In English we have a saying or idiom, once bitten twice shy, which means that if someone is hurt or something has gone wrong, the next time the same or similar thing occurs we would be more careful.
Malcolm Gladwell, a writer of four good books, Blink, The Tipping Point, What the Dog Saw, and Outliners, refers to the subconscious, the automatic running of once bitten, twice shy, referring to a fire chief, who had sent his crew into a major fire which appeared to be in a room on a certain floor level. The fire chief then ordered his men to quickly leave the building, to stop fighting the fire. Shortly after exiting the building, the floor where the fire crew had been standing collapsed. The seat of the fire had been on the floor below.
How did the fire chief know to order his men to evacuate?
It was because of all the accumulated learnings, knowledge, of fighting other fires, the little signs, which at a conscious level were not noticeable, told his subconscious or intuition, that disaster was about to happen.
Another great person I ave had the great privilege to learn from is Dr Win Wenger and Project Renaissance.
In his work Win wenger teaches us to be aware of our Side Bands. To become aware of our own internal feelings, thoughts, ideas, by noticing the little signals that we give off, maybe a quick glance, a quick intake of breath, an indication of a hand movement, to stop and ask,
It is becoming aware of these signals, that we will become more aware of our own intuition, and we will see more, feel more, hear more, as we do with Phillip’s Sausage.
It was wonderful to get feedback from the participants of the Society of NLP Master Practitioner course I am running here in Bahrain. After returning from doing the Side Band exercise, they had had different experiences, each noticing more, bird songs, items in the hotel entrance that they had used many many times.
Notice your side bands, it could help in controlling your state, being aware of others states. Use your side bands in meetings, negotiations, work and especially relationships. I must use them myself more often. (see previous entry.)
But I still love my work.