NLP for people who like to think for themselves!
The NLP Master Practitioner on the Isle of Purbeck finished on Thursday – 18 great days of NLP in three modules from February through May with the finale being a High Ropes session in Rempstone Forest, Dorset.
The High Zip Wire
There were two key elements to this Ropes session: the Cows Tails course and the Zip Wire. And both are high!
The Cows Tails course is done in pairs and you each manage your own safety with two short ropes (‘cows tails’) attached to your waist. You have the opportunity of doing three lateral traverses through the trees, each of which is higher then the previous one. On the third traverse you could be crossing along a swinging and wobbly log nearly 50′ (16 mtrs) above the forest floor. 
For the Zip Wire you first climb up the tree to a platform slightly higher than this, are connected to the zip wire trolley, and then simply step off into the air and travel some 300 feet through the tree tops with the speed accelerating rapidly and reaching over 30 mph at the end. The braking mechanism at the end then catapults you back up the wire for nearly half the distance you’ve travelled. You reach the end again and this time are catapulted back a shorter distance and so on until you stop and can descend to the ground.
(I don’t always get a chance to do the zip wire because it’s so popular with our NLP groups but I did yesterday – and had adrenaline shakes for about 5 minutes afterwards – because they’ve replaced the trolley from which you hang on the wire and it is much, much faster than before.)
Traversing the 'Cow's Tails' course
But why do it? And what has High Ropes got to do with NLP?
Well, the full background to our use of High and Low Ropes in our NLP courses can wait for another time but for now…
An important part of the Pegasus NLP approach to NLP is integrating the insights, self development and methods into one’s life. This is because if you have used the material in your own life you’re the first to benefit from it! And, because you have benefitted yourself, you’ll also be more skilled and more congruent when you offer NLP methods to others.
Now one of the important ways in which we can benefit from NLP is by recognising how much more there is to ourselves that we had thought – and just how easily we can put aside limiting beliefs.
And when someone goes from being unable to climb more than a few steps of a ladder to being able to mess about with ease 50′ above the ground it’s a pretty good convincer of just how much they have changed even their identify through exploring NLP in their life.
It also changes one’s attitude to situations such as making a presentation, making an important sales call, or managing a work team – such situations tend to shrink down to size when you look at them from on high….
It’s been ages since the high ropes at Pegasus and reading this makes me appreciate the long-lasting impact they’ve had.
First time I did them, I felt “it’s not me” and was sooo happy for the exercise to be over. The second time I did them was after the few months between the courses. To my surprise, in my mind I’d become a monkey scampering about (still clunky and stiff legged to an observer though!). It was fun but there was no flash of insight or anything.
However… since then, if I get nervous about something or feel “it’s not me” it feels natural and obvious to give myself a “no-consequence” stab at it anyway. Then the second time I do it, it’s no longer a scary problem and I am free to be more strategic about it.
Really nice result from all that tree swinging!
I have to say – the high ropes have changed my life (accompanied by the NLP training of course)
Ive always been the type of person who has refused to do things that were in my stretch zone – always saying “im too scared” or “i will never be able to do that”. Through a lot of support from the NLP group – and using my circle of excellence – and also managing my state – and dealing with all those limiting beliefs – I managed to do the high ropes. Firstly in my Core skills with a marginal achievement of getting up into the trees once. The second time was when I did my practitioner course – and I think Reg may have struggled to get me down this time.
What Ive taken away from this – and believe me, its completely changed my life – is that I am my own worst enemy when trying new things. Ive achieved so much since – learnt so much about myself – and done things Ive secretly always wanted to do but never believed I could.
Reg would ask me how I planned to take away what I learnt in the high ropes and apply it in my every day life…….and at the time I had no idea exactly how I was going to do that. But I have applied it loads – and I do still all the time.
What a great experience!
Hi Michelle: Great to hear you’ve taken so much from your High Ropes experience. Sounds like it’ll be a an on-going process for some time yet!
I was still processing the insights I gained from the High Ropes a couple of years later – and even now I still get occasional new insights when doing them on our courses.
After my first attempt at the HIgh ropes during Core skills, I was almost certain that I would never ever subject myself to such an experience again.
NLP practitioner took me on a amazing journey, from identifying the limiting beliefs embedded from a young age to working on various ideas to make “giving high ropes another go” a real possibilty. To feel disappointment (instead of relief!)on the last day of practitioner when the ropes session was cancelled due to snow was something very unexpected, and a milestone for me in itself.
Almost a year to the day. i went back to Avon Tyrell, and played on the ropes!! The impact of that second session is still making itself known but the possibilities for using what that journey taught me are endless
Hi Sarah: The wily ole Milton Erickson had a process which involved deliberately preventing a person having an experience they wanted… so that their desire for it increased. Rather like gradualy stretching and stretching a rubber band more and more – and then letting go!.
(I think the process is called ‘frustrating response potential’ in typical NLP Jargon… )
Anyway, he did it deliberately…
However, the unusual and ferocious (for England) snow on the morning of our intended Practitioner Part 2 High Ropes session last February wasn’t a deliberate man-made event but it certainly prevented us from even travelling over the hill to the Benscombe High Ropes course – in fact, although only living 6 minutes’ drive away I remember arriving nearly 30 minutes late for the morning session – not something I like doing!
Great that you were able to join us for the recent session in the New Forest (and in much warmer and milder weather) and that you so obviously thrived on it.
And, however accidental it may have been, maybe Erickson’s “delayed response potential” phenomenon may have helped further boost your determination to prove a few things to yourself…