someone who we only agree with on three out of 10 issues.

To be sure, the appeal of shared interests may be specific to long-term relationships.

A 2006 University of Pennsylvania study of speed dating found that daters said they wanted someone who had a similar background in education, religion, economic status and shared personality traits. Yet when they were in the midst of the one-minute date, they made choices based on more immediate cues like physical attraction. In the speed-dating environment—a bar surrounded by singles, under the pressure of a ticking clock—daters made choices based on short-term mating criteria that were more likely to lead to fast hook-ups, not necessarily long-lived love.

So if it’s the long haul you’re searching for, best look beyond the cute face and hot body, and see if you can carry the conversation beyond 60 seconds.

Christie Nicholson http://www.scientificamerican.com

From WebMD By Jean Lawrence,
It depends what you mean by "opposite." "I believe unresolved patterns attract," says Paul Cutright, author of You're Never Upset For The Reason You Think: The Cure For The Common Upset. Cutright, along with his wife Layne, run the Center for Enlightened Partnerships in Las Vegas.

"What most people call falling in love is really falling in pattern... Relationships are about getting our own needs met, often on an unconscious basis. In other words, we try to find someone who is complementary to us and can help us learn, heal, and grow."

In a study published in the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences in July of 2003, researchers quizzed 978 heterosexual residents of Ithaca, N.Y., between the ages of 18 and 24. First, the participants rated the importance of 10 attributes of a long-term partner, and then rated themselves on the same scale. When the results were tallied, self-perception was more likely to match mate perception.

Cognitive processes underlying human mate choice: The relationship between self-perception and mate preference in Western society. Peter M. Buston and Stephen T. Emlen, Department of Neurobiology and Behavior, Cornell University, Ithaca, NY 14853, Communicated by Thomas Eisner, Cornell University, Ithaca, NY, May 28, 2003 (received for review March 14, 2003)

This study tested two hypotheses concerning the cognitive processes underlying human mate choice in Western society: (i) mate preference is conditional in that the selectivity of individuals' mate preference is based on their perception of themselves as long-term partners, and (ii) the decision rule governing such conditional mate preference is based on translating perception of oneself on a given attribute into a comparable selectivity of preference for the same attribute in a mate. Both hypotheses were supported. A two-part questionnaire was completed by 978 heterosexual residents of Ithaca, New York, aged 18–24; they first rated the importance they placed on 10 attributes in a long-term partner and then rated their perception of themselves on those same attributes. Both women and men who rated themselves highly were significantly more selective in their mate preference. When the 10 attributes were grouped into four evolutionarily relevant categories (indicative of wealth and status, family commitment, physical appearance, and sexual fidelity), the greatest amount of variation in the selectivity of mate preference in each category was explained by self-perception in the same category of attributes. We conclude that, in Western society, humans use neither an “opposites-attract” nor a “reproductive-potentials-attract” decision rule in their choice of long-term partners but rather a “likes-attract” rule based on a preference for partners who are similar to themselves across a number of characteristics.

This conclusion was: "In Western society, humans use neither an 'opposites-attract' nor a 'reproductive-potentials-attract' rule in their choice of long-term partners, but rather a 'likes-attract' rule based on a preference for partners who are similar to themselves across a number of characteristics."

Rapport building is not Opposite or Sameness

It would be too general to say that Rapport is doing the opposite or the same and that atrraction is related to either. They are different aspects of the relationship in question. Dictionaries describe rapport as affinity, agreement, bond, compatibility, concord, empathy, good vibes, good vibrations, groove, harmony, hitting it off, interrelationship, link, relationship, same wavelength, simpatico, soul, sympathy, the groove, togetherness, unity. In NLP terms we would describe rapport as

Influences from Movies and Music

Are we influenced by movies and the unconscious attention we may or may not have to music? I think we are influenced, but we also may have a different belief. When we reference conventional wisdom (movies/music/tv) on the subject, we might find ourselves in a dilemna because they are selling entertainment, not guidance or wisdom. The words by Oliver Leiber of the song "Opposites Attract"recorded by Paula Abdul "She likes it neat, And he makes a mess" may not work out in real life. "Opposites Attract" is a song recorded by Paula Abdul, featured on her debut album Forever Your Girl. It was written and produced by Oliver Leiber, who came up with the title after browsing a bookstore.
Opposites Attract Lyrics, by Artist: Paula Abdul

We come together
Cuz opposites attract
And you know-it ain't fiction
Just a natural fact
We come together
Cuz opposites attract

Who'd a thought we could be lovers
She makes the bed
And steals the covers
She likes it neat
And he makes a mess
I take it easy

Top 10 Opposites Attract Movies from About.com for more on the lighter side of the question of do Opposites Attract?.
In the romantic comedy ''Along Came Polly,'' control freak Reuben (Ben Stiller) meets free spirit Polly (Jennifer Aniston)

So it does depend on what we really mean by "opposite", and opposite on what level? Are we going to ask the right questions when it comes to decisions like this? As Psychologist Donn Byrne said, we are twice as likely to be attracted to someone when we agree on six out of 10 issues than we are with someone who we only agree with on three out of 10 issues. This would get down to what we consider to be an 'issue'.
Starting from scratch in a relationship, there may be no real major issues that arise in our conversations or opinions, because we are busy finding sameness to build rapport because there is attraction. If one has a difference of opinion on politics or religion, these days we might find this refreshing and not an 'issue'. The old metaphor of the river that looks fine while the water is flowing, but when the river starts to dry, the river reveals the boulders that might be laying on the bed, and these might be the 'issues'.
Donn Byrne's comments were about attraction, not sustainability or long term relationships. How do we build our relationships amongst issues? Are our issues really tied to values? Are our values the real things that matter when it comes to relationships? That will be the topic for another article.

Don't worry; be happy

2010-09-28T15:20:00.000+10:00

Happy reading...

If you want to be happy, practise it every day
Robert Anton Wilson

Some cause happiness wherever they go; others, whenever they go.
Oscar Wilde

Think of all the beauty that's still left in and around you and be happy!
Anne Frank

The grand essentials of happiness are: something to do, something to love, and something to hope for.
Allan K. Chalmers

Be happy while you're living, for you're a long time dead.
Scottish Proverb

Homer, lighten up. You're making 'Happy Hour' bitterly ironic.
Marge Simpson

To live happily is an inward power of the soul.
Aristotle

NLP Foundations / Essential NLP

2010-06-22T14:25:00.000+10:00

On this course you will learn the Epistemology of NLP, Deep Rapport Building, The Skills of Calibration, Understand and experience Representational systems, Understanding State, The Chain of Excellence (the foundation of New Code NLP), Logical Level/Logical Types, The Meta Model, The Milton Model, The Congruency Model of NLP, How to build emotional intelligence, how to Communicate with Precision and Effectiveness, Anchoring, Sub-modalities, Working with Time Lines, Perceptual Positions and Triple Descriptions, Reframing, Intention, Parts integration and Negotiation between parts.

Successful students of the NLP Foundations / Essential NLP course will be awarded an Advanced Communications Certificate

Prominent developers of NLP and importent figures who have influenced NLP

2010-05-18T16:28:00.004+10:00

There are many prominent developers of NLP and importent figures who have influenced NLP since its inception. Each one of them bringing in their uniquness and infused NLP with multi-faceted applications. Here is a series of videos to get you associated to the names, their voices and ways that they express things, and some of their original work. This is a great way to get a fuller experience when reading their books.

If you know of better examples of publically available videos for the same people or others, please add them to the comments and we will review, and consider and adding them if it is appropriate. To add comments, you do need to have a user name and loging password for our blog site. If you do not have a login details or want a login with a different name, username or email address, register here and then you can make comments.

NLP Academy — 29 April 2009 — John Grinder during his "Healer (Doctor) Within" training, a partial recording of him talking about his unconventional approach for working with alcoholism and other addictions.

John Grinder on Modelling distinctions

Dr. John Grinder's view on short NLP trainings

Dr. John Grinder's Defines NLP

Carmen Bostic-St Claire (Co-creator of New Code NLP) describes the NLP Premier Practitioner experience...

A short extract from the DVD 'Nested Loops' from Richard Bandler:

Stephen Gilligan teaches the first 10 minutes of day 2 of his Generative Trance seminar at the NLP Academy

Milton Erickson

Fritz Perls

Gregory Bateson

Some of Virginia Satir - some content impositions, but you can get a representation of this woman and her work.

Judith DeLozier (earlier Co-creator of New Code NLP) in a rare interview...

Here Frank Farrelly teaches the "What's wrong with that?" Provocative Therapy exercise in a Leeds UK Provocative...

Robert Dilts

Aligning Perceptual Positions (NLP) with Tamara Andreas - Core Transformation DVD Workshop

Steve Andreas

Steve Andreas with EMI (Eye Movement Integration)

If you know of better examples of publically available videos for the same people or others, please add them to the comments and we will review, consider and adding them if it is appropriate. To add comments, you do need to have a user name and loging password for our blog site. If you do not have a login details or want a login with a different name, username or email address, register here and then you can make comments.

Modeling nature

2010-05-18T16:27:00.002+10:00

Video
Do you think you can Model Nature? A different perspective
Milton Erickson often asked his clients to observe nature to draw inspiration and resolve life’s challenges. When solving a design problem, look to nature first. There you'll find inspired designs for making things waterproof, aerodynamic, solar-powered and more. Can we Model Nature to improve our life? Watch the video [on TED] or here...

See also A publication by Janine Benyus - The 2002 book, Biomimicry, describes a new science that studies nature’s best ideas and then imitates these designs and processes to provide innovative and sustainable solutions for industry and research development. Author and international expert, Janine Benyus, is now focusing on working with industry and governments across the globe to implement her ideas.

‘Janine Benyus is without question the world’s most imaginative person in the field of environmental development and restoration. Time spent with Janine is a transmission of hope about what we can learn from and be within nature.’ Paul Hawken, Natural Capital Institute

Biomimicry related links

The Biomimicry Institute promotes learning from natural forms, processes, and ecosystems to create more sustainable and healthier human technologies and designs.
Reading Lists - If you haven’t read it already, Janine Benyus’ book Biomimicry: Innovation Inspired by Nature is a must read. This book is the book that started us all down the biomimicry path with a new sense of hope and purpose. For all, it’s a great read. For many, it’s life changing. If you’ve read Janine’s book, what should you read next? The Biomimicry Reading List (below) will help guide you through the many fascinating facets of biomimicry, from basic biology to engineering innovation to deep economy. We recommend that you start your reading adventure by selecting books from the areas that capture your attention most, and then challenge yourself to read from areas outside your discipline.

