A shared sensory experience

"Clamouring, shouting, laughing, red, green, smiling & warm. Noises hitting me, loud colours, vibrant green leaves, frilly against the soft, creamy, slippery orange. Tomato & basil teasing my nose as it twitches in anticipation. Soft, hot, moist as it touches my tongue with an explosion of taste. Piquant, cheese, a hint of pepper, and the soft, slightly grainy sensation as my teeth cut through the slippery case to the coarse texture of mushroom & crumbly cheese. For that moment the cacophony of sound recedes. My tongue caresses the warm moist flavours, my eyes close & I am enveloped in taste & warmth, broken by the intrusion of loud, vibrant music and laughter to my left. The sounds flood into my awareness. Animated words, fast, loud, full of energy, a jumble of indistinct words & laughter. Smiles & motion, dancing colours, blue, red, violet & green. My tongue notices the flour, powdery & insubstantial on the gentle crust of the bread, as it offers resistance to my teeth. Slightly waxy & compliant in my fingers as I sweep it through the creamy orange sauce, leaving a ripple of undulating possibility against the shiny white of my bowl".

When you read this, how do you feel? What do you see? What do you hear? And do you feel hungry?

I recently had the privilege of training with John Grinder, one of the co-founders of NLP (Neuro LInguistic Programming), his partner, Carmen Bostic St Clair, and Michael Carroll, from the NLP Academy. The training exceeded my expectations, and was world class. It has enabled me to become a much better coach, and greatly enhanced my own life.

There are many positive aspects to NLP, and one of the most important things I learned was that to appreciate and understand it, the best way is to experience it directly. We all experience the world through our senses, and Carmen invited us to choose an experience, and really pay attention to it using all our senses, then write it down, using as much sensory language as possible.

Until you experience this, you may wonder what it's all about. By doing the exercise I realised how much it can enhance your experience of life, and make you feel more alive. It can be any experience, eating, having a walk, enjoying a conversation, a moment when the sunlight illuminates a distant hill, a journey on the tube, a session at the gym, or any other ordinary thing you do.

I invite you to try this, and I'd love you to e-mail me your experiences to leila@lrgcoaching.com so I can include them here. If you usually read things, and then choose not to do the exercises, (like me in the past!)change what you do, and have a go. You'll be pleasantly surprised!

Warmest wishes,

Leila