07 Sep Personal Growth as a Practice

Tale of the day:

Core Transformation as a practice

“My career could not have continued without this.” ~George Simmons

Before I share George’s story I want to say that often people do Core Transformation (or any NLP process) once, and if it “doesn’t work,” they give up. I think this is in part because many trainers and teachers find it exciting and inspiring to share the NLP stories of one-session “cures,” and this tends to be what we see examples of in trainings and books and on the internet. Yet not all problems are structured in a way such that a one-session solution is possible, or even makes sense. Sometimes it’s important to gain more experience with one shift or change, before we can know what next change will really benefit us, and then the next, until we arrive at the ultimate outcome we want. Core Transformation can be used as an effective way to address a particular problem we’re experiencing in our lives, and sometimes this can take as little as one or two sessions. Yet we can get even more benefit when we use the Core Transformation process as an evolutionary personal practice.

Core Transformation trainings happening this month with Mark:

Core Transformation 3-day in Santa Cruz, CA
September 16-18, 2016

Core Transformation 2-day in Lisbon, Portugal
September 24-25, 2016

Today I want to share a client example of how valuable it can be to stick with a process more as a practice than a “one time cure.” Just as it would be ridiculous to say “I tried riding a bike once and it didn’t work, so I gave it up,” in my experience the people who get the most value from Core Transformation are those who stick with it as a practice for a period of time. Don’t worry, this doesn’t necessarily mean years. It didn’t take me years to learn to ride a bike and it won’t take you years to get the increased benefits of using Core Transformation as a practice (and now that I know how to ride a bike, I can hop on any time and know it will take me where I want to go). In the client example I’m sharing below, we’ve met for 8 sessions so far. Each time we meet together he has experienced clear benefit and progress, followed by a new “block” that came up. At each of these points we could have given up and he would have missed out on the continuing opportunity for further benefits. For those of you unfamiliar with the Core Transformation process developed by Connirae Andreas, you may want to read my post Core Transformation, which shows how powerful Core Transformation can be in a single session and demonstrates the key steps of the process.

George’s Experience (thus far)

George is a talented rodeo bull rider who came to me because he kept experiencing inner “blocks” to winning his rides. I asked him what his experience was of the inner block, and he said, “It’s like a part of me coming up saying, “I don’t want to win,” “I don’t want to ride bulls,” “I don’t want this,” “It’s painful.” He added, “It’s like I have all these parts objecting to success, and the closer I get to the ride, the louder they get.”

“OK,” I said. “Now since it sounds like there are multiple parts that object in some way to success in your rides, they are all equally important, and we’ll give them all the full attention they deserve before coming to a solution that satisfies all aspects of who you are.” George nodded and I said, “Close your eyes, and ask on the inside, ‘which part of me is ready for some attention first?’ ”

“The part that doesn’t want to win,” he said. “I feel it right now, it’s so strong—right here in my chest. It’s ready.”

“Great, and you can remember the last time this part came up either before or during a ride, and mentally step into this situation, seeing what you say, hearing what you heard, and feeling what you felt at the time…” and we launched into the Core Transformation process. This first session we worked with this and four other parts, (one that said “I can’t,” one that was frustrated, one that said, “My dad’s not gonna like it,” and one that thought, “I don’t like you.”). We guided all five parts through Core Transformation and “Growing up the Part.” This first session was 4 hours, one of the longest sessions I’ve done, but reasonable given how many parts we worked with. (Usually this is more time than someone would want to work all at once, but George had driven a considerable distance to see me, and was ready to continue as long as there were more parts to work with).

George’s follow-up after this first session was:

“It’s been great. I’ve felt little parts coming up, but nothing like it used to be. I also handled things on the farm much better, not letting things get to me, and not letting dad’s guilt-tripping get to me. I also had a bull ride and I rode the shit out of the bull, and won the money! I felt like the ride was easy, and it was a miserable tough bull. It felt easy, like getting the mail, and I hadn’t ridden a bull for two weeks. One of the bucking-bull sellers saw me ride and told me, ‘George, I’ve never seen you ride that good,’ and this bull seller really knows bull riding. Then my second ride wasn’t successful, and I felt more come up about winning.”

We met again and this time we guided three parts—one that wanted “to be home,” one with the belief, “You can’t have fun,” and one generating fear that was looking out for George’s safety—through Core Transformation and growing up the part, and had time for parental timeline re-imprinting as well. This time the session took 2 hours and 45 minutes. George’s feedback the week after this session was that he completed three out of four rides (you have to stay on the bull for at least eight seconds to qualify in the competition). But then the next week he completed zero out of three rides. When he gave me feedback on his rides I was careful to ask about his experience of the rides, because our goal wasn’t for him to win every ride, which would be unrealistic. Our goal was for him to experience being fully resourceful during each ride. “Yeah,” he said. “I felt really great those three rides that I won, and then I felt more parts come up last week and I got thrown every time.”

I want to add that with something like this that has a certain danger level, I was sure to ask George, “How much longer do you want to be doing this? What is the length of a usual bull-riding career, and is continuing to ride—including the risks involved—in line with your long term goals?” He answered congruently that he wanted to continue in the profession for several more years, and that he was comfortable with the level of risk involved. Our next four sessions were 3 hours, 2 hours, 1 hour, and 1 hour. Each time the process went more smoothly and took less time, and George reported experiencing further integration and inner congruence.

Before our seventh session George said, “Last Thursday night I did good, and my dad even called two hours prior to my ride, and I still did good! However last night I didn’t do any good. It’s like a part came up that doesn’t want to win every time!” This session we worked with this part, and also with a part that “wanted to go home,” and a part that was afraid of being happy. George had a ride that same night, so I was eager to hear how it went. The next day he told me, “The first ride went great, then when I was ready for the second ride I got this image of these golden handcuffs on my right hand. But then I felt good riding the second bull too. I was riding the crap out of him, and then at the last moment I had this thought, “I’m gonna win this sucker,” and I got bucked off at the seven-point-eight second mark! If I’d stayed on point-two seconds longer, I’d have qualified and won the whole thing, because no-one else qualified! (In bull-riding you have to ride the bull at least 8 seconds to qualify for the competition). It’s frustrating but exciting, because I know this stuff works! It’s like there’s a part now saying, ‘You can’t win a second time.’ This stuff is so powerful!” We set up another session.

In our Eighth session, George told me, “My career could not have continued without this.” Now that George was consistently winning his first rides, we worked with the part coming up saying, “You can’t win a second time,” and we also worked with two other parts. I await George’s feedback on how the next rides went, but it’s clear based on his feedback so far that he has experienced tremendous progress, not only in his career, but also in his relationship with his father and his experience of home that used to have a lot more negatives associated with it. These deeper transformations would not have been possible if we had restricted ourselves to one or two sessions.

I thought this was a great example to share, because George has gotten such clear positive shifts, not only in his experience, but also in the results of his rides. And at the same time, each time there have been new blocks—opportunities to get further benefit. As long as we’re tuning into the feedback of our experience, Core Transformation as a practice can take us to places that simply using the process as a one-time intervention could never achieve.

Core Transformation trainings this month with Mark Andreas:

Core Transformation 3-day in Santa Cruz, CA
September 16-18, 2016

Core Transformation 2-day in Lisbon, Portugal
September 24-25, 2016

NLP training with Mark Andreas:

NLP: The Next Generation Practitioner in Longmont, CO
6 weekends, October 2016-April 2017

Tool of the Day:
Intro to Core Transformation

Sign up to watch this free webinar introduction to the Core Transformation process, including a demonstration of the first part of the process, led by Tamara Andreas.