Author: nlpnowcom

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Back in the UK, but not for long

Today I find myself in the UK, but not for long as I will travel this evening to Milan, Italy, to give co-present on a Society of NLP Practitioner course.

The flight back from Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia, was much the same as another flight, well a little more uncomfortable.

I like a window seat, and the nearer the front the better, as I can usually get off quicker, thus get through immigration at the front of the other passengers, plus the ride of the flight is smoother, there is less aircraft movement than in the tail section. By having a window seat, I can usually rest my head on the bulkhead of the plane, and thus sleep.

The problem of a window seat is that if a pee pee is required, the passengers sitting in the aisle and or mid seats have to move so that I can get in and out. This can become difficult if the flight is long haul, and the fellow passengers are asleep, or as yesterday, the passengers are old, overweight and are invalids or disabled, and find moving difficult and painful.

The MAS Boeing 747 flights to and from the UK and Malaysia do not offer much leg room or seat area, and the fights are always full, with passengers taking advantage of the cheap flights from South East Asia, and Australia and New Zealand. The service is second to none, and the stewards always ready with a smile with any request.

The aging Asian sitting next to me, needed help in getting in and out of the seats, walking to the toilets, opening the food packaging. The lady was so overweight, the drop down table could not fully fold down because of her tummy being in the way, so I offered my already crowded table for her drinks, holding her meal tray as she tried to get comfortable, helping to adjust the pillows, fasten her extended seat belts, not easy when she was sitting on it.

I was last off the aircraft, as I was locked into my seat as they waited for wheelchairs, always the last people to be unloaded.

I was not concerned, my situation was far better than the aging couple sitting next to me now faced in their life, and the situation I had felt in Malaysia, and guess what, as I use the eye recognition system, IRIS, in passport control, by-passing the long queues, and my suitcase was one of the first to be delivered on the conveyor, so I was one of the first out of Heathrow. 

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Sleep

Sleep, Power-Naps the benefits

A power-nap can be from a couple of minutes to no more than 90 minutes research has indicated, and having a power-nap can have many beneficial results.

As in the previous article Sleep Power-Nap, it has been found that when REM sleep is attained, the brain passes short-term memory to long-term memory, the brain learns, the plasticity of the brain occurs. In Berkeley continuing research indicates that a 15 minute to 35 minute “power-nap” is the most efficient to obtain best results for increased cognitive learning and increases in IQ.

There is a saying in English, “If you have a problem, sleep on it.” How often have you woken in the middle of the night with an answer to a question you have been searching for the previous day? For me, many times. A “power-nap” may be the answer to problem solving.

“Power-naps” may help us to be more creative, as stepping away from a problem will help us gain insights to new ideas, find loose associations which we may have missed having been too close to the subject, or just dreaming to hallucinate new ideas.

Often our brain becomes overloaded with information, for some this is alright, they can cope, but for the majority, this overload is too much, by having a “power-nap” the brain has time to dump unnecessary information, clear working storage, sort-out and link associated ideas, in computer terms undertake a defragmentation, leaving room for more learning and information. Even just standing up from our desk, our study book will perhaps be enough.

Taking the afternoon nap, even at the desk research has found, reduces the stress hormones, thus leading to a more focused and risk free afternoon and evening. We can become more alert, energetic and having more stamina. Our mood can change and we will be more efficient.

“Power-naps” can be beneficial to health and well being as it triggers cell repair, maintains hormone levels and their maintenance. It has also been seen to reduce the risk of heart disease, as research on young men from Greece, where the culture is taking an afternoon snooze, nap or siesta, when compared to other young men who did not “power-nap” had a 35+% lower risk of heart related deaths.

People who say cannot sleep at night, like a certain person I know, can help themselves by having a “power-nap”, as it seems that the cumulative sleep over 24 hours will be equivalent to a straight 8 hours.

Can a session of hypnosis produce the same results? I believe so, as work I have done with colleagues produce good results, especially as hypnosis produce sleep like states, i.e., REM, paralysis or rigidity of the outer limbs, and brain waves similar to REM sleep or Delta sleep.

