Submit your email address below to receive email updates from Cumbria24.
Submit your email address below to receive email updates from Cumbria24.
Free 2 hour Workplace Learning Advocates On-Line Course
07791 639 196 | Website
1&2 Market Arcade to let
017683 51177 | Website
Architectural & Town Planning Consultants
01388 608166 | Website
TV and radio presenter Gilly Fraser’s monthly column, exclusively for cumbria24.com on her favourite subject – horses. A passionate horsewoman, Gilly talks about her life in the saddle.
I’ve been trying a spot of neuro-linguistic programming. Doesn’t
exactly trip off the tongue, but I’m fast coming to believe it may
well turn out to be one of the best things I’ve ever done. It’s taken
me a long time to get round to it - even though I’ve read loads of
articles in magazines proclaiming its merits, and seen the
testimonials of sportsmen and women who swear by the technique.
I haven’t been slow to embrace it through any kind of reluctance or
scepticism. I’m always very keen and willing to try anything which
might actually improve my horse-riding, and even though some of the
NLP techniques do sound a tad on the odd side, I’ve got no problem
with odd! If it helps – bring it on, the odder the better.
I hadn’t tried NLP simply because I didn’t know anyone who could show
me how – but I do now. Catherine Smith is a horse rider and owner and
by her own admission she’s suffered all the problems of shattered
confidence, lost nerve, doubts about her own ability, all those
debilitating feelings which can beset even the most able of riders.
She decided to tackle the fears head on by attending an NLP course.
She got so much from it, she decided to become a practitioner herself.
At my first session, Catherine used hypnosis to get me to relax, then
told me to think of a time when I had felt totally confident and in
control. I had to immerse myself in thoughts of that experience,
remembering all the details and magnifying them in my mind, making the
sounds and the sights and even the smells of that moment as vividly
clear as possible. Then I had to ‘anchor’ that confident state of mind
by pressing thumb and forefinger together. This means I can now access
the feeling whenever I need it in the future just by doing the same
thing. And if that sounds unlikely - just consider how a particular
song can whisk you back in time to a very particular place. That’s a
form of involuntary anchoring if you like.
Catherine also taught me the technique of tapping, which in a sense
does the exact opposite to anchoring. Instead of securing a feeling,
tapping helps to disrupt one. So if you’re feeling jittery about
something, tapping certain parts of your body (including eyebrow,
cheekbone, nose and back of hand) can interrupt the flow of jitters
and thus reduce its potency.
Now if all that sounds a bit Indian snake oil – all I can say is – do
not knock it till you’ve tried it. I have genuinely noticed a big
difference in my confidence levels while in the saddle – and what’s
more, others have noticed too, including people who didn’t know about
the NLP. Sadly it’s never going to turn me into Ginny Leng – that
really would require a bit of witchcraft. But I’m more than happy with
the difference it has made.
If you’d like to know more about NLP or to book a session for
yourself, Catherine can be contacted on: 01228 562647 or mobile 07920
453051.
You can follow my blog at gillyfraser.wordpress.com RECLAIM THE ROMANCE!