Replaying movies of your own day

2010-05-18T16:25:00.000+10:00

This has got to be the only way New York looks cute! I love these tilt-shift movies. Look for strange behaviours in people, patterns of relating, walking, dodging, greeting...

Noticing the larger patterns

So much to be said when we mentally speed up people we are modelling and this gives you a long-distance hint into what you can notice.

Ants metaphor

The study of human behaviour can be usefully likened to the way we study ants. Why do we notice that ants stop and communicate or swap someting as they travel with each of the ants they pass? If you can see this movie where people look like ants, and that the work we do with NLP as a metaphor for trying to understand the behaviour of people (ants) and how they interact, relate, rock, sway, move, move faster/slower.

Life Edit

Also as another metaphor, maybe when you are replaying movies of your own day, your own representation of the day - maybe remembering this sequence may help you fast forward through yor own day.

The Sandpit from Sam O'Hare on Vimeo.

Not too little sleep, yet not too much, the experts advise

2010-03-26T14:32:00.011+10:00

Lack of sleep 'linked to early death' from the BBC.

Insomnia

Not too little sleep, yet not too much, the experts advise

Excerpt...

Getting less than six hours sleep a night can lead to an early grave, UK and Italian researchers have warned. They said people regularly having such little sleep were 12% more likely to die over a 25-year period than those who got an "ideal" six to eight hours. They also found an association between sleeping for more than nine hours and early death, although that much sleep may merely be a marker of ill health.

Sleep journal reports the findings, based on 1.5m people in 16 studies.

Professor Francesco Cappuccio, leader of the Sleep, Health and Society Programme at the UK's University of Warwick, said: "Modern society has seen a gradual reduction in the average amount of sleep people take and this pattern is more common amongst full-time workers, suggesting that it may be due to societal pressures for longer working hours and more shift-work."

"But having less than five hours a night suggests something is probably not right. "Five hours is insufficient for most people and being drowsy in the day increases your risk of having an accident if driving or operating dangerous machinery."

Other opinions...How much sleep do our bodies need? from NineMSN

...The sleep lab girls rise at 7am to see how they go again on the driving simulator and the reaction time test. This will determine how much sleep (or lack of it) affects you. Melissa:Her average reaction time after a sleepness night — 60 percent slower than the day before. Emma:After only four hours sleep, Emma is reacting 15 percent slower. Phoebe: Is four percent slower after a six-hour sleep. Lauren:Shows no change after sleeping for eight hours.

Yes, it is true — we do need around eight hours of sleep a night to perform optimally. If you can only manage six, your ability to function normally will only be slightly impaired, so long as this is a one-off occasion. Once you go below six hours on a regular basis, that's when problems start occurring.

How Much Sleep Do I Need? By Brandon Peters, M.D., About.com Guide, Updated February 05, 2010.

Sleep Debt

What happens if we don’t meet our sleep needs? By not getting enough sleep, we accumulate a sleep debt that we usually have to “pay off.” This might involve extra sleep by napping, going to bed early, or sleeping in to catch up. If we sleep less than our body needs to feel refreshed and don’t catch up we might experience:

Daytime sleepiness
Fatigue
Difficulty concentrating
Poor thinking
Increased risk of accidents

Sleep Cycle Application for iPhone

Sleep Cycle Analyzes Your Sleep Patterns for a Better Wake-Up

Sleep Cycle uses your iPhone's accelerometer to monitor your movements during the night and determine when you're most likely in and out of a dream state. Before you go to bed, set the app's alarm clock, then place your iPhone on the corner of your bed (putting it under the fitted sheet will keep it from sliding around). Sleep Cycle isn't meant to be a scientific tool for people with medical sleep issues, but rather an unobtrusive way to get a little insight into your sleep patterns.

The Sleep Cycle alarm clock is a bio-alarm clock that analyzes your sleep patterns and wakes you when you are in the lightest sleep phase.

Waking up in the lightest sleep phase feels like waking without an alarm clock - it is a natural way to wake up where you feel rested and relaxed.

Sleep Cycle iPhone Application is available from Lexware® Labs or Apple
Open iTunes to buy and download apps.

[youtube=http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=dxf33g-X758&hl=en_GB&fs=1&]

National Sleep Foundation

How Much Sleep Do We Really Need? from the National Sleep Foundation (NSF)

Excerpt from National Sleep Foundation continued...

What You Can Do

To begin a new path towards healthier sleep and a healthier lifestyle, begin by assessing your own individual needs and habits. See how you respond to different amounts of sleep. Pay careful attention to your mood, energy and health after a poor night's sleep versus a good one. Ask yourself, "How often do I get a good night's sleep?" If the answer is "not often", then you may need to consider changing your sleep habits or consulting a physician or sleep specialist. When Ellen's family members began this process, they realized that often they weren't getting what they would call a "good night's sleep." This led each of them to reevaluate how much sleep they needed and whether their sleep habits were healthy ones.

To pave the way for better sleep, experts recommend that you and your family members follow these sleep tips:

Establish consistent sleep and wake schedules, even on weekends
Create a regular, relaxing bedtime routine such as soaking in a hot bath or listening to soothing music – begin an hour or more before the time you expect to fall asleep
Create a sleep-conducive environment that is dark, quiet, comfortable and cool
Sleep on a comfortable mattress and pillows
Use your bedroom only for sleep and sex (keep "sleep stealers" out of the bedroom – avoid watching TV, using a computer or reading in bed)
Finish eating at least 2-3 hours before your regular bedtime
Exercise regularly during the day or at least a few hours before bedtime
Avoid caffeine and alcohol products close to bedtime and give up smoking

If you or a family member are experiencing symptoms such as sleepiness during the day or when you expect to be awake and alert, snoring, leg cramps or tingling, gasping or difficulty breathing during sleep, prolonged insomnia or another symptom that is preventing you from sleeping well, you should consult your primary care physician or sleep specialist to determine the underlying cause. You may also try keeping a sleep diary to track your sleep habits over a one- or two-week period and bring the results to your physician.

Most importantly, make sleep a priority. You must schedule sleep like any other daily activity, so put it on your "to-do list" and cross it off every night. But don’t make it the thing you do only after everything else is done – stop doing other things so you get the sleep you need.

Our Opinion

As stated above, if you are experiencing difficulty sleeping, you could also contact your friendly NLP Practitioner who may also be able help to find a way to sleep better having dealt with the underlying cause, whether know or unknown.

She has dreams
Originally uploaded by Gayle_T

Thinking

conscience of mind, passion of body

2010-03-10T20:57:00.003+10:00

conscience of mind, passion of body
Originally uploaded by Daniel Topher

I remember a boss that said to me once: "One page is worth a million dollars, two pages one hundred thousand".

Stories told in just six words Stories told in just six words, inspired by Ernest Hemingway's famous challenge.

For sale: baby shoes, never used. —Ernest Hemingway

Brevity is a virtue.

This is a collection of short short stories consisting of just six words. It was inspired by Ernest Hemingway’s famous challenge.

Six Word Stories with pictures

Have you ever had the need to compress your life, your direction, your outcomes into a few words?

Becoming quiet

2010-03-02T13:08:00.002+10:00

When you become quiet, it just dawns on you. Thomas A. Edison (1847-1931). Training people to become quiet when they want to.

NLP Practitioner Course - Curriculum Detail

2010-03-02T11:55:00.000+10:00

Our NLP Practitioner Course is practical, effective and full of profound concepts and information. The comprehensive program brings you the working foundations and principles of NLP. You will rapidly integrate the NLP techniques you have learned into your work and personal life.

An NLP Practioner qualification is Internationally recognized and allows you to continue with an NLP Master Practitioner certificate at a later stage with us or another NLP Training organization.

Enjoy the unique coaching style of training in smaller classes which has a high facilitator to student ratio maximises your learning and ultimately your investment in the training.

Course content - NLP Practitioner Competencies

Below is a minimum set of competencies expected of an NLP Practitioner who has attended an ITA certified NLP Practitioner course. This list is not exhaustive and where time is available, we may include additional patterning.

Minimum Classic Code NLP Practitioner Competencies

Calibration (input channels)

Being able to calibrate in each of the sensory input channels (please notice that we distinguish
between ‘sensory input channel’ and ‘representational system’), visual,
auditory and kinesthetic.

The ability to distinguish between conscious and unconscious signals in non-verbal communication.

Rapport

Mirroring

Visual, auditory
Cross-over mirroring

Visual, auditory Alignments (including rep. systems manipulation)

Representational systems

The ability to detect the preferred representational system by:

Eye movements
Predicates
Voice quality
The ability to rapidly and smoothly adjust your communication (both verbal and non-verbal)
to the preferred system of the client
Overlap of representational systems as a method
of inducing in the client whichever system they do not have access to, and use in pacing
and leading the client from one representational system to the other (all 3 – V,
A, K)
Identification and utilisation of ordered sequences of representational systems, (sometimes
referred to as strategies)
Synesthesia patterns
Submodalities and their use both as interventions (e.g. SWISH) and as barometers
of the effectiveness of change techniques (for example, reports from clients immediately
after doing a New Code game are full of descriptions of the submodality changes induced
by the change of state)

Language patterns

Verbal package
Framing
The two specification questions:
- Nouns: Which/What ________, specifically?
- Verbs: ______________, how specifically?

