NEURO LINGUISTIC PROGRAMMING
If you drove a car for the first time without instructions how far do you think you'd get?
Or imagine what you would do if you ordered a bread machine and it arrived without instructions...
This of course, pales in comparison to the immense complexity of our brains, each of us possess the most sophisticated computer ever conceived... with no users manual! Is it any wonder that changing how we do the simplest task, often meets with failure?
So what is NLP? Watch the trailer.....
Neuro-Linguistic Programming (NLP) is the study of how humans think and experience the world - It does this by using models of how your mind works. From these models, techniques for quickly and effectively changing thoughts, behaviours and beliefs that limit you have been developed.
Someone wanting to learn to drive a car well might approach a expert in the field. Instead of asking "How do you drive?" or copying what they did, they would learn faster by understanding the underlying structure of the experts skill, such as how the expert approaches driving in their mind, their beliefs and attitudes about driving, and the strategies they use making decisions.
NLP uses something called sub-modalities in it’s model. By understanding how we perceive the world through our five senses, we can then understand why some people respond resourcefully in a situation and others do not. You can learn how those who remain resourceful set up their representations, and then do the same!
Here’s an example;
Imagine seeing an enormous spider dangling directly in front of your face.
Now clear your mind.
It is common for people who have a phobic reaction to spiders to picture the spider completely oversized and far too close.
Spiders are tiny, well-mannered creatures that are far more frightened of you than you need be of them, but try telling that to someone with that particular phobia!
So, why don't these phobic people notice the images they're creating? The popular belief is that we don't pay much attention to what's going on in our unconscious. Because of the enormous amount of information our brain has to process each day, it's probably best that we don't spend much time dwelling on it.
So what do we do about our friend with the phobia? Give them an extra-strength can of Raid for a house warming gift? Instead NLP asks the question; "If one person can have fun playing with their pet spider, what can we learn from them that we can teach the phobic person?" The spider-lover would most likely have an image representing spiders that was proportionally correct and at a reasonable distance (and possibly some other factors). Knowing the difference, the NLP practitioner can then use one of many techniques to help the phobic person relearn their reaction to spiders so that it is of a similar nature to the spider-lover's. Phobia treatments often take less than half an hour, creating a powerful change with minimal time and effort invested. NLP is based on many useful presuppositions supporting the attitude that change is imminent. One of the most important of these is this; NLP is about what works, not what should work. In other words; If what you're doing isn't working, try something different, anything... whether you think what you were doing previously should have worked or not. Flexibility is the key element in a given system. The person who is the most likely to do well is the one who responds easily to changing (or unchanging) circumstances. That's one reason that NLP makes such progress in difficult areas. Innovators like to try out new things with little regard as to "truth" or "reality". NLP is interested in results, in giving people what they really want from life. Is there areas of your life that you would like to move forward in? Move beyond your comfort zone of fear and into the world where what you want from life is waiting right now. If you can follow instructions and you are ready for change it might take less time than you think.