NLP, Psychology and Philosophy Section Intro
How you feel day to day is largely dependent on three factors: how you Focus on things, what your core Beliefs are, about yourself and the world around you and situations in it (and any Spiritual Beliefs, if any), and how you use your Physiology. In addition, how you respond to external events is determined by a split second Choice and long term (self-)conditioning. You are responsible for the way you feel, emotionally, physically and spiritually. Many people consider mental illness a binary condition, and you are either psychologically healthy or mentally ill, with little in between. People often also assume, when it comes to medical health, that one is either healthy or sick, in an equivalent binary manner, with 'ill health' suddenly striking, seemingly out of 'nowhere'. Ill health, psychological and medical, therefore often has a stigma attached to it, especially mental health, with few wanting to be labelling as 'mentally ill' or 'mad'. The reality in both cases is that there is a large grey area in between both extremes. Most people who do not actively manage their health or their mind/beliefs will usually be average or mediocre but far from the pinnacle of fitness, mental health and physical health. Everyone has some area or areas where they can improve. Few achieve genuine heights of perfect health, but it is not unattainable if one makes a little effort. It ultimately depends on what you want and to what extent you are prepared to be honest with yourself and 'open the lid and look inside'. Whilst dwelling excessively on one's perceived faults is not doubt unhealthy, blissfully ignoring them in the belief that if you don't know about them then they don't exist or won't affect you (often an attitude to both health and psychological problems) is unfortunately a flawed philosophy too. We are here concerned with healthy and positive tools for change (for the better!) This is really what this Psychology section (and indeed the Health section) is about.
Many people spend much of their lives trying to change the outside, their place in the world and their appearance and projected image amongst peers - but often do not consciously make much effort to change the inside. To grow the inside. This usually happens through 'life experience' and by 'accident'. By being at the mercy of one's own mind rather than working with the mind. Why is this? We spend a great deal of time examining the outside world and acquiring status, goods and possessions and identifying with the outside. But we may spend very little time being totally honest with ourselves and studying the inside and looking to improve it. We are often however ruled by the inside and our time spent there is usually not that great or enjoyable or inspiring for a significant part of each day, if not most of it. We are trapped inside our minds and bodies, yet we do not use much of our brain for the large part, do not understand how it works and why we find ourselves in the patterns we re in, and we do not understand our bodies either and how to get the best out of them and to be live in harmony with them, rather than at war with them.
Why do we spent a fraction of our time focussing on what is great about a moment and appreciating it, and the vast majority of our time on what is wrong with each situation or moment? Why do we rely on photographs to make us smile once a year, when we feel bad about painful past events on a regular basis? This is partly because we don't control our focus, but also down to our beliefs. Now you might say that "I don't need all this psychobabble. I know this. I can focus on whatever I want, I don't all this patronising rubbish to tell me how to be happy. I can be happy whenever I want." But you don't do it! Or if you do, when someone reminds you, you only do it for a few minutes and then forget about it? The reason is that you are not in control of your focus, and you are plagued by conflicting beliefs that you have no control over.