Methods of verifying map alignment (paraphrase, for example)

The Intention question
Modal operators and universal quantifiers
Frank Farrelley’s provocation method (deliberate selection of ‘wrong’ and
outrageous interpretation in order to provoke the client to ‘correct’ the
agent of change and thereby offer a more grounded verbal representation)

Minimum metaphor competency

Isomorphic/homomorphic mappings
Naturalistic metaphors
Metaphors using anchoring to specify to the client’s unconscious
mind the elements in the metaphor that correspond to specific elements in the presenting
problem or challenge
Living metaphors
Logical levels and logical types (defined in Whispering)

Anchoring techniques

The ability to establish and successfully re-activate anchors in each of the three major
input channels (V A K, and also spatially)
Use of anchoring in change formats
Change personal history/re-imprinting
Collapse of anchors
Time line interventions
Circle of excellence (spatial anchoring)

Multiple perceptual positions

With special emphasis on triple description (the use of 1st, 2nd and 3rd position), with
full competency to move quickly and cleanly between these perceptual positions.

Chain of Excellence

Breathing
Physiology
State
Performance

Epistemology (from Whispering) with f1, FA and f2

F1 Transforms
First Access
F2 Transforms
Linguistic Representations

Being able to recognise the above distinctions and how they impact mental processing at different
points of representation.

Being able to design interventions and understand the leverage point of that intervention
in the epistemological distinction.

Simple hypnotic patterning

Using inductions and language patterns (portions of the Milton Model) to utilise both deliberate
and spontaneously occurring altered states.

Involuntary signal systems

Arbitrary involuntary systems (like those found in step two of Six Step Reframing)
Use of natural involuntary systems (pain and sensations associated with health, disease
and dreams)
Methods for assisting people who are disassociated kinesthetically to develop signals – the
orienting response

N-Step Reframing (old Six Step Reframing)

Calibrating and working with clients involuntary unconscious signals
Working with ‘unconscious
intention’, again through calibrating and working
with involuntary unconscious signals

Tasking (especially for changing belief systems)

Listening off the top for semantically packed words.
Being able to set parallel tasks,
that are isomorphic to the client’s ‘present
issue’ to create change in the clients circumstances with the direct involvement
of the client’s conscious mind.

Parts Interventions

Recognise parts as a metaphor
Negotiation between parts
Parts integration
Building a team

The newly developed NLP Practitioner Course is being offered as a unique small group coached training in Brisbane. The first of the series started during November 2009, and there is a series of these being offered throughout 2010 in Brisbane, on the Gold Coast and Sunshine Coast. See our Training Schedule for dates of programs throughout 2010 and our Detailed Schedule for training provided by both our organization and our associates.

A full NLP Practitioner qualification is internationally recognized and allows you to continue with an NLP Master Practitioner certificate at a later stage with us or another reputable NLP Training organization. NLP Practitioner status is awarded to students who successfully complete all three modules & the certification process.

The Training format is in two types, spread out (over 2 - 3 months), or the "Intensive" Programs, where the dates are more compressed so that if you are travelling, you can minimise the time you need to be at the location.

There are three areas of training that we cover all the way through your course:

Emotional Intelligence: provides the NLP foundation that enhances or establishes your “Emotional Intelligence”. The aim is to assist you to create a strong connection with your self, elevate your self-awareness and provides self-management skills. At times we offer this course stand-alone, or to contribute towards your eventual growth with the NLP Practitioner program.
Communicating with Precision and Effectiveness: is all about “Communicating with Precision and Effectiveness”. It offers many practical techniques so you can engage more meaningfully with clarity and eliminating many of the barriers to effective communication. This course provides the basis for ways NLP can enhance our communication skills specifically with others and in doing so enhance the quality of our lives.
Creating Change: is focused on bringing together all the foundations already taught and builds your capability by working with powerful NLP Patterns to create change. This “Comprehensive NLP – Creating Change” phase brings distinctions on NLP Pattern utilisation, more in-depth learning by working with “real clients” under supervision and integrates your skills and knowledge.

NLP Training Special Offers Now

2010-03-02T11:48:00.000+10:00

NLP Training Special Offers Now

Partner sites
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Cautions regarding EQ tests

2010-02-23T12:04:00.001+10:00

From http://www.abc.net.au/catalyst/stories/s581804.htm For almost 100 years IQ tests were thought to be the most reliable predictor of individual intelligence and performance from the school class to the work place. But now there’s a new intelligence test coming into the workplace it’s Emotional Intelligence and it could determine your future.

EQ is a measure of our feelings – how well we understand our own emotions and recognise emotional states in other people. In modern management these criteria are increasingly seen as indicators of how well individuals will work in teams and who is best suited to lead or follow, or doesn’t belong in a team at all.

Reporter Jonica Newby goes to Swinburne University in Melbourne – one of the few labs in the world developing tests to measure EQ to find out just what’s involved in an EQ tests and ask is EQ something that can be measured?
TRANSCRIPT

Narration: This is the NSW training academy for prison officers. Attending, is prison superintendent David Mumford. He’s ambitious – he wants promotion. But his future may hang on how well he does on this test. A controversial new test. Of his emotional intelligence. We’re here to discuss the results. You’ve heard of IQ, well here comes EQ. It’s a measure of how well we understand and manage emotions. And like David, many of us may soon be judged by it. Employers are saying move over IQ, its EQ that counts. Small wonder its already reached our prisons.

David Mumford: I would say emotional intelligence is about 80% of the skills needed.

Narration: But critics ask, are EQ tests scientifically valid? Worse – could they be misused - to discriminate against individuals?

Dennis Garlick. If you use something like emotional intelligence and it hasn’t been validated, then that means you could be identifying or pigeonholing someone as being low emotional intelligence when in fact they may not be.

Narration: In the last few years, the EQ wave has swept across corporate Australia. It’s even entered our universities. This is a different sort of EQ test – a practical one. Students are racing against the clock to rewrite software for this robotic arm. And it’s more than a test of engineering.

Professor Con Stough: What we are really testing here is teamwork and personal growth during the course.

Narration: But is EQ really just a management fad – interpersonal skills rebranded with a sexy new name? Or does it have a hard basis?

Jonica Newby: Well, here at Swinburne University, I’m about to meet a group of guys who are trying to put scientific substance into emotional intelligence. Professor Con Stough is a neuroscientist who actually specialises in IQ. But he’s become fascinated by EQ.

Professor Con Stough: Emotional intelligence is actually about your cognitive understanding of your emotions. This is a new frontier for us.

Narration: Pushing that frontier, Stough and his team have developed what they say is the first truly scientific EQ test. And these executives have just sat it.

Professor Con Stough: We try to measure five basic cognitives; how much emotional information do you use to make decisions so you are more intuitive or less intuitive or analytical. How able are you to understand your own emotions and the differences between emotions. How able are you to understand emotions of somebody you are working with. And how do you use this information in an effective way.

Narration: It’s not surprising these women are anxious about their results. Swinburne University trials have shown this EQ score is 16% better at predicting career success than IQ.

Jonica Newby: So what is actually on an EQ test. Well I have one right here. So here goes. I have no difficulty portraying my emotions to my colleagues. And the answers are always, sometimes, seldom, never. It’s certainly nothing like an IQ test – which Professor Stough gives me next, for comparison.

Professor Con Stough: This is a test of pattern recognition. So what we have to do is complete the pattern so it makes sense this way and this way

Jonica Newby: This could take some time. I’m not sure why, but I think the answer is 4.

Professor Con Stough: Very good, that’s right.

Narration: And this exposes what critics say is EQ’s greatest weakness. With IQ tests, there’s a right or wrong answer.

Professor Con Stough: So here you can see that the brain is working very hard.

Narration: And as these scans show, you can relate IQ directly to what’s happening in the brain. So far, neither of those things is true for EQ.

Narration: And that’s what really gets up the nose of one of EQ’s biggest sceptics. He’s IQ expert and go-kart enthusiast Dennis Garlick. Dennis Garlick says the great thing about IQ is that it can be measured. Accurately.

Dennis Garlick: I have difficulty with the notion you can measure emotional intelligence. With IQ tests, what they’re measuring is known as a general factors of intelligence, and if you do well at visual and spatial test, you also tend to do well at verbal and linguistic tests.

Narration: In contrast with emotional intelligence, it hasn’t yet been established that there is a general factor.

Professor Con Stough: Well I say that’s a very premature answer to give everybody. I mean emotional intelligence is a developing field. But certainly we’ve found associations between our tests and the important criteria like leadership for instance, happiness, life satisfaction. So we’re definitely tapping into something, and we’re pretty confident that the properties of the test are good.

Narration: This debate over whether EQ can be measured is not just academic. It goes to the heart of how it will affect us all. These students are entering a workforce where EQ tests will increasingly be used. If the tests aren’t valid, the personal cost could be huge.

Dennis Garlick: One of the main concerns with emotional intelligence is that you could then have it pigeonhole people. Which means that because someone performs poorly on an emotional intelligence test, then that means that they won’t ever be able to get a job.

Narration: It is possible EQ will be mishandled – used to unfairly slot people into categories. That certainly was a criticism of IQ over the years. But EQ advocates stress that’s not their aim.

Con Stough: What we’re trying to do is trying to help people understand and manage their emotions in the workplace and we know that that’s something that’s been a problem in the past because of our focus just on intelligence.

Stough believes we’ll all benefit from EQ becoming as highly regarded as IQ.

Con Stough: Well I think in 10 years time, IQ will still be used for graduate selection and assessment. But side by side with the Emotional Intelligence test.
Topics: Health

* Reporter: Jonica Newby
* Producer: Steve Salgo
* Researcher: Carina Dennis & Owen Craig

Story Contacts

Prof Con Stough, Swinburne University, Melbourne VIC Australia

Dennis Garlick, Sydney University, Australia

Prof Warren Yates, University of Technology, Sydney Australia

Larry Marlow, Organisational Psychologist, Marlow Hampshire, P O Box 189, Balmain Sydney Australia Ph: 9810 9000

NLP Practice Group Schedule for 2010

2010-01-28T22:29:00.004+10:00

Thursday, 18 Feb 2010, Night Walking,

This is a special session for NLP Practitioners and public participants who want to develop their peripheral awareness.

For more details please read our Café post on the 11 November 09: http://nlpcafebrisbane.com.au/

Tuesday, 2 March 2010

Open Coaching / Mentoring session

Thursday, 25 March 09A fun night for sure! Let’s do the NLP Speed Circuit to strengthen your NLP muscles. You will end up feeling high on NLP.

