States

[aniinl]

I see you guys mentioning "states" a lot - to be in the best state for a situation. Could someone explain what exactly it is and how you get into the right state? Does this have to do with anchoring?
I'm only a beginner in NLP... 

Thanks!
Anja

[Joseph Kao]

Hi Anja,

Your state describes the level of emotional arousal and alertness you are experiencing at any one time (thats a definition off the top of my head). You could be sleepy and content, anxiously frantic, focused and motivated, they would all be states.

Getting into the right state is an interesting one. Right for what?

One answer for controlling your state is indeed a basic anchoring exercise. You'll see lots of exercises scattered around the web suggesting you remember a good time, see what you saw, hear what you heard and squeeze a finger and thumb together to "anchor" the state. Like Pavlov's dogs. However, some people find it difficult to get results from this kind of thing, especially without a practitioner, or a CD to guide them through it with gusto and power.

As an alternative suggestion (one I'm borrowing from Michael Breen, who got it from a Tibetan Llama etc!!), try this.

Look around you right now and find something, anything in your environment you're grateful to have in your life. A cup of tea, a pair of shoes. Something that serves you well. And just enjoy that little thankful feeling of that being in your life, however insignificant it may be. And then move onto something else. Thinking of the history of that objects manufacture, and everything that brought it to be with you now. See what aspects of it you particularly like. Like my cup, that's white and shiny, and has faithfully and proudly held lots of cups of hot tea for me. And you can even move on to aspects of your life you're grateful for, aspects of your health, your strengths, the things you really like doing in your life. And just welcome all of it in the spirit of openness and gratitude. You might even begin to smile and enjoy a nice fuzzy warmth. 

Do that for five to ten minutes, and notice how your "state" has changed. Just through a simple exercise. And notice how other aspects of your life might start to seem different when you look at them from within this state. How what you termed problems might seem a little less important.

That's an introduction to state management. Hope it answers your question.

Joseph.

[nick kemp]

Robert Dilts defines a state as



"The total ongoing mental and physical conditions from which a person is acting.
The state we are in affects our capabilities and interpretation of experience"

see http://www.nlpschedule.com/glossary.html#S


I however would define "state" as

"The combinations of the different filters that are represented in the cerebrum, that in turn determine our perceptual experiences of what we call reality"

Regards

Nick Kemp
www.nickkemp.com

[Joseph Kao]

Hi Nick,

Could you expand on that a little?

How would you explain the interaction of

- states
- perceptual filters
- and emotional arousals?

(You could also throw in meta-programs into that list if you're feeling thorough!)

I would have thought that your perceptual filters would impact your state, but not that the two are identical. E.g. a person with racist perceptual filters will go into an uncomfortable state around certain racial groups and feel at home amongst others. But surely that implies a difference between filter and state, for a filter can remain constant whilst a state shifts, no?

Joe.

[nick kemp]

Could you expand on that a little?

Sure


How would you explain the interaction of

- states
- perceptual filters
- and emotional arousals?

I would suggest that the states we create are the result of how we filter experiences. All filters are "perceptual" as each of our own unique filters are what determine our own models of the world or perceptual realities.

Each person's "sense of identity" is created through a combination of physical, emotional and mental environments, which are of course always in a state of flux. The states that we create occur through how we pay attention and what we pay attention to. I always bear this in mind when seeing private clients and ask myself the question "How do they successfully create that state?"
 I consider meta programmes to be the description of the overview of all the programmes we run. Of course there are interesting questions that arise when we question deeper and ask about "Where is the identity that is constant behind all the filtering of experience and thinking? For example if we are able to notice thoughts (which by necessity always moving and limited in that they begin and end) then where are we as "an identity" that remains constatnt throughout this process we call living?

Mmmmmmm....

Best Regards

Nick Kemp

[angie]

Hi Nick
Do you believe it is  possible to change our identity? 
Ange x

[Joseph Kao]

I would suggest that the states we create are the result of how we filter experiences.

Which was my pedantic-semantic point. The thread was to help someone understand the term state, and you said they were: "The combinations of the different filters that are represented in the cerebrum...". Whereas it makes more sense to me to say they are the result of these filters, as you just said above. Anyway, of more interest than dictionary writing...

For example if we are able to notice thoughts (which by necessity always moving and limited in that they begin and end) then where are we as "an identity" that remains constatnt throughout this process we call living?

Or as the Zen Buddhists would have it, who are we behind our identity? Schopenhauer reduced it to awareness and will. I.e. there is a pure perceiver, which cannot perceive itself, in the same way a video-camera cannot film itself, and also a "willer". So I *perceive* my hand moving, the muscles shifting, its location in space, but I am also experiencing a sense of "willing" my hand to move that is quite difficult to put into words. What's the difference between me *willing* my leg to move, and it moving by itself in hypnosis, or after being tapped with a rubber hammer? And how do these different aspects of "I" - the willer and the perceiver - connect as a single sense of self?

Joe.

[nick kemp]

Hi Nick
Do you believe it is  possible to change our identity? 
Ange x

I would say "our sense of identity" is constantly changing, but identity in the truest form behind the perceptions we have is in fact constant

[nick kemp]

I would suggest that the states we create are the result of how we filter experiences.

Which was my pedantic-semantic point. The thread was to help someone understand the term state, and you said they were: "The combinations of the different filters that are represented in the cerebrum...". Whereas it makes more sense to me to say they are the result of these filters, as you just said above. Anyway, of more interest than dictionary writing...

For example if we are able to notice thoughts (which by necessity always moving and limited in that they begin and end) then where are we as "an identity" that remains constatnt throughout this process we call living?

Or as the Zen Buddhists would have it, who are we behind our identity? Schopenhauer reduced it to awareness and will. I.e. there is a pure perceiver, which cannot perceive itself, in the same way a video-camera cannot film itself, and also a "willer". So I *perceive* my hand moving, the muscles shifting, its location in space, but I am also experiencing a sense of "willing" my hand to move that is quite difficult to put into words. What's the difference between me *willing* my leg to move, and it moving by itself in hypnosis, or after being tapped with a rubber hammer? And how do these different aspects of "I" - the willer and the perceiver - connect as a single sense of self?

Joe.

Yes as Vedantic scripture would state, the eye cannot see itself and by thinking you can't find that which thinks...

As for "the difference between me *willing* my leg to move, and it moving by itself in hypnosis..." it depends how you define the "me" you are referring to!



With some of these questions we come up against numerous paradoxes and of course the limitations of language!



Before getting into NLP I studied and taught meditative systems for 20 years (and still do internationally having just come back from SF USA) and have incorporated many of these insights into the Human Alchemy approaches.

Thanks for opening up an interesting discussion, I intend to throw out the question of "what is a state" to the delegates at this weekend's Human Alchemy event in Leeds!