The content of our thoughts is as different as night and day. We have different thoughts, fears and dreams. But the structure, or the way of organising our thinking, is the same.

One of the presuppositions of NLP is that ‘we have within us all the resources we need’.  What this eludes to is that we can organise our five primary senses in an infinite number of ways.  We have within us an infinite number of ways to organise our thinking and therefore our internal experience.

As you’re reading this, you’ll probably be talking these words though in your internal experience. Are you? That’s an internal auditory way of thinking.

Each word will create some sort of picture or movie in your mind’s eye, though often at an unconscious level. The way we see things, in our mind, or our internal visual experience is another way of thinking.

Then there are your feelings. Or yourkinaesthetic sense, which is another way of thinking or processing experience.
These are the three primary ways we as humans think or process our experience; visual, auditory and kinaesthetic. And of course we can also process through smells and tastes.

You can then chuck into the mix all the other structural components of thought that make up the cake of thinking. These range from values, memories, attitudes and beliefs, to our perception of time and space. There are thousands of these kinds of distinctions that give form to our thinking.

But the essence, or structure is visual, auditory, kinaesthetic, taste and smell. These are our senses; how we think, process and make sense of our experiences. And they make a monumental difference to how we structure and experience our lives.

“What we see and hear is what we think about. What we think about is what we feel. What we feel influences our reactions. Reactions become habits and it is our habits that determine our destiny.”  Bob Gass

Using questions as a way to thinking through our perceived barriers

Here are some questions for you to ponder to change your thinking around whatever you have perceived as a barrier in your life.

I’d encourage you to take a few moments out in peace and quiet and write some concise answers to these questions.

Once you have answered a question, move onto the next question. You might want to try limiting the response to just 8 words, you’ll be more aware of your thinking and the power of keeping things simple.  You’ll also be aware of the visual, auditory and visual components of the words you choose.

So feel the response after you answer each question. Notice what you say to yourself and what you see as you answer. This is thinking. And your thinking is what changes your life.

• What would it mean to you having already moved beyond this barrier?
• So this change is in order to do what?
• And for what larger purpose?
• Looking back from the future having already made this change, what were you doing to accomplish this?
• In order to…?
• And what’s the next step?
• Starting when?

I’d love to hear your feedback and experience so feel free to share.

Love, Tristan