Tuesday, 6 April, 2010

This is a special session for Practitioner and Master Practitioner only to test “Synchronised unconscious signal elicitation”. This part of the International Trainers Academy initiative to test a phenomenon that synchronises unconscious signal elicitation between the practitioner and their associates.

Tuesday, 11 May, 2010Open Coaching / Mentoring session

Thursday, 27 May, 2010

Master the art of Modelling part 1. This is a practitioner only night and let’s focus on the core of NLP by modelling another person to acquire an unique skill. More details and format will be published soon.

Tuesday, 1 June, 2010

Action-packed evening! Let’s do the NLP Speed Circuit to strengthen your NLP muscles. You will end up feeling high on NLP.

Thursday, 24 June, 2010

Master the art of Modelling part 2. This is a practitioner only night and let’s focus on the core of NLP by modelling another person to acquire an unique skill. More details and format will be published soon.

Tuesday, 6 July, 2010Open Coaching / Mentoring session

Thursday, 29 July, 2010

Practicing NLP Hypnotic Patterns

Tuesday, 7 September, 2010

Open Coaching / Mentoring session

Thursday, 30 September, 2010

Master the art of Modelling part 3. This is a practitioner only night and let’s focus on the core of NLP by modelling another person to acquire an unique skill. More details and format will be published soon.

Tuesday, 5 October, 2010

Special topics, more details coming soon.

Thursday, 28 October, 2010Special topics, more details coming soon.

Tuesday, 2 November, 2010Open Coaching / Mentoring session

Thursday, 25 November, 2010

Special topics, more details coming soon.

How would you like to use NLP in 2010 to make a change to your life, work and the world?

2010-01-28T22:28:00.001+10:00

How would you like to use NLP in 2010 to make a change to your life, work and the world?

We have asked the question to ourselves and some of the people involved in NLP development has also asked the questions. Here are some of the feedbacks. What is yours?

“I would like to use NLP to enhance a positive mindset through attention awareness for myself and others, and expand my capabilities by Modelling ” ~ Mark Spencer

“Use NLP to create the essential paradigm shift to grow into the person I want to be with congruence and assist others to enhance their capabilities through Modelling” ~ Sonya Yeh Spencer

“I would love to see the presuppositions of NLP being widely applied in society. Understanding and applying these principles could make a big difference” ~ Karen Moxom

“I would love to introduce year 12 students to the concept of state management, basic techniques to enable them to make the crucial decisions on career, relationships and self identify” ~ Margaret McConnon

News from our NLP Cafe's in Queensland

2010-01-28T22:26:00.001+10:00

Welcome to another year of wonderful NLP Café activities. As we enter into our third year of operation and continue to evolve NLP Café Brisbane, we hope to bring you sessions that can elevate your NLP skills and ours!

Our particular interest this year is Modelling. Modelling is so critical yet not many NLPers seem to actively “Model”. NLPers who do model often are on their own in their endeavour and when they need assistance, experienced Modellers are few and far in between. This year we will organise special sessions for NLP Practitioners to practice Modelling. For members who are interested in running special modelling projects we are interested to hear from you and work with you outside of the NLP Café Brisbane setting too.

Another interest for us this year is the different ways to expand our sensory experiences, such as the Night Walking will provide.

The open coaching session with the public was a great hit last year and we will continue the session this year.

We will be adding cross-marketed events such as Jonathan Altfeld in April (scroll to April) and other great trainers as their events come up.

Be sure to watch for other schedules during the year as the training and NLP Cafe’s grows…

NLP Café’s in Queensland:

NLPCaféSunshineCoast.com.au

NLPCaféGoldCoast.com.au

NLPCaféBrisbane.com.au

NLP Practitioner Brisbane, Gold Coast, and Sunshine Coast, Australia

2010-01-28T22:20:00.001+10:00

ITANLP Calendar updated with our courses for Brisbane, Gold Coast, and Sunshine Coast, Australia.

NLP Practitioner Intensive: This is a comprehensive 18-day program, but intensive (consecutive style), all completed between 3-23/Jun/2010 . Enjoy the unique coaching style of training in smaller classes which has a high facilitator to student ratio and maximises your learning and ultimately your investment in the training.

Location: Sunshine Coast, Australia Contact: bookings@blue-skytransformation.com +61 7 3355 9714

NLP Practitioner Intensive: This is a comprehensive 18-day program, but intensive (consecutive style) all completed between 9-29/Sep/2010. Enjoy the unique coaching style of training in smaller classes which has a high facilitator to student ratio and maximises your learning and ultimately your investment in the training.

Location: Gold Coast, Australia Contact: bookings@blue-skytransformation.com +61 7 3355 9714

NLP Practitioner Training for 2010 in Brisbane, on the Gold Coast and Sunshine Coast

2010-01-17T09:24:00.003+10:00

NLP Practitioner Course, More information, to register, download our brochure

...offering certificates co-signed by the founders of the International Trainers Academy - John Grinder, Carmen Bostic St Clair and Michael Carroll. This course is the only one available in Australia and NZ of this type.

The newly developed NLP Practitioner Course is being offered as a unique small group coached training in Brisbane. The first of the series started during November 2009, and there is a series of these being offered throughout 2010 in Brisbane, on the Gold Coast and Sunshine Coast. See our Training Schedule for dates of programs throughout 2010 and our Detailed Schedule for training provided by both our organization and our associates.

Sunshine Coast Dates

Gold Coast Dates

Module Descriptions

Our NLP Practitioner Course is practical, effective and full of profound concepts and information. The comprehensive 18-day program brings you the working foundations and principles of NLP. You will rapidly integrate the NLP techniques you have learned into your work and personal life.

Enjoy the unique coaching style of training in smaller classes which has a high facilitator to student ratio maximises your learning and ultimately your investment in the training.

An NLP Practioner qualification is Internationally recognized and allows you to continue with an NLP Master Practitioner certificate at a later stage with us or another NLP Training organization.

Course content

At minimum, the course will cover the following areas:

Calibration (input channels)
Rapport
Representational systems
Language patterns (Meta Model, Milton Model, Verbal Package)
Methods of verifying map alignment
Metaphor competency
Anchoring techniques
Multiple perceptual positions
Chain of Excellence
Epistemology of NLP
Hypnotic patterning, trance, hypnosis
N-Step Reframing
Working with the unconscious mind
Parts Interventions
New Code NLP Introduction (updated to the latest in August 2009)

Next Course Details (Brisbane)

Modules I, II and III Combo + Certification process If after completing our course you choose to be certified (training and certification are separate events) by us, your certificate will carry Grinder, Bostic St Clair and Carroll’s signature. The certification process will be rigorous to ensure the quality standards set by Grinder, Bostic St Clair and Carroll are maintained.

Why choose us?

This is a most unique course and is leading the advancement in NLP Training.

Unique Coaching format so you get maximum result from your training.
Small Class to provide you with quality attention. Our classes are small. The coached style of teaching, together with most effective way to learn and apply the art of NLP, ensuring a unique and accelerated learning experience. Be the one that stands out from the crowd with NLP
Highly Qualified Trainers with international experience.
Exceptional Quality and Practical Excellence.
Our course meets the criteria globally for certification with additional skills, information and knowledge from world leaders in the field of NLP.
Facilitated by currently practicing professional coaches and therapist who brings additional insight.
All of our training content is true to the core of the essence of NLP, which is modelling, at the same time includes the latest advancements that is the New Code of NLP. See NLP Co-creator, John Grinder’s own distinctions regarding training that can be found on the International Trainers Academy website.
This is the only training program in the region supported by on going, regular practice and continuous development facilities.

This course also offers the ongoing training and support through the NLPCafeBrisbane. NLP Café Brisbane is an NLP practice group, which aims to help NLP Professionals to advance their skills and individuals to learn to use the tools they were born with. We train in NLP Classic Code, New Code, and some of the most up to date developments in related disciplines. Attendance at the course guarantees your support at NLPCafeBrisbane.

NLP for your emergence

2010-01-15T17:04:00.000+10:00

NLP for your emergence

NLP Practitioner Training in Brisbane (Venue Details)

2010-01-04T10:30:00.000+10:00

Neuro Linguistic Programming (NLP) is the study of success. This course has tools for creating and facilitating personal and professional change in yourself and others.

Is there anything wrong with having a personal advantage in life?

Course details

Location of Training
Brisbane International - Windsor‎

Cnr Lutwyche Rd & Bryden St, Windsor QLD 4030. Phone: 07 3357 3456. http://www.windsorinternational.com.au

More Information

Take the positive step to improve your life today and empower the next generation. See our NLP Practitioner Training Courses in Brisbane delivered by by Certified Trainers of NLP, Trained and Certified by John Grinder, Carmen Bostic St Clair and Michael Carroll.
If you were to train and become an NLP Practitioner, you would be able to employ your newly acquired skills as an agent of change working with individuals, groups, companies, global organisations and governments. As a technology, NLP has an amazing track record for instigating fast and efficient change in individuals and groups.

Say NO! to MEDIOCRITY and be the BEST YOU CAN BE!

Quality NLP Training now in Brisbane - NLP Practitioner Course

2010-01-04T10:29:00.000+10:00

NLP Practitioner Course

Finally what you have all been waiting for - NLP Practitioner Course is now regularly offered as a unique small group coached training in Brisbane.

Our NLP Practitioner Course is practical, effective and full of profound concepts and information. The comprehensive 18-day program brings you the working foundations and principles of NLP. You will rapidly integrate the NLP techniques you have learned into your work and personal life.

Enjoy the unique coaching style of training in smaller classes which has a high facilitator to student ratio maximises your learning and ultimately your investment in the training.

This course is the only one available in Australia and NZ that offers certificates co-signed by the founders of the International Trainers Academy - John Grinder, Carmen Bostic St Clair and Michael Carroll.

An NLP Practioner qualification is Internationally recognized and allows you to continue with an NLP Master Practitioner certificate at a later stage with us or another NLP Training organization.

