Performance and the Subconscious Mind- Part 19 NLP and Beyond; Interview with Owen Fitzpatrick
March 25, 2011 by Richard Matteson
Hi,
Understanding the Subconscious Mind
Owen Fitzpatrick
As we’ve been studying NLP and Richard Bandler (see earlier blogs), today I’m going to feature an interview with Owen Fitzpatrick who recently co-authored a book with Bandler. Here’s some biographical information about Owen:
Owen Fitzpatrick is an International Trainer and Practical Psychologist. He is co-author of ‘Conversations with Richard Bandler’ which has been translated into seven languages and author of Not Enough Hours, bestseller in the Irish Bookcharts. Owen is also co-founder of the Irish Institute of NLP, the largest NLP training company in Ireland. He is also a qualified Psychologist, Psychotherapist and Hypnotherapist. Owen has featured as the presenter expert on his primetime television show ‘Not Enough Hours’ on Irish Television where each week he worked with someone to help them manage their time and lives more effectively. The series was extremely popular and had huge audience figures.
Yesterday I posed some questions to Owen to help understand ourselves, NLP and how we can become better performers. Here are the questions and Owen’s answers:
1) Congrats on your book ‘Conversations with Richard Bandler.’ Tell me a little about meeting and working with Richard Bandler. What has been the public reaction to the book? What are two important concepts you’ve learned from Richard that you use in your work? In retrospect what would you change about the book or the concepts discussed.
Owen Fitzpatrick: Thanks. Well meeting and working with Richard has been great. I first met him as I explain in the book at a seminar but it was only after assisting some of his trainings that I got to know him and he got to know me. From there I became lucky enough to visit him at his house and write a few books with him.
The reaction to the book has been overall positive. I think most people who read it with an open mind find themselves appreciating the candid nature of the book. It’s very honest and I’m not trying to be a perfect guru in it. Any people who have had a problem with it, it’s usually because they were looking for a certain type of book that was organized in a linear way. ‘Conversations’ explores many different topics in life and, while providing plenty of techniques, spends a bit of time on discussing different ways of thinking about problems that most people have. I’m delighted that it has been published in seven languages and is still selling well.
In terms of two important concepts that I use… the first would be to do as many different things in as many different places with as many different people as possible. This motto richard taught me drives me to explore the world and learn in many different areas and enables me to see things from multiple perspectives. The other thing would be the importance of humour. Get someone laughing about their problem and it’s a million times easier to get them over it or through it.
I wouldn’t change anything about Conversations. Of course, it’s not everyones cup of tea but it wasn’t written to be. It was written to help readers get a birds eye perspective and eavesdrop on conversations between myself and Richard and to discuss how his teachings have impacted my life and the lives of my clients.
2) From your blog Change Your Language, Change your Life you say, “From NLP we know that the way you speak to yourself is of crucial importance to what you feel and what you do. NLP teaches us how to change how we speak to ourselves so we feel the way we want and think the way we want and therefore perform as we want.” How do we change how we speak to ourselves? How do we change habits of thought and inner dialogue?
Owen Fitzpatrick: Ok, well first let’s examine what most people try and do. Most people try and replace negative thoughts with positive thoughts. Unfortunately, this often leads to an argument between both your negative and positive voices. The key is to change how powerful the negative voice is so that it can be more easily replaced.
For example, if you tell yourself ‘I’m such an idiot’ in a really angry tone of voice, the bad feeling doesn’t just come from the actual words but the anger that you said it with. When you say the exact same thing except in a Mickey Mouse or Donald Duck voice, you’ll find yourself laughing… even when you are saying the exact same thing! This makes it 100 times easier for you to change what you are saying. You have to learn to laugh at the comments that hurt and take heed of comments that make you feel good.
3) Tell us about reframing. What is reframing? Did you learn this from Bandler? What are some ways to breakdown what we say or what others say into the external behavior/internal state formula. or is this formula important? I’m talking about the equation codes which are meanings of causation (C-E), meanings of equation (CEq), and meanings of identity (Id.).
