What is a State?
Being happy is a state; so is depression. Being “fired up” is a state, low self-esteem and aggressiveness is a state, so is tiredness or lethargy. Many people are familiar with the expression “It’s a state of mind” but what’s really interesting about the state is that it leads us to choose corresponding behaviour.
The “fight or flight” syndrome is the best known example of the following: There’s the caveman walking along a path and out jumps a saber-toothed tiger! The caveman’s body immediately reacts: Survival instinct kicks-in, and there’s a surge of adrenaline into the system, the breathing rate goes up and more oxygen enters the lungs. His heart pumps blood stronger and faster through the system and simultaneously the blood drains away from the extremities, not only so that it can be used more effectively internally but so that if the caveman decides to fight, he won’t bleed so much should he be bitten. Now his body is ready to maintain his survival, i.e – running or fighting.
These days many people live much of their lives in the “fight or flight” mode, i.e – stress. This response of the nervous system is only meant to be activated in times of emergency. Frequent and long term surges of adrenalin into your blood stream cause major health problems and premature aging. Neuro Linguistic Programming teaches simple methods of controlling your state and transforming the “triggers” which cause dis-ease.
In a nutshell then, NLP enables people to be less affected (unconsciously reacting) by external circumstance, through becoming more aware of our internal processes, and thereby being more at cause (consciously creating) in the various areas of life.