Course content
At minimum, the course will cover the following areas:
* Calibration (input channels)
* Rapport
* Representational systems
* Language patterns (Meta Model, Milton Model, Verbal Package)
* Methods of verifying map alignment
* Metaphor competency
* Anchoring techniques
* Multiple perceptual positions
* Chain of Excellence
* Epistemology of NLP
* Trance and Hypnotic patterning (Hypnosis principles and experience)
* N-Step Reframing
* Working with the unconscious mind
* Parts Interventions
* New Code NLP Competencies (updated to the latest in August 2009)

This course also offers the ongoing training and support through the NLPCafeBrisbane. NLP Café Brisbane is an NLP practice group, which aims to help NLP Professionals to advance their skills and individuals to learn to use the tools they were born with. We train in NLP Classic Code, New Code, and some of the most up to date developments in related disciplines. Attendance at the course guarantees your support at NLPCafeBrisbane.

Why choose us?

This is a most unique course and is leading the advancement in NLP Training.

Unique Coaching format so you get maximum result from your training.
Small Class to provide you with quality attention. Our classes are small. The coached style of teaching, together with most effective way to learn and apply the art of NLP, ensuring a unique and accelerated learning experience. Be the one that stands out from the crowd with NLP
Highly Qualified Trainers with international experience.
Exceptional Quality and Practical Excellence.
Our course meets the criteria globally for certification with additional skills, information and knowledge from world leaders in the field of NLP.
Facilitated by currently practicing professional coaches and therapist who brings additional insight.
All of our training content is true to the core of the essence of NLP, which is modelling, at the same time includes the latest advancements that is the New Code of NLP. See NLP Co-creator, John Grinder’s own distinctions regarding training that can be found on the International Trainers Academy website.
This is the only training program in the region supported by on going, regular practice and continuous development facilities.

If after completing our course you choose to be certified (training and certification are separate events) by us, your certificate will carry Grinder, Bostic St Clair and Carroll’s signature. The certification process will be rigorous to ensure the quality standards set by Grinder, Bostic St Clair and Carroll are maintained.

NLP and Related Books

2009-12-03T17:39:00.001+10:00

Foundational

The Structure of Magic Volumes 1 and 2 1ST Editions The Structure of Magic (2 Volume set)

John Grinder

Milton Erickson

Patterns of the Hypnotic Techniques of Milton H. Erickson, MD (Two Volumes)

Virginia Satir

How could you contribute to building your Emotional Intelligence in 5 days?

2009-10-31T13:18:00.001+10:00

Did you know the number one reason why individuals miss their opportunity to be promoted at work, increase their personal profitability and creating meaningful relationships is due to a lack of Emotional Intelligence? This is according to Harvard Business School's recent study.

The five key components of emotional intelligence (EI) are:

Self-awareness: The ability to recognize and understand your moods, emotions, and drives as well as the effect they have on others
Self-regulation: The ability to control or redirect disruptive impulses and moods, suspend judgment, and thinking before acting
Motivation: The ability to pursue goals with energy and persistence, for reasons that go beyond money or status
Empathy: The ability to understand people's emotional makeup
Social skill: The ability to manage relationships, build networks, and find common ground

We would qualify and enrich these definitions during the course - For example, if you have been trying to 'control' your impulses and moods, or putting yourself down for certain behaviours, we would like to suggest that you increase your 'choices' of moods and impulses, and that you find reasons to pursue those new choices that provide better outcomes. This is how real change occurs for our coaching clients, and it is how we teach real NLP for change.

Careers, Workplace and Beyond

It has been said that IQ lands you a job, and EQ keeps you in the job. These days more employers, recruitment agencies and HR specialists are recognising the importance and overidding effect of a person's EQ on individual's performance at their job, their team effectiveness and an organisation's culture.

As a sailor, I can draw upon an analogy from sailing - apparent wind speed, which is the wind speed that is the sum of the real wind speed if you were standing still and the + or - of the wind generated by your progress through the water. Simply, it is the wind experienced by a moving object. I propose that increasing your EQ can change your apparent IQ, where you choose options and answers better.

Have you ever been watching a game show and you initially say to yourself or out aloud "B, the answer is B" and your intellect takes over and says "No, it is D" and you modify your answer to "D" - then the game show host says the answer was "B" (your first choice) after all. What would happen if you were able to understand the underlying process that drives you to choose the wrong answer instead of the right answer and be able to make the right decision more often? Would it be beneficial to your career, relationships and life directions?

Imagine if you could draw upon the right answer more often in life? It is not always the first choice as in this example. These internal messages are coming to us most of the time, we often just do not take notice... These answers or insights apply to every area of life from chosing what lane to drive in traffic, down to who to call, who to visit, what to say, and what is more important for you to spend your next 20 minutes doing. This is one of the elements of EQ that we teach - getting a greater connection with yourself. You are your best hope.

A career in management involves coping with complexity; a life of leadership relies on your coping with change. As you learn to lead yourself through the skills gained on these courses, your life of leadership will spill out to others, your career and what you actually achieve in life. Can you imagine being able to give yourself honest and useful feedback? If this was a habit for you, imagine how you would grow and how congruently you could give feedback to others?

NLP Module I (5 days), 3–7 Nov 2009, is designed to establish the foundations for Building Emotional intelligence.

Students of this type of training say that they approach life on a whole new level.

Module I is part of the NLP Practitioner Program

We have divided our course into 3 modules, allowing you to pace your study to your needs. Module I provides the Emotional Intelligence basis, a strong connection with self, self-awareness and self-management skills. These can be used stand-alone, or to contribute towards your eventual growth with the NLP Practitioner program.

A full NLP Practioner qualification is Internationally recognized and allows you to continue with an NLP Master Practitioner certificate at a later stage with us or another NLP Training organization.

Check this out right now and get ahead of the game.

NLP Practitioner Course, starting 3 November 2009, More information here or Click here to register

The newly developed NLP Practitioner Course will be offered as a unique small group coached training in Brisbane with the first of the series starting 3 November 2009.

Enjoy the unique coaching style of training in smaller classes which has a high facilitator to student ratio, maximises your learning and ultimately your investment in the training.

What's the connection between Emotional Intelligence and NLP?

Not all NLP training courses make a strong link back to the EQ, but we make a point of doing so. We believe that we should be releasing students that have worked on themselves before they are let loose to work on others and this is what this foundational part of the course achieves.

Remember that a career in management involves coping with complexity; a life of leadership relies on your coping with change. If you want to lead, you need to be able to cope with change.

NLP is all about change and we consistently teach our students how to make changes with ecology.

We are offering certificate programs co-signed by the founders of the International Trainers Academy - John Grinder, Carmen Bostic St Clair and Michael Carroll. This course is the only one available in Australia and NZ of this type.

Who does this sort of course?

People who know that a pre-requisite for a better, more fulfilling experience of life (personally and professionally) is their own internal change. So these people include those who want to:

increase their own performance
hone their skills to improve their career options
seeking business improvement through increasing their own personal profitability
learn the skills in NLP for a therapeutic or coaching profession

Reasons why people choose to get an NLP Practitioner qualification

2009-10-31T10:07:00.001+10:00

We have found that those of you who want to study NLP come from 3 main areas.

The one thing common amongst most of them is their profound desire to better understand, work with, and change human experience and behaviour to achieve (and/or assist others to achieve) more of the life that they want.

The list of vocations that we get includes: Coaches, Therapists, Entrepreneurs, Executives, Managers, HR specialists, Sports Trainers, Project Managers, Program Managers, Business Analysts, Teachers, Trainers, Sales people, Lawyers, Medical staff, Single Parents, Parents, Couples, Personal Coaches, Developers, IT staff, IT Testers, Business Owners, Psychologists, Medical workers, Nurses, Telesales, Hypnotherapists, Body workers, Alternative healers, Networking specialists, Marketers, Speakers, Counsellors and anyone that works with people in some way.

See our more complete page of the reasons why people choose to get an NLP Practitioner qualification.

Check out the qualifcation of your trainers or you could have a cat!

2009-10-25T11:15:00.000+10:00

Cat registered as hypnotherapist - From BBC's Inside Out program - This cat's name is George, and was successfully registered with three hypnotherapy organisations."
Checking your trainers or coaches credentials can be quite enlightening. Belonging to a Professional Body needs to be checked as best you can. If someone quotes the Professional Body that they belong to, the better Professional Bodies usually have an online register where these can be checked. You should also be able to check for their qualifying criteria as well.

This amusing but also disturbing article, the BBC's "Inside Out" program has found that the regulation of hypnotherapists in the UK is so lax that even a cat can become accredited.... Quoting from the article, Chris Jackson, presenter of Inside Out in the North East and Cumbria, registered pet George with three industry bodies. In the UK, George was registered with the British Board of Neuro Linguistic Programming (BBNLP), the United Fellowship of Hypnotherapists (UFH) and the Professional Hypnotherapy Practitioner Association (PHPA). Each one accepted a certificate from the non-existent Society of Certified Advanced Mind Therapists as proof of George's credentials.

The BBC article

Our registration with the ITANLP on the List of Trainers and their criteria for certifying.

Our registration with the ITANLP as a Certifying Institute and their levels of certification within the ITANLP.

The publication of our compliant course with the ITANLP

Our listing at the Professional Guild of NLP and the Professional Guild of NLP - Individual Member Code of Practice

Sonya's public entry in LinkedIn

Mark's public entry in LinkedIn

Our NLP Course starting in November 2009

I Didn't Sin—It Was My Brain

2009-10-25T11:02:00.002+10:00

I Didn't Sin—It Was My Brain

I Didn't Sin—It Was My Brain Brain researchers have found the sources of many of our darkest thoughts, from envy to wrath.
by Kathleen McGowan; illustrations by Christopher Buzelli

From the September 2009 issue, published online October 5, 2009

This article talks about the research neuroscience has begun into such things as inhibitory cognitive control networks involving the front of the brain activate to squelch the impulse and other brain regions such as the caudate—partly responsible for body movement and coordination—suppress the physical impulse. These are interesting to follow, but as yet do not yet seem to have identified the solutions that many have already found in other modalities such as NLP.

Creator: Priamo della Quercia Date: 1444-1452 Medium: manuscript illumination Source: Yates Thompson 36. Reprinted with permission of the British Library.

More disagreeable forms of sin such as wrath and envy enlist the dorsal anterior cingulate cortex (dACC). This area, buried in the front of the brain, is often called the brain’s “conflict detector,” coming online when you are confronted with contradictory information, or even simply when you feel pain.... In the annals of sin, weaknesses of the flesh—lust, gluttony, sloth—are considered second-tier offenses, less odious than the “spiritual” sins of envy and pride. That’s good news for us, since these yearnings are notoriously difficult to suppress.