Owen Fitzpatrick: Reframing is the ability you have to look at the same situation from a different point of view. In effect that’s what a lot of the work we do is. What’s important about this, simply, is the following. When something happens… our minds search for what it will lead to (cause), what it means (meaning) and what it means about who we are (identity). So, it’s important to take charge of the effects and meanings we take from a situation and ensure that every event only contributes in a positive way to who we believe ourself to be.
You take in input from the outside world. You make sense of that input by processing it. NLP enables you to change the way you process so you can determine more useful connections between what happens and what it causes, means and means about you. When you communicate, you have the ability to make your own connections to influence others as well. So, to influence others, it’s about how we frame what we are talking about; how we make it look to others.
4) How do you view the conscious and subconscious mind. How do we best communicate with the subconscious mind? Are affirmations effective?
Owen Fitzpatrick: The way I see the conscious and subconscious/unconscious minds are that the conscious mind is the critical, analytical, decision making mind that consists of our immediate awareness. The unconscious mind is the part of our mind that is responsible for many of our automated bodily functions, where we store our memories, wisdom, perceptions. It is continuously running on the background and is where our drives, needs, values and automatic behaviours occur. To make changes occur in behaviour we have to reprogram them in the unconscious. That’s what tools such as NLP and Hypnosis help you to do.
We best communicate with the unconscious through hypnosis or through becoming aware over what was previously unconscious. So, noticing what we are doing inside our head in order to feel a certain way, we examine the unconscious strategy we use to create that feeling and once we do so, we can change it.
Affirmations are only effective when we feel certain of them and say them to ourselves in a certain way. If you just repeat something over and over again it doesn’t mean that we will take it in.
5) What have you learned from hypnotism about how the subconscious mind operates?
Owen Fitzpatrick: The subconscious/unconscious mind operates by direct suggestion. It will never do anything against our morals but it doesn’t usually question suggestions given straight to it. When your attention is captured in hypnosis, suggestions tend to more easily go through to your unconscious mind.
6) Are presuppositions ways to focus your subconscious on positive goals? How does that work?
Owen Fitzpatrick: They are one way that you can do that. By presupposing that you are going to achieve something it helps build a belief inside your mind that you will achieve it which will make it more likely to happen. Beliefs are powerful thoughts that are combined with a sense of certainty. They work in the unconscious and tend to lead to very effective results. You can also focus your mind on positive goals by imagining achieving them vividly, over and over again and working on your beliefs about what’s possible for you.
7) How do we prepare mentally for high stress situation like a musical performance or in your case- a lecture? What do we do to keep the conscious mind focused during a musical performance?
Owen Fitzpatrick: Well, the real trick is to learn to get fully absorbed in the experience so your unconscious takes over. You do this by rehearsing a lot both mentally and physically. Also, you focus on what you want to do and achieve in the performance. If your mind is directed on what you want to do rather than worrying about what others think then you will do very well.
Before the performance, imagine yourself performing how you want to. If the other thoughts creep in, let them creep in and follow them immediately with the positive version. Your brain will always learn to follow the negative thought with the positive. On the NLP and Charisma courses, we teach people a number of powerful strategies to feel the way they want to when they need to.
8- What have you learned from Robbins, Bandler and others? Tell us about modeling and how to apply it in our own lives.
Owen Fitzpatrick: Modeling is the process of understanding how others get the results they get and building a model or framework of their approach. Tony Robbins is a powerful communicator who emphasizes personal power and motivation. Richard Bandler is a brilliant teacher that focuses on seeing the world in a more humorous way and taking control over your feelings. Of course, everyone has a different style and my personal preference is the way Richard does things. Nobody is perfect but what all of these great speakers do is they know how to move an audience. They understand how to create powerful feelings in those they work with. My Masters Thesis on Charisma explored the various tactics that such figures use to impact their audience so much.
In order to apply modeling in your own life, it’s about finding people that are really good at what you want to be good at and studying them closely, asking them questions about how they do what they do and finding out what exactly you need to do in order to do what they do. It’s important to avoid getting caught up in the theory and focusing on learning the process as clearly as possible.
Thanks so much Owen. Great answers delivered in Owen’s straight forward, easy-to-understand way.
Check out more from Owen at NLP Irish institute: http://www.nlp.ie/
Also see Owen’s own site: http://www.owenfitzpatrick.com/
More to come,
Richard