Other experiments I did and introduced into an intensive language course in Istanbul, Turkey, seemed to prove that the participants who were in-class from 9am till 9pm, with breaks, and whom I placed in a trance for 30 minutes in the afternoon and early evening, learned better than those who did not attend the hypnotic sleep time.

So now I have earned a “power-nap”, sitting here on a comfortable sofa with a cooling breeze lulling me towards downtime.

Dreams
Power Nap

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Categories
Sleep

Sleep Power-Nap

 I do not know what it is, the heat, the humidity, or the different time zone to the UK, Malaysia being eight hours in front, but often I need an afternoon nap, a small sleep in the afternoon.

This afternoon sleep, may last from ten minutes to one hour, but I find it such a deep sleep, the whole body plus my brain seems to shut down.

When working in Saudi Arabia, we had a time when the office hours were changed from working 9am – 6pm, to working 9am – 1pm, we would then go home to return to the office at 5pm and work until 9pm.

I would enjoy an afternoon sleep, away from the midday heat, but what a waste of a day, by the time we had returned home in the afternoon, had lunch and a nap, it was time to go back to the office, and in the evening, by the time we got home, prepared a meal, it was time to get to bed.

On my many trips to China giving training, it really confused me to see straight after lunch, office workers, participants, ordinary people, suddenly fall asleep at their desk, in their chair, but just for say half an hour.

Much research has been undertaken on afternoon naps, or what is known as “power-naps”.

In a California University, many years ago, researchers undertook tests on a group of cats.

The cats were taught a challenge, something special to do, and their brain waves were monitored. After a while the group of cats were split into two, and one of the groups was allowed to sleep or nap, whilst the other was allowed to learn the challenge.

A while later, the group of cats were woken, and the two groups were tested on how well they had learned the challenge. It was the group of cats that had slept who had mastered the challenge better. Sleep had increased learning.

Whilst the cats were taking the nap, researchers noticed unusual brain activity, and at a time when the sleep was at its’ deepest, when the cats entered REM or Rapid Eye Movement sleep. The researchers said that this was the first time they had seen the brain learning, the short-term memory passing information to long-term memory, a function they called the plasticity of the brain.

Further research has been carried out on REM sleep, in Harvard University (USA) and University of Surrey (UK). It was found that when nappers took 1 hour to 90 minutes sleep say around 2pm, and which involved slow wave sleep, that is light sleep, which also included REM sleep, that is deep sleep which is often identified with dreams, they performed better than those who did not sleep or had a “power-nap“.

It was also noted that the “power-nap” enhance performance of work and duties in the afternoon, but remarkably only if REM was achieved as well as light sleep. Also noted was that the “power-nap” was no substitute for a normal good nights sleep.

Research at the New York-Presbyterian Hospital/Weill Cornell Medical Center suggests that a nap does not effect the normal nights sleep, in fact they found that the nap could be beneficial for improved cognitive performance, to perform arithmetic, decision-making and reaction time tests and mental for up a day after.

It is said that there have been famous and great “power-nappers” in our time including Margaret Thatcher, Bill Clinton, Lance Armstrong (the cyclist), yachtswoman Ellan MacArthur, Leonardo da Vinci and Thomas Edison, and that they could/can exist with a few hours sleep a night. But experts say that a full night’s sleep is still necessary for many bodily functions.

Will a “power-nap” influence the circadian rhythm or biological clock? No, only if you take more than 90 minutes for a nap.

sleeping man power nap sleeping man power nap

So sleep and nap well, I will.

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Categories
NLP Travels

My part of the skyline of Kuala Lumpur

It is not that I am not doing anything here on the 26th floor of Angsana Villa’s. I can, on occasions, get a WIFI signal from a nearby apartment, or a mobile phone internet connection, allowing me access to the internet to answer emails, send messages, write proposals. I have a couple of books I wish to read and research, and I trust I am helping in a small way in caring for the sick people here even if it is moral support.

I have time to look over the vista of Kuala Lumpur, the capital of Malaysia, to reflect over our own mortality, of how short life is.

Kuala Lumpur's skyline with Petronas Twin Towers and Telecom Tower from Agnsana Villa
Kuala Lumpur’s skyline with Petronas Twin Towers and Telecom Tower from Agnsana Villa

I have time to observe the interaction of different personalities of a large family group, the dynamics, the power struggles, the strong characters competing with the weak, of those who only put an appearance once in a while but who try to influence the outcome with little or no background knowledge, and how that affects the state of those who are left to “run the show”.