Why does being bad feel so good? Pride, envy, greed, wrath, lust, gluttony, and sloth: It might sound like just one more episode of The Real Housewives of New Jersey, but this enduring formulation of the worst of human failures has inspired great art for thousands of years. In the 14th century Dante depicted ghoulish evildoers suffering for eternity in his masterpiece, The Divine Comedy. Medieval muralists put the fear of God into churchgoers with lurid scenarios of demons and devils. More recently George Balanchine choreographed their dance.....

For most of us, it takes less mental energy to puff ourselves up than to think critically about our own abilities. In one recent neuroimaging study by Hidehiko Takahashi of the National Institute of Radiological Sciences in Japan, volunteers who imagined themselves winning a prize or trouncing an opponent showed less activation in brain regions associated with introspection and self-conscious thought than people induced to feel negative emotions such as embarrassment. We accept positive feedback about ourselves readily, Takahashi says: “Compared with guilt or embarrassment, pride might be processed more automatically.”

The most notable thing about lust is that it sets nearly the whole brain buzzing.

Pride gets its swagger from the self-related processing of the mPFC, which Keenan calls “a very interesting area of the brain, involved in all these wonderful human characteristics, from planning to abstract thinking to self-awareness.” Using transcranial magnetic stimulation (TMS), in which a magnetic field applied to the scalp temporarily scrambles the signal in small areas of the brain, he was able to briefly shut off the mPFC in volunteers. With TMS switched on, his subjects’ normal, healthy arrogance melted away. “They saw themselves as they really were, without glossing over negative characteristics,” he says....

It makes sense that we are so sensitive to being cheated, notes Matthew Lieberman, a professor of psychology at the University of California at Los Angeles. “Mammalian survival depends on social bonds, and fairness is a really important social cue,” he says. Inequitable treatment might be an important sign that we are not valued by the group, he says, so we had better pay attention.

In response to unfair offers, the brain activates the pain detection process that takes place in the multitasking dACC. Interestingly, it also engages the bilateral anterior insula, an area implicated in negative emotions such as anger, disgust, and social rejection. The picture that emerges from fMRI is that of a brain weighing an emotional response (the urge to punish the guy who cheated you) against a logical response (the appeal of the cash)....

See the full article at I Didn't Sin—It Was My Brain from the Discover Magazine, Sep 2009

Derren Brown predicts the British national lottery numbers

2009-10-25T11:02:00.001+10:00

Derren Brown again - 09/09/09 Derren Brown predicts the British national lottery numbers CORRECTLY ON LIVE TV!

On channel 4 on 11/09/09 Derren Brown revealed how he did this and it is mathmatical as many card/predictive demonstrations are.

An 18-Minute Plan for Managing Your Day - Peter Bregman - HarvardBusiness.org

2009-10-25T10:56:00.000+10:00

An 18-Minute Plan for Managing Your Day - Peter Bregman - HarvardBusiness.org

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Women with emotional intelligence have better sex lives | body+soul | News.com.au

2009-10-25T10:54:00.002+10:00

Women with emotional intelligence have better sex lives | body+soul | News.com.au

People who know that a pre-requisite for a better, more fulfilling experience of life (personally and professionally) is their own internal change. So these people include those who want to:

- increase their own performance in every area of life
- hone their skills to improve their career options
- seeking business improvement through increasing their own personal profitability
- learn the skills in NLP for a therapeutic or coaching profession

Imagine if you could draw upon the right answer more often in life? This is one of the elements of EQ that we teach – getting a greater connection with yourself. You are your best hope.

How could you contribute to building your Emotional Intelligence in 5 days?

The Brain that Changes Itself - Neuroplasticity

2009-09-30T13:18:00.002+10:00

The research into neuroplasticity in neuro-science gives us an insight into what is possible for NLP interventions and generally how the brain functions.

ABC Lateline report on Neuroplasticity including an interview with NORMAN DOIDGE, a PSYCHIATRIST in Canada and author of The Brain that Changes Itself.

In recent years, many experts have changed the way they think about the brain and now believe it can actually reinvent itself. The theory's called neuroplasticity, the idea that the brain can build new connections to compensate for injury or disease....

...She was given an antibiotic for a routine hysterectomy which poisoned her inner ear, so that 97 per cent of what's called the vestibular apparatus or the balance organ in the inner ear, was blown out. And one day she woke up and she had no balance. She was a woman who felt she was perpetually falling. And in fact, even when she fell to the floor, the sense of falling didn't go away. She felt a trap door opened up and swallowed her..... Now, Dr. Paul Bach-y-Rita, had been working on sensory substitution and he found a way to give her a hat that contained something called an accelerometer, which is like a gyroscope. It told her her position in space. It fed information to a computer that fed the information back to something about the size of a stick of chewing gum that had about 100 little electrodes on it that gave little sparks on her tongue - very gentle stimulation that felt like champagne bubbles, so that if she rolled forward she would get champagne bubbles rolling forward telling her the position of her head. And I was there when this cure occurred and she couldn't stand up, she put on the hat, they turned on the machine and suddenly it was as though there was total peace of mind that she had and her balance was restored.

...what Descartes did is he was trying to solve a problem, which is that it seemed that the rules of mind were different, would follow logic or maybe the rules of emotion, and the brain seemed to follow, you know, the physical laws of Galileo and the mechanical laws of movement. And he argued that the mind will influence the brain, but he could never persuasively show how that happens. And we still haven't totally solved that problem. But what we can do now, which is very, very exciting, is we can actually see a person in the process of thinking and the number of brain cells - the number of connections between brain cells being altered.

Attention turns out to be very, very important for speeding up plastic change. And many people with strokes have a problem with attention.

For more details, watch the ABC Video ABC Lateline report on Neuroplasticity or read the transcript from the program.

To Learn more also visit: http://www.normandoidge.com, Listen to a Podcast of Norman Doidge, or Listen to this online

This book is about the revolutionary discovery that the human brain can change itself, as told through the stories of the scientists, doctors, and patients who have together brought about these astonishing transformations. Without operations or medications, they have made use of the brain’s hitherto unknown ability to change. Some were patients who had what were thought to be incurable brain problems; others were people without specific problems who simply wanted to improve the functioning of their brains or preserve them as they aged. For four hundred years this venture would have been inconceivable because mainstream medicine and science believed that brain anatomy was fixed. The common wisdom was that after childhood the brain changed only when it began the long process of decline; that when brain cells failed to develop properly, or were injured, or died, they could not be replaced. Nor could the brain ever alter its structure and find a new way to function if part of it was damaged. The theory of the unchanging brain decreed that people who were born with brain or mental limitations, or who sustained brain damage, would be limited or damaged for life. Scientists who wondered if the healthy brain might be improved or preserved through activity or mental exercise were told not to waste their time. A neurological nihilism—a sense that treatment for many brain problems was ineffective or even unwarranted—had taken hold, and it spread through our culture, even stunting our overall view of human nature. Since the brain could not change, human nature, which emerges from it, seemed necessarily fixed and unalterable as well. The belief that the brain could not change had three major sources: the fact that brain-damaged patients could so rarely make full recoveries; our inability to observe the living brain’s microscopic activities; and the idea—dating back to the beginnings of modern science—that the brain is like a glorious machine. And while machines do many extraordinary things, they don’t change and grow. I became interested in the idea of a changing brain because of my work as a research psychiatrist and psychoanalyst. When patients did not progress psychologically as much as hoped, often the conventional medical wisdom was that their problems were deeply “hardwired” into an unchangeable brain. “Hardwiring” was another machine metaphor coming from the idea of the brain as computer hardware, with permanently connected circuits, each designed to perform a specific, unchangeable function. When I first heard news that the human brain might not be hardwired, I had to investigate and weigh the evidence for myself. These investigations took me far from my consulting room. I began a series of travels, and in the process I met a band of brilliant scientists, at the frontiers of brain science, who had, in the late 1960s or early 1970s, made a series of unexpected discoveries. They showed that the brain changed its very structure with each different activity it performed, perfecting its circuits so it was better suited to the task at hand. If certain “parts” failed, then other parts could sometimes take over. The machine metaphor, of the brain as an organ with specialized parts, could not fully account for changes the scientists were seeing. They began to call this fundamental brain property “neuroplasticity.” Neuro is for “neuron,” the nerve cells in our brains and nervous systems. Plastic is for “changeable, malleable, modifiable.” At first many of the scientists didn’t dare use the word “neuroplasticity” in their publications, and their peers belittled them for promoting a fanciful notion. Yet they persisted, slowly overturning the doctrine of the unchanging brain. They showed that children are not always stuck with the mental abilities they are born with; that the damaged brain can often reorganize itself so that when one part fails, another can often substitute; that if brain cells die, they can at times be replaced; that many “circuits” and even basic reflexes that we think are hardwired are not. One of these scientists even showed that thinking, learning, and acting can turn our genes on or off, thus shaping our brain anatomy and our behavior—surely one of the most extraordinary discoveries of the twentieth century. In the course of my travels I met a scientist who enabled people who had been blind since birth to begin to see, another who enabled the deaf to hear; I spoke with people who had had strokes decades before and had been declared incurable, who were helped to recover with neuroplastic treatments; I met people whose learning disorders were cured and whose IQs were raised; I saw evidence that it is possible for eighty-year-olds to sharpen their memories to function the way they did when they were fifty-five. I saw people rewire their brains with their thoughts, to cure previously incurable obsessions and traumas. I spoke with Nobel laureates who were hotly debating how we must rethink our model of the brain now that we know it is ever changing. The idea that the brain can change its own structure and function through thought and activity is, I believe, the most important alteration in our view of the brain since we first sketched out its basic anatomy and the workings of its basic component, the neuron. Like all revolutions, this one will have profound effects, and this book, I hope, will begin to show some of them. The neuroplastic revolution has implications for, among other things, our understanding of how love, sex, grief, relationships, learning, addictions, culture, technology, and psychotherapies change our brains. All of the humanities, social sciences, and physical sciences, insofar as they deal with human nature, are affected, as are all forms of training. All of these disciplines will have to come to terms with the fact of the self-changing brain and with the realization that the architecture of the brain differs from one person to the next and that it changes in the course of our individual lives. While the human brain has apparently underestimated itself, neuroplasticity isn’t all good news; it renders our brains not only more resourceful but also more vulnerable to outside influences. Neuroplasticity has the power to produce more flexible but also more rigid behaviors—a phenomenon I call “the plastic paradox.” Ironically, some of our most stubborn habits and disorders are products of our plasticity. Once a particular plastic change occurs in the brain and becomes well established, it can prevent other changes from occurring. It is by understanding both the positive and negative effects of plasticity that we can truly understand the extent of human possibilities. Because a new word is useful for those who do a new thing, I call the practitioners of this new science of changing brains “neuroplasticians.” What follows is the story of my encounters with them and the patients they have transformed. Preface

1. Jobs Are The New Assets - 10 Ideas Changing the World Right Now - TIME

2009-09-22T05:49:00.002+10:00

1. Jobs Are The New Assets - 10 Ideas Changing the World Right Now - TIME

Quoting from the article... ...instead of spending thousands of dollars to build a new deck, you're more likely to use that money to take a class.

