If you have had a wee dabble in the vast array of NLP literature available, you have probably come across the term ‘reframing’. It can be reframing the images that you have stored in your mind from moving pictures to still pictures or it can also mean looking at a situation or experience from a different angle. Sort of like looking at the glass half full as opposed to ridiculously close to empty ;-).

So this is just a short blog showing a practical example of how to reframe any event, to make that event into a positive event, rather than a cause of general annoyance. It also relates to an equation that I have written about before which says: the Event plus (your) RESPONSE determines the overall OUTCOME. Every event is neutral or empty until you respond to it.

So the example I want to share with you is about driving or riding on the road. And if any of you live, have lived or have travelled in Asia, you know that the road rules are not really applicable here. The basic rules are: 1) the biggest vehicle has the ‘right of way’, 2) if the funky move that you tried worked then it is ok, 3) there are no rules. Now in any 30 minute ride on my motorbike I would have as many as 20-30 ‘near misses’. There were numerous thoughts running through my head like: ‘that idiot nearly hit me’ or ‘he didn’t even look to see what was coming’ or ‘does this 8-year-old’s mum know that he is riding the motorbike on the road at 80km an hour, one handed?’ or ‘does that idiot know that text messaging and motorbike riding is not safe!?!’. And I don’t mind admitting, I used to find the riding experiences a trifle annoying on occasions. That is until I remembered to reframe the experience.

I do a regular presentation called ‘Conscious Awareness’, about consciously living and not living life as a passenger. It is about being consciously aware of what you do in each moment. Responding to something – rather than having a knee-jerk reaction. So keeping this in mind I decided that my motorbike rides where not a lesson to see how long I could survive on the roads, but were (here comes the reframe) an opportunity for me to ensure that I was fully present in what I was doing. I noticed the dog about to cross the road, or prepared to slow down as I saw someone get ready to blindly enter the road, or moved a little over to the left when going around a corner in case someone was drifting onto my side of the road.

So where the experience used to be pretty stressful, I now find myself enjoying the experience. If I have to take some sort of evasive action, I tell myself that the event occurred just to make sure I was paying attention to my life and not just cruising on autopilot.

What can YOU reframe? What event do you find stressful that you need to see from another angle? Remember, sometimes you cannot change the event, but you can definitely decide how you will respond to it!

Keep it real!
Carl

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