Adventures in Learning
I have always been interested in learning new things. As I reflect on my life, the desire for knowing more has been a constant theme. When I was young, I used a flashlight to read books under the covers. I was one of those kids who would take things apart to see how they worked—and then not be able to put them back together. As a teenager, I built a stereo and portable radio from Heathkits. (Are you old enough to remember when Heath was a company?) I enjoyed reading so much that I majored in English literature as an undergraduate with a minor in psychology. I eventually earned a Ph.D. in nineteenth-century English literature.
By the time I finished the Ph.D., jobs teaching English literature were scarce. Fortunately, as a grad student, I had an assistantship teaching business communication. The combination of psychology and language skills made me an ideal candidate. My first postgraduate job was teaching business communication at the University of Florida in Gainesville, where business communication was in the Department of English. After a year there, the College of Business at Western Michigan University (WMU) offered me a position teaching that course. I learned not only that business professors are paid better than English professors, but also that I had the opportunity to expand the business communication program to include courses in publicity and public relations, report writing (for both business and psychology majors and minors), business communication systems, and other courses. I also had the opportunity to teach in a variety of formats, including large lectures, online classes, and other forms of “distance learning.”
I found out about NLP (Neurolinguistic Programming or Neuro-linguistic Programming) at a presentation in a business communication conference. I was sufficiently captivated by the idea that some people process information primarily visually (mental movies), some process primarily auditorily (mental audio), and some process kinesthetically (bodily sensations). I asked the presenters where I could learn more about NLP, and they recommended books by Richard Bandler and John Grinder. I started reading. I bought and watched videos. At that point, learning about NLP was essentially an intellectual exercise—I was learning more. The turning point came when I was conducting a communication skills workshop at a major corporation. A woman attendee was fidgeting sufficiently that she was bothering those sitting next to her. I asked her what was wrong. She said that she was supposed to go camping with her husband that weekend, he had rented a small camping trailer with a very small sleeping area, and she was claustrophobic and couldn’t do it.
I had read about the procedure for the “Fast Phobia Cure.” Without thinking about it, I blurted out, “I know how to fix that.” Having said it in the middle of the workshop, I was committed to following through. During a coffee break, I took her through the procedure as best I could remember from my reading. When the group met again the following week, I asked her how the camping had gone. She said, “It wasn’t bad. I expected it to be much worse than it was.” At that point, NLP went from something I wanted to learn about to something I wanted to do.
I was fortunately able to persuade Western Michigan University to invest in my training and, over the next several years, took a number of workshops with Richard Bandler and John La Valle. Along with my NLP training, I became interested in Reiki and other forms of hands-on healing. I had the opportunity to work with a Reiki Master and received the first-level attunement. I also met and worked with a nurse who was certified in Therapeutic Touch. As was my usual practice, I did a lot of reading to learn more….
A friend of mine from WMU and a client we had in common suggested that Debra and I meet. We eventually did and started working together. The journey has been interesting, and—over the years—I have learned a lot about Energy Medicine, hypnosis, and holistic health. My principal forms of maintaining health are now acupuncture and Naturopathy. At this point, I am old enough to look back at my life and see the degree to which I have been influenced by the desire—the need—to learn new things. I suspect that each of us has an overarching need or desire that shapes our destinies. I would be curious to know what that need has been for you.
When you know yours, send me a quick email message, and let me know whether I can post it as a comment. We have had to block comments from readers because “trolls” use the comments function to post ads for cheap Viagra, other pharmaceuticals, and porno sites. It all goes to show that we live in interesting times, and I’d like to know what makes them interesting for you.