Careers expert Dick Bolles sees another shift coming. If as a society, we turn our attention back to work — if we dote on our jobs as much as we did on our homes and portfolios in an earlier era — then we'll have to start asking deeper questions about why we do what we do. In December, Bolles noticed that a book he wrote in 1970 was back on the best-seller list. What Color Is Your Parachute? is about job-hunting and career-changing, but it's also about figuring out who you are as a person and what you want out of life. "Why are people rushing out to buy a book that talks about more meaningful work?" asks Bolles. "They're realizing they have to rethink work if they've got no Plan B. It reframes the whole issue of, What type of work am I willing to do?"

....instead of spending thousands of dollars to build a new deck, you're more likely to use that money to take a class.
Careers expert Dick Bolles sees another shift coming. If as a society, we turn our attention back to work — if we dote on our jobs as much as we did on our homes and portfolios in an earlier era — then we'll have to start asking deeper questions about why we do what we do.

Do you have a really bad job right now? I'm guessing it could be worse... imagine moving to the career you really wanted to pursue right now.

NLP Module I (5 days), 3–7 Nov 2009, is designed to establish the foundations for Building Emotional intelligence. Your EQ may land you a beter job!

Students of this type of training say that they approach life on a whole new level.

You can stagger your training

So, if you are changing your career or investing in the future, then investing in yourself could not be a better, more safe and sound investment. Take a course in NLP to boost the foundational skills of your life.

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Why Choose us for your Training?

2009-07-21T20:52:00.013+10:00

What is different about our training format?

This is a most unique course and is leading the advancement in NLP Training.

Unique Coaching format so you get maximum result from your training.
Small Class to provide you with quality attention. Our classes are small. The coached style of teaching, together with most effective way to learn and apply the art of NLP, ensuring a unique and accelerated learning experience.
Highly Qualified Trainers with international experience.
Exceptional Quality and Practical Excellence.
Our course meets the criteria globally for certification .with additional skills, information and knowledge from world leaders in the field of NLP

Facilitated by currently practicing professional coaches and therapist who brings additional insight.
Great learning environment for couples and groups to have a direct impact on their relating, group dynamics, connectiveness and performance.
All of our training content is true to the core of the essence of NLP, which is modelling, at the same time includes the latest advancements that is the New Code of NLP. See NLP Co-creator, John Grinder’s own distinctions regarding training that can be found on the International Trainers Academy website.

This is the only training program in the region supported by on going, regular practice and continuous development facilities.

Some of the tools you gain through an NLP Practitioner course

2009-07-21T20:49:00.004+10:00

Neuro Linguistic Programming (NLP) is the study of success. It has tools for creating and facilitating personal and professional change in yourself and others.

Communicate at optimum levels at any time with anyone, including your self.
Overcome obstacles and find solutions in your business and personal life.
Develop the ability to adjust quickly to change.
Enhance your performance by choosing and maintaining the mental state that you have chosen.
Find new perspectives in any interaction for greater understanding and interpretation.
Will your career benefit from deeper understanding of the people around you?
Would you like to develop new approaches and find solutions to problems in your life?
Are you ready to achieve the results you want and help others do the same?

What can NLP do for you?

Communicate at optimum levels at any time with anyone, including your self.
Overcome obstacles and find solutions in your business and personal life.
Develop the ability to adjust quickly to change.
Enhance your performance by choosing and controlling your mental state.
Find new perspectives in any interaction for greater understanding and interpretation.

NASA's use of NLP, Adaptive Human-System Integration Technologies

2009-05-04T07:29:00.001+10:00

Excerpt: ....using NLP to create what she calls Adaptive Human-System Integration Technologies for various appl ications: aerospace (commercial, military, NASA), brain mapping, behavior profiling, modelling of learning and decision-making strategies and more.

...Over the length of the project results from this study may be used to enhance certain areas of the astronaut training program. The project also involves training human factors engineers at NASA Langley on how to use NLP techniques in their research studies.

...One of the projects I'm currently conducting is for NASA based on the representational systems - V-A-K. I'm looking at previously filmed videos of eye scanning movements of different subject pilots, and correlating this to written transcripts of verbal conversations of the subject pilots during various scenarios.

For the full article, see NASA Launches with NLP! An Interview with Dr. Alenka Brown Vanhoozer, Director for Advanced Cognitive Technologies by Al Wadleigh

Your Coaches

2009-04-25T18:08:00.016+10:00

About Us - Your coaches

All of us have the inner power to transform our life to fulfill our ultimate goal and reach our potential. Our goal is to help you unleash your inner power and empower you to resolve past issues, live successfully in the present and create a wonderful future.

Sonya Yeh Spencer

Certified Trainer of NLP, Certified/Trained by John Grinder, Carmen Bostic St Clair and Michael Carroll. Certified Advanced NLP Coach (by the co-founder of NLP, Dr. John Grinder), NLP Master Practitioner, NLPTRB registered NLP Practitioner (http://www.nlptrb.org/)

Sonya started her involvement in the area of personal development since 1998.
After experiencing an extensive period of personal healing and development, she has acquired truly exceptional level of skills and insight that brings holistic inner change to a new level.

She is passionate in helping others to get rid of their “Emotional Straight Jacket” to live a fulfilling and happy life. Her healing, caring, compassionate yet non-judgmental approach has helped many to get in touch with their true essence and discover who they are.

She believes it does not matter where you are at in your life, change and healing is always possible.
Change, when implemented in a holistic manner will bring rapid healing and personal evolution.
This is true and lasting change that is in harmony with self and the environment / context that you are in.

Sonya and Mark together with her three step sons, have build a family that is happy and nurturing and constantly evolving.

"Life is about change for the better—Holistically!" Sonya Yeh Spencer

Mark Anthony Spencer

Mark has traveled far and wide around the globe, and every where he went he was able to offer his unique skills, insights, warmth, compassion and humor to bring release and healing to people who seek his help.
Mark was trained in IT and has a career across industries from News Media, Airlines, Banking to Dairy.
With his specialized skills and extraordinary ability to achieve what others think impossible, he held senior positions at the leadership level for many of the organizations that he worked for.

However, true success for him is when he knows he had made a positive impact in other
people’s life, in a way that transformed them to achieve what they want out of life. NLP is one of the many tools that Mark uses, and it is one of the most effective tools that truly brings results by getting to the core of the issue quickly. He has used NLP extensively to improve his own life and creating the life that he and Sonya now enjoys with their families.

Testimonies

"Mark has great knowledge and a passion for training that makes learning and changing easy.
Mark and Sonya have some cool ideas that are pragmatic and effective in both business and personal development applications. Mark is humorous and dynamic in his training style. Mark and Sonya are a must for anyone wanting to change and learn in todays turbulent climate."

John Thompson / Managing Director and NLP Trainer, Metropolis UK

Follow-up Coaching increases productivity by 88%

2009-04-23T11:43:00.000+10:00

Follow-up Coaching increases productivity by 88%
NLP Cafe in Brisbane provides follow up coaching for specific skills. Members meet twice a month to learn, practice and develop their NLP skills and applications. NLP Café Brisbane is also the premier source of information for the public regarding NLP application and professional services and acceptable conduct.

Follow-up Coaching increases productivity by 88% according to research documented in a Journal article by Gerald Olivero, K. Denise Bane, Richard E. Kopelman; Public Personnel Management, Vol. 26, 1997.

NLP Products, Books, DVDs, CDs, MP3s

2009-03-04T11:04:00.001+10:00

Keep in mind: Books, Audio products and DVDs are a great supplement to live NLP training; video can be a wonderful way to learn some NLP at home.
However, any real-time communication with a great trainer/mentor will always be better, whether live and in person or through coaching, or online training, due to the training feedback loops that exist between trainer & student. For training in person, see our training offerings.

Speaking & Presenting

Change Work

Success

Change Work

Home-Study Audio Programs

Home-Study Video/DVD Programs

NLP Home-Study Video/DVD Programs

NLP Skills-Builders DVD Series includes Building Hypnotic Rapport, Sharpening Your Influence and Unbridled Motivation.

