Chapter 3 - How MindFrame Patterns© Work

‘To be in the right frame of mind to be successful in every area of our lives, we need to have our heart, soul and mind behind what we are doing’

Inspiration is a funny thing. Sometimes we can feel full of energy and enthusiasm to go out and do something right away: mow the lawn, do the paperwork, take the dog for a walk, paint the spare room, buy a new refrigerator. Other times the very thought of rummaging through the shed to dig out the cobweb covered lawnmower, or sit down to wade through a mountain of bills, or take the dog out in the driving rain, fills us with dread. Even something that we began with enthusiasm and commitment can quickly become a drag. Painting the spare room required much more wallpaper stripping than we anticipated, making a decision on which refrigerator is not easy, they all seem so alike…

These changes of state are commonplace and something we take for granted. On larger more important issues, they can hold us back. Would it not be wonderful to be in the right frame of mind from the start to the finish of whatever it is we are doing? In fact, being in the right frame of mind for as much of the time as we want, in whichever situation, would be very desirable.

To do that we must ensure that our state of mind does not get derailed by everyday distractions, or obstacles that get in our way. How often do we find ourselves distracted by a phone call, or conversation, or something on the television or in a newspaper when we want to get a task completed? When we come back to start again we can find ourselves in a different mood, unwilling to continue.

Obstructions can derail us altogether. Why bother continuing if things just keep landing in our way? Almost as if it was not meant to happen. How can we mow the lawn if the blade keeps getting clogged up with grass? Or paint the spare room if we run out of paint?

We may be compelled to do something. Like going to work when we do not feel too well. Or completing a job for our employers because they have demanded it is completed by a particular date. The incentive in this case may be pay and job security. If we did not do that then sooner or later we would find ourselves out of work. That is not to say our heart and soul is behind it.

To be in the right frame of mind to be successful in every area of our lives, we need to have our heart, soul and mind behind what we are doing. We also need to ensure that we have the right frame of mind for the right function.

The following is an introduction to NLP MindFrame Patterns© intended as a general overview. A detailed explanation of each pattern is provided in later chapters.

Strength Athletes

We have everything we need to succeed. We have mowed the lawn before. We have painted the spare room, bought a refrigerator, done a whole variety of things, large and small. We have moved jobs, been promoted, moved school, made new friends. We have boyfriends, girlfriends, wives, husbands, mothers, aunts, uncles, children, pets and friends and enemies and multitudes of experiences to call upon, each and every one of us. That is all on a conscious level. On an unconscious level, that 90 per cent beneath the surface mentioned in Chapter 1, we have so much more, more than we realise.

If we are only aware of the 10 per cent, if that is what we have used to get this far in life, then we are truly remarkable people, every one of us. It is amazing to think that we expended all that energy and effort when 90 per cent of what we are was away doing something else. We are like strongmen pulling those huge trucks with a rope. Would it not be so much easier to take off the harness, jump in the cab and drive away? What we have achieved so far in life is truly amazing. The question now is, what more can we achieve if we tap into that deep, largely unused well?
There is no point in driving the truck if we don’t know where we’re going. What would be the point? The journey might be pleasant but ultimately we may end up anywhere. We can make a conscious decision to get to a particular point. Maybe a friend’s house, or that of a relative. Once we know where we are going we can get in the car, or board the train, or get on the bike, and drive or ride straight there.

How often have you arrived somewhere and not remembered much or any of the journey? It happens all the time. Who do you think is looking after us? Who stops at the red light? Who ensures there is a safe distance between ourselves and the car in front? Who makes sure we get off at the right stop? It is our self, me, myself and I. It is that part of ourselves that looks after our self all the time. We set the course consciously and our unconscious part takes over. It happens all the time.

This is how MindFrame Patterns work. We set the course consciously and we ensure that our unconscious is giving us all the resources we need to get there. Using conscious effort, or willpower alone, is lunacy: like pulling the truck when we could be driving it. If we combine the unconscious and conscious, set them in the right direction, fully aligned, then we can achieve anything.

‘We set the course consciously and we ensure that our unconscious is giving us all the resources we need to get there’

Categories

If we take the internal state, internal process and external behaviour of the last chapter, we can begin to see how the patterns are laid out.

The internal state is our heart, our emotions, who we are. The internal process is our thinking, our head, how we are. The external behaviour is our actions, our physicality, what we are.

These essential components, or elements, are what define us, are what make us what we are, how we operate and who we are. The thinking, feeling and doing. If we can find out a little bit more about each part of ourselves then we can work out how best to motivate and inspire ourselves to do what we want. However, we must also remember to tap into the unconscious part to ensure we are giving ourselves all the resources we need. And we really do have all the resources we need.

As human beings we are incredibly complex. We are made up of an infinite variety of components that make us the unique individuals we are. We all have similar  elements, however we combine them in different ways. It is these elements that make us what we are. What we can sometimes forget is just how complex we are.

We are also incredibly versatile. We do not always respond in one way. We tend to respond differently in different circumstances. We can be a hard worker at work, a caring parent or sibling at home, a fun-loving party animal with friends, a scholar in the evenings, a whole host of different people in different situations. We can have different behaviours, different beliefs and different values in various contexts.

