The Renewal Times

Wishing you the best of the season and a happy and fulfilling 2004!

The Renewal Times is a publication of Renewal Technologies and is edited by Roger Ellerton.

This newsletter may be republished without permission, provided it is reproduced in its entirety. To reproduce sections of the newsletter, please contact Renewal Technologies at info@renewal.ca.

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Please note: The material in this newsletter is presented for information only. It is not a substitute for medical, psychological or professional advice. Please consult a qualified professional.

Included in this newsletter:

• Thought for the day
  
• Health Notes
  
• Upcoming Seminars
  
• Feature Article
  
• Humour
  
• Feedback
  
• More Information
  

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Thought for the Day
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Anyone who lives within his means suffers from a lack of imagination.

         Lionel Stander

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Health Notes
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Take Time for Self-Reflection

Take care of your emotional health and well-being at work by scheduling time for self-reflection.

Feeling bored or powerless at work may cause you to feel alienated or socially disengaged. Negative emotions such as these can be hard on your health. In a study, people who had passive jobs over which they felt they had little control had higher mortality rates compared to people who found their work stimulating.

Taking periodic stock of your work life and career goals may help replenish your energy and fuel creativity. Every few months, take a few minutes to jot down your goals and list your strategies for accomplishing them.

Reawakening your passion for work. Boyatzis, R., McKee, A., Goleman, D., Harvard Business Review 2002 Apr;80(4):86-94, 126.

Relationship between all-cause mortality and cumulative working life course psychosocial and physical exposures in the United States labor market from 1968 to 1992. Amick, B. C. 3rd, McDonough, P., Chang, H., Rogers, W. H., Pieper, C. F., Duncan, G., Psychosomatic Medicine 2002 May-Jun;64(3):370-381.

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Live Longer by Giving

Lending a helping hand to others may help you live a longer life.

In a recent study of older people, those who were in the habit of providing support to other people were 60 percent less likely to die during the course of the five-year study, compared to people who were not in the habit of providing support to other people. Assisting with housework, childcare, errands, or transportation all counted as helpful acts.

Giving support to others may be even better for your health than receiving support from others. A study revealed that helping others had a more dramatic effect on a person's longevity than being helped did. The opportunity to make contributions to the lives of friends and family members may motivate some people to take care of themselves so they can continue to contribute.

Providing social support may be more beneficial than receiving it: results from a prospective study of mortality. Brown, S. L., Nesse, R. M., Vinokur, A. D., Smith, D. M., Psychological Science 2003.

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Upcoming Seminars / Workshops
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Introduction to NLP
Jan. 21, evening (no charge)

NLP Practitioner Training
February 6 - 8, 20 - 22, 27 - 29

NLP Master Practitioner Training -- Take your NLP knowledge and abilities to the next level!
March 19 - 21, April 2 - 4, 23 - 25, May 14 - 16, 28 - 30

NLP Practitioner Training
July 12 - 18

NLP Practitioner Training
October 22 - 24, November 5 - 7, 19 - 21

For our most recent schedule and a description of these workshops/seminars, please Click Here!

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Feature Article
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This article may be reproduced, provided it is reproduced in full, including author bio and a link to renewal.ca. If you republish this or any of our other articles without including the author's name, bio and a link to renewal.ca, you will be in violation of copyright law and sent an invoice.

Predicates and Lead Representational System

Predicates

What do you notice about the following four sentences?

• You have shown me a bright idea on how to proceed and I would like to look into it further.
• You have told me of a way to proceed that sounds good and I would like to hear more about it.
• You have handed me a way to proceed that is on solid ground and I would like to get more of a feel for it.
• You have provided me with a way to proceed that makes sense and I would like have more details.

The first sentence uses visual words, the second auditory, the third kinesthetic and the fourth uses words that are not sensory based (auditory digital), yet all four sentences convey the same general meaning.

You use words to describe your thoughts. If your thoughts (internal representations) are mainly pictures, then you will tend to use more visual words when describing your thoughts. If your thoughts are based on logic or making sense of something, you may tend to use words that reflect the logic of your thinking. Likewise, for auditory and kinesthetic. The words you use reflect your internal thought processes. This is a very important point as you are revealing your internal thoughts and thought structures to others through the words you choose to use or not use - more about this in later articles.

In NLP terms, visual, auditory, kinesthetic and auditory digital words are called predicates. The predicates that a person uses will provide you with an indication of the person’s preferred representational system.

The following table gives you an idea of some of the different predicates. This is not a complete list. Can you think of other words or phrases that can be added? Notice that some words like fuzzy could appear in more than one column.

