How are you? Yes, You?

“Have patience with everything unresolved in your heart and try to love the questions themselves as if they were books written in a very foreign language” ~ Rainer Maria Rilke

Dear Friends,

How are you? How has your week been? Has anything magnificent happened in it? Has it been the one to remember? Or has it just whizzed by you?! 

No time for reflection

Has it ever happened to you that you spend your day running around, doing errands, being there for everyone, stepping from one role to the next with no time to reflect on the previous one? If it has, rest assured that you are not alone. We live in the world where everything happens so fast, and before we blink it’s over:-).

A world where the natural ability of human beings to take a breather and reflect on their day has somehow been pushed aside and interrupted by a host of daily to do items and dear distractions like social media and TV.

“Great - How are you?”

Culturally the question “How are you?” means very different things. In the USA, generally, there is only one acceptable answer to it - and the answer has nothing to do with how you are or how you feel. In other cultures however, the question is a real question. How are you? It appears that the more economically developed we become, the more the answer to the question is expected to be a non committal “Great - How are you?”

Don’t get us wrong. There is nothing wrong with ritual courtesy. But there is an issue that emerges when it becomes more and more rare that people take the time to ask and answer the question for real - even to themselves!

Quick can be good

So, how does one, in a world that constantly demands more and more of us, adapt and move accordingly, while still staying in a strong First position and takes care of oneself! There are people out there who will judge those that cut corners (or do they really cut them?!), who opt for a quick solution, rather than taking a long winding road, that has been tried and tested, but didn’t give results.

And isn’t the whole point of coaching, attending lectures, seminars, workshops, that of finding a relatively easy, relatively quick route that will not necessarily request from us to spend our entire lives to get the desired results?! We are not talking here about cutting corners, going for a superficial and lacking in quality choice, but the one that has been tried, tested and gives results in a relatively quick time. So with the time we have, saved :-), we can do things that we like, things that interest us and yet at the same time won’t be a wishy-washy-superficial-lacking-in-quality fix.

Taking the time

There is nothing wrong with saving a little time. Yet, there is another kind of wisdom that is also worth exploring. The kind of wisdom that talks about meeting, and interacting with your inner self. The one that acknowledges and greets all the feelings that are much too often brushed aside or swept under the carpet. Because just saying: “Great - How are you?” is not enough to make you into a great person. Something else is required.

Taking the time - your turn

So, with this in mind, may we invite you to do the following exercise: on a daily basis take 5 minutes and just ask yourself the question: “How am I?” then have the patience to listen to the answer you give yourself. And by listen we mean not only to the words, but also to the images and feelings that come up. Don’t be to hasty to reason with what comes up, but be there and meet it and greet it like you would really like someone else to meet you were you to answer the question “how are you?” truthfully.

We wish you a wonderful week and sending you oceans of love,

Your NLP trainers,

Lidija and Thomas

Lidija Markovic– NLP Trainer (Classic & New Code), NLP Coach

Thomas Björge– NLP Trainer (Classic & New Code), NLP Coach

© Momentum Strategies 2013