THE NEURO-SEMANTICS OF EMPOWERMENT

Empowerment — empowering people to recognize and own their own personal powers and to develop those powers or energies so that they become their skills and competencies. This lies at the heart of every model and pattern in the field of self-development. Empowerment was a theme that first caught my attention about NLP. The early NLP literature presented Neuro- Linguistic Programming as a model that enables a person learn how to “run your own brain” and from that then be able to manage your own state. I liked that. I needed that. So I entered into the field to explore what NLP could offer on the subject of personal empowerment.

Empowerment also led me to study William Glasser’s Control Theory, Frankl’s Logotherapy, Ellis and Beck’s Cognitive Psychology, and many others. I wasn’t looking to have power over others, I just wanted to have power over myself and power with others. Then in the process of learning and developing self-power (self-efficacy or trust in self to handle things in the future) I discovered that this is the very structure of proactivity, responsibility, accountability, taking initiative, and feeling in control of your own life.

Later, when I discovered “the secret history of NLP” (e.g., the first Human Potential Movement, HPM), I discovered that NLP’s “running your own brain” was just one small facet of actualizing your highest and best by identifying and unleashing your potentials (self-actualization). In Maslow’s work I also discovered an emphasis on a fundamental facet of empowerment—that of one’s biological, mental-emotional energy that we experience as vitality. And that led to the Self-Actualization Workshop on “Unleashing Vitality.”

So within empowerment are numerous concepts and experiences that are fundamental to being able to live with yourself and others and enjoy your life as you seek to become your best self: Energy, power, responsiveness, response-power (responsibility), initiative, proactivity, control, feeling in-control of oneself, power with others (empowering others via coaching, managing, leading), accountability, etc.

Therefore with Neurons post, I am beginning a new series on Empowerment which will cover these subjects. Additional articles will appear depending on your questions and responses.

Your biological energy or vitality in living. Your four fundamental powers. The structure of response-power — responsibility. The myths and truths about “energy.” How to take control in your life and feel in-control.

Your Foundational Power — Your Metabolic Energy When it comes to your personal power —your power to respond, to feel, to think, to speak, to act, to relate — all of these powers depends upon your biological energy. All you have to do is catch a cold or get the flu to feel your “power” drain out of you, your experience. Suddenly the achy feeling in your body, the stuff-up feeling in your head, the sore throat, the congestion in your lungs makes everything feel like a burden. Suddenly, you have no vitality, no energy for doing anything! We all know that. But why is it that way?

It’s because our life vitality is a function of the health and well-being of our body and that arises as a function of our metabolism. This is the neuro- part of Neuro-Linguistics and Neuro- Semantics. That is, it is dependent upon how well our body brings food and oxygen in and processes it and thereby giving you the energy to think, feel, speak, and act. When your life- energy is down through an illness like the flu or due to lack of the basic survival needs (food, sleep, etc.) we feel weak. Then it becomes harder to think, to feel up or positive about life’s challenges, to speak and to act.

Your fundamental powers and energies, and mine, then are obviously functions of our most basic survival skills and habits. It’s a function of your eating and exercising habits, your life habits of drinking, sleeping, stretching (taking care of your health and fitness). These are foundational for your life vitality-energy. If you are not meeting your basic lower needs of survival, safety, social, and self needs— your energy levels will be compromised.

For each of these there is a level of understanding that’s required. If you are “burning the candle on both ends” pushing your sleeping hours til late in the night and getting up early so that you are not getting sufficient sleep (which sleep researchers say is between 7 and 9 hours), sleep deficiency will undermine your energy and the quality of your responses. The same goes for skeleton strength exercise, for cardio-vascular exercise, for stretching, for eating moderately, etc.

A lot of “depression” falls back to these things. Why do people feel fatigued, tired, bored, easily frustrated, anxious, easily angered, stressed, etc.? Often it is because people are not taking care of their physical energy by effectively meeting their biological needs. Minimally this is the place to begin— check the foundation of the person’s energy. Biological needs adequately met releases a person’s natural vitality. Here it is a matter first of knowing what the true gratifiers are, second of providing them, and third, of giving them the appropriate meanings.

With animals only the first two steps are needed. Not so with us humans. As a semantic class of life, we also need the third step. That’s because above and beyond taking care of your biology and metabolism and all of the environmental factors that enhances or dimensions your energy are your mental-emotional states. You can worry yourself into unhealth, stress yourself, overwhelm yourself, you can waste energy in states of anxiety, jealousy, envy, hatred, fear, fearfulness, anger, bitterness, resentment, skepticism, pessimism, and so on. Such states operate as energy- holes in your vitality. Conversely, there are other mental-emotional states that will amplify your vitality. It’s all connected, mind-body-emotion. It’s a system, a neuro-semantic system. More about this later.