Whilst working in Gaziantep, Southern Turkey, I am very lucky to be allowed to stay in the home of Mehpare Kileci of GAP Danışmanlık, and from my lounge diner, I have wonderful views over the local countryside, with a business park, fields of plantations, mountains in the distance and valleys with sparse vegetation.
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View from Mahpare’s home in Gaziantep, Turkey
In the morning, I would stand in the garden waiting to go to the Mind Mapping and PhotoReading courses held at the Gaziantep Tennis Club, enjoying the early sun already reaching temperatures requiring me to remove my suit jacket, taking in the sights and sounds of a lone car straining to climb the little used road from the town in the valley below the house, and the smells, the fragrances, the perfumes of the plants and flowers.
In the evening, after completing another day of training, sometimes being greeted by the family dog Zeus, we would climb the steep stairs leading from the garage to the entrance to the house, again the smells of the garden met the nose.
Mehpare, pointed-out one plant that she and her husband Necdet loved, but did not know the English name.
Silly me did not have a good look at the plant or flower, but my mind took me back to memories of previous experiences, (NLP, Transderivational Search), and to a particular night in Antalya, again in Southern Turkey, a popular holiday resort, and where I gave an NLP Practitioner course.
I walked around the harbour one evening with my translator Asu, and there I was confronted my many Jasmine plants, with a wonderful and powerful perfume coming from the blooms.
Taking some of the bloom, I laid them on my pillow, and I still remember the perfume as I drifted off to sleep.
I could not though as I stood next to Mehpare the name of that plant.
I tried everything I could to remember the name of the plant, me a person that will train others to gain better memory skills, but nothing. The more I tried the more frustrated I became, and that is why I became consumed in searching for the name as I stood there, instead of taking a closer look at the blooms of Mehpare’s plant.
It was whilst dragging my suitcase back to my home in the UK, Norbiton Hall, on my return trip from Gaziantep, thinking what I could eat for my evening meal that the name of plant came to me.
As I teach, it is when the mind is relaxed, distracted, that it really gets to work. At a subconscious level, unknown at a conscious level i.e. we are not aware, it is still working on problems, searching for answers.
Jasmine.
Jasmine flowers
When I contacted Mehpare, she had already done her searching and took a photograph of her plants blooms and told me it was Honeysuckle.
Honeysuckle flowers and plant
In my mind I was still convinced that it was Jasmine, because it invoked a strong memory from my past, especially Antalya.
I think you are correct Mehpare, but my memory of Antalya is still stronger.