What is NLP?

NLP - a study of excellence .......

Definition of Neuro Linguistic Programming

Neuro:
The nervous system (the mind), through which our experience is processed via the five senses:

Visual, Auditory Kinesthetic (touch/feel), Olfactory (smell), Gustatory (taste)

Linguistic:
Language and other non-verbal communication systems through which our neural representations are coded ordered and given meaning. This includes:

Pictures , Sounds, Feelings, Tastes, Smells, Words (Self talk/internal dialogue)

Programming:
The ability to discover and utilise the programs that we run (our communication to ourselves and others) in our neurological systems to achieve our specific and desired outcomes.

NLP (Neuro-Linguistic Programming) began in the early 1970s when a mathematician called Richard Bandler and linguist John Grinder asked themselves a simple but fascinating question: "What is it that makes the difference between somebody who is merely competent at any given skill, and somebody who excels at the same skill?"

The question was the driver which resulted in the development of the model which examined how we receive information, what happens to it when it goes into our brain, and what we do with that information once we have it. Its is about how we organise the information and how that influences our decisions and choices we make throughout our lives.

In other words NLP is how to use the language of the mind to consitently achieve our specific and desired outcomes - it is a study of excellence.

As we go through our everyday lives, we use a series of patterns or strategies in everything we do. For example in the simplest of terms, we all have a strategy for making a cup of tea, some of us will put the milk into the cup first before pouring the tea and others will pour the tea first and put the milk in last. It may be that your parents taught you to do it this way, it was a learned strategy or learned behaviour. In the same way you will have learned to be scared of things, dislike particular things or situations, because you simply learned to do this from a very young age - you probably are not even aware of this, conciously.

The downside to this is that sometimes we find that our chosen strategy or behaviour is not always the most effective or efficient way and there are other strategies that we aspire to but perhaps fear or anxiety is holding us back. Phobia's are a good example of this, some people have formed a strategy which makes them afraid of spiders, NLP provides us with the tools to change the strategy from one of fear and anxiety to pleasure and enjoyment. NLP gives us the tools to change the 'programming' in your mind.

How do your strategies affect the way your relationships with family and loved ones, your job, your communication techniques, your health? Are your own strategies holding you back?