Trust The Feeling
Kevin, told me about his reasoning behind choosing to practice NLP (Neuro-Linguistic Programming) therapy. His story was touching and pulled on my heartstrings and in a world where we often need numbers and statistics to tell us where to focus our energy, these simple stories are often the ones that win out for me, in the social and cultural narrative of influence.
Yet on a wider front, in educational narratives, we often disparage and vilify our connection to the heartstring pull of emotion.
For centuries our ancestors used story telling to create customs, traditions and social norms, to form their tribes. As societies grew in size the simple stories were often muddled, in comparison, to the numbers game of statistical data. What we call hard science vs the soft sciences, and the only reason we often see soft sciences as soft, in a negative way, is because of how we have vilified what it means to be soft.
I myself, am even accused of putting more value into statistical data, than of how I feel when a story is told to me that reaches to the depth of my soul. I also believe I have a hard time trusting my intuition for exactly this reason, as society has a standard of sacrosanct value it puts on those who are experts in the field, of whatever we are trying to understand with our own bodies. I believe both, our own perceptions and the objective (subjective) stances of science are incredibly important in making decisions in life and I don't believe we should regard one side or the other as more important. In my life experience, if I would have gone with the first neurosurgeons assessment of my stage four breast cancer diagnosis, I might not be here writing this out as we speak. I was told treatment should be given first but upon doing my own peer reviewed research, I came to understand that chemotherapy did absolutely nothing for the breast cancer I had, and actually all women who were on it before the new treatment, (the one I decided to go on, after reducing tumor load) were dead within two years of being treated. Being raised by a mother who holistically took it into her own hands to feed us, I was luckily introduced to the world of naturopathic remedies that seemed to keep me extremely healthy until that diagnosis. I decided to at first go the route of fully holistic but the shift in life practices was extreme and took a toll on me, and after researching how many people did well with my specific BC on this holistic route, I realized I couldn’t pull the numbers needed to satiate my desired outcome,which was to live many many more years while in good health, doing all the physical activities that light me up in life.
But, as of late I have realised something astounding, that our generational ancestors story lines weren’t just woo woo traditions with no substantial clout. We often forget the vast timeline that each story and tradition has mired through to get to us. You could call these traditions the oldest and most substantial case studies ever recorded. I’m not saying that all of them had real outcomes worthy of mention. But as my husband rants at me about drinking warm water with every meal, and after the myriad of research I had to find on my own that matched up to his conclusive “rantings’ I conceded, but also never truly understood how time has only pushed us forward in renovation in every sense of the word. Even in holistic measures. I am also always one to point out the missing research in studies regarding social issues because asking the question of “who’s telling the story”, is an important one, so how could I not realise that the story of tradition and ritual has been treated the same way. The Matilda Effect is a great example of stories untold and lost to the powers that be, if you are up for a deep dive.
Even in the objectivity of life, we are driven by what we feel. We cannot separate the two. Our subjective minds and an objective truth exists within monism, not in duality and in this coexistence is the drive to be a part of the whole in a more internalised way.
Our drive in life in every avenue is dictated by this one universal truth. Even those that believe they are immune to what they believe is illogical emotion, are still powering through based on deeply seeded subconscious beliefs guided by emotional ties to the upbringings.
This is the way forward in modern ritual and tradition and all this being said, I feel better than I ever have, five years into this diagnosis. Even while still being on immunotherapy treatment. I have scans regularly, and I feel this way even in the midst of a few brain tumors’ popping up, because my treatment doesn’t cross the blood brain barrier, and when I tell people this story they are amazed at this life trajectory I have coined, as a new beginning. My oncologist calls me his “miracle patient”, but little does he know the miracle has always lied in my ability to get back to my own story and see myself in everyone and everything around me, trusting in the universal feeling of authenticity.
So in listening to Kevin's heartfelt story of why he picked up using and counseling people with NLP, I had to check my skepticism and let my heart strings be pulled without shame. His story is also quite incredible if you are interested in knowing about it, here is a little more about Kevin and I would encourage anyone who is drawn to NLP to attend one of his free Meetups via the MeetUp app and get the pull of heartstrings yourself.
https://graceworkswellness.com/team-members/kevin-martin/
https://www.meetup.com/nlp-100/
