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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 26^th 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?

See other sleep related articles on blog. CLICK

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
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.

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

One of my up and coming training sessions will be held in Kuala Lumpur in Malaysia on 22nd July 2009 for the company LexisNexis with the title of Neuro-Linguistic Programming for Human Resource Professionals.

The workshop will be held at the Crowne Plaza Multiara Hotel, Kuala Lumpa, from 9.00am till 5:30pm, on Wednesday 22nd July 2009.

The workshop will contain :-

• Introducing Neuro-Linguistic Programming (NLP)
  
• Managing Behaviour in your Organisation with NLP
  
• Using NLP Techniques to Enhance the Skills Required in HR Practice
  
• Enhancing Negotiation Techniques with NLP
  
• NLP as a Coaching Tool for HR Professionals
  
• Utilising NLP in Interviews to Reduce Staff Turnover

More details can be seen from clicking on the icon below, by visiting my NLP web site www.nlpnow.net , by visiting the LexisNexis web site or by telephoning (006) 0378823559.



click to view
It will be good to meet old and new faces in Malaysia, at this workshop. My only problem is that I will be finishing an NLP Master Practitioner course with NLPItaly in Rimini, Italy on Sunday 19th July, flying back to the UK on the 20th, catching the night flight on the same evening to arrive on the 21st July. But then this is my lifestyle, and something I often do and enjoy.

It was 6:30am this morning, asleep in my own bed for a change, when I was awoken by the sounds of torrential rain, ponding the bedroom window.

Shortly after, although dawn had already passed, the bedroom was lite-up by lightening, and shortly followed by a long sounding clap of thunder, it seemed to go on forever.

The thunderstorm continued for some time, and I was aware of the lightening and thunder, as I drifted in and out of sleep.

At 8:30am, I awoke naturally, and got out of bed. People who have attended and been on my NLP course will remember Strategy Elicitation, and what is my strategy for getting out of bed in the morning.

The rain had stopped long ago, there was puddles in the road, but the sky was clearing, the clouds were floating away. It is going to be a nice day.

Puddles of water after the sun came out following a thunder storm in Kingston upn Thames

I had a quick shower, some breakfast and walked down the road to a local car boot sale. Not that I buy anything, I like the atmosphere, it is a chance to have human contact, and watch the bargain hunters trying to haggle down already low prices, for the most times on items that have passed their sell buy date, and should have been thrown out, disposed of years ago.

Usually, there are over 100 cars at the car boot sale, parked in every available space, but today if I said there were twenty, I would be exaggerating.

It took me 10 minutes to wander around the car boot sale, old baby clothes, hand made jewelery, a stand with home grown plants, old dresses and shoes, odds and ends that no-one wants any more, yet people were like sharks in a feeding frenzy, people of every nationality, Indians, Chinese, Africans, Polish, their languages filled my ears, their style of dressing, their smells, curries, spices they had eaten the night before oozing out of their pores.


        


At the car boot sale in Kingston upon Thames, with many nationalities and unwanted items to buy and sell.
Perhaps those people who had heard the rain at 6:30am, and decided that it would not be worth packing their cars with goods they wished to sell would now regret not setting-up shop, because the buyers had money to spend, and spend they were doing.

Like relationships, learning , there are going to be times when there are dark clouds, there are times when there are thunder storms, and we lay awake disturbed by what is happening. But, if we see things through, wait, the sun will come out, and it is those that persist, do not give in, follow their dream, that will gain and benefit in the long run.

Discovering past history has led me to be able to visit some historic sites. For example, buildings once home to Hawker Siddeley in Kingston upon Thames, makers of many great aircraft including the Hurricane, Brooklands one of the first airfields in the UK and the famous motor racing track, RAF Hendon in North London the Museum, RAF Duxford, an old RAF airfield and now part of the Imperial War Museum, and many more sites.

Not only have I visited sites, and read many articles and books to research more, but speaking to people who were directly involved with history or who have a greater knowledge base than mine, is helping me even more to understand.

A special person I met was Gianni Golfera’s grandfather who flew with the Italian Air Force during the Second World War in the elegant SM.79, and who shared with me some of his memories.

Another site I visited was the working Royal Air Force (RAF) base at RAF Uxbridge in West London.

RAF Uxbridge has had a remarkable history since being established in 1917, much to write about here. It has never been an airfield, but a base for many departments and RAF organisations, and especially one that fits another piece into my jigsaw, The Battle of Britain Operations Room.

With members of the Rotary Club of Kingston upon Thames, we were invited by prior arrangement, to visit this historic site, from where the air defence of South East England was co-ordinated, especially on September 15th 1940, Battle of Britain Day.

The Ops Room, also known as “The Bunker” or “The Hole”, is an underground facility, some 60 feet or 20 meters below the surrounding buildings, where personnel, mostly Women’s Auxiliary Air Force (WAAF) members called Plotters and Tellers, would mark enemy and allied aircraft movements on a large sloping table called the Plotting Table, so that Controllers and other personnel, like Operation Clerks, Intelligence Clerks, members of other services like the Army and Navy, and personnel from the Observer Corps, anti-aircraft and searchlight sections would all co-ordinate data.

The Battle of Britain Operations Room entrance, RAF Uxbridge
Pushing marked blocks, containing information of aircraft over the Sectors of the Plotting Table, Controllers who sat high above the Plotting Table at a dais or curved glass fronted rooms or cabins, would have a 15 minute window of an air battle, thanks to information feed to the Plotter’s and Teller’s from aircrew, observers on the ground, and RADAR stations which were said to see the skies as far away as Paris.



