The Gift of Infidelity & How Talking Transformed My Life

“NLP and Hypnosis and what?????  I’ve been cheated!!!!”

So it was pretty much exactly 13 years to the day, in October 2000, that I completed my NLP Practitioner Training.  Although I’d read the odd sort of personal development style books (Feel The Fear & Do It Anyway, and a couple of books about how to deal with Stress), it was my first big in-depth personal development training.

I went into it feeling rather cheated.  I was studying to be an Accountant at the time and I only agreed to go along because I had been told it would be a good way to help me improve my communication skills and possibly with improving confidence.

What I didn’t expect was all of this additional nonsense about Hypnosis, Time Line Therapy, the unconscious mind, and Huna.  No, what I signed up for was a training to help me improve my business communication skills.

Once I’d seen the home study material I decided that I’d just pay attention to the sensible business related stuff and let all the crazy stuff go over my head . . . . . . .

“The gift of the affairs and infidelity”

At exactly the same time that I signed up for the NLP Training, my world as I knew it came crashing down when I found out my partner and fiance had had yet another affair and this time it had to be the end of the relationship.  It’s a long story, too much to go into here, but I had given up my job at an investment bank in the City to study Accountancy, and once that was complete, the plan was that he was to take some time off to become a pilot.  In a nutshell, what this bombshell meant was that I found myself not only emotionally distraught, but also jobless and potentially homeless if things didn’t turn around pretty fast.

“Delaying tactics to block transformation”

At the time all of this was going on I was suffering some health challenges which included chronic fatigue and a real sense of mental confusion.  At one point I even called the training company to ask if I could postpone the training until I felt strong enough physically and emotionally to attend.  Thankfully they saw through this very common smokescreen, even though I didn’t recognise it as such at the time.

As the training got underway I was disappointed that it was full of the ‘out there ‘stuff, so my decision then became:  ‘This is all nonsense.  I can’t see how just talking to someone will change their life, so I’ll just get my money back.’

On the training they talked about ‘playing full out’ so I concluded that sitting at the back with my arms folded wasn’t going to fly in justifying a refund.  What I’d have to do is throw myself into it, prove its all nonsense, and then get my money back.  Simple’s!!!

The rest, as they say is history.

“From quiet and shy to centre stage”

I went in one end, very quiet, shy, lacking in confidence, very low self esteem, not the sort to even ask questions in a workshop, and came out the other end literally transformed.  It wasn’t that I became a different person.  It was more like becoming the kind of person that I somehow knew was locked inside and that I secretly wanted to be.  Up until that point my entire life was lived as though I was on the outside looking in.  Like the child on the sidelines who was never invited to get in the game and play.

The first week of the Practitioner Course was nothing short of transformational, hence the name of my company which is TranceFormations™ (the Trance spelling being a nod to the incredible power and impact of hypnosis).

I went from terrible NLP Practitioner delegate to model Master Practitioner delegate within a few short weeks.  A couple of weeks later, in December 2000 I was offered a job with the company that I had trained with and I became one of their Breakthrough Coaches and subsequently one of their Certified NLP Trainers in May 2001.

“I’m giving up the Accountancy to become a Hypnotherapist!”

You can imagine that conversation;  I attended 2 courses, 3 weeks in duration, and then went home to my friends and family and announced: “I know that I’ve been doing the ACCA exams for the past 2 years now but I’m giving that all up and I’m not going to be an Accountant, I’m going to be a Hypnotherapist instead.”

So what am I saying here?  Give up your stable life and job and do something crazy.  No.  Get in touch with who you truly are and find a way to follow and incorporate that into your life?  Yes.  When I discovered Coaching and Training, and Therapy, not only were people telling me that I had a real knack and skill for it, I also felt as though I’d come home.  Like I’d found the thing that I was born to do.  It incorporated all of the things that I loved, and all of the skills that I’d been amassing up until that point.

My Business Degree, Chartered Institute Post Graduate Marketing Diploma and my up until then redundant Teaching Certificate all came into play and made my transition into Management Consultant and Corporate Trainer very easy when I combined it with my NLP and PhotoReading skills.

“The danger of pipe dreams and a whim”

I am not a big fan of people giving everything up on pipe dream and a whim.  From the outside looking in my route was quite dramatic but it doesn’t have to be that way.  You can find ways to include and incorporate aspect s of those things that make your heart sing very easily into your everyday life.  When I’m Coaching people around uncovering their life purpose, getting in touch with who they really are, or doing Breakthrough Sessions to help remove the mental and emotional blocks, barriers, and baggage that stands in the way of that, people are always surprised about how easy it is to turn seemingly everyday things into something that bring daily magic and fulfilment into their lives.

If you had spoken to me on 1^st October 2000 or at any point before that and told me that Therapy, Coaching , Keynote Speaking and Training is what I would be doing for a living I would have laughed them out of town.  I am so thankful for EVERYTHING that happened with me and my fiancé back then.  If it hadn’t happened I would have been my usual very closed, judgemental, and academic self as I went through that Practitioner Training.  As it was, my life and spirit was so broken that I pretty much had nothing to lose.  The fact that I went into with the mindset of ‘This will never work with what I’m going through!  I’ll show you!’ is neither here nor there.  You can, as I very quickly discovered, go into it with a much more positive mindset and approach.  You choose how much struggle and resistance you want to bring to the party.

In the ancient word of the Roman, or is it  Latin poet, Carpe Diem!  If there is no good reason to do so, don’t wait any longer.

“The 10 year wait”

I remember on one particular Master Practitioner Training one of the delegates expressed regret that they hadn’t attended the training when they first thought about it 10 year ago.  In some ways it is very sad to know that all of that potential remains bottled up inside of people for such a long time.  The more philosophical me however had to just smile and say ‘Everything in its time, and if something is meant to find you it will.’  You can however, I believe, put doubts aside, give things a go and get in the game as opposed to sitting on the sidelines for a decade or even an entire lifetime.

I have no idea what I will be doing 13 years from now.  At the moment I imagine it will be a variation on a theme of what I’m doing now.

“The Oscar Winning Actress”

My playful mind says that I’ll be an Oscar Winning Actress.  The fact that I’ve never acted a day in my life seems like a minor detail, lol!  Whatever it is, I will continue to follow that sense of what I call divine inspiration and inspired action in order to navigate through this thing that we call life, as much as I can, helping to inspire people along the way.

“Please share!”

If you know people who would benefit from this post please do feel free to share it and pass it on.  I have found that inspiring just one person can create a ripple effect beyond imagination.

Here’s to the rest of your life being the best of your life!

Warm and magical regards,

Marilyn Devonish xx

 

ABOUT MARILYN DEVONISH

Marilyn Devonish is s Certified Master Practitioner and Trainer of NLP, Hypnosis, and Time Line Therapy.  She is also a Certified PhotoReading Instructor, Certified Access Bars Facilitator, Certified Angel Card Reader, and a Practitioner of Hawaiian Huna, EFT, DNA Theta Healing, EmoTrance, Archetypal Profiling, Energetic NLP, Positive EFT, and Access Consciousness.  Marilyn is also a Prince 2 Project Manager, Management Consultant, Corporate Trainer, and Keynote Speaker.

If she did have a mission it is currently to help and inspire those that are ready change and transform their mindset, thinking, beliefs, and the way that they interact with and live life.

For further information go to: www.tranceformationsTM.com

For Keynote Bookings or Private Sessions e-mail: marilyn@tranceformationsTM.com