And all the way back. . . now



That's what we say when we end an exercise that has led people into their own thoughts. We call them back to the room so that they can shake off the intensity of the experience and become aware that they are still connected to a physical context.

Chris and I are struggling today to come all the way back, now. It's a combination of the intensity of a very full four days and of flying the red eye back to Toronto. The mind has trouble coming all the way back when it is a little foggy with distance and missed sleep.

One of my first memories of Chris's training is of the story of St. Francis that he used to use (as his mentor, Derek Balmer did before him) to close a programme. It seemed fitting that we took a course in San Francisco over the weekend, near the place where NLP began and very much under the influence of the saint who knew that presence is a gift we give the people around us.

It's one of our key messages as trainers: we experience the presence and attention of someone else as a gift, an opening of possibility and an affirmation of our connection to a world outside our minds. This is especially true when we manage to be physically present with the person or people to whom we are giving attention.

Our bodies have travelled. Our minds have stretched, with new contexts and new training and with the effort of being mindful of our people while our bodies moved across a continent. Tonight, we are working to pull attention and body into one place again. To come all the way back, now.

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