	This long awaited new audio program will train customers in Jonathan Altfeld's unique and pragmatic approaches to Emotional State Chaining, for helping you to influence people from their current state, into more Action oriented emotional states. Also teaches greater personal emotional state-management skills in depth.
	Our Most Popular Home-Study Program. This set is designed to ramp up your vocal charisma, magnetism, and ability to communicate in a compelling way. Enjoy 44 Exercise drills over 100 minutes of material -- find out your strengths & weaknesses, and then repeat the drills that will take you furthest. This is a must-have for ANYONE at any level of NLP or Hypnosis background -- it's designed to help literally everyone improve their game and get better results when communicating with other people, literally in any setting. Can't lose!
	Our 2006 follow-up to our most popular audio program from 1998. This 4-CD-set picks up where the 1st 2-CD-set ends, there's no overlap. For anyone who wants and needs to become more persuasive through more highly developed vocal skills.
	This is one of our newest additions to our home-study library. Use of Metaphor is essential knowledge/skill in your NLP toolbelt and indirect metaphor is a core piece of the Milton Model. For any changeworkers, coaches etc who want to take their use of metaphor way beyond the typical "isomorphic" metaphors involving 1-to-1 relationships between scenarios, The Metaphor Machine teaches you a straightforward easy-to-apply mental process for creating elegant, indirect, homo-morphic metaphor in the style of Milton Erickson & Richard Bandler.
	Learn how NLP Master Practitioners develop the ability to detect truth... from lies. Hear myths debunked, and strategies revealed. You'll hear both Jonathan Altfeld & Doug O'Brien on this set, though this segment is taught mostly by Jonathan. Jonathan offers you a way of sharpening their calibration skills even with the general public -- even when you can't be guaranteed people will be honest with you! Sample 1: Doug speaks of the 'BodyMind', to explain why people 'leak' their hidden intentions through unconscious behavior. (407 kb .mp3) Sample 2: Jonathan speaks about the surprising value of getting a certain test wrong! Learn when to trust OR distrust your conclusions! (491 kb .mp3) Sample 3: Jonathan describes one example of NLP portrayed in film. Hear how close "Meet the Fockers" came to "NLP truth detection!" (447 kb .mp3)
	This is Jonathan Altfeld's now-renowned method of analytical modeling of beliefs & belief systems, which provides NLP students a consistent method for modeling other people's cognitive strategies, values, and beliefs. KE provides an excellent platform for modeling the structure of a problem before designing targeted solutions. Come learn what increasing #'s of trainers around the world are including in their own Master Practitioner trainings for their analytical modeling component!
	(New DVD-based images will be uploaded soon). Released in 2002, discontinued on VHS in 2005, and FINALLY re-released on DVD in December 2008! Join NLP Trainer Jonathan Altfeld with Persuasion guru Christopher Tomasulo ('Doktor Sulo') for an 8 hour action-packed seminar on unusual influence tactics and strategies. Completely unmatched in the NLP field -- everything taught here has been tested in business & personal settings with thousands of people -- none of this is untested theory. Persuade yourself to get your hands on this outstanding (& beautifully produced) home-study set; you'll be incredibly glad you did.

NLP Foundational Books

Amazon.com Widgets

Ericksonian Hypnosis and Thearapy Books

Amazon.com Widgets

Foundational

The Structure of Magic Volumes 1 and 2 1ST Editions The Structure of Magic (2 Volume set)

John Grinder

Milton Erickson

Patterns of the Hypnotic Techniques of Milton H. Erickson, MD (Two Volumes)

Virginia Satir

NLP training provides great Self-Help foundations

2008-12-13T14:08:00.000+10:00

There’s only one corner of the universe you can be certain of improving, and that’s your own self. Aldous Huxley, 1894-1963.

Will your career benefit from deeper understanding of the people around you?
Would you like to develop new approaches and find solutions to problems in your life?
Are you ready to achieve the results you want and help others do the same?
Do you wish you could help yourself become more than you ever imagined?

NLP training can be a hugely rewarding experience – if you pick a good trainer

2008-12-12T22:25:00.003+10:00

Your first NLP training can be a hugely rewarding experience – if you pick a good trainer. Chris Morris takes an independent look across the field of NLP and offers some practical advice on how to pick well and get value for money. See his posting on NLP Connections.

From his post....

Here are a few other things to consider:

Who will be teaching you? This is possibly the main thing you’ll want to research. How did your trainer learn what they’re proposing to teach you?...
What kind of training experience will it be? NLP trainings vary considerably. Some are very experiential and you get to try things out, do exercises, play games, watch demonstrations, and so on....
How many other people will be there? It’s a completely different experience to be in a workshop with 15 people or a stadium with 5,000. Some trainers won’t teach less than 100 people at a time...
How long is the training? The more time you spend developing your skills, the better you’ll get...
Where is the training?
How much will it cost?
What happens afterwards? Will you get any resources to take away after the course? Is your trainer happy to answer any questions that pop into your head a week or a month after the training? Do they have a practice group for their students? Are there opportunities for you to repeat or assist on future trainings, if you want to?

Mirror, Mirror In The Brain: Mirror Neurons, Self-understanding And Autism Research

2008-11-22T07:37:00.000+10:00

Mirror, Mirror In The Brain: Mirror Neurons, Self-understanding And Autism Research

ScienceDaily (Nov. 7, 2007) — Recent findings are rapidly expanding researchers' understanding of a new class of brain cells -- mirror neurons -- which are active both when people perform an action and when they watch it being performed.

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Performances

2008-09-16T11:14:00.000+10:00

Have you ever met people who always say “there is no way I can do that!” with eyes wide open, determination in their face and you can almost touch the stony wall of “I will reject what ever you say, no matter what” attitude? Observe your own internal sensation now. Do you feel a sense of hope or a sense of gloom?

If you feel the latter, now is a good time to change your attitude around and use the following phrases when and where ever possible: “What would happen if ….”, “Imagine if it is possible (or successful, or already been achieved)” and “What is stopping you from making it possible?”

Contact details

2008-08-16T22:46:00.002+10:00

Contact Us

We operate from two clinics at present in Brisbane, Queensland (Australia). See our our Bookings page for locations of our clinics. We do travel to other locations
from time to time, but sessions at shorter notice would be in Brisbane.

Telephone

To contact us for queries, booking sessions or an up and coming Training event:

Telephone: 07 3355 9714 or Mobiles: 04 3322 7974 or 04 39 307 585

If you are calling Internationally, these numbers are: +61 7 3355 9714 +61 433227974 and +61 4 39307585

Skype™

To call us via Skype™, please
email us first
to arrange a time. Our account in Skype™ is NLPMENOW.

Mailing List

To be added to our mailing list for future activities and our newsletter containing life's tips for better living and getting the most out of life,
please sign up by just providing your email address: and contact name: Sign up now

Email

To book a session or training via email - Please send an email to our booking area bookings@blue-skytransformation.com

To contact Sonya by email:
Sonya@blue-skytransformation.com

To contact Mark by email:
Mark@blue-skytransformation.com

What is NLP?

2008-07-25T18:10:00.002+10:00

What is NLP?

Neuro Linguistic Programing (NLP) is the primary modality we use in our sessions. It is one of the most powerful tools to instigate change and healing. NLP was used and still in use to treat more than eight hundred 9/11 survivors to change the symptoms of Post-Traumatic Stress Disorder (PTSD), and proven to be more effective and rapid than any other treatments. It is also described as the “tool of replicating talents” to actualise our potentials and create success in life.

NLP stands for Neuro-Linguistic Programming. In a nut shell - what we believe, think, feel and other internal processes (either aware consciously or unconsciously), is communicated through verbal and non verbal behaviours, in a sequential manner.

NLP studies how our brain code learning and experiences in our life — our internal map of the world. We demonstrate our unique mental map in the way we think, feel, communicate (language) and behave.

NLP was developed in the 1970’s by Dr John Grinder and Richard Bandler. They studied some of the most exceptional therapists at the time and many other successful individuals in their perspective areas of expertise, aiming to find the secret of these people’s success. What they had identified was a series of behavioural patterns that can be modelled or replicated to produce similar if not the same kind of result as these exceptional individuals.

NLP founders identified and coded

A series of behavioural patterns that demonstrates excellence, which can be taught and learned or replicated by everyone to create their own personal success.
A series of processes that allows trained individuals to apply to others and themselves to yield the same level of result as the expert therapist whom they modelled.

An NLP therapist can effectively help their client to:

Resolve past emotional pain
Learn and apply powerful tools to live life to the fullest NOW!
Apply your personal power to build the future of your dreams
Build strong and nurturing relationships with your self, loved ones & others
Bring effective and lasting changes
Develop your potential, gain emotional intelligence and increase your competitiveness
Realise the power within
Create choices in life

Therapy, Coaching and Counseling - The NLP Way

As a form of Brief psychotherapy, in NLP therapy, therapist and client co-create a resolution by working together and establishing desired outcomes as well as methods for gauging and measuring movement towards such. In this approach, the therapist does not adopt the expert role, but rather the role of facilitator and coach. The client fully participates in the process and owns it. This avoids most of the “resistance” issues that plagues other approaches.

This inter-active style also involves the therapist playing an active and director role, rather than a passive one. Once the client has identified his or her desired outcome, the therapist assists the client in moving toward the solution state. Therapy itself becomes a matter of structuring, a question about how to bridge from present state to solution state. Questions about resources and processes become increasingly important. Brief psychotherapy using NLP is effective, efficient and totally holistic.

What is NLP and why be a practitioner?

NLP is practical, effective and full of profound concepts and information. The comprehensive 18-day program brings you the working foundations and principles of NLP. You will rapidly integrate the NLP techniques you have learned into your work and personal life.

An NLP Practioner qualification is Internationally recognized and allows you to continue with an NLP Master Practitioner certificate at a later stage with us or another NLP Training organization.

Will you or your staff benefit and improve from having a deeper understanding of the people the work with?

Do you find you often need to do more with less? Less time, less staff...

What if you or your staff could develop new approaches and find solutions to problems in your work or life in general?

NLP Practitioner Course

For more specific distinctions on what is NLP, vist our Blog and review some resources we have, insightful articles, related blogs,
NLP Techniques and NLP Processes,
self-management techniques we've documented, some provoking information about NLP,
reviews of NLP Training

and our free events.

Questions that create contrast

2008-07-13T19:40:00.000+10:00

By Sonya Yeh Spencer, Word count: 183

A client came to me because she just can not decide if she should start her own business and leave the family business, that her father wishes she can take over one day. She has been struggling with making a decision for six months, and she was feeling extremely stressed, guilty with an array of self doubts.
One of the exercises I took her through sent her spinning in her head and got her to think of her dilemma from a very different perspective. Here are the questions that I asked her and I know you will benefit from them, too.
1. What will happen if I do do this?
2. What will happen if I don’t do this?
3. What won’t happen if I do this?
4. What won’t happen if I don’t do this?

These questions are powerful, because they shift our neurology as we examine an issue, very quickly, from different perspectives. At the same time, these questions can uncover what we believe, what we truly want and our underlying values.