In the light of this, there are two main issues that I’ve been considering a lot recently after reading comments here and private emails.  One is that people have been asking me about is practical tools and techniques for dealing with stress.  And the second is related, in that I’ve never needed or wanted techniques.  

Part of the reason is that I’ve always been happier to find the hard way through stuff so that I can understand it better and learn from it.  The other reason is that I believe techniques can mask the true dynamics.  So then people start to idolise the technique rather than the result.

About twelve years ago I studied and practised Neuro Linguistic Programming (NLP).  It was great.  You could change someone’s thought patterns in minutes.  And yes, the 20 minute phobia cure does work and is that quick.  But it felt soulless.  What happened was that people’s problems were cured, but I noticed that nothing really changed.  It wasn’t the springboard for any kind of growth.  

In many cases the contrary was true and they began to feel they didn’t need to do anything because they could just come back and I’d take away their problems.  So I left that behind and looked for something that was more empowering for individual’s. 

So to investigate the use of tools and techniques I decided to ask Tim Rowe, an experienced Teacher in too many techniques and traditions for me to even start to list, to discuss stress and awareness.  It was a fascinating two part conversation for me because it contrasted two very different pathways to the same goal.  

In some parts, it shocked me, because we are all blinded by our own perceptions.  And so Tim’s path was more aligned to those people who feel the need for techniques.  Therefore I learned some of the challenges that people might have in implementing the ideas I write about.  

Anyway, here’s the first part of the conversation.  

You can find out more about Tim at his blog or by following him on Twitter

Part 2:

We exchanged a few emails and became friends. It turned out that though we started in very different ways, our journey was taking us down a similar path. So I thought it might be useful for you, if I could extract some of the wisdom of Mari in an interview.

You’ll have to excuse my coughing and spluttering, it was recorded when we both had colds, but it was the only time our schedules could make.

Let me know if you find the conversation useful and if you would like more?

Mari has a discussion group at yahoo about A Course Of Love and teaches at Paltalk

Here’s the audio to download or to listen online;