I see loads of kindness, compassion, help and support, as people pull together to find resolve and peace. Each in their own way contributes to the whole.

Compromises have to be made as the situation changes from one minute to the next, and even if one person becomes upset by another’s decision, they soon come back into the group.

I now see group decisions, where people are coming together in the hours of need, listening to others points of view, facts are being presented in a meaningful way, as the core group discuss and decide the best outcome, the best strategy.

It is a good learning curve for me. I am in my small world on the 26th floor of Angsana Villa’s and I am just a speck, only a small part of the whole, a small part of the visa of Kuala Lumpur, but like us all, my contribution, now matter how small, adds to the group, the whole, the world.

I must act with integrity, compassion, trust and goodwill, with kindness of heart, to stand back and consider others feelings and points of view, and to put a positive outcome on what may come our way.

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Uncategorized

Sleep


I am surprised how well I do when travelling to all the countries around the world, being able to adjust to the different time zones, without jet lag. I could be eight hours different if I fly from the UK to Malaysia or China, two hours if to Turkey, one hour if to Italy or Spain, yet I can usually function well and get a normal nights sleep.


Perhaps it is some of the ways I approach my international travel.


I set my watch to the time zone I am travelling to as I approach the departing airport, and put myself in the time frame of that country, thinking about having dinner, even if it is breakfast time, thinking that it is time to go to bed, when perhaps where I am waiting to board the aircraft people are just getting up after a nights sleep.


I tend to arrive the day the course or training I am about to give is to start, or the day before. After the course has finished, I try and take the next available flight to my next destination.


I have found that as soon as I “get on stage”, my mind I so focussed on the task of training, my mind and body has no time to consider tiredness, fatigue, jet lag. It is after the days course has finished that I feel tired, and thus I get a good nights sleep.


Other tricks I have found useful, is not to eat on the aircraft, but wait until I get to the destination, and eat the appropriate meal for the time I arrive. On a long haul flight, say the UK to Malaysia, about twelve hours in the air non stop, where I will need to have food, I presuppose that I am already in my destination time zone, and make the meal I am to eat the appropriate meal for that time.


And so it was on this trip to Malaysia. Last Monday I was in Italy, having just finished co-delivering a Society of NLP Master Practitioner, travelling on via the UK with a few hours stop-over to Malaysia, arriving late Tuesday evening, to deliver Wednesday morning a workshop on NLP.


At no time on Wednesday in the workshop did I feel any fatigue.


It is only now on Saturday that I feel tired, but that is I think due to the fact that I am staying in an apartment on the 26th floor, and me and heights do not get on. I am not phobic anymore about heights, I would say not happy about them.


Also my brother and sister in law are gravely ill, and every move they make in the next bedroom during the night, keeps me awake, wondering what is happening, being ready to react to any situation which may need urgent attention. So, I lie awake, listening to every little noise, my mind too active to switch off until after prayer time at 5:30am, only to awaken at 8:30 as visitors descend upon us and a new day starts.


Why do we need a good nights sleep?

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Categories
NLP Thoughts

Memories of Harlequin Ladybirds and Batik Printing

It was about this time last year that using my peripheral vision, or Phillip’s Sausage, I spotted an unusual infestation of a an insect I had never seen before the Harlequin Ladybird. (click to read)

This Harlequin Ladybird was a very new species in the UK, and I would have thought I would have seen the same sight this year. But no.

I wonder what has happened to them?

Have they been eradicated?

Is the climate not suitable for them?

Is it the case of H.G. Wells, The War of the Worlds?

Here the Martians are defeated when they invaded earth, not by man, but by tiny microbes, the red weed.

I was reminded of the past by an email I received from Vodafone Turkey, which showed a ladybird.


Vodafone Turkey

When my eyes saw the image, it passed the image to my visual cortex. My visual cortex, then said, “um, what is this I see”, and went on a transderivational search, searching for past experiences of images which matched the one I was seeing now. It went searching in the filing cabinets of my memories until it came up with a match or near match, and thus the Harlequin Ladybird .

