Thea lives with Greg in Perth, Western Australia. She had been publishing self improvement resources at Forward Steps. Recently, all her materials and resources are being moved to My Forward Steps
Thea has also written a book titled Time For My Life: 365 Stepping Stones and is available as a download or as a paperback print copy.
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If you’d like some terrific information about the benefits of Guest Posting, I recommend reading this excellent piece by Glen Allsopp at www.viperchill.com titled “Guest Blogging: The Ultimate Guide”
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Discovering your child’s natural learning strategy and expanding on it is probably the shortest short cut possible to a successful teaching/learning experience with your child. If you have been so daring as to set for yourself the Herculean task of home schooling or when you are helping your kids with their homework or giving them powerful tips on how to do better in school generally, this Photographic Memory Technique is fabulous.
I imagine that if you want everyone involved to have the most fulfilling and least stressful studying experience possible, try this to help your children (and yourself?) gain a new resource for the memorization part of learning. In other words, to borrow a metaphor, “teaching them to fish” better.
This is an astonishingly simple memorization technique that was observed in champion spellers and then developed into an easily followed technique developed by Robert Dilts, while he was studying with Dr John Grinder, ( John has often been described as one of the greatest thinkers of our lifetime for his innovations in patterns of human excellence), and Dr Milton H Erickson, a celebrated psychiatrist whose work is revered and studied the world over (google the Milton H. Erickson society if the subjects interest you).
To learn how your child learns best, the first thing you have to do is find out where s/he stores his visual memory, or, where she stores the picture of the information that s/he is “looking” to remember. To do this, identify where the person’s visual memory storage is located by watching their eyes as you ask a couple of visual memory questions like:
“What color were you wearing last Sunday?”, “What did the couch you had when you were a child look like?”, “What color was your first car?” “What do you see when you look outside your kitchen window?”. You get the idea.
To find out where your child visually constructs new concepts and information, ask questions like: “What go you want to be when you grow up?” “What do you imagine a timberland pro pit boss steel toe work boot (or anything that s/he has probably never seen) looks like”, “What kind of car do you want?” Or ask anything about any future event.
Watch where their eyes move to find the information: They will look up either towards the left (more common for memory) or up towards the right (more common when imagining or creating something new). Asking both kinds of visual questions and observing where their eyes go to either retrieve or create the information, you will know where s/he stores her visual memory, or where their photographic (visual) memory is located. John Grinder and Richard Bandler, in their process of developing Neuro-Linguistic Programming, realized that as a general rule, emotional memories (as opposed to Visual Memories) are stored *down in feelings*, so the eyes will go up when looking for pictures (where the best spellers store their words) and they will look down when “looking for” feelings.
So, we will use spelling as an example for teaching the photographic memory technique.
Ask your child to do the following:
“Look at the correct spelling of a word.” (e.g. the word might be “assistance”)
“Close your eyes and remember a time when you were very relaxed and perfectly comfortable. Feel the feelings that you have when you are very comfortable and relax…..”
(While you are certainly not inducing a full trance, you are looking to get them into a nice, relaxed state of mind and body.)
“Open your eyes and move them up and to the left.” (or to the right, depending on which side you have found his visual memory to be located).
“Picture the correctly spelled word (take a photograph) in your mind.”
“Look up at your mental picture of the word and read off the letters that you see.” [Write the letters down and check against the correct spelling. They are most likely to be the same.]
Further helpful hints:
Break the word into groups of three and build the picture three letters at a time.
Make any unclear letters stand out by making them look bigger or somehow different.
Picture the word in your favorite color.
Put the letters on a familiar background.
Watch and feel yourself tracing the letters in the air or on the table with your finger.
(Revised from a spelling strategy developed by Robert Dilts)
Linda Smith (moi) is a somewhat retired Neuro-Linguistic seminar designer. Back when I enjoyed traveling, I taught health care professionals throughout North America and Europe. Now I enjoy “the boonies” with modern amenities, beautiful lake view and hubby in his trusty Timberland pro work boots. We are building websites that are useful to others and still enjoy a nice road trip with our dogs.
In future, I hope to post more comprehensive articles about accessing positive states of mind for use use in developing even more positive and useful personal resources.
