NLP and ‘Healthy Ageing’ (2)

In our Pegasus NLP training courses we’re a bit different from many other NLP training providers: we actually value and encourage questions and challenges from participants on our courses.

We do this for a number of very good reasons:

1.    We know that, in our workshops, we are experts in NLP. But we are also aware that we are working with adults who are very experienced in lots of areas other than NLP and who bring to the workshops a wealth of insight and experience and knowledge and skill which we and everybody else in the workshop can benefit from.

2.    We know that, although we are very good at what we do, we cannot aspire to being the ‘last and final word’ on every subtle element and nuance of a body of knowledge as wide-ranging as NLP. Nor, indeed, can any other individual or organisation – whatever their claims to the contrary. So we value the fact that every one of our participants brings to our workshop insights and experiences which, as trainers, we too can benefit from.

3.    We treat all of our ‘students’ as co-learners and co-developers in the ever-evolving body of knowledge that is NLP

4.    And finally, and of critical importance to all trainers, we know that there are no ‘silly questions’. If one person in a group has a question it is very likely that others will also have the same question!

So what has all this got to do with healthy ageing???

Well, in the Newsletter ‘Adding years to one’s life – and life to those years’ which was published yesterday, I emphasised that the topic was ‘healthy ageing’ rather than merely adding years to one’s life and “living forever”.

But at least two people (out of around 4,400) on reading the Newsletter thought I was advocating that we aspire to live forever – so it’s possible that a number of others mayhave had a similar misconception.

That was not the point of the newsletter.

What would be the point of living to an advanced age in which one was decrepit and was being virtually kept alive by the efforts of others? Not much quality of life there – better to die vitally at 75 than to live to 95 if that was the only option.

The newsletter was about ‘Healthy Ageing’!

And Healthy Ageing means(1) becoming aware of, and challenging, the prevailing belief that ageing = decrepitude and (2) taking active steps to ensure that you age healthily rather than haphazardly.

It’s a personal choice which, like it or not, each and every one of us has to make – sooner or later – consciously or unconsciously…