NLP Practice: CRASH and COACH States

It’s often said that the world is constantly changing, but not always for the better. During times of change and transformation, we face many challenges—such as fear of the unknown, coping with loss, and a general sense of vulnerability. These issues can trigger us to use ineffective survival strategies: fight, flight, or freeze. This can lead to temporary regression, inertia, ambivalence, difficulty letting go of the past, confusion, and conflict.

When this happens, we often fall into a certain state that can be described with five words:

• CRASH:
• Contraction
• Reaction
• Analysis
• Separation
• Hurt

To successfully navigate change, it’s important to develop qualities like flexibility, stability, balance, connection to reality, and the ability to let go of the past. This requires staying centered, being in your zone of excellence, and maintaining a connection to something beyond your “ego.” These processes can also be described with five words:

• COACH:
• Centered
• Open
• Attending with Awareness
• Connected
• Holding

These qualities are characteristic of a state of wholeness and coherence among the three minds explored in this book: the somatic, cognitive, and field minds.

It’s important to follow practices that help us develop the ability to stay in the COACH state (our zone of excellence) and do our best, especially in challenging life situations. When life is easy, maintaining balance isn’t difficult, but to stay balanced during tough times, we need to develop COACH qualities until they become second nature. Preparing for change requires ongoing practice so we’re ready to face times of transition.

Earlier generations of NLP focused mainly on techniques. Third-generation NLP emphasizes the importance of practice as a key element of generative change and preparation for the future.

Finding Your Zone

The following exercise is based on a simple yet powerful inner game technique we borrowed from our colleague John Welwood. We’ve adapted and modified it to include all elements of the COACH state:

1. Sit or stand comfortably, place your feet on the floor, straighten your spine, and relax your back. Breathe evenly, using your abdomen. (Fast, shallow chest breathing is a sign of stress.)
2. Focus your attention on the soles of your feet (bring your awareness there). Notice the universe of sensations in your soles. Feel your heels, big toes, arches, and balls of your feet.
3. Begin to expand your awareness to include the volume (three-dimensional space) of your feet, then shift your attention to your shins, knees, upper legs, and thighs. Become aware of your abdominal center, breathe deeply through it, and say to yourself: “I am here. I am present. I am centered.”
4. While staying aware of your lower body, focus on your solar plexus, spine, lungs, chest, and shoulders. Notice your heart center in the upper chest and say to yourself: “I am open. I am opening.”
5. Continue expanding your awareness: notice your upper arms, forearms, wrists, palms, and fingers, then your neck, throat, and face. Become aware of all your senses: eyes, ears, nose, mouth, and tongue. Shift your attention to your skull, brain, and the center of your head, located behind your eyes. Breathe through this center, filling it with oxygen and energy. Say to yourself: “I am aware. I am awake. I have clear consciousness.”
6. While staying in touch with the ongoing physical sensations in your body, starting from your feet and including all three centers (abdomen, chest, and head), become aware of the space beneath you, all the way to the center of the Earth; the space above you, reaching into the sky; all the space to your left; all the space to your right; all the space behind you; and all the space in front of you. Feel a deep connection with your feet and the centers in your abdomen, chest, and head, with your surroundings, and with the field around you. Be aware of the vast range of resources available to you—both within yourself and in the surrounding field. Say to yourself: “I am connected to everything.”
7. In this state, you can hold all the resources, strength, intelligence, and wisdom available to you, as well as uncomfortable energies—fear, anger, sadness, and so on. Acknowledge this ability and say to yourself: “I am ready to accept whatever arises.”

By practicing this COACH state and staying in your zone of excellence, you’ll be able to maintain calm and clarity more and more often, no matter the situation.