“The problems that exist in the world today cannot be
solved by the level of thinking that created them.” -Albert Einstein
You ask questions all day long. Are you conscious of their power? As you become aware of your natural questions, you may find that they’re helpful or unhelpful; empowering or disempowering; clear or confusing. Some may lead you to the responses or answers that you truly desire, some may evade the true issues.
Questions guide you in all that you do. Some questions you ask yourself; some you ask others. You walk into a room and think or ask, “What’s going on here?” You hear the telephone ring and wonder, “Who’s that?” You see a friend and ask, usually quite automatically, “How are you?”
Not every question has a question mark at the end. For example, “I wonder if I’ll have trouble falling to sleep tonight.” Or, “Let’s see if there are any fresh vegetables that look good at the supermarket today.” These are examples of rather neutral questions, that is, those that aren’t empowering or disempowering. They simply guide you in your observations.
Questions You Ask Naturally
You may want to take a few moments to consider how you ask questions that lead you through a day. What do you ask when you awaken in the morning? ……when you see a friend? …….when you get into your car? …….when you hear the door bell? …….when you pick up your mail? ……..when you fall asleep at night?
Internal Messages
Questions and other internal messages guide your observations. Questions transform your future. Some of these messages may be easy to hear because they’re audible and part of your conscious awareness. Others may be conscious but still inaudible. Still others may be inaudible and unconscious.
Your questions and inner messages accumulate at various levels of your consciousness. Some are deeply embedded and insidious. Many are disempowering. Some may have been empowering at a particular stage of your development, but now are disempowering or have no impact. As you ask questions about your questions, you become more aware of their impact and enhance your personal development and growth.
Your internal messages have many possible sources. They can originate in childhood, first heard said by an adult. They can be embedded from a perception of an early experience, even a rather non-dramatic experience. Internal messages are beliefs you hold about yourself and the outer world, regardless of the original influence. It’s important not to slow yourself down by being overly preoccupied with the formation of your guidance, only to recognize that there are many influences.
Since some internal messages are inaudible or unconscious, they can be tricky to uncover. It’s important to bring to the surface the ones that operate your life so that you can decide what to do with them. If the internal messages are empowering, energize them. If they’re disempowering, neutralize them and/or replace them.
What is the Question? Is it an Empowering Question?
Individuals in pain or confusion often ask, “What have I done wrong?” Many years ago, I stepped into a trap by answering this disempowering question when a client asked me. Now I know that all that’s wrong is the question!
The question “What have I done wrong?” returns disempowering responses. Even answering “Nothing” is unsatisfactory. If you’re tempted to ask questions like this, stop and ask another. If someone asks you this question, you can help the person more by suggesting he or she ask an empowering question rather than answering this disempowering one.
Alternative questions lead to more useful insights. The question “What is the question?” is often the perfect question! Alternatives are, “What is the most empowering question I can ask right now?” Or, “What question can I ask to move us (me, you) to or toward where we (I, you) desire to be?”
Ask Questions that are Empowering in or for a Mess
Here are empowering questions you can ask when you find yourself in a mess. Or vary the questions to assist others in asking for more meaningful information:
What can I learn from this?
How have I benefited from this so far?
Who else has benefited from this?
What conditions allowed this situation?And then:
Am I ready for a different situation?
What do I want to bring into my life?
What can I do now to change this?
Such questions as these are far more uplifting and encouraging than “Who did what?” Or, “How did I get into this mess?” Or, “Why did this happen?” Of course, there may be times you must ask questions and answer questions such as these, but they tend to blame rather than empower. It’s helpful to distinguish between empowering and disempowering questions. Either can assist your personal development, but — trust me — the empowering ones are more fun.
Everyday Empowering Questions to Ask
Here are some of my favorite empowering questions that exemplify the power of questions. Many of these can aid in transforming disempowering situations. You may want to select the ones that resonate for you and write them on a card for your wallet or mirror or car or top desk drawer.
What excites me about today?
What do I want?
How do I feel?
How can I share my gifts now?
What can I learn here?
How can I realize more meaning in my life?
What is worthy of my attention?
Where is your (or the) attention?
How is your (or the) energy?
What are your (or the) unknowns?
Who can I connect with here?
What can I contribute to this situation?
What can I give today?
…and what else?
What’s funny about this?
What am I grateful for?
What brings me joy in that experience?