Other memories came to mind from the advert, that of Malaysian batik printing.


Batik fabric

Batik fabric printing is an art form from South East Asia , especially Indonesia and Malaysia, where a cotton fabric, and traditionally the process requires that a line or a patch is placed or drawn with wax on cloth. This is done so that the surface is protected from the colour dye. The cloth is then dipped in the a dye, the colour dye does not penetrate the area that has been waxed. The wax stops the colour being absorbed into the cloth, therefore the surface is divided into dyed and un-dyed areas.

Strange how our mind works, and how memories come flooding back.

Categories
NLP Travels

I can fly

In my previous article, I wrote about learning from reading, will you be able to undertake a task after reading.

I have many interests and hobbies in my life, and as Dale Winton once told me when he was a DJ on Radio Trent, “Phillip, you have unusual hobbies“.

One of my interests is aircraft, and flying. I wanted to join the British RAF as an air traffic controller, even going to the officer selection section which lasted for a grueling three days at the RAF Station Biggin Hill.

I love to research about aircraft, the old aircraft, Spitfires, Hurricanes the Savoia-Marchetti SM.79 Sparviero (SM.79), and always had the ambition to fly one to become a pilot.

Way back when I was much younger, I took a trial flying lesson, the cost was too much to continue, but what an experience. I loved it, but got totally confused and disorientated when the instructor asked me to turn the aircraft in a 360 degree turn. I was completely lost, as I had no barrings, nothing to tell me as I looked out of the cockpit window in which direction was I heading as I started the turn and thus not knowing when to stop the turn. There were no houses, trees, signposts, just open sky. I failed to take a compass heading before I started the maneuver.

Since then I have read many books on aircraft, on flying skills, I have learned about the process of flying, how an aircraft stays up in the air, I know the terms and language a pilot will use.

During a recent trip to Italy, my friend and colleague Gianni Golfera, said he would take me and teach me to fly. Gianni is a very experienced pilot, having his own stunt plane, and I understand an ex world stunt champion.

We set off one morning to a local airfield and booked a single engined aircraft, Gianni wanted to go to another airfield where his own stunt plane was parked so he could practice some maneuvers.

Phillip Holt getting ready to fly in Italy
Phillip Holt getting ready to fly in Italy

After the pre fight checks, Gianni started to tell me the does and dont’s of flying an aircraft as we began to taxi to the end of the runway.

My heart was in my mouth, and thumping ten to the dozen as we raced down the runway and shot into the sky.

Phillip Holt in the aircraft cockpit and the aircrafts' controls  Phillip Holt in the aircraft cockpit and the aircrafts' controls
Phillip Holt in the aircraft cockpit and the aircrafts’ controls.

My mind was going through all I had learned, from the books I had read, from the previous flying lesson so many years ago, when Gianni said “you have the controls“, and I found myself holding onto the joystick, stiff as a board, trying to keep the aircraft at the same altitude and flying in a straight line.

One minute I was at 3,000 feet, the next I was climbing, only to then find myself diving as I over compensated trying to get back to the correct height.

Before I could get used to this alien experience, Gianni took back control so that we could land at the new airfield, and he could take to the air in his stunt plane. There would be no way that you would find me in that plane.

Gianni Golfera and his stunt plane
Gianni Golfera and his stunt plane

I watched Gianni going through his paces, taking a video for him as he looped the loop, and I reflected on my experience.

My mind knew what to do when I was at the controls, but my body did not. My muscles did not react as I wanted them to do, they were uncooperative. So, I spent time running through in my mind the flight, relaxing my body, teaching my eyes how to read the instruments, how to read the horizon, the landmarks through the front and side windows, and noticed that as I was flying, there were body sensations I had missed, which told me if I was turning left or right, going up or down.

Even though I was standing on the ground waiting for Gianni to land, I was able to rehearse in my head and involve my whole body how to fly, by reliving the experience.

Once Gianni had finished his practice, we got into the rather slower and thankfully less maneuverable aircraft we had flown in with, and headed down the runway to head back to where we had start earlier. Then the aircraft began to shudder, and emit strange noises. Gianni aborted the flight, and parked the aircraft, saying there was something wrong and we would have to go back by road, leaving the aircraft for an engineer to look over.

