As some of you may already know I live on the Island Minorca (Menorca in Spanish)
It is the most northern island in the Mediterranean Sea, I live here on these amazing 695,7 Km2 by choice and I love it. It is August and it is hot, as it very often is during the summer months and you are forced, by nature, to slow down. I still go to the gym, in the mornings to lift weights. The gym is now closed on Saturdays, so I work out 5 days a week instead of 6 during the summer, but with swimming in the sea, boating and other activities it is fine. It takes some effort to muster up the discipline to work out in this heat, as there is no air conditioning in the old gym. I have never tried hot yoga, but I imagine that it could feel similar to the workout in these temperatures. There is a group of us, which keeps the motivation going. Also I decided four years ago that I would treat my physical training as being as important as any meeting, client or doctors appointment, and it has worked. I know now that to keep fit I have to work harder and more consistently as I get older. You can read my blog about ageing here: Desirement or Retirement
This very moment I’m sitting in my coaching room, I like it here, it is bright with plenty of space and has calm and friendly colours. I can look outside and follow the development of some of my plants as the seasons pass, but today it is so hot I have rolled down the blinds to keep out the sun, my brain works a bit better when the temperature is lower.
I have been thinking about my next blogs, what they should be about. There are many Neurolinguistic programming (NLP) techniques that I have not covered yet and there are some that may need to be reinforced. One thing is for sure, my blogs are not about me and they are not about the people in them, the intention is always to show you different ways of using your brain. And if you are one of the many regular readers you may want to train yourself to look out for how it could be useful for you personally or maybe someone close to you.
So today I choose to reinforce choice, because to me that is the essence of NLP and Coaching for that matter, to create choice. And to learn that you have choices and that you can learn to use your brain better, for your well-being, and for your peace of mind.
And as I think how to write about this I come across Lois Lowry´s book, The Giver. Where 12-year-old Jonas lives in what appears to be a Utopia but when he is given his life assignment as the Receiver of memories he begins to understand the dark secrets behind this fragile community. The Receiver is given the memories by the Giver, only the Receiver and the Giver have the memories of how it all used to be, the memories of snow, of the colours, of sunshine, also painful memories of war and destruction, and feelings like love, anger and happiness and they take pills so they have no sexual desires. The rest of the society lives, apparently, blissfully, oblivious to how the world used to be. And then Jonas asks the one million dollar question, why would they take all the colours, feelings and memories of destruction away? If everything is the same there is no choice! Later on in the book we learn that a society with no choices are easier to control and therefore people who Jonas knows to be loving and kind, perform killings as a form of ritual, because they know no different, there is no right or wrong anymore without choice, there is only one way of living. Without passion, love, pain and colours there are no choices they’re no memories, no actions to rectify no changes to aim for.
Would you like to live with no choice? Would you like to be given a spouse, look after the babies that are assigned to you, and get a life assignment as your job? Would you like all humans to be the same? Or do you prefer to keep your memories, even the painful ones and exercise your right to choose?
That is all for today, I choose to stop here with an open question leaving you the opportunity to choose, to think, about your choices.
I hope you are as happy as you would like to be and remember it is free to be kind.
Best wishes,
Ivalo
This post was originally published in August 2020