You use visual, auditory, kinesthetic and auditory digital predicates all of the time. Some contexts imply the use of one type of predicate, for example if I asked you to describe a picture on your television, you would most likely use visual predicates. And if there is a choice, you will tend to use the predicates from your preferred representational system.

Sometimes We Don’t Speak the Same Language.

Have you ever had the occasion to explain something to someone and they said “I don’t see what you are saying” or “I can’t picture this.” What’s going on here? One possibility is that they are highly visual and you have been using words other than visual and hence they are having difficulty forming a picture of your explanation in their mind. And how do we usually handle this situation? We repeat the same words over again, only this time LOUDER, as obviously they did not hear us!

Given what you know from this and previous articles, how can you approach this differently so the person can see what you are saying? One possibility is to use visual words to help them make a picture in their mind or you may wish to draw them a diagram or picture.

And of course, it is not just visual people who may have difficulty with your explanation, an auditory person may say “I can’t hear what you are saying” or “This doesn’t sound right.” A kinesthetic person: “I can’t grasp what you are saying” or “I don’t have a feeling for this.” An auditory digital person: “There is no logic in what you are saying” or “This does not make sense”.

Pay attention to the words people are using, they are revealing to you how they see, hear, get in touch with or make sense of the world around them.

Exercise 1:

For two minutes, describe your home using only visual words. For the next two minutes use only auditory words. For the next two minutes use only kinesthetic words and for the final two minutes use only auditory digital words. Hint: for visual, you can describe the different colours; for auditory, the different sounds; for kinesthetic, different feelings or textures; and for auditory digital, you can use facts and figures. Notice which modality (or modalities) gives you the most difficulty. These are the ones that you will need to practice. If you want people to clearly see, hear, grasp or understand your message, you need to be able to speak their language.

Exercise 2:

Listen to the predicates that your friends or family members use. They will use a mixture of visual, auditory, kinesthetic and auditory digital predicates and one or two of these will be used more frequently and this is their preferred representational system.

We will discuss rapport in a later article, and rapport with others is very important. One way to increase your rapport with another person is to match the predicates they use. That is, if they use mainly kinesthetic words in their speech, then you should use mainly kinesthetic words when speaking to them.

Lead Representational System

We all have a preferred representational system (some of us have more than one) for our conscious thinking. In order to bring something to our conscious awareness we use a lead representational system. Your lead representational system may be the same as your preferred representational system and it may not.

For example, assume my preferred representational system is visual and my lead representational system is kinesthetic. If someone asks me about my last vacation, I may first get in touch with all of the good feelings about my vacation before fully bringing up the pictures in my mind.

Lead representational systems may vary between contexts. For example, before accessing the feelings associated with a very distressful event, I may choose to first access the event through pictures and hence slowly ease myself into the feelings associated with the event.

And NLP is Much more than that!

Author: Roger Ellerton is a certified NLP trainer, certified management consultant and the founder and managing partner of Renewal Technologies. He can be reached at Renewal Technologies www.renewal.ca or by e-mail info@renewal.ca

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Humour
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Sherlock Holmes

Sherlock Holmes and Dr. Watson had been hiking in the wilderness all day long and settled down to sleep in their tent. In the middle of the night, Holmes suddenly wakes up. He wakes up Watson and asks, "Watson, do you see the bright stars and do you notice how clear the sky is? What can you deduce from it?"

Watson ponders for a minute.

"Astronomically speaking, it tells me that there are millions of galaxies and potentially billions of planets."

"Astrologically, it tells me that Saturn is in Leo."

"Timewise, it appears to be approximately a quarter past three."

"Theologically, its evident the Lord is all powerful and we are small and insignificant."

"Meteorologically, it seems we will have a beautiful day tomorrow."

"What does it tell you, Holmes?"

Holmes is silent for a moment, then speaks. "Watson, someone has stolen our tent."

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More Information
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For more information, please visit our website or contact us at info@renewal.ca

Copyright © 2003, Renewal Technologies Inc. All rights reserved.

Books, ebooks and CDs by Roger Ellerton

Click on the following links to obtain more information on these products:

• Book/e-book: Live Your Dreams Let Reality Catch Up: NLP and Common Sense for Coaches, Managers and You.
• e-book: Live Your Dreams Let Reality Catch Up: 5 Step Action Plan.
• Book/e-book: Parents' Handbook: NLP and Common Sense Guide for Family Well-Being.
• e-book: NLP Techniques Anyone Can Use. Discover the power of NLP.
• CD: Ho'oponopono, a meditation to bringing balance into your life.
• CD: Balancing Modalities, a meditation to improve access to the visual, auditory, kinesthetic and auditory digital modalities.
• CD: Outcome MASTERY, a process and meditation to help you achieve what you desire - more comprehensive than SMART goals.

Renewal Technologies Inc.

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