In today’s guest post Andy Lucas shares his expertise and experience and invites you to have fun…

Games and surprises

By Andy Lucas

Somebody recently asked me if I would describe myself as a “coach”. I told them I’m more like a “school minibus”.

I can remember being at school. In fact in my imagination I can go there right now, sitting in the classroom listening to my favourite teacher – Miss Chevus. She always invented great games for us to play. It was much more fun than doing lessons. Whenever she explained a new game to us we became very playful. And sometimes she made us even more excited by saying she had a surprise for us.

I wonder if you’ve noticed what happens to you when you find out somebody has a surprise for you – a surprise birthday present, a secret guest at a party, a special treat, a holiday to a secret destination. I wonder what you remember about the feelings you have when you get that sense of anticipation.

I think Miss Chevus had quite an influence on me, because now, as a coach, I like to make up games for my clients.

I remember a client called Jane came to see me because she wanted to feel good more often. She told me a bit about her life and the way she had been feeling lately. And she told me she would like to feel happier and see herself being more contented. She wanted to feel that way even when she was trying to work things out in her head and when she was going about certain daily chores.

I asked Jane: “Have you ever noticed there are certain words that always make you feel good? Maybe you can think of such a word right now. I wonder if you hear yourself saying that word more often on a day when things are going well for you. Or have you felt really good just because you’ve seen somebody else using this word in a conversation?”

Jane thought for a moment. Then she looked up and smiled at me. “There are all kinds of words that make me feel good. I can think of some names of places, countries I’ve visited, landscapes I’ve seen where I’ve been transformed into an amazing state of happiness. Wow, I feel good just thinking of them. If you just say the word “sahara” to me I’m there in the plains and I feel so happy and free.”

And as I watched Jane I could see her face change and I could hear her voice sound soft and calm as she told me all about her visit to North Africa.

A Game You Can Play with a Word

Well here’s a game you can play, but only play this game if you want to feel good more often. You might want to follow the procedure very carefully so you complete the whole game and get the really good feelings. Or you might like to explore different ways of playing it to get the best results.The rules of the game are very simple. Just pick one word at the start of the day – the kind of word that always creates extremely good feelings in you. If you want to make sure you have chosen the right kind of word, just say the word to yourself a few times and notice what kind of feelings it creates. This isn’t the same as affirmations, so I don’t want you to pick a phrase or a sentence – just pick one word.

Then, during the course of the day, see how many times you can deliberately introduce the word into conversations with other people or even during the conversations in your head. Try and do a bit of both. Use the chosen word at least ten times in the day to get the best kind of results.

You might enjoy noticing the mental images and pleasant feelings that naturally arise from your chosen word. And I wonder what you notice about how good you feel at the end of the day just by letting the sound of this word do its magic, at a deep and unconscious level..

I was still curious to discover what other words might make Jane feel good. I asked her if there were any words about actions, ways of doing something or just descriptive words that might resonate. Jane laughed immediately and said, “Some of my favourite words are “laughing”, “exhilaration”, “freedom” and “bliss”. I have a friend who really likes the word “guacamole” He has this neat trick of dropping the word randomly into conversations. No matter how I was feeling before, when I hear him say “guacamole” I just find myself smiling and giggling inside. I love it because he can be so silly sometimes”

Miss Chevus regularly shared games and surprises with us. I think she must have enjoyed seeing us all responding to her with great anticipation, eagerly awaiting the surprises. We always knew she had lovingly created these experiences for us. I don’t suppose we even realised how much we were learning at the time. But some time later I was certainly aware that I knew a lot of stuff and that Miss Chevus had taught me some really cool things. She seemed to know how to get us perfectly primed to absorb this stuff at a deep unconscious level. My eager mind was using these things in its own unique and resourceful way.

Then, as time passes, I find I have learnt a lot from these games. And these learnings have just effortlessly integrated into the mind’s pool of knowledge. Perhaps there is some correlation between having fun and learning. Or maybe it’s that anticipation which fosters the ability to understand more.

Somebody recently asked me if I would describe myself as a “coach”. I tend to think of myself more as a school minibus. Climb on board and have some fun!

About the Author/Further Resources

Andy lives and works in Brighton. He is an NLP trainer (Society of NLP), coach, hypnotherapist and meditation instructor with a particular interest in Hawaiian Huna and Yoga Nidra.

Visit www.springtomind.co.uk for more details about Andy’s work.

Click here to read Andy’s previous guest post, “The source of personal power?”