The recent story in the newspapers about the lion on the loose in Essex has really caught the public’s imagination, and its easy to understand why. When I first read about it, it seemed to combine so many elements from my childhood – our trips to Colchester Zoo, days out at Walton-on-the-Naze, and even my favourite television programme as a youngster, Daktari.  You could just imagine Clarence the lion wandering along the Essex coastline and seeing two Clacton piers (I realise that this will mean nothing to anyone under the age of 45) it truly is the stuff of legend.

It is interesting how the mind can allow us to ‘see’ things that are not really there, and also not see things which are there! In neuro-linguistic programming, we learn how each person interprets what they see, hear and feel in their own individual way and this is why we get massive differences in people’s perception of what is going on around them.  Their senses are only the first port of call for the information around them to arrive at, before the data is then processed using their own unique ‘filter’. This filter is made up of a whole conglomeration of memories, conditioning, habits, imagination, so you can well understand how one individual’s interpretation of things can be very different from another’s.

Last week we went to see our local team, Ipswich Town, play their first game of the season. Maybe it was due to where we were sitting, but we were very positive about the team’s performance and felt that they played really well. The following day we met up with a neighbour who also saw the same match, and his comments were that it was the worse he had seen them play. Now in this case, it could well be due to position of seating, but also I think that expectation plays a definite part here.

I always tell my clients about their unique ‘filter on the world’ and how it is possible to adjust this, if they are tired of seeing things in monochrome.  I liken it to one of those kaleidoscopes (I used to have hours of fun with those) where you can just turn the tube a tiny bit, and you get a totally different pattern. Once people can open up their mind to the possibility of change, and the fact that change does not have to be difficult or onerous, then the adjustment can be made with ease.

So, Clarence the lion or giant kitty? Your guess is as good as mine ….

Wendy x