More About NLP…

Neuro-Linguistic-Programming (NLP) deals with how we process our experience of the world and provides ways to re-programme our minds to achieve our goals in life more easily. It is a constantly evolving technology that can bring rapid and lasting change to a wide variety of emotional, physiological and behavioural issues including confidence building, boosting motivation, improving performance, weight control, stopping smoking, phobias and breaking unwanted habits. NLP enables us to know how to run our own brains better and this knowledge can lead to far greater levels of freedom, happiness and satisfaction in our lives. NLP was originated by Dr Richard Bandler and John Grinder in the 1970's. 'Neuro' refers to our mind/body biocomputer, 'Linguistic' to the internal mechanism that we use to code our experience of the world (the language of the mind) and 'Programming' to how our internal representations of the world can be re-programmed or upgraded to help us achieve even more. NLP is useful, then, not just for 'deleting unwanted programmes' such as phobias or unwanted habits but for installing highly effective ways of seeing the world and the resultant behaviours that can lead to excellence in our chosen fields. The working hypotheses of the NLP Model have proved to be invaluable in building self-empowerment through changework. These are often called the NLP Presuppositions: 1.The ability to change the process by which we experience reality is more often valuable than changing the content of our experience of reality. 2. The meaning of the communication is the response you get. 3. All distinctions human beings are able to make concerning our environment and our behaviour can be usefully represented through the visual, auditory, kinesthetic, olfactory and gustatory senses. 4. The resources an individual needs to effect a change are already within them. 5. The map (our internal representation of reality) is not the territory (what's really out there!). 6. The positive worth of the individual is held constant, while the value and appropriateness of internal and/or external behaviour is questioned. 7. There is a positive intention motivating every behaviour and a context in which every behaviour has value. 8. Successful communicators accept and utilise all communication/behaviour presented to them. 9. Feedback vs. Failure - all results and behaviours are achievements, whether they are desired outcomes for a given task/context or not. With the NLP Presuppositions forming a backdrop to the work and together with a curious and tenacious attitude, finding solutions becomes an exciting and enjoyable journey rather than time spent wallowing in and reinforcing unresourceful states. Perhaps it is true to say that, as we all share the same neurology, there is nothing to be fixed because we're not broken - we could just learn more about how to use our brains for a change!