Neuro Linguistic Programming, NLP explained

Although more people than ever have heard of Neuro-Linguistic Programming, most people we meet look at us blankly, asking “what on earth is NLP?”

So, here goes!

Have you ever had the experience of a meeting that went particularly well, or a project that met every deadline and criteria? And yet there are times when it just doesn’t go as well?

NLP is like a switch you can flick, to make sure your successes become your new standard. It gives you an understanding of what made the difference in those situations and what the critical changes are, which would mean you can always perform to that level.

NLP-based training gets to the basis of how we think, feel and behave. So you can just imagine the wide-reaching impact it can have on our performance.

Where did NLP come from?

The jargon of the name “NLP” gives the wrong impression.

NLP stands for “Neuro-Linguistic Programming”.

It’s about how the way we think influences our behaviour and emotions – and hence our performance.

NLP isn’t scary. It’s actually a set of simple, yet highly effective, tools and techniques that help us work with our subconscious mind. It’s an outstanding personal development tool.

With NLP, you can get to the root of the habits and beliefs that are driving behaviour we no longer want – even if we don’t yet know what those habits and beliefs are. It’s one of the easiest ways to create transformation in the way we experience life and how we behave – influencing our happiness levels!

Put simply, it’s about understanding the relationship between our thoughts, emotions and actions, so we can make the subtle changes that make all the difference.

NLP has its roots in psychology and the study of excellence. It was born 30+ years ago from the work of Richard Bandler (a mathematician) and John Grinder (a linguist), who studied some of the world’s greatest communicators.

Their research identified not only the elements that made the critical difference, but also how to teach these vital skills to others, to help them unlock their true potential.

NLP helps us identify the critical differences between people who excel and those who are just “getting by” in the way they communicate, influence, lead, motivate and succeed.

How does it work?

Don’t imagine a pink elephant in a red tree.
What happened? You thought of an elephant in a tree? Even though the instruction was not to?

Our unconscious mind – the part of us that puts the car keys in random places, drives us on motorways when we’re concentrating on the radio and remembers to keep our lungs breathing and our heart beating – doesn’t understand negatives.

If you tell your brain not to do something, first you have to imagine actually doing it, and then add the “not”.

This is clearly seen with young children, who even speak in this way – “spill drink not” is the type of thing heard in toddlers’ homes; not “don’t spill drink.” So if we keep telling our unconscious mind not to do something, we’re actually reinforcing and increasingly the likelihood of keeping that unwanted habit.

This means that our usual approach to personal change of trying to stop doing something often completely reinforces the behaviour we want to change, because our unconscious mind is constantly having to imagine it.

We really need to learn how to communicate with our subconscious mind – the bit that does all the “auto-pilot” stuff for us. Without this communication channel, we’re almost leaving success to chance.
NLP-based training and mentoring can help you find out how you communicate with yourself and others – and how this affects your performance.

You will then discover how to change the things that aren’t working, even challenging long-held assumptions about what should or shouldn’t work, whilst polishing the strategies that you want to keep.

When you know how to work with your subconscious mind, you can start to experience your true potential and break free of old thought patterns or habits that have been holding you back.

Source:  http://www.beyond-alchemy.com/resources/nlp-tools/what-on-earth-is-nlp/