El aprendizaje de las matemáticas con comprensión

Unspecified N o u n Unspecified Verb C o m p a r i s o n J u d g e m e n t N o m i n a l i z a t i o n Generalizations

Modal Operator of Possibility Modal Operator of Necessity

Universal Quantifier Distortions C o m p l e x Equivalence Presupposition C a u s e and Effect M i n d R e a d i n g Q U E S T I O N ' W h o or what specifically . . .?' ' H o w specifically is this happening?' ' C o m p a r e d with w h a t ?1 ' W h o says . . .?'

' H o w is this being done?'

'What prevents you . . .?' 'What would happen if you did/didn't . . .?'

'Always? Never? Everyone?'

' H o w does this m e a n that?' 'What leads you to believe that . . .?'

' H o w exactly do y o u make yourself do this . . .?'

' H o w do you know . . .?' that y o u can never specify all the deletions. Practise with the M e t a Model and you will start to get a feel for what is important to question.

T h e M e t a M o d e l is a powerful way of gathering information, clarifying m e a n i n g s and identifying limits in a person's thinking. It is particularly useful to get the desired state of s o m e o n e w h o is dissatisfied. What would he rather have? W h e r e would he rather be? H o w would he rather be feeling? Questions are also interventions, A good question can take a person's m i n d in a completely new direction and change his life. For example, ask yourself frequently, 'What is the most useful question to ask now?'

T h e r e is also a very real danger of getting too m u c h information w h e n you use the M e t a M o d e l . You need to ask yourself, ' D o I really need to know this? 'What is my o u t c o m e ? ' It is important o n l y to use these M e t a M o d e l questions within a context of rapport and a mutually agreed outcome. Repeated questions can be experienced as aggressive, and the challenges need not be so direct. Rather than asking, ' H o w specifically do you know that?' y o u might say, ' I ' m curious to know exactly how you knew that?' Or, 'I don't exactly

understand how y o u know that.' Conversations do not have to be cross examinations. You can use polite and soft voice tones to soften the question.

Robert Dilts tells how he was in a linguistics class at the University of Santa Cruz in the early 1970s, where J o h n Grinder taught the M e t a M o d e l in one two-hour period. It was on a Thursday w h e n he turned the class loose to practise the M e t a M o d e l . T h e following Tuesday half the class came in looking extremely dejected. T h e y had alienated their lovers, their teachers and their friends, cutting them to pieces with the M e t a M o d e l . Rapport is the first step in any N L P pattern. U s e d without sensitivity and rapport, the M e t a Model b e c o m e s M e t a M a y h e m , M e t a M u d d l e and M e t a Misery,

You can often ask a question elegantly and precisely For example a person might say, (looking up), ' M y j o b just isn't working out.' You might reply, 'I wonder how y o u would see your job if it was O K ? '

O n e very useful way to use the M e t a M o d e l is to use it on your o w n internal dialogue. This can have more effect than attending years of seminars about how to think clearly.

A good strategy for learning to use the M e t a M o d e l is to pick one or two categories, and spend a week simply noticing examples tn everyday conversation. T h e next week pick some different categories. As you b e c o m e more familiar and practised at seeing the patterns, you might construct a silent question in your mind. Finally, w h e n you have an idea of the patterns and the questions you could start to use them in appropriate situations.

T h e M e t a M o d e l also relates to the logical levels. Think about the statement:

T can't do that here.' T is the person's identity.

'can't' relates to their belief. 'do' expresses their capability. 'that' indicates a behaviour. 'here' is the environment.

You could challenge this statement on a n u m b e r of grounds. O n e way of starting would be to think about which logical level you want to work on. Also, the person m a y give you a clue about what is the most important part of the statement by tonally e m p h a s i z i n g one of the words. This is known as tonal marking.

Language can limit our world

operator by asking, 'What prevents you?'

If he says, T can't do that here', you might ask, 'What specifically?' Noticing what words a person emphasizes through voice tone or body language is one way of knowing which M e t a M o d e l pattern to question. Another strategy would be to listen to the person talking for a few minutes and notice which category he uses the most. T h i s is likely to indicate where his thinking is limited and a question there could be the best way to start.

