Peace
As I sat down to write this month’s blog I happened to hear the news on the radio in a nearby room – another bomb, another high cost of human lives. More tragedy in our world, more turbulence, more loss…. and I got to thinking what could I do that might contribute in some small way to changing the strong negative energy that feels very present in our world at the moment. This is not a ‘I am going to change the world’ missive, I neither feel that responsibility nor do I believe it is possible for any one person – look at the evidence, some extraordinary people have tried for centuries yet the world is still fraught with conflict and war. But I do know that I can take responsibility for my part in this turmoil by working to clear any blocks to my own inner peace. And I believe that if we all committed to taking responsibility for our own emotional health and wellbeing then we will reach a tipping point when inner peace will project outwards and we will reach outer peace in its broadest sense.
“We can never obtain peace in the outer world until we make peace with ourselves.” – The Dalai Lama
This led me to ponder on what peace actually means. The Oxford Dictionary online gives the following definition top place: Freedom from disturbance; tranquillity.
As an NLP Master Practitioner the words ‘Freedom from’ jarred with me. They did not seem to be a definition of peace as a state, but rather as an alternative to something worse. We see this with clients all the time, they know what they don’t want, but not what they want instead – I don’t want to be unhappy any more, I don’t want this anxiety etc. This is one of the areas where a solid foundation in NLP and specifically the NLP Meta Model can be so powerful, assisting people to develop a specific realistic and ethical solution/outcome, finding out how they will know when they have it, and already opening the doors to positive change. This can be all that is needed for people to move forward in their lives. Whilst both are effective in their own right, NLP and EFT are made for each other, and together our work becomes both easier and more effective and efficient.
To this end, Sue and I have developed our IET Diploma & NLP Certification training which teaches an integrated blend of the most effective therapeutic and communication techniques available today. If you are interested in further information please see http://www.theeftcentre.com/iet_diploma.html/
I leave you with one man’s definition of peace, sent to me by a student, which resonates with me. I hope you enjoy it:
