A bird twittered outside my room. I listened—the speed at which each new sound was produced, the length of the full twitter and when the bird paused.
As I listened, I became aware of the bird in my mind’s eye. My model of what that bird might be. Strangely enough it was a yellow bird sitting on the branch of a tree and the branch had many white flowers.
As I focused on the model of the bird in my mind, I noticed I sensed my bird was at peace and very present.
The next time you listen to a bird sound, notice what model of bird comes to your mind and what feelings belong to that model.
I asked a new question to myself, an NLP-kind of question about timeline. Where did the bird in my mind sense immediate and distant future?
The bird in my mind had mapped only two locations – a Now location where it was perched and an Immediate Future, some centimeters away. There was no Distant Future.
Interesting, the bird in my mind had no future goals.
And after a brief while, I associated into the bird. I became the bird.
And wow. I sensed the immediate future, which was a flight into the sky, was located several meters away. The Now was expanded all around my frontal mental space.
I returned back to my body.
As you read this, what emerges in your mind?
Mapping Other People's Timelines
You may have heard or used the following phrases:
- “She will be busy now.”
- “I don’t understand why they don’t realize I am busy.”
- “He is not working, just whiling away time with his friends.”
- “She doesn’t do anything; she sits and watches TV all day.”
- “I am lazy.”
- “She was very present and listened to me with care and concern.”
- “Oh Gawd. He is always crazy busy.”
Have you wondered how we map other people in our minds? And how we map how they sense Time?
It is a great reinforcement for me – what I was doing – mapping other people in my mind. “How I map how they sense Time” – the first time when I heard this question from you and worked on it….. what a jolt it was! It has remained a very powerful learning for me!
This is utterly fascinating. Next time a bird sings I will tune in similarly and find myself becoming the bird. Lovely post.