In an everyday context, the M e t a M o d e l gives you a systematic way of gathering information, when you need to know more precisely what a person means. It is a skill that is well worth learning.

'Would y o u tell m e , please,' said Alice, 'what that m e a n s ? ' ' N o w you talk like a reasonable child,' said H u m p t y D u m p t y , looking very m u c h pleased. 'I meant by " i m p e n e t r a b i l i t y " that we've had e n o u g h of that subject, and it w o u l d be just as well if you'd m e n t i o n what you m e a n to do next, as I suppose you don't intend to stop here all the rest of your life.'

C H A P T E R

6

U P T I M E A N D D O W N T I M E

So far we have concentrated on the importance of sensory acuity, keeping the senses open and noticing the responses of people around you. T h i s state of tuning the senses to the outside world is known as Uptime in N L P terms. However, there are also states that take us deeper into our own mind, our own reality.

Break off from this book for a m o m e n t and r e m e m b e r a time w h e n you were deep in thought . . .

You probably had to go deep in thought to remember. You would have focused inwards, feeling, seeing and hearing inwardly T h i s is a state we are all familiar with. T h e more deeply you go in, the less y o u are aware of outside stimuli; deep in thought is a good description of this state, known as Downtime in N L P . Accessing cues take you into downtime. W h e n e v e r you ask anyone to go inside to visualize, hear sounds and have feelings, you are asking h i m to go into downtime. D o w n t i m e is where you go to daydream, to plan, to fantasize and create possibilities.

In practice we are seldom completely in u p t i m e or downtime; our everyday consciousness is a mixture of pardy internal and partly external awareness. We turn the senses outwards or inwards d e p e n d i n g on the circumstances we are in.

It is useful to think of mental states as tools for d o i n g different things. Playing a game of chess involves a radically different state of mind to eating. There is no such thing as a w r o n g state of mind, but there are consequences. T h e s e could be catastrophic, if, for example, you try to cross a b u s y street in the state of m i n d you use to go to sleep - uptime is most definitely the best state to use for crossing the road - or laughable, if you try to say a t o n g u e twister while in the state of mind brought on by too m u c h alcohol. Often you do not do something well because you are not in the right state. You will not play

a good g a m e of tennis if you are in the state of mind you use to play chess.

You can access unconscious resources directly by i n d u c i n g and using a type of d o w n t i m e known as trance. In trance y o u b e c o m e

V A K O G • * Interna] Attention in D o w n t i m e Daydream Trance V A K O G External Attention out U p t i m e Sport D r i v i n g a car

deeply involved in a limited focus of attention. It is an altered state from your habitual state of consciousness. Everybody's experience of trance will be different, because everybody starts from a different normal state, dominated by their preferred representational systems.

Most of the work on trance and altered states has been d o n e in a psychotherapy setting, for all therapies use trance to some extent. T h e y all access unconscious resources in different ways. A n y o n e free- associating on an analyst's couch is well into downtime, and so is s o m e o n e w h o is role playing in Gestalt therapy. H y p n o t h e r a p y uses trance explicitly.

A person goes into therapy because he has run out of conscious resources. He is stuck. He does not know what he needs or where to find it. Trance offers an opportunity to resolve the problem because it bypasses the conscious mind and makes unconscious resources available. M o s t change takes place at the unconscious ievel and work their way up. T h e conscious m i n d is not needed to initiate changes and often does not notice them anyway. T h e ultimate goal of any therapy is for the client to b e c o m e resourceful again in his or her o w n right. Everyone has a rich personal history, filled with experience and resources that can be drawn o n . It contains all the material needed to make changes, if only you can get at it.

O n e of the reasons that we use such a small part of our possible mental capacity could be that our education system places so m u c h emphasis on external testing, standardized achievements and m e e t i n g other people's goals. We get little training in utilizing our u n i q u e internal abilities. M o s t of our individuality is unconscious. Trance is the ideal state of m i n d to explore and recover our u n i q u e internal resources.