At work we may believe it good to ‘be cruel to be kind’. That patience is not a virtue when something needs doing ‘right now’. At home we may believe the opposite as we spend hours helping a three year old learn to read.

Because of how different we are under different contexts, MindFrames© splits into different categories to ensure we can be at our best in each. These are the contexts and are split into three categories of three. That is work, rest and play. Goal setting, goal getting and goal attaining. And self, sex and social. These cover every situation in life.

Within each context we have the three main elements: the heart, the head and the physical. The emotion, the thinking and the doing. These different parts of ourselves can also be categorised as elements.

The heart, our internal state, is represented by earth, our grounding, the very essence of who we are.

The head, our internal process, is represented by water, the movement, the process of how we are.

The physical, our external behaviour, is represented by fire, the doing, the demonstration of what we are.

There is of course one more element, air. Air represents the deep unconscious, or the deep structure, the load the truck is carrying. We will return to this later, but for now will refer in the main to the three elements: Earth, Water and Fire.

Here we have the three practical elements of who, how and what we are. To make sure we know as much about ourselves as possible, we should also look at the unconscious parts of each. So we can break down the patterns further into earth, conscious and unconscious, water, conscious and unconscious, and fire, conscious and unconscious.

There is naturally much overlap between conscious and unconscious. Unconscious is basically anything we are not aware of. It is out of our conscious understanding. Once we begin to find out more about ourselves and how we operate then we will have a conscious understanding and so it is no longer unconscious. However, even if we understand how and why we are doing what we are doing, we are still largely doing those things unconsciously.

Although these patterns categorise conscious and unconscious as being largely distinct, it is not black and white, on or off, right or wrong. These thought processes, views and opinions can be placed, for ease of recognition, in one segment or the other. They will be largely conscious, or largely unconscious.

Given this, it also follows that the more practised we become in using the patterns, the less the distinctions will matter. Like most categories and labels, they serve a purpose and are a good starting point. We can then decide for ourselves if it is useful to continue referring to them as such. The purpose, it must be remembered, is to align the conscious and unconscious, so integrating them should not be a problem if the understanding is there.

‘If we combine the unconscious and conscious, set them in the right direction, fully aligned, then we can achieve anything’

Elements

Conscious Elements:

Values, earth, are the things that we spend most of our time, money and energy moving towards or away from.

If we apply it to a category, or context, one at a time, then we can find out what are our highest values. For example in the Work category, we could look at what our values are by thinking about what is most important to us about work. For example, people, achieving tasks, getting satisfaction from what we do, hitting a target, and so forth. To work out accurately what our highest values are, as opposed to what we think they are, we can break up the working week and work out the percentages for the amount of time we are living that value, the amount of resources we put into it, and the amount of energy expended.

Beliefs, water, are the guiding rules by which we live our lives. They are neither true nor false but we tend to hold them as such. “I can’t get that promotion,” “I am good at my job,” “I’m a terrible father,” “I’m a good mother,” are all examples of beliefs that we hold true, because we have set ourselves those expectations. Beliefs always reinforce our values.

Behaviour, fire, is the most obviously recognisable character trait. It is what we do, how we behave, our actions. This is most obvious to people around us, if not always ourselves. We can not hide who we are and our behaviour demonstrates that.

By altering any of the above, by moving values around, changing our beliefs and getting rid of limiting ones, or adjusting our actions, huge change can happen. Just having an awareness of these things can begin to shift our model or map of the world. However, before adjusting anything it is important to be aware of our unconscious patterns.

Unconscious Patterns:

The unconscious patterns are less straightforward but only because we may not be used to the definitions. All can be easily understood once practised.

Change Patterns

Change Patterns, otherwise know as Meta (meaning over) Programs, are the patterns that indicate how we do what we do. As always they are context specific, although we will carry over many programs into different parts of our lives. There are nine* main patterns to which we refer. These are: Change, Primary Interest, Information, Evaluation, Decision, Motivation, Motive, Activity, and Organisation.

Change, for example, is how we view the world. Do we recognise sameness or appreciate difference? Some people have a tendency to spot differences, whilst others will notice how things resemble each other. There is also an inbetween, where we notice some differences but most things are the same, or we notice mostly differences and some similarities.

To experience if you recognise sameness or appreciate difference, randomly place three coins on a surface in front of you. Now tell yourself what you see, describe what is in front of you. If the first thing you say to yourself is that you see two heads and a tail, then that would imply sameness. If you say to yourself that there is one tail and two heads, then that would imply difference.

Each of these programs indicates how we are in different situations. If we begin to adjust these reactions then there can be greatly varied results to what we do. For example, the Motivation Pattern determines whether we are a ‘towards’ or ‘away from’ person, depending on the context. In the Work category, it may be that we are motivated to produce results so that we do not lose our job. That indicates an ‘away from’ motivation. If we are motivated to produce results to receive a pay rise, that suggests a ‘towards’ motivation. If we apply this to the various aspects of work, such as pay, working conditions, inter-action with colleagues, we can work out if we are a largely ‘towards’ or ‘away from’ person in this context.

