Are you having trouble focusing at work or simple tasks around the home? Are you trying to find things to do but find no lasting satisfaction or purpose in doing them? Are you caught up in a visionless day-to-day existence where you find even the most menial task seem undoable? Do you feel like you are waiting for something to happen, like the other shoe to drop? Do you seem to worry more, feel good about your situation less, having a difficult time keeping your attitude from sinking into a deep black hole?  You are not alone.

It seems that news goes from bad to worse. Almost everyone is caught up in the flood of crisis that has led us to be anxiety-ridden, depressed, and sometimes, lethargic. The catastrophic change in our lifestyle has led to widespread fear. Fear narrows our field of vision. It gets easier and easier to get trapped into negative states of mind that can eventually lead to hopelessness and helplessness.  It becomes harder and harder to focus on what is important and harder to see the big picture. Our perspective gets smaller and we have less motivation to connect with others, avoid doing what needs to be done and see the bright side of things.

The COVID-19 Pandemic is the biggest “shit happens” ongoing event that has happened in most of our lifetimes.  And we seem unable to deal with it mentally because it goes on and on. It is very much like an illness. There are two types of physical problems: acute – like breaking a bone. The bone is set, heals and we are back on track. Like getting stuck in the mud and then we get to pull out and on our way. Many of our problems are acute – a divorce, job loss, debt. We deal with them and our situation turns around and then we are good again.

Then there is a cancer-like illness or a neurological degenerative disease. It goes on and on and gets worse as time goes on. At first, when the lockdown occurred, we all hunkered down for the short term. “We can do this!” And then it has dragged on and on. Now it seems like a degenerative disease. No end in sight and it seems to get worse. What can you do? It all starts with changing your state of mind.

Buddha tells a parable of the second arrow. It goes like this:

The Buddha once asked a student: “If a person is struck by an arrow, is it painful? The student replied, “It is.”  The Buddha then asked. “If the person is struck by a second arrow, is that even more painful?” The student replied again, “It is.”  The Buddha explained, “In life, we cannot always control the first arrow. However, the second arrow is our reaction to the first. And with the second arrow comes the possibility of choice.”

We cannot control what happens in our environment, we can, with the right tools, change the pattern of the second arrow.  Taking a proactive approach to your well-being is one road to happiness that will always have rewards. Waiting on others to solve problems so that you can be happy prolongs suffering.

NLP provides tools to help you focus, connect with others even when you six feet apart, and manage your emotional state so you can get things done. You get things done and move forward because you feel good about yourself even though it may seem like the world is falling apart. You cannot change what is going on around you but you can learn the skills and resources to control and change what goes on inside of you. You have always had this ability. It is more important right now that you apply your skills to survive and thrive.

Here is a list of simple tools you can learn how to use in class or in coaching that will set you back on track:

1. Outcome questions – helps focus attention and set a direction, determines the reasonableness of a goal or outcome and handles ecology
2. Anchoring – helps change states instantly by using your neurology and sense of touch. Develop neutral states of thinking about things to give you additional choices.
3. Association/Dissociation – helps you step out of negative, traumatic situations and look at them from an objective point of view. Offers a more
4. Swishes – Great for self-image issues and negative self-talk
5. Reframing – Negotiating with parts of us who do habits or counterproductive behaviors that we want to change.
6. Releasing Emotional Enmeshment – Helps you unhook for the negative aspects of your relationships, you know, the people who ‘rent space in your mind.”
7. Submodalities – Your experience is stored in pictures, sounds, feelings, tastes, and smells. You can learn how to adjust those experiences to get rid of traumatic feelings and anxious feelings around past experiences and boost positive feelings – one of the most important uses of NLP.
8. Timeline – Are you In-time or Through-Time.  Are you event-driven or process-driven? With the pandemic, being in-time can seem like it will last forever with no end in sight because you cannot compare it with past experiences. Being Through-time means you can see challenging times as a momentary as you compare it to other difficult time and how you got through it
9. Meta Programs (LAB Profile) – Helps you use your ways of organizing information in experience to optimize your results. Understand what profiles work well in which situations. Goal setting for example needs “move towards.” Running a business or sales needs “procedure.”’
10. Boundaries and picking up negative energy from others – Learn how to set boundaries, recognize boundary violations, set reasonable goals.

These are just a few out of 100’s of processes that are available to you through online live training and coaching.

In addition to using processes targeted to help manage your state and focus, it HELPS YOU RECOGNIZE PATTERNS, so you are more like to recognize the second arrow pattern and change it before it becomes a problem.

More importantly, you learn how to use your brain systematically so that you find it easier to manage your emotions even during the worst of times.

You can engage practices that will help you circumvent state of mind problems.

1. Learn to recognize and change patterns of negative thinking when they first start, rather than letting them form new ruts in your thinking patterns
2. Be nice to yourself and in turn, make an effort to be nice to others. Remember they are experiencing the same thing. It isn’t easy for them either.
3. Meditate daily even if it is for 10 minutes. Use a mantra (passive meditation) to calm you and give your mind a rest.
4. Practice Savasana, a yoga posture (the corpse pose) gradually relaxing one body part at a time, one muscle at a time, and one thought at a time. When you do this practice day after day, it conditions the body to release stress and can improve your sense of physical and emotional well-being.
5. Do something other than watch TV. Garden, puzzles, physical exercise, reading inspirational stories and books, study a new discipline (NLP), take an online class, take up a new hobby (photography, painting, etc,)
6. Stay away from the news. It is ok to be informed but not programmed.
7. Reach out to people. Discuss how you are feeling without it seem like complaining. Limit your time for taking and listen to them also.

Call or email today! to discover the best way for you to get on with your life and feel good about your direction! Pick up the phone and call 214-351-5433 or email us at susan@nlptrainingconcepts.com. Get out of stuck and back on track! All sessions and classes are remote, virtually safe!