Do you have a lot of ‘yes buts’ in your life?  Do you spend a lot of time being afraid of what might happen or looking to recreate something good that has happened before? 

Bevis tells us the tale of the rattlesnake and the butterfly.  If you are out walking and you encounter a rattlesnake you will quite probably be pretty freaked, I know I would.  If you are not careful you will be on the lookout for rattlesnakes every time you go out – especially if you go back to where you saw it the first time.   

How about if you are out and come across a beautiful butterfly?  That picture will be another one that you cling on to and try to replicate.  Chances are you will look for another butterfly when you are out so that you can enjoy that lovely picture again.  And then you might well miss the other beautiful things that there are to see. 

Imagine this; you are getting ready to go out and you are going to a restaurant that you have been to before.  You remember that before the service was none to good and are already thinking that it might be bad again.  In fact if it wasn’t already booked by your friends you wouldn’t go.  You are in fact expecting it to be a difficult evening and you will be stressed – and do you know what – that is exactly what will happen – it’s a self-fulfilling prophecy.  You will be stressed and fearful of bad service and the evening won’t be a success.  You forgot to wipe the screen (don’t worry – I’ll explain) 

Now think about a great day out that you have enjoyed.  That trip to the coast when it was warm and the sea sparkled.  You want to do that again, you want the perfection of that day and set out to replicate it.  So determined are you that you don’t notice that there is a lovely forest full of bluebells on the way, you don’t stop to admire them, nor do you notice the magnificent old house or the lambs in the field – only the sea will do.  By the time you get there its raining and its not as lovely as you remembered.  You forgot to wipe the screen.   

Not wiping the screen is a common trait that we have, we invest so much in the past, either positive or negative emotions that we let it cloud the present.  The memory of what has gone wrong in the past flavours our view of the present and the longing for what was good stops us seeing the wonders that are right in front of us.  How do we wipe the screen?  NLP has a great tool for this.  Time line therapy enables us to put behind what needs to be left and to live our lives with a clear screen, no more ‘yes buts’, many more special moments to savour as they occur.