So my second lesson was not to be.

A few days later, we were due to drive up to Milan for me to give a PhotoReading course, and Gianni picked me up early from the hotel, and took me for my second lesson.

This time my mind was prepared, I had rehearsed my body to relax, my mind was ready to accept feedback from all my senses, and I had Phillip’s Sausage in place.

Once in the air, and I took control of the aircraft, I forced myself to relax, to enjoy the experience, and began to move the controls, to get feedback as to what happened as I moved the joystick forwards or backwards, turned it to the left or right, and then combinations.

I could now recall what I had read, and experiment, and as I did, calibrating what my senses were telling me, to what the aircrafts’ instruments were showing, to what I was seeing outside.

I had control.

Now I had time to enjoy this new alien form of transport, and was able to take time to look at the landscape, the small lakes with water birds far below, I watched the coastline slip below me, making fine adjustments so to keep the aircraft on the course Gianni wanted, following his instructions with easy movements, to change direction, to head to the new airfield so he could practice in his stunt plane again.

On the return flight back, I again took control, and this time it was easier, with practice, I was getting better.

Learning has to be a whole body experience. My body had experienced flying before, maybe many years before, but I believe that once we have learned something, once we have experienced something, it is there for life, and all that is needed is for the right stimulus, the right trigger to be given and the old learning will surface.

In NLP it is said:- 

do something once, you can do it again


Immediately after finishing the PhotoReading course in Milan, I had to get to Istanbul, Turkey, and it was with joy that as we flew over the coastline of Italy, I looked down, to see the very same area I had taken control of that little aircraft, the very same lakes.

I felt good. Thank you Gianni.

I have so much more to learn.

Categories
Uncategorized

One door closes, another opens

Over the years, many things have happened to me, I have had many experiences, I have visited many places, some have been good, and some have been bad.

My life is and has been a rich tapestry, and the work as I look at it is unfinished, for I know my work of art has a long way to go.

As I look back at this tapestry, my mind goes back to when I was a young lad.

At the back of the family home, at the bottom of the garden, was a field, not large, but a place full of fun, it was our play ground. It was uncultivated, just a few well trodden paths crossing beds of short coarse heather, with their little mauve flowers which attracted many bees gathering the nectar and pollen.

Beds of heather in Isabella's Plantation Richmond Park
Beds of heather in Isabella’s Plantation Richmond Park
Click here to see video

In those days, my mind seems only to remember summers with no bad weather, only warm sunny days, and in some daze as I lay in an oasis of green patches of grass, looking up into the sky, I would watch clouds slowly drift over me, ever changing their shapes and shades of white and gray, producing faces, animals, landscapes, my imagination ran wild. They were real to me, and they gave me messages, insights to what could be my future, and what had happened to me in my past.

Little did I know that this learning would become useful to me in my future life, in my training of NLP.

I realised then at that early age, that these images I was seeing in the clouds, were only clouds, that it was my mind that was making a meaning out of them, creating an understanding. I did not understand about the way the brain, how it deletes, distorts and generalises to make meanings of our experiences. I did not know about George Miller and his 7+/- 2 theory of how much the human mind can take in at any one moment, I did not even know there was such a phrase as transderivational search, where we have to go back in our memory banks, our filing cabinets of past experiences to get an understanding of what is happening to us.

I did not know that one day as I sat down in the heather on a cushion of soft grass, that a bee had chosen to rest there too, and quite rightly, it stung me, right on my bottom.

I ran to the house in extreme pain to my mother, and she pulled down my short knee length trousers, my underpants to reveal the bees stinger, still embedded in my bottom. She quickly used a pair of tweezers and removed the sting, and applied a medicine to remove the pain.

Do not ask me if the cure had any scientific bases, I still do not know. I knew mother had the power to remove pain, I believed in her abilities.

The medicine was a small, blue, round, rock like block, contained in a piece of muslin clothe. It was used on wash days to put into the whites only wash, to make the whites look whiter.

This is a original little bag of Reckitt's Blue by Reckitt Coleman of Hull, England, Circa 1950s, as used on laundry day when performing the final rinse of clothes in the dolly tub.
Blue Dolly Bag

Once applied, mother paraded me up and down the street, pulling down my trousers to show the housewives my blue bum.

