Thoughts from my couch

The circus is coming to town

As a young boy I remember my excitement when the posters all over the town announced the arrival of the circus soon.  We would often just stand and stare at the posters, admiring the scantily dressed trapeze artists, animals like tigers, elephants and lions and always a clown; smiling and promising fun. For some children clowns were quite scary characters and quite a number of times working as an NLP Practitioner today I have had to do a phobia cure for people who are scared of them.

It was also the years when the great evangelists would tour from all over the world; almost like the famous pop stars/groups today. My parents would almost solemnly discuss the planned outing to some or other big open stadium and on the day of the event, we would all get neatly dressed and I remember always having an upset tummy because of the ever present fear: what if ‘doomsday’ is tomorrow?; knowing that we would be reminded of that for the full duration of the outdoor concert. It would usually reach a crescendo when hundreds of people would go to the front, crying and shaking; promising to change their lives forever. For a young boy this was quite a traumatic experience!

Now, many years later, so much has changed. Circuses have started disappearing and  don’t really use wild animals anymore and the shouting evangelists gripping Bibles are slowly being replaced by soft spoken philosophical new age guru’s talking about finding the God within oneself and manifesting anything you want in your life through love and gratitude. According to them this is what will bring you joy and lasting happiness; which is in the present moment; in the NOW. The emphasis is different from what I remembered as a young boy: Happiness and eternal bliss was sometime and somewhere after death but only if you lived up to a certain set of criteria. It was a bit like: You will get all of this (Promised Land) but only if............   And the fate which awaited you if you didn’t or couldn’t reach those criteria for some reason, was just horrific beyond words. Visual images were burnt into my neurology which still today play a role; however far they are in the background.

All of these memories were suddenly revived when working with a client recently with a similar religious and cultural background. She was living a very secluded life and one of the things she wanted to change was an unconscious part of herself which she called wild and angry. During hypnosis we met the part which spoke to her about the anger which was about being locked away for so long; and the wildness which was about having joyful ‘taking’ (and not only receiving) during sex. Because of her very strict religious upbringing she had the belief that women (in a sexual context) were just there to receive and serve. The opposite was so unacceptable that she just locked away these feelings and sensations. After we did a belief change we invited the part back from being locked away, into her body to take its rightful place. Her face and voice lit up and changed to delightful surprise when the part settled and opened up the specific place (chakra) in her body where it was supposed to be.

For the first time in 40 years she opened herself up to the possibility of flirting and having a fulfilling and joyous sexual experience. Most of us have some limiting beliefs keeping us back from living fulfilling and happy lives. Neuro linguistic programming is a modern approach to change old limiting beliefs with quick and powerful techniques with lasting change.

Now, looking back at those younger years, I realize that I haven’t been to a circus for many years and for some reason I also avoid big stadiums with thousands of people. What has become clear to me over the years, beyond any doubt, is that we can reprogram the past. It is never too late!

The next NLP course is from the 15-22 May in Hout Bay and then again in September from the 18th to 25th. What if this 8-day training is your chance to change the way you think about yourself? You could obtain a toolkit which you can use to create happiness for yourself for the rest of your life!