Once we have discovered that, and we are not getting the results we want, then it may be beneficial to begin to make efforts to move in the other direction. Having the ability to move between extremes or find a balance is the goal.

‘A MindFrame© is a series of conscious and unconscious patterns applied to a specific event to ensure we consistently achieve our specific and desired outcome’

Storage Patterns

Storage Patterns, otherwise know as Sub Modalities, are how we encode and store every event. Our Modalities refer to our senses: seeing, hearing, feeling, tasting and smelling.

Sub Modalities are broken down further into the component pieces of how we store every memory. They are how we store recollections, the visual, auditory and emotional representations referred to in the last chapter. It is how we see events, what colours they are constructed of, whether it is a movie or still, framed or panoramic and so forth. They are also made up of noises and sounds, as well as feelings we attach to them. Of crucial importance is where we locate these pictures and sounds and feelings.

By moving these representations around we can make a huge difference to our unconscious patterns and transform our approach. For example if something is working really well for us and we have a clear picture of that, we can move the representation of something that is not working so well and place it where the clear picture is, transferring the positive qualities across.

Strategy Patterns

A Strategy Pattern is the process we go through every time we do something.

Every strategy is made up of a sequence of seeing, hearing, feeling, tasting or smelling steps we go through. For example, in buying something from a shop we may see an item, compare it to a visual representation of what we want to buy, check with our auditory digital (logical) side that the price is right, hear ourselves say that it is alright, touch the item to make sure it has the right feel, once again compare the item to the visual representation so that it matches our expectations, and get the feeling we want to buy it.

It sounds complicated, but it is the sort of process every one of us goes through when doing something as simple as purchasing a new coat or deciding what to order from a restaurant.
This process can be defined every time we undertake a task. It always concludes with a ‘synaesthesia’, that is a combination of two senses to confirm that is what we will do. This normally consists of seeing and feeling, or hearing and feeling. It is what happens every time we do not want to do something and feel bad about it, or when we are very excited about doing something. We see or hear something and it makes us feel a particular way.

This connects us to our internal state, earth, how we feel emotionally, what state we are in from moment to moment.

To use strategies in a productive way, we need to first elicit the process that is not working so well for us and then install a process that would work better, by changing certain steps. For instance a shopaholic will quite often have a two step strategy: see it, compare it to a visual recollection of a similar item that had been bought previously and feel an overriding urge to buy. The second step is the synesthesia.

If we introduce another couple of steps this can make all the difference. For example: see it, hear yourself advising caution, see yourself with all the things you already have, and finally, feel good about that. That extended process may then hinder the person from going out and buying items they do not really need.

It is not so easy to know your own strategy for doing something. This is because eye patterns give an indication of what the person is thinking as well as saying. If we look up and to the left, for example, that means we are accessing the visual recall part of our brain, so we can remember what things look like. We will look at eye patterns in more detail in the Strategy Pattern Chapter.
Direct questions also prove useful, for example working out our motivation strategy.

Start by asking, what is the very first thing that happened that made me know that it was time to… was it something I saw, heard or felt? The follow-up question would be, what was the very next thing that happened so that I knew it was totally right to… was it something I saw, heard or felt etc? This question repeats until each step of our strategy is revealed. For example, we could apply it to the Rest context, and knowing when it is time to relax. Even then we go through a process to decide that it is time to sit or lie down. Human beings really are complex!

Contexts

This is the basic approach to each MindFrame©. What we need to ensure is that for every change we make, it is context specific. In fact every series of changes, earth, water and fire, conscious and unconscious, needs to be for a set context, or MindFrame©. In a nutshell, that is a MindFrame©: a series of conscious and unconscious patterns applied to a specific event to ensure we consistently achieve our specific and desired outcome.

The events cover the whole gamut of human existence.

These can also be categorised as earth, water and fire.

Earth covers all the practical situations we find ourselves in: work, rest and play.

Water includes every movement we make: goal setting, goal getting and goal attaining. Goals in this context do not have to be big objectives. They can be as simple as planning a journey, followed by experiencing the journey and how we are once we get there. That is, what state are we in when we achieve our outcome? Are we in the best shape possible to achieve our next goal? There are different stages and states and it is important to be aware of each.

Fire covers all aspects of interaction and communication: self, sex and social. Self is when we are alone. Sex is when we are ‘one-to-one’, in a close relationship with another person, although it does not have to be a sexual relationship. Social is when we are with more than one person.
These contexts cover every situation we will ever find ourselves in. Now all we need to do is ensure we are in the right MindFrame© to prosper in each.

NLP MindFrames Patterns in brief:

Each pattern consists of:

Unconscious patterns consist of:

Air: Deep Structure

Patterns are applied to contexts of:

* In his book People Pattern Power, Dr Wyatt Woodsmall picks nine change patterns that are most crucial to business change. Because NLP MindFrame Patterns© is based upon Models of Excellence, we refer to this as a best practice model, although our terminology differs slightly.

 

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© Andrew Lynch 2006