I still remember my embarrassment to this day.

But now I laugh at the incident, the pain of the sting has long gone, the embarrassment now is just funny, I do not dwell of the negative, in fact I have changed the past, my memory now is funny. It is of a small boy with his trousers round his knees, being pulled up and down the street, with a bum the colour of the summers sky. I even giggle at the thought of it.

It is an attitude of mind. I could dwell in the negative, and have a phobia of bees, of blue dolly bags, or wash days, but I choose to change my memory, my history, and so my attitude to now and the future changes.

And so, as I look at my rich tapestry, there are times where I have been hurt by people, done wrong by them, where I had done wrong to others, where there have been times and had bad experiences, and it is my attitude to know that those times are in the past, finished, and like the clouds, I can change them to become whatever I want.

Today, many things have happened already that tells me that if I go into the future with a positive attitude, good things will happen, as I forge a new partnership into my trainings.

I know I will not need to show my blue bum again, because what ever has happened in the past is finished with, I have learned from those times, once bitten twice shy, and a new era has started, as one door closes and new door opens, and I am willing to go through the door with a smile on my face and happiness in my heart.

Note:- Blue bags can be obtained from Retonthenet

Categories
Rotary Club KOT

Rotary Club of Kingston upon Thames

It was back at the start of the 1980’s that I was invited to join the evening Rotary Club of Peterborough in the UK, at that time being the youngest member. It was an experience that would stay with me ever since, the friendship, the support, being able to in my small way, contribute to the community both locally and internationally.

My membership was short lived, as I had finished my task of computerising the toy manufacturer Peter Pan Playthings, and was offered the opportunity to work with Texas Instruments distributor in Saudi Arabia, as Software Manager, looking after customers who had purchased a TI computer, creating solutions to their individual needs. It was a job which would see me in Saudi Arabia for over five years.

Unfortunately, Rotary Club, and any such organisation was banned in The Kingdom of Saudi Arabia, as was amateur radio (ham radio call sign G8YJQ) and other such hobbies or pastimes.

It was recently, that I became aware once again of Rotary, and in conversation with a member of the Kingston upon Thames Rotary Club, was invited to attend their meetings, and as time went on was invited to join once again.

Today was my induction into the Rotary Club at the Thursday lunch time meeting.

Although my work as a trainer, presenter, coach, takes me to many countries, being away from the UK, I am sure I can contribute to the club, to fellow Rotary members both in the Kingston Rotary Club and with members worldwide, including Malaysia.

A new chapter opens in my life, which I am looking forward to with eager anticipation.

Phillip Holt's Induction into Kingston Rotary Club wearing SHH

Wearing with pride the SHH and the Rotary Club Badges
after being inducted into the Rotary Club of Kingston upon Thames
by the Club President Peter Thompson

Oh, to Richard Bacon of the BBC‘s Radio Five Live late night show, and his Special Half Hour club (SHH), I can now wear with pride both badges.

Previous SHH Entries
Even more on the Special Half Hour Club of BBC Radio 5 Live
Special Half Hour, Radio 5 Live
More on the Special Half Hour badge of Radio Five Live
All Entries

Categories
NLP

All good things come to an end

Today I finished the Society of NLP Master Practitioner course here in Bahrain, and it is always sad to say goodbye to the participants, never knowing if we will meet in the future.

Although a small group, I found them particularly interesting participants, as there were so many personalities, so many dynamics playing their part, so many different needs to be covered.

I would thank those participants for their input and hard work they put into the course, because without them, I could not do my job.

It is now back to the UK, instead of Istanbul, as my next scheduled course was to be held there for Coaching, but although I had turned down other work, other trainings to be there, it was never confirmed, and I waited until Saturday to decide whether to take a chance and be in Istanbul or not, just in case the organisers had got people on the course. It seems not, as they have not contacted me.

It seems nobody loves me in Istanbul.

Oh well, Italy will be my next port of call, the seaside resort of Rimini. I must remember to pack my swimming trunks, as the sea will be really warm and full of bikinis.



A rather odd angled photograph of some of the participants from the
Society of NLP Master Practitioner course, in Bahrain June 2009