How did I make a difference today?
How can I leave this place more beautiful than I found it?
Can I laugh now?
What is my Truth about this issue?
What’s next?
What now?
What is the question?
How can I/we be empowered?
Am I ready to receive the gifts of the Universe?
How does God see this?
Who am I?
Your Favorite Empowering Question
What is your favorite empowering question? Perhaps you have several favorite questions. Or favorites for certain situations. Allow yourself to be more aware of the questions you’re asking, and make them as empowering as possible.
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What do you think the world is made of? If we go by the latest findings of physics, we find that if break things down far enough -molecules to atoms, to subatomic particles… – all there is at the “end of the line” is energy. There comes a point when there is simply no solidity, and everything is made of energy. This includes everything in our physical world -rocks, plants, animals, our own bodies. The implications of this are quite astounding.
How does this aspect of physics relate to the idea of creating your own reality, or the Law of Attraction? It relates in a very fundamental way. Think about what it takes to have a thought, a desire or a belief. What are these made of? There is certainly no solid substance that makes up your thoughts or emotions. So these can only be energy. The same energy that makes up everything else in the universe. So this means that your thoughts, emotions and beliefs are made of the same “substance” (which isn’t really a substance at all, but pure energy) as all of the “things” in your environment. This makes the idea that you can create your own reality a little more plausible, doesn’t it?
The belief in a solid universe may seem comforting, but it’s also limiting. For it seems hard to believe that our thoughts, which cannot be touched, felt or measured, can have much influence on solid matter. Yet if we remember that matter itself is simply a certain pattern of energy, then we may be able to get our minds around the notion that our thoughts can indeed influence the world around us.
Just as the physical objects around us are made of energy, so are the concepts and structures of our society. This includes that seemingly powerful thing that so many of us are obsessed with -money. What is money but energy? Its value certainly does not come from the paper, or even precious metals that money may be made of. Using American dollars as an example, a One Dollar bill has the same amount of paper as a One Hundred Dollar bill. It is only a belief system that makes the latter one hundred times more valuable than the former.
The value of any money comes entirely from beliefs. This is actually becoming more obvious in recent years, as money is becoming less and less tangible and more something that gets transferred electronically from one account to another. You can feel abundant or poor based entirely on sums of money you can’t even see. Does this make it a little easier to believe that by feeling more abundant you can actually attract more money?
Your mind can be thought of as an energy broadcasting station that attracts similar energies from the world around it. Since everything is made of the same energy, the only differences that exist are between different kinds, or patterns of energy. So if you want to change the “things” in your life, you really only have to change the kind of energy you are broadcasting.
When you look at anyone who has created amazing results in their field we can be mistaken for assuming they were all born gifted and talented. When you do a detailed research study of these individuals that excel beyond all others you will find there is only one key difference:
The truth about success is, they spent on average 14 hours more per week on their trade than anyone else in their field.
This is, in fact, the only difference.
So success does not come from ‘magic’, it comes from focus and compounding interest over time. Albert Einstein once said;
“Compound interest is the 8th wonder of the world” -Albert Einstein
So be honest with yourself and have realistic goals. I do not believe that in five months from now you will have achieved every single one of your dreams – that is just insanity.
If you focus today by absolutely commit to only one goal and every day you do something directly related to that goal for 3 months I absolutely guarantee you will have created something substantial at the end.
You only need to things to succeed in a goal:
1. Consistency
2. Momentum
When people transform over night you must look at their thinking and actions for the last 5 years in order to see how this transformation compounded. When you ask them about their thoughts and actions for the last 5 years generally they will say, “Oh, every night I went to sleep I thought about my goal”, and “I always made sure I did some type of action directly related to the goal every day” hence compounding was in effect.
It is of critical importance therefore that you love what you do. Why? because if you don’t love what you do, you will not stick with it long enough for the compounding to take place and will therefore never get a result. If you don’t think about it daily, then it’s never going to get the momentum to build to be something big. So your work and life must ultimately be one and the same because it is difficult to separate the two.
For more information on how to take action in your life, set goals that you achieve and plan your year so it is the best year yet be sure to come along to check out www.authenticeducation.com.au
Thea lives with Greg in Perth, Western Australia. She had been publishing self improvement resources at 
It is not required. This really is an honest gift from me to you.
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