The Battle of Britain Operations Room entrance, RAF Uxbridge

Behind the Plotting Table on the rear wall is the Tote Board, (nothing to do with NLP TOTE Model), which showed the readiness of aircraft at the various RAF airfields within 11 Group’s control, the weather situation, cloud hight and coverage, the position of barrage balloons, and a coloured sectioned wall clock which would tell the Ops personnel how up-to-date information was on the Plotting Table.



The Battle of Britain Operations Room Tote Board, RAF Uxbridge
Seen from the Controllers Cabin with readiness lights and coloured segmented clock

Throughout “The Bunker”, in rooms which have been restored to the day of The Battle of Britain, (September 15th 1940), there is a museum containing a historical record of the facility, and is worth extra time exploring.

I had heard that the curator and guide, Hazel Crozier, would be leaving the museum, but I did not realise that RAF Uxbridge would be closing, to be moved to nearby RAF Northolt. I hope that this historic site will be preserved, especially The Battle of Britain Operations Room, as without history, a nation does not exist.

It was only four days ago that I walked down to the River Thames and saw a goose with her new gosling’s sheltering under her feathers, with still more eggs to be hatched. Click to see entry.

Today I walked passed the nest, and they were not there, just goose down feathers and broken eggshells.

I searched for them but found nothing, only some baby wildfowl hiding under the bows of a boat. There was no adult with them, so maybe it was them.

Young waterfowl hiding on the River Thames
I looked further up and down the river for any signs of the missing gosling’s, had they swam away, had they been eaten, were they hiding? I could not see a goose with any young.

I did come across a female duck with her ducklings swimming up and down, but the mother had a strange behavior, taking a duckling into her beak and plunging it under water.

Ducklings on the River Thames at Kingston
Also there were cooks with their young, both the male and female adults taking turns in feeding their babies.

Baby coots on the River Thames

The month of March was a month of travel and continuous work, no sooner had I finished a course in Southern Turkey then I took the next available flight to Rome, and on arrival immediately started another course. Once finished Rome, it was a drive to Milan for another course, and when that finished catching the next flight to Bahrain to start the next day another course.

It was a woderful journey through Italy, a chance for rest. Or was it?

It was on this journey that I picked-up a bad chest infection, making me cough, giving a runny nose, a tickle at the back of my throat and a voice which was not me.

It would not defeat me, I must do the training, so I pushed through, as we say in the UK, the show must go on. But, by the time I had arrived in Bahrain, it had got really bad, but with luck, I had a doctor on the course who was able to give me antibiotics.

Despite feeling unwell, under the weather, I pushed on, when perhaps the best approach would have been rest.

At night, I found the best way to sleep was sitting up, this seemed to stop the tickling throat and coughing. Not conducive to a good nights sleep.

It was the flying that played the wrong hand. My station tubes or eustachian tubes, became blocked, and with a couple of flights to take, it only got worse. I could not clear the eustachian tubes, it affected my speech, my hearing, my balance. The whole experience made me feel very unwell, down, depressed, and that did not take into consideration the continuing infection.

It has been a month of stress, of aches and pains, of blocked ears, but last week at last the infection was beaten, and now I can get on with life.

That means cleaning, washing and ironing, tidying up, moving my personal possession from one storage area to another, dumping unwanted stuff, planning for the future courses.

Come on world give me your best, I am ready for you.

I am back.

After a couple of days of traveling from Rome to Milan, staying in Luga with Gianni Golfera, meeting many people and having great experiences which I will write about soon, I find myself with a bad chest infection and a sore throat, which makes my voice like a mouse, but the PhotoReading and Mind Map course must go on.

Thank you for all your birthday messages. So now I am 96, but I will still be 95 at heart.

Today I came across more information published on msnbc about migraines and a possible link between strokes, heart attacks and migraine.

Although not fully proven, there seems to be a higher risk of a person suffering a heart attack or stoke, twice or three times greater, for a sufferer of migraines which have the aura effect.

The aura effect is where the sufferer when having a migraine attack, may get flashing lights, hallucinations, vision which is impaired, auras, as in my case, vision which is missing, that is as I look at a persons face I may see the left eye but the right eye is missing, although I know it is there. 

As stated in other articles I have written, see below, other symptoms may exist or be experienced, nausea, sensitivity to light and or sound, extreme headaches, for me extreme pain in one of the eyes, slurred speech, feeling hot or cold, there are many symptoms. But, it is those who experience auras research has recently shown, that the risk of cardiovascular problems, heart attacks and strokes is higher.

My previous research indicated that migraines could be caused by a change in neurotransmitters, including include ions, glutamate and nitric oxide, and or perhaps a cortical spreading depression or “brainstorm“, or electrical discharge. See article .

This new research indicates two new chemicals, or neurotransmitters may be also involved Substance P and Calcitonin Gene-Related Peptide (CGRP) being released, which causes inflammation and pain in the blood vessels surrounding the brain. This could be verified by myself when having a migraine attack, by the pronounced blood vessels to the sides of my forehead or temples.

Researchers suspect that the repeated presence of the neurotransmitters Substance P and Calcitonin Gene-Related Peptide (CGRP), and the inflammation they cause, may weaken the blood vessels throughout the whole body, causing ruptures or blockages, that may result in heart attacks or strokes.

It is also thought that migraines could be caused by just the blood supply or vascular system alone and not neurotransmitters, contracting and expanding abnormally, being disfunctional, perhaps due to emotional and physical stress.

Although the above is still not proven, it fits into my experiences, and especially as I was to have an coronary angioplasty, or stent placed in the heart. See articles, click here.

Oh how little we know about our body and brain. 

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