How to Look 10 Years Younger

The beauty industry makes millions each year from people that want to look 10 years younger… through selling serums, creams, potions, … or there’s Botox, and for the desperate – the scalpel knife!! However, from recent experience– I have discovered another way!!

I have just returned from a week’s programme in Doha, Qatar. It was amazing. At the start of the week I noticed many faces with creases and tension, bodies rigid and strained from life’s pressures. And over the week, the stress and anxiety seemed to melt away like candle wax leaving fresh glowing faces, bright sparkling eyes, bodies relaxed…in fact for some – it seems that even the structure of their faces changed… And no pots, tubs or needles required.

How is this possible you may be wondering….

These individuals came on a week’s programme with the expectation of learning some useful tools and techniques to develop themselves and others. What they received was life changing…

The week was a Practitioner Programme in NLP with my mentor Sue Knight, who I am privileged to assist. NLP is the study of the structure of subjective experience. What does that mean? By studying how we do what we do through identifying our patterns of thinking, our language and behavioural patterns both consciously and unconsciously, and our habits and strategies, this enables us to have choice.

These habits and patterns are often developed when we are young and naïve…. We are not born this way. Being aware of these patterns is the first step of change – we then have the capability to make a choice whether we want to do anything about these or not.

And patterns exist at a much bigger scale than at an individual level. Weather patterns enable weather forecasting to predict and protect life. Stock market patterns are carefully tracked to create financial reward.

And politics have a plethora of patterns – Plato, ancient Greek philosopher, born circa 428bc recognised this and wrote “all forms of government destroy themselves by carrying their basic principles to excess.”

David Gergen, adviser to 5 US Presidents, realised that President Nixon was a great pattern spotter. In his book Eyewitness to Power, he wrote: “Nixon was accustomed to measuring time in decades and centuries, so he liked to think about what forces would be at work a decade or century hence. […] His capacity as a visionary exceeds that of other presidents in modern times and was squarely based upon his understanding of history.”

The human race likes pattern recognition – however what do we do about our own habitual patterns?

“If you always do what you’ve always done, you’re always get what you’ve always got”

I digress – and back in Doha – what I noticed about the group was the willingness to be vulnerable and the openness to change. They learned how to change, replace, let go of old patterns and develop new ones. Almighty shifts happened through challenging their belief systems and their identity, the way they perceived situations, changing their emotional states and well as their language patterns. What a huge honour – being part of their journey in developing themselves and others.

At the end of the programme I observed many transformations; emotional and mentally. In fact the physical changes are incredible, each person now look 10 years younger…at least! Faces smooth, cheeks soft, youthful twinkly eyes, relaxed bodies – Definitely an added bonus! And not a pot or potion in sight!

Lindsey Reed is an experienced NLP coach, trainer and pattern spotter! She enables her clients to replace unwanted patterns so that they are their best selves. Iif you would like to work with Lindsey, contact her either by email lindsey@glows-coaching.co.uk or call 01832 280168 for a chat to see if she is the right coach for you. And for those interested in NLP, Lindsey highly recommends www.